The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE  19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Brown, Edith Blake (1869-1907)

Title:               Papers

Dates:             1877-1907, 1897-1899 (bulk dates)

Call No.:         Col. 218         

Acc. No.:        95x84

Quantity:        1 box

Location:        34 L 1

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Edith Blake Brown (1869-1907) was an interior decorator and designer.  She was the daughters of Emma Isadore Clapp and Edward Payson Brown, a lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts.  Edith had a younger brother, Harold Gilbert (1875-1954), and her sister, Ethel Isadore (1872-1944), became an artist.  Edith Brown studied at the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1891-1892.  She taught decorative design and art history at the Cleveland (Ohio) School of Art, and has a listing in the book Artists in Ohio.  Edith and Ethel studied in Paris in 1894-1896.  Between 1896-1899, Edith Blake Brown was listed in Boston city directories as a designer, and she is known to have designed posters and bookplates.  Edith, Ethel, and Elisabeth Cornelia Parsons also designed a stained glass window titled “Massachusetts Mothering the Coming Woman of Liberty, Progress and Light,” executed for the Woman’s Building at the World Columbian Exposition.  Edith also lectured on design, and wrote at least one article on the subject.  Working in conjunction with architect Stanford White, she served as interior decorator for the New York home of her friend Pauline Whitney Paget, for whom she had been a bridesmaid. 

 

In 1899, Edith married John Lincoln Wilkie, a New York City lawyer.  They had two sons John L., Jr. (born in 1904) and Neil Wilkie.  Edith died in 1907, a month after the birth of her second child.  Husband John Wilkie was a partner in the firm Gould and Wilkie, chairman of the board of the Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp., and was interested in the history of the Hudson Valley.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

This collection of approximately 230 items documents part of Brown’s career.  Of primary interest are the items of correspondence concerning the renovation in 1897 of a townhouse located at 11 East 61st Street in New York City.  The house, built in 1876, was purchased by Sir Almeric Hugh Paget, Baron of Queensborough, and his wife, Pauline (Whitney) Page, who contracted the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to renovate it.  In turn, McKim, Mead & White engaged the services of Edith Blake Brown as interior designer.

 

Nearly 100 items in the collection document Brown’s contact with the architects and subcontractors concerning the refurbishing of the Paget residence.  Most notable are the letters from the firm of Schultze, Dowling, & Butler offering glimpses of what the interior of the house would look like, as well as estimates and progress reports on the work. There are mentions of paint colors for walls and ceilings, wallpapering, staining of woodwork, window treatments, furniture and decorations, and floors and carpets.  Several letters are from furniture makers A.H. Davenport and Ernest Hagen (the Downs Collection has papers from both men).  One of the Hagen letters contains a drawing for a bed with a suggested fabric sample for the canopy attached to the document.

 

Besides the items documenting the house renovations, this collection contains letters from the editor of The House Beautiful concerning an article by Brown published in the July 1898 issue of this journal, miscellaneous bills and receipts, original drawings of bookplates, two photographs of Brown, and a sketchbook begun in 1887 containing original works by Brown and her sister, Ethel Isadore Brown.

           

 

ORGANIZATION

 

The papers are arranged in accession number order.  

           

 

PROVENANCE

           

Purchased from Judith Webb of Antique Associates.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are mostly in English, with a very few in French.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

            People:

                        Paget, Almeric H. (Almeric Hugh).

                        Paget, Pauline Whitney.

                        Hagen, Ernest F.

                        White, Stanford, 1853-1906.

                        Brown, Ethel Isadore.

                       

Topics:

A.H.Davenport Co.

McKim, Mead & White.

            Schultze, Dowling, & Butler.

            Architecture, Domestic.

            Interior decoration.

            Bookplates.

            Watercolor painting, American.

            Commercial correspondence.

            Business records - Massachusetts.

            Drapery in interior decoration.

            Artists.

            Artists and architects.

            Artists' bookplates.

            Upholstery.

            Drawing - Specimens.

            Paperhanging.

            Dwellings - Remodeling.

            Decoration and ornament, Architectural.

            Tapestry.

            Wall coverings.

            Furniture.

Receipts.

Invoices.

