The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:          Carl Greenleaf Beede                                      

Title:               Papers

Dates:             1927-1949

Call No.:         Col. 458          

Acc. No.:         74x143

Quantity:        4 boxes

Location:        17 I 2

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Carl Greenleaf Beede was a decorative arts scholar who wrote numerous articles on antique furniture for the Christian Science Monitor during the 1920s and 1930s. He resided in West Hartford, Connecticut, during that time, but moved to Boston, Massachusetts, sometime between 1947-1949.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

This collection primarily contains the research notes, photographs, and typed manuscripts of Carl Greenleaf Beede from 1927-1949.  Most items relate to a series of articles on early American furniture that Beede wrote for the Christian Science Monitor during the 1920s and 1930s.  These include not only numerous photos, but also biographical notes, bibliographies, time-lines, history charts, and correspondence with other scholars and collectors.  Some articles and pamphlets by other scholars form part of the collection.  An outline and notes for a book on American furniture is also included. The book was scheduled to contain a chapter on the history of American furniture collecting, collectors, and collections, but it was apparently never published.  Beede gathered some of his information by writing to museums and asking them about their collection development policies on early American furniture. He received a number of replies which are found in the collection.

           

 

ORGANIZATION

           

The collection is organized into five series: 1. Articles on antique furniture for the Christian Science Monitor; 2. Note cards; 3. Correspondence and research notes; 4. Photographs for specific publications; and 5. Miscellaneous photographs of furniture.

 

 

PROVENANCE

           

Gift of Merrill G. Beede.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

            People:

                        Downs, Joseph, 1895-1954.

                        Andrews, Edward Deming, 1894-1964.

                        Halsey, R. T. Haines (Richard Townley Haines), 1865-1942.

                        Chippendale, Thomas, 1718-1779.

                        Lockwood, Alice.

                        Lockwood, Luke Vincent, 1872-1951.

                        Lyon, Irving Whitall, 1840-1896.

                        Hancock, John, 1737-1793.

                        Garvan, Mabel Brady - Art collections.

 

Topics:

            Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.).  American Wing.

            Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Karolik Collection.

            Philadelphia Museum of Art

            Antiques - Collectors and collecting - United States.

            Bibliographical citations

            Bookcases

            Cabinetmakers - Biography.

            Chairs.

            Chests.

            Collectors and collecting - History.

            Cupboards.

            Desks.

            Furniture - Collectors and collecting.

            Furniture - History.

            Furniture - Photographs.

            Shaker furniture - Photographs.

            Sofas.

            Tables.

            Concord (Mass.)

            The Christian Science Monitor.

 

 

RELATED MATERIALS

 

Books written by Carl Greenleaf Beede are located in the Printed Books and Periodicals section of the Winterthur Library.

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 17 I 2

 

 

Box 1: Christian Science Monitor articles and notecards

 

Folder 1:          List of article prepared for the Christian Science Monitor (gives titles and series numbers of articles, but no dates)

 

Folder 2:          Typed manuscript: “American Windsors: Good, Better, Best”

 

Folder 3:          Typed manuscript: “Chairs as Objects of Art”

 

Folder 4:          Typed manuscript: Chests, Chests of Drawers, and Chest Cupboards”

 

Folder 5:          Typed manuscript: “Tripod Light Stands”

 

Folder 6:          Typed manuscript and publication revision: “New England Slat-Backs: Fair, Good, and Better”

 

Folder 7:          Typed manuscript: “So the Arts Grew from Crafts”

 

Folder 8:          Typed manuscript: “Old English Court Cupboards”

 

Folder 9:          Typed manuscript: “Noticing the Transformation of the Windsor Chair”

 

Folder 10:        Scrapbook pages about Windsor chairs

 

Folder 11:        Typed manuscript: untitled work about cabinetmakers

 

Folder 12:        Typed manuscript: “American Chests of Drawers, 1700-1830”

 

Folder 13:        Typed manuscript: “Trailing Some Changes in Style”

 

Folder 14:        Typed manuscript: “Buying in the Eighteen-Eighties”

 

Folder 15:        Typed manuscript: “American Collectors of Fifty Years Ago”

 

Folder 16:        Typed manuscript: “The Man Chippendale”

 

Folder 17:        Typed manuscript: “The American Style in Furniture”

 

Folder 18:        Typed manuscript: “Appreciating Antiques”

 

Folder 19:        Scrapbook pages with articles from the Christian Science Monitor

 

Folder 20:        Note cards, used to record information from various secondary sources and their bibliographic citations.  Biographical information about cabinetmakers and collectors is included.  Some cards are typed.

 

 

Box 2: Correspondence and research notes

 

Folder 1:          Correspondence, to and from Beede, including letters with surveys concerning museum collection development policies for American decorative arts.  Beede sent 20 letters and surveys to various art museums in an effort to gather information for a book on which he was working.

