Correspondence
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Lay, Oliver Ingraham, 1845-1890
label: Collection Creator
content: Lay, Charles Downing, 1877-1956
setName: label: See more items in
content: Oliver Ingraham Lay, Charles Downing Lay, and Lay Family papers
label: See more items in
content: Oliver Ingraham Lay, Charles Downing Lay, and Lay Family papers / Series 2: Charles Downing Lay and Laura Gill Lay Papers
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1879-1964
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.layoliv, Subseries 2.2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Letters between Charles Downing Lay and Laura Gill Lay and the Charles Downing Lay  correspondence are filed chronologically.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This subseries includes the letters between Charles Downing Lay and Laura Gill Lay before their marriage. Also found is the personal correspondence of Charles Downing Lay; the files also contain Laura Lay's correspondence with family members, her children, and friends.  

Many of Charles Downing Lay's letters are to Laura Lay and relate to daily events and the activities of family members and friends. Also included are references to his landscape design projects and his painting activities.  Among the correspondents are Homer Saint-Gaudens, Eugene Speicher, and Robert Wheelwright. Found are one letter from John C. Olmsted (1916) and one letter from Fidelia Bridges (undated). There is an illustrated letter by Charles Downing Lay to David Lay (Charles's son; 1934).    

Also found are Century Association files documenting Lay's affiliation with the club through a variety of material, including correspondence, miscellaneous writings and notes, printed material, and photographs. Much of the correspondence relates to the admission of new members, especially the nominations of Eugene Speicher and Forbes Watson. Notable correspondents include John Taylor Arms, Royal Cortissoz, Homer Saint-Gaudens, Robert W. DeForest, William Henry Fox, and Gari Melchers.  There is a group photograph of Charles Downing Lay with Henry Allen Moe and Geoffrey Parsons, (undated).