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: Cole, Thomas, 1801-1848.

Title: Papers and sketchbooks [microform]

Dates: 1820-1848

Call No.: Mic. 314, Mic. 437-439

Acc. No.: [none]

Quantity: 4 microfilm reels

Location: microfilm cabinet

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

Thomas Cole was an English-born landscape, portrait, and religious painter, a pioneer of the Hudson River School. In 1827, he settled in Catskill, New York, where he died in 1848.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

These papers include notebooks, sketchbooks, diary notations, poetry, drawings, letters, exhibition catalogs and miscellaneous ephemera.

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

The materials are in English.

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

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

PROVENANCE

Originals in: the New York State Library and Detroit Institute of Arts. DIA materials were filmed by the Archives of American Art.

ACCESS POINTS

Topics:

Hudson River school of landscape painting.

Art -Italy.

Art - New York (State)

Art - England.

Italy - Art.

New York (State) - In art.

England - In art.

Catalogs.

Ephemera.

Drawings.

Poems.

Letters.

Sketchbooks.

Notebooks.

Artists.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: microfilm cabinet

Mic. 314 materials from the New York State Library, Albany: Notes, with some sketches; essays; poetry; includes:

notes about drawing;

“Thoughts and Occurrences,” dated 1834;

“Plan for a Monument of Washington”;

Extracts from book about pigments;

“Essay on American Scenery”;

“Steam Boat Night Thoughts”;

Various essays and writings;

“Influence of the Plastic Arts”;

Poems, including “Written on my Birthday, 1830,” “The Voyage of Life,” “The Painter’s Lamentation,” and others.

Mic. 437 materials from the Detroit Institute of Arts (Archives of American Art reel D40):

ca. 555 drawings, drawings 39.19-39.573 (omitting 39.283, 39.369, and 39.541; these are DIA numbers)

Mic. 438 materials from the Detroit Institute of Arts (Archives of American Art reel D39):

2 volumes of notebooks; 1825, and 18 volumes of sketchbooks, 1827-1847. Cole sketches mainly in New York State, The White Mountains, England, Italy, and Catskill, N.Y. The numbers are those of the DIA:

[no number] notebook, 1825, New York: extracts and note from “The Art of Coloring in Landscape Painting” by W. Pram;

39.558a notebook, 1825: first voyage to Europe, notes on pictures painted in New York, 1825-1826;

39.558 sketchbook, 1827, New York;

39.559 sketchbook, 1827, White Mountains, with manuscript “Tour to the White Mountains”;

39.560 sketchbook, 1828, New York;

39.560a sketchbook, 1829, 1850, England;

39.561 sketchbook, 1829-1830, England;

39.564 sketchbook, 1831, Florence, Italy;

39.562 sketchbook, 1831, Italy;

39.566 sketchbook, 1832, Italy;

39.565 sketchbook, 1832, Italy;

39.564 sketchbook, 1832, Italy; also pressed flowers;

39.567 sketchbook, 1833, Catskills, New York;

39.568 sketchbook, 1835, 1837, Catskills, New York;

39.569 sketchbook, 1836, Catskills, New York, and various European scenes;

39.570 sketchbook, 1837, Catskills, New York;

39.571 sketchbook, 1838-1845, Catskills, New York, and Italy (1841);

39.572a sketchbook, 1841, Italy;

39.572 sketchbook, 1842, Italy;

39.573 sketchbook, 1847 and undated, U.S. and abroad;

Mic. 439 materials from the Detroit Institute of Arts (Archives of American Art reel D6):

Letters, manuscript poems, exhibition catalogs, and a sketchbook of Italy, dated March 10, 1832. (There is no list of the items on this reel.)