 

Folder 2:          Time lines and history charts

 

Folder 3:          Untitled typescript, containing research notes from a museum’s history of collecting (perhaps the Philadelphia Museum of Art)

 

Folder 4:          Typescript: “Mechanization Takes Command,” by Seigfried Giedion

 

Folder 5:          Notes on cabinetmakers, including English cabinetmakers, the Dunlap family, and Joseph Rawson, as well as general notes

 

Folder 6:          Furniture form Concord, Massachusetts, containing correspondence with Russell Kettell and Mrs. Howard Kent; various notes taken from secondary sources, including information about collector Cummings E. Davis; and Catalogue of a Portion of the Collection of the Concord Antiquarian Society, 1911

 

Folder 7:          Typed notes about chair appreciation, mostly discussing Chippendale chairs

 

Folder 8:          Newspaper scraps, notes, and photostats, mostly of articles Beede wrote for the Christian Science Monitor

 

Folder 9:          Notes for a book on American furniture, containing notes, time lines, and an outline of items to be used in the book; some notes are dated 1947-1949

 

Folder 10:        John Hancock, including biographical notes and a copy of the inventory of his house as found in the Suffolk County Probate Records

 

Folder 11:        Collectors and collecting, including various typed essays; biographical information about R. T. H. Halsey, Eugene Bolles, Mrs. Russell Sage, Mr. Palmer, and Dr. Irving Whitall Lyon, among others; also correspondence with Joseph Downs and Alice (Mrs. Luke Vincent) Lockwood; records of  collecting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; information on the Garvan Collection at Yale University; the address from the opening of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (given in 1924 by Robert W. deforest); part of an essay about craftsmen in the Middle Ages;  a manuscript essay on “Form Evaluation”; and a list of “Terminology Relating to the Study, Appreciation, and Production of Works of Art”

 

 

Folder 12:        Authors, containing research notes on authors of books about furniture written during the late 19th and early 20th centuries

 

Folder 13:        Research notes about furniture collections and collectors, arranged by geographical area

 

Folder 14:        Catalog of the Karolik Collection at eh Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ca.1941

 

Folder 15:        Notes on museum collections

 

Folder 16:        Irving W. Lyon: notes on his study of furniture from Hartford, Connecticut

 

Folder 17:        Tear sheets (from catalogs or magazines) with pictures of furniture

 

Folder 18:        Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 1926 and March 1941, saved for the articles on Persian tiles and Japanese lacquer

 

Folder 19:        Furniture World, October 4, 1934, containing Beede’s article “Chairs as Objects of Art”

 

Folder 20:        Auction catalog for Howard Lansburgh collection of rare English furniture, 1938

 

Folder 21:        Loring, J.N.  The Anatomy of English Chair Types

 

Folder 22:        Colonial Craftsmen of Pennsylvania: Reproductions of Early Newspaper Advertisements

                        (Published by the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, this book was compiled in 1925 and documents various ads placed in Philadelphia area newspapers by craftsmen working primarily in the 18th century.)

 

Folder 23:        Hitchcock Chairs.

                        This booklet, published by Yale University Press in 1933 for the Tercentenary commission of the state of Connecticut, primarily documents the history of the chair manufacturer Lambert Hitchcock.

 

 

Box 3: Photographs for specific publications; general photos of chairs and tables

 

Folders 1a-b:    “The Correlation of Architecture to Furniture”

 

Folder 2:          “Highboy Appreciation”

 

Folder 3:          “Chair Appreciation”   

 

Folder 4:          “Desk Appreciation”

 

Folder 5:          “The American Style in Furniture” [mostly highboys]

 

Folder 6:          Furniture from the Karolik Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

 

Folder 7:          Furniture from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Folder 8:          miscellaneous chairs and stools

 

Folder 9:          rush and cane seat chairs

 

Folder 10:        upholstered arm chairs

 

Folder 11:        upholstered side chairs

 

Folder 12:        corner chairs

 

Folder 13:        chairs with leather seats

 

Folder 14:        embroidered, needlepoint, and tapestry chairs

 

Folder 15:        wooden chairs

 

Folder 16:        Hitchcock chairs

 

Folder 17:        Windsor chairs

 

Folder 18:        sofas and settees

 

Folder 19:        miscellaneous tables

 

Folder 20:        dropleaf, gate leg, and butterfly leg tables

 

Folder 21:        tilt-top tables and tripod tables

 

Folder 22:        sewing tables

 

Folder 23:        game tables

 

Folder 24:        stands

 

Folder 25:        dressing tables

 

 

Box 4: general photos of case pieces

 

Folder 1:          armoires

 

Folder 2:          cabinets, encoinures, and credenzas

 

Folder 3:          chests

 

Folder 4:          chests of drawers and double chests

 

Folder 5:          lowboys

 

Folder 6:          highboys

 

Folder 7:          cupboards

 

Folder 8:          sideboards and buffets

 

Folder 9:          commodes

 

Folder 10:        secretaries and bookcases

 

Folder 11:        desks

 

Folder 12:        clocks

 

Folder 13:        beds

 

Folder 14:        mirrors

 

Folder 15:        Shaker furniture, including photos of Edward Deming Andrews’ collection of Shaker furniture in his farmhouse near Pittsfield, Massachusetts

 

Folder 16:        views of rooms or multiple pieces of furniture