William Preston Phelps and Ina Phelps Hayward papers
name: label: Creator
content: Phelps, W. P. (William Preston), 1848-1923
label: Names
content: Hayward, Ina Phelps, 1871-1944
label: Names
content: Hayward, Roger
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- New Hampshire
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Peter Hayward, grandson of Phelps, donated the collection to the Archives of American Art in 1969. Hilda Hayward Parker, Phelps' granddaughter, lent a notebook for microfilming in 1973. Karl Gabosh, an art dealer who purchased the papers from the estate, donated additional material in 2009.
creator: label: Creator
content: Phelps, W. P. (William Preston), 1848-1923
setName: label: See more items in
content: William Preston Phelps and Ina Phelps Hayward papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of New Hampshire landscape painter William Preston Phelps and his daughter, artist Ina Phelps Hayward, measure 1.1 linear feet and date from 1849-2001, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1890s to the 1920s. Papers include letters from Phelps, and correspondence regarding Ina Phelps Hayward's involvement in her father's 1917 estate sale; sales and legal records related to the Phelps estate; a scrapbook and printed material about William Preston Phelps; a sketchbook of sketches attributed to Phelps; sketches by Ina Phelps Hayward and her husband Roger Hayward; photographs of Phelps, his home and studio in Chesham, New Hampshire, and his artwork; and glass plate negatives, including two of Phelps and thirty-six of his artwork.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: William Preston Phelps (1843-1923) was known as "the painter of Monadnock," for his paintings of his native New Hampshire and the state's most prominent peak.

Phelps grew up working on his family's farm in Chesham, New Hampshire, and by his early twenties owned his own sign business in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, his first exhibition of paintings in Lowell, Massachusetts, attracted the attention of some local businessmen who funded an education for Phelps in Europe. During the late-1870s to the mid-1880s, Phelps studied in Munich and Paris with William Merritt Chase and others. Upon returning to the United States via England and Scotland, Phelps set up a studio in Lowell and then traveled west in 1886 where he painted a notable series of western landscapes, with subjects including the Grand Canyon. Following his father's death, Phelps took over and settled on the family farm, and painted the New Hampshire landscapes for which he is best known. 

Following his son's death in an accident in 1901, and his wife's death six months later, Phelps's financial situation began to unravel and his health entered a steady decline. In 1914 he turned over his estate to an auctioneering firm, J. E. Conant & Co., from which he had borrowed money for a number of years. Phelps's daughter, Ina Phelps Hayward, herself an artist, attempted to ensure that her father's property was handled fairly in the estate sale, but much of his property and paintings, including some of his best known pictures, were sold for very little or disappeared with no record of provenance. Phelps, who was in the Concord State Hospital at the time, died five years later and his daughter's attempts to pursue J. E. Conant & Co. through the courts, were unsuccessful. 

Phelps's paintings can be found in the collections of the William Benton Museum of Art, the New Hampshire Historical Society, the Shelburne Museum, and others.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.1 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1849-2001
label: Date
content: bulk 1890s-1920s
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.phelw
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
label: Type
content: Sketches
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as one series.

Series 1: William Preston and Ina Phelps Hayward Papers, 1849-2001 (1.3 linear feet; Box 1, OV 2, Boxes 3-4)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Portions of the collection were microfilmed on reels 79 and 370 at some point after receipt. The glass plate negatives were re-housed in 2015 with a grant provided by the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund. The entire collection was merged and processed and a finding aid written by Stephanie Ashley in 2018.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Portions of the collection and material lent for microfilming are available on 35mm microfilm reels 79, 370 and 647 at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of New Hampshire landscape painter William Preston Phelps and his daughter, artist Ina Phelps Hayward, measure 1.1 linear feet and date from 1849-2001, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1890s to the 1920s. Papers include letters from Phelps, and correspondence regarding Ina Phelps Hayward's involvement in her father's 1917 estate sale; sales and legal records related to the Phelps estate; a scrapbook and printed material about William Preston Phelps; a sketchbook of sketches attributed to Phelps; sketches by Ina Phelps Hayward and her husband Roger Hayward; photographs of Phelps, his home and studio in Chesham, New Hampshire, and his artwork; and glass plate negatives, including two of Phelps and thirty-six of his artwork.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel 647) including a notebook kept by Ina Hayward containing notes on her father, William Preston Phelps, in preparation for a book on Phelps (never written). The notebook includes biographical information, data on a few of his paintings, and notes about his study in Munich, Germany. Her daughter, Hilda Hayward Parker, later added additional biographical data, and a description of the Phelps' homestead and family life in Chesham, New Hampshire. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.