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 34 L 1

                                                                                   

 

Folder 1: (acc. 95x84.1-.25)

Contains 25 items of correspondence, primarily with the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, concerning the renovation in 1897 of a house at 11 East 61st Street, then owned by Sir Almeric Hugh Paget. Correspondence includes a list of rooms with hardwood floors, specifications for the dining room wainscoting, and much discussion about the tapestry for furniture.  Mention is made of an elevator, a jewel safe for Mrs. Paget’s room, and a safe for the dining room.

 

Folder 2: (acc. 95x84.26-.61)

Contains 32 items of correspondence with Shultze, Dowling, and Butler, subcontractors who performed work at the Paget residence.  Items include estimates for wallpapering, curtain work, furniture, and painting.  Periodic updates of progress are also included.

 

Folder 3: (acc. 95x84.62-.102)

Miscellaneous correspondence, 1897 (approximately 45 items) with the following suppliers and contractors:  A.H. Davenport (furniture); Arnold, Constable, & Co. (curtains); Black & Boyd Manufacturing Co. (electric light fixtures); Boston Society of Decorative Art (unclear what ordered); Bureau of Fire Alarms, Telegraph, and Electrical Appliances (certificate approving installation of electrical equipment); John M. Crapo (china); Ernest F. Hagen (includes sketch of bedstead and fabric sample); Frank Bowles (furniture); Georges A. Glaenzer & Co. (door knockers, lanterns, etc.); J. Bensusan (furniture); J.B. Millet Co. (request that she try to sell some artistic curios from Japan for him); Joseph P. McHugh and Co. (wallpaper); Persian Rug Manufactory (Oriental and Axminister style rugs and carpets); Richard Briggs Company (china and glass); W. & J. Sloane (carpets); Wm. Baumgarten & Co. (textiles; furniture repairs, new furniture, painting)

 

Folder 4: (acc. 95x84.103-.125)

Contains 23 items of correspondence pertaining to Brown’s drawings, publications (including correspondence with publisher of The House Beautiful), shipping of artwork, personal expenses, and two bills of sale written on paper with an Oriental design.  Some of the documents refer to items being worked on by both Edith Blake and Ethel Isadore Brown.  Also included are three examples of bookplates drawn by Brown, dated 1912. 

 

Folder 5: (acc. 95x84.126)

A photocopy of her article entitled “Beauty in the Home,” which appeared in The House Beautiful in July 1898.

 

Folder 6: (acc. 95x84.127-.211)

This folder contains 81 bills and receipts, dated 1896-1898, for milk, chairs, electricity, books and periodicals, furniture repairs, art supplies, photography work, coal, laundry, clothing, groceries, stationery supplies, drapery material and upholstery.   Almost all the bills are from stores in Boston; two are from the Paris office of Brentano’s bookstore.  Of especial note are a few bills for printing bookplates (names given) and other drawings executed by Edith Blake Brown.  One bill is for a bicycle suite.  A few of the billheads are illustrated with the goods sold by the business.

 

Folder 7: (acc. 95x84.212-.227)

16 items, including two photos of an unidentified woman and a letter in French, are located in this folder.  Most items are calling cards, including on for Ethel Isadore Brown.  One of the photos was taken in Paris and is in a leather frame from Italy.

 

Folder 8: (acc. 95x84.228.1)

This folder contains one scrapbook of drawings by Edith Blake Brown and her sister, Ethel Isadora Brown, dated 1887.  The 36 leaves (plus inserts, which are in Folders 9 and 10) of the scrapbook contain pencil drawings, watercolors, crayon, colored pencil, and pen and ink sketches used for pen wipers, greeting cards, calendars, playbills, periodical covers, bookplates, stained glass window designs (one set marked as being for First Presbyterian Church, Mount Auburn, Cincinnati), and possibly trade cards.  Themes depicted include fantasy characters such as gnomes, elves, nymphs, etc. and religious motifs.  Some of the drawings are initialed EBB or EIB.

 

Folder 9: (acc. 95x84.228.2-.6)

Loose items from the scrapbook in Folder 8, including a 1907 calendar for St. Agnes School (location unknown) with illustrations by Ethel Isadora Brown.  Also two 1897 letters from Mr. W. B. [William Baxter] Closson, an engraver, and Dodd, Mead & Co. about bookplates, and several additional sketches..

 

Folder 10: (acc. 95x84.228.7-.20)

Loose items from the scrapbook in Folder 8, including calendar illustrations and a copy of the October 1891 issue of Life and Light for Woman (a publication of the Woman’s Boards of Missions).  One of the Miss Browns drew the illustrations for the front cover and the first page for this publication.