Jervis McEntee papers
name: label: Creator
content: McEntee, Jervis, 1828-1891
label: Names
content: Century Association (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: National Academy of Design (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Anthony, A. V. S. (Andrew Varick Stout), 1835-1906
label: Names
content: Baker, George Augustus, 1821-1880
label: Names
content: Bellows, Henry W. (Henry Whitney), 1814-1882
label: Names
content: Boardman, Andrew
label: Names
content: Booth, Edwin, 1833-1893
label: Names
content: Boughton, George Henry, 1834-1905
label: Names
content: Butler, Benjamin F., 1830-1884
label: Names
content: Casilear, John William, 1811-1893
label: Names
content: Chapin, E. H. (Edwin Hubbell), 1814-1880
label: Names
content: Church, Frederic Edwin, 1826-1900
label: Names
content: Church, Isabel
label: Names
content: Cropsey, Jasper Francis, 1823-1900
label: Names
content: DeForest, H. G.
label: Names
content: Derrenbacher, John
label: Names
content: Donoho, J. R., Mrs
label: Names
content: Gifford, Sanford Robinson, 1823-1880
label: Names
content: Gray, Henry Peters, 1819-1877
label: Names
content: Hart, William McDougal, 1823-1894
label: Names
content: Hicks, Thomas, 1823-1890
label: Names
content: Hubbard, Richard William, 1816-1888
label: Names
content: Huntington, Daniel, 1816-1906
label: Names
content: Husted, James W.
label: Names
content: Inness, George, 1825-1894
label: Names
content: Johnson, Eastman, 1824-1906
label: Names
content: Jourmans, E. L., Mrs
label: Names
content: Kensett, John Frederick, 1816-1872
label: Names
content: Lang, Louis, 1814-1893
label: Names
content: McEntee, James S.
label: Names
content: Meeks, Louisa B.
label: Names
content: Palmer, Erastus Dow, 1817-1904
label: Names
content: Sawyer, C. M.
label: Names
content: Shumway, Henry Colton, 1807-1884
label: Names
content: Stoddard, Richard Henry, 1825-1903
label: Names
content: Stone, William O. (William Oliver), 1830-1875
label: Names
content: Stribling, C. K.
label: Names
content: Sykes, Charles W.
label: Names
content: Thompson, Launt, 1833-1894
label: Names
content: Vaux, Calvert, 1824-1895
label: Names
content: Von Glumer, Francisca
label: Names
content: Ward, John Quincy Adams, 1830-1910
label: Names
content: Weir, John F. (John Ferguson), 1841-1926
label: Names
content: Whittredge, Worthington, 1820-1910
label: Names
content: Wickes, E. T.
label: Names
content: Youmans, Kate
label: Names
content: Zarnnhus, E. L.
place: label: Place
content: Lake George (N.Y.) -- Pictorial works
label: Place
content: Lake Champlain (N.Y.) -- Pictorial works
label: Place
content: Adirondack Mountains (N.Y.)
topic: label: Topic
content: Landscape painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Hudson River school of landscape painting
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Art, Modern -- 19th century -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Artists' studios
label: Topic
content: Bull Run (Va.), 1st Battle, 1861
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Adirondack Museum lent one diary for microfilming in 1964. The rest of the collection was acquired from several donors between 1959 and 1997. The noted collector Charles E. Feinberg donated letters in 1959 and, Mrs. Helen S. McEntee, who married the nephew of Jervis McEntee, donated the five volumes of diaries in 1964. William Gaffken, director of the insurance company that acquired the McEntee family insurance business, donated the remaining papers in 1997.
creator: label: Creator
content: McEntee, Jervis, 1828-1891
setName: label: See more items in
content: Jervis McEntee papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of Hudson River School painter Jervis McEntee measure 1.6 linear feet and date from 1796 and 1848 to 1905. Letters from close friends and family members to McEntee include many from his mentor Frederic Edwin Church, and fellow artists Samuel Putnam Avery, George Henry Boughton, Sanford Gifford, Richard Henry, Eastman Johnson, Elizabeth B. Stoddard, John Ferguson Weir, Worthington Whittredge, and others. Papers relating to the McEntee family include obituaries, a family genealogy, and letters from and regarding family members. There are also papers relating to the Vaux family (McEntee's brother-in-law's family) and American architect and landscape artist Calvert Vaux, who designed a studio for McEntee. Of special significance are six volumes of diaries dating from 1851 through 1890 which provide a detailed depiction of the American art world in the 1870s and 1880s.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Jervis McEntee was born in Rondout, New York, July 14, 1828. He had early literary and artistic aspirations and studied under Frederic E. Church, who had himself studied under the Hudson River School master, Thomas Cole. McEntee was to maintain a close relationship with Church for the rest of his life. After an unsuccessful stint as a businessman, McEntee settled in New York in 1857 as one of the charter residents of Richard Morris Hunt's Tenth Street Studio Building. Since many of the other occupants were either bachelors or commuters, and since Mrs. McEntee was a lively, sympathetic hostess, the couple became the center of a spontaneous salon frequented by some of the best-known artists, writers, and actors of the time. After his wife died in 1878, McEntee stayed on, an increasingly neglected widower until his death in 1891. 

