Correspondence
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Vonnoh, Bessie Potter, 1872-1955
setName: label: See more items in
content: Bessie Potter Vonnoh papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.4 Linear Feet (Boxes 1, 3)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1863-1985
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.vonnbess, Series 2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Correspondence is arranged by correspondent or as general correspondence, and is chronological within folders where possible.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Series has been digitized in entirety.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: Correspondence primarily documents Bessie Potter Vonnoh's personal and family life, as well as her career as an artist. Included are letters (some of which are transcripts) from Vonnoh, known as "Betty" to her family, to her mother regarding her trip to the Paris International Exposition in 1900, a trip to Rome, and a later trip to France in 1914. There are letters from Bessie to her husband, Robert Vonnoh, known as "Bonny". Also found are letters to her cousin Lulette Jenness Thompson regarding Vonnoh's career, and several letters from her uncle, J. S. McKenny.

Personal and professional correspondence includes letters from Maude Adams, Anna Alma-Tadema, Randall W. Bartlett, Daniel Chester French, Hamlin Garland, Mildred Howells, Rupert Hughes, Archer Huntington, Larkin G. Mead, Joseph Pennel, Jean-François Raffaëlli, Ruth St. Denis, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Booker T. Washington, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson (Ellen Axson) and her daughter Jessie Wilson Sayre, and others. Additionally, there are letters relating to some of Vonnoh's major commissions including from Carrie Babcock Sherman and Vice President James S. Sherman regarding Vonnoh's bust of Sherman, and letters relating to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bird Fountain and the Frances Hodgson Burnett Memorial. Letters from various museums and galleries related to sales, exhibitions, and consignments of Vonnoh's work can also be found in this series.


There is one folder of Robert Vonnoh's letters from Charles M. Carter, Daniel Chester French, William M. R. French, Charles Vezin, and others, and scattered family letters.