Reference Files
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Macbeth Gallery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Macbeth Gallery records
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.6 Linear Feet (Boxes 131-132)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1839-1959
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.macbgall, Series 6
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: This series consists of reference and research files relating to American artists and containing material gathered over time by the Macbeths and Robert G. McIntyre. Several references are made in the gallery's outgoing correspondence to the fact that the gallery was compiling a summmary of ownership of paintings by the best known American artists. Documentation related to this endeavor can be found here in a folder of collection lists of artwork in private and public collections.

Named artist files contain important information regarding the provenance of paintings, including some by Gilbert Stuart and Winslow Homer. The Gilbert Stuart file includes detailed histories of some of Stuart's work as well as legal documentation relating to their sale. The Homer files include photographs of five Winslow Homer paintings with signed notations on the backs of the photographs by Charles L. Homer and Martha E. Homer testifying to the authenticity and provenance of the paintings. The Homer D. Martin file includes a copy of the book Homer Martin: A Reminiscence by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin, published by William Macbeth in 1904. There is also a print of the photograph used in the book, and a photograph of Homer Martin's gravestone.

Other material found here includes photographs of artwork, biographical information on the artists listed, scattered correspondence, clippings, notes, and copies of reference material from printed sources. Dates provided in the inventory of individual artist files apply only to original material, and do not include copies of documents found here from the early 1800s.

Files relating to various artists contain material similar to that found in the named artist files and also house a group of records, alphabetically arranged by artist, providing details of publications in which information about the artists listed can be found. Also found here is a 1916 compilation by William Macbeth of "Records of Portraits by Early American Artists" which contains notes on the provenance of various portraits.