Worthington Whittredge papers
name: label: Creator
content: Whittredge, Worthington, 1820-1910
label: Names
content: Metropolitan Fair (1864:New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Brady, Mathew B., approximately 1823-1896
topic: label: Topic
content: Landscape painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Painting, American
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Worthington Whittredge papers were donated by William W. and L. Emery Katzenbach, grandsons of Whittredge, in 1959. Additional items were donated by William W. Katzenbach in 1968.
creator: label: Creator
content: Whittredge, Worthington, 1820-1910
setName: label: See more items in
content: Worthington Whittredge papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of landscape painter Worthington Whittredge measure 2.2 linear feet and date from the 1840s to 1965, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1849 to 1908. This small collection documents Whittredge's career as a painter, particularly his years in Europe from 1849 to 1859, through biographical materials, a manuscript of his autobiography, news clippings, catalogs, six sketchbooks and numerous drawings and paintings. Also found are two photographs of Whittredge and a nineteenth-century photo album containing photographs of 32 famous artists.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Thomas Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910) was born in 1820 in Springfield, Ohio. Receiving very little formal education, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 17 to serve as an apprentice house and sign painter. A few years later, in his early twenties, he briefly ran a daguerreotype studio in Indianapolis, Indiana, and worked as a portrait painter in Charleston, West Virginia.

 In 1843 Whittredge decided to pursue landscape painting, and was greatly influenced by Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole. In 1849 he traveled to Düsseldorf, Germany, to further his training at the Düsseldorf Academy. There, he met painter Emanuel Leutze and modeled for Leutze's painting Washington Crossing the Delaware  (1850). He lived for a year in the home of landscape painter Andreas Achenbach and became friends with Carl Friedrich Lessing. Whittredge spent the summer of 1856 sketching in Switzerland with Albert Bierstadt. That fall Whittredge and Bierstadt moved to Rome where they were joined by fellow artists Sanford Robinson Gifford and William Stanley Haseltine. 

 Whittredge stayed in Italy until 1859 when he returned to America and settled in New York City, renting a space at Richard Morris Hunt's famous Tenth Street Studio Building, which was frequented by some of the best-known artists, writers, and actors of the time. He kept company with Jervis McEntee, Eastman Johnson, Sanford Robinson Gifford, John Ferguson Weir, and other artists of the "old guard". Whittredge quickly became a very successful artist, adapting what he had learned in Europe to the American landscape. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1860 and became a full member in 1862. He also served as President of the National Academy of Design from 1874 to 1877.

 In 1866 Whittredge went along on a government inspection tour of the Missouri Territory and was greatly inspired by the landscape. He traveled to Colorado in 1870 with John Frederick Kensett and Sanford Gifford and, in the late 1870s, began painting these new landscapes. He moved with his family to Summit, New Jersey, in 1880. In 1893 he went on a sketching trip to Mexico with fellow artist Frederic Church and continued painting into the early 1900s. Around this time he also began writing his autobiography which he completed in 1905. Worthington Whittredge died in 1910 at the age of 89.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2.2 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1840s-1965
label: Date
content: bulk 1849-1908
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.whitwort
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Paintings
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into 4 series:

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1849-circa 1940s (Box 1, 5, OV 9; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 2: Printed Material, 1861-1965 (Box 1, 4, 5, OV9; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 3: Artwork, circa 1840s-1902 (Box 2, 5, OV 6-9; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 4: Photographs, circa 1850s-1860s, circa 1900 (Box 2-3; 0.3 linear feet)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection received preliminary processing shortly after donation. Most of the collection was microfilmed in the order of receipt on reels D28, 153, and 1817. The entire collection was fully merged, processed, arranged, and described by Erin Corley and digitized in 2008 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
altformavail: label: Alternative Forms Available
content: The papers of Worthington Whittredge in the Archives of American Art were digitized in 2008 and total 1088 images.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Paintings
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: The papers of landscape painter Worthington Whittredge measure 2.2 linear feet and date from the 1840s to 1965, with the bulk of the papers dating from 1849 to 1908. This small collection documents Whittredge's career as a painter, particularly his years in Europe from 1849 to 1859, through biographical materials, a manuscript of his autobiography, news clippings, catalogs, six sketchbooks and numerous drawings and paintings. Also found are two photographs of Whittredge and a nineteenth-century photo album containing photographs of 32 famous artists.

 Biographical materials include a manuscript of his autobiography, passport, award certificates, and a ledger he kept while living in Düsseldorf, Germany, that documents commissions, accounts, and business activities. Printed material includes news clippings, catalogs, and the book Recollections of the Art Exhibition, Metropolitan Fair, New York, published by Mathew Brady, which includes a catalog of the art exhibition at the fair and 20 printed images by Brady. 

 Artwork consists of six sketchbooks and numerous drawings and paintings. The sketchbooks contain drawings Whittredge executed on a trip down the Rhine River in 1849 as well as during his travels in Italy and Mexico. Other loose drawings and paintings include numerous landscapes, figure studies, trees, animals, and other miscellaneous sketches. 

 There are two photographs of Whittredge, taken by M. Louise Greene, and a nineteenth-century photo album containing cartes de visite photographs of 32 artists. Most of these photographs include the artists autograph as well. Included are Albert Bierstadt, George H. Baker, William Holbrook Beard, Albert F. Bellows, John G. Brown, Seth Wells Cheney, Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey, Thomas Seir Cummings, Mauritz De Haas, Francois Regis Gignoux, Henry Peters Gray, Seymour Guy, George Henry Hall, William Hart, William Hennessy, Richard W. Hubbard, Daniel Huntington, Henry Augustus Loop, Jervis McEntee, Samuel F. B. Morse, William Page, Horace Wolcott Robbins, Aaron Shattuck, James Augustus Suydam, Launt Thompson, Robert W. Weir, Henry Wenzler, Edwin White, and George Yewell, and two unidentified artists.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Material
content: Also found in the Archives of American Art are several collections relating to Whitteredge: the Anthony F. Janson research material on Worthington Whittredge, 1969-2003; the Worthington Whittredge sale records, 1900; the Edith Wilkinson Letter to E.P. Richardson and biographical notes on Worthington Whittredge, 1957; and a Worthington Whittredge letter to John Ferguson Weir, 1871.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Material
content: One sketchbook was loaned by William W. Katzenbach for microfilming in 1959 and returned. Loaned material is available on microfilm reel 153, but is not described in container listing of this finding aid.