McEntee was identified with the Hudson River School and an accomplished and sensitive painter of autumnal landscapes. He wrote in 1874, "Perhaps what would mark my work among that of my brother artists is a preference for the soberer phases Nature, the gray days of November and its leafless trees." McEntee stood at the center of the interlocking directorate formed by the National Academy of Design, the Century Club, and the Tenth Street Studio Building. In the latter part of the 19th century, these formed a supreme art establishment whose membership was composed of the old guard American artists, such as McEntee's close friends Eastman Johnson, Sanford Gifford, John Ferguson Weir, Worthington Whittredge, and Church, who were fighting an ultimately futile battle against the encroachment of European influences among both artists and collectors.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.6 Linear Feet
label: Extent
content: 1 Microfilm reel
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1796
label: Date
content: 1848-1905
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.mcenjerv
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Microfilm reels
label: Type
content: Diaries
label: Type
content: Sketches
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The Jervis McEntee papers have been arranged into five series, based on material type.

Series 1: Letters, 1850-1905, undated (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 2: Vaux Family Letters and Correspondence, 1850-1890, undated (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 3: Third Party Letters, 1861-1873, undated (Box 2; 0.1 linear feet)

Series 4: Miscellany, 1796, 1848-1895, undated (Box 2; 0.1 linear feet)

Series 5: Diaries, 1851-1890 (Box 3-4; 0.6 linear feet)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The Jervis McEntee papers were reprocessed in 2004 and a finding aid prepared. At that time all earlier accessions were merged. All of the papers, except for the five diares, were digitized in 2007 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. In 2017, the five volumes of diaries were professionally conserved. In 2017 and 2018, the diaries were digitized. Funding for the conservation and digitization of the diaries was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collection Care Preservation Fund and Collections Care Initiative. 

A diary from 1851 was microfilmed on Reels D009 and was returned to the Adirondack Museum after filming. The microfilm was described in a finding aid by Jayna Josefson in 2025 and the microfilm was digitized in 2025 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Collections Information System (CIS) IRM Pool Fund.
altformavail: label: Alternative Forms Available
content: Letters, family papers, and five volumes of diaries of Jervis McEntee in the Archives of American Art were digitized in 2007, 2017, and 2018, and are available on the Archives' website. Transcripts of the entries are available at https://www.aaa.si.edu/collection-features/jervis-mcentee-diaries. 

For material lent for microfilming on reel D009 the microfilm has been digitized and is available on the Archives of American Art website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
originalsloc: label: Existence and Location of Originals
content: A diary from 1851 was loaned for microfilming by the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York and was returned after filming.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: The papers of Hudson River School painter Jervis McEntee measure 1.6 linear feet and date from 1796 and 1850 to 1905. Letters from close friends and family members to McEntee include many from his mentor Frederic Edwin Church, and fellow artists Samuel Putnam Avery, George Henry Boughton, Sanford Gifford, Richard Henry, Eastman Johnson, Elizabeth B. Stoddard, John Ferguson Weir, Worthington Whittredge, and others. Papers relating to the McEntee family include obituaries, a family genealogy, and letters from and regarding family members. There are also papers relating to the Vaux family (McEntee's brother-in-law's family) and American architect and landscape artist Calvert Vaux, who designed a studio for McEntee. Of special significance are six volumes of diaries dating from 1851 through 1890 which provide a detailed depiction of the American art world in the 1870s and 1880s.