Jervis McEntee Diaries and Letters: Letters, Tompkins, Laura, 1871

About the Project

Have you ever wanted to explore the day-to-day details of an artist's life 150 years ago? Then join the Archives of American Art as we finish transcribing the Jervis McEntee diaries and letters! Hudson River School painter Jervis McEntee (1828-1891) was one of the leading New York artists during the late 19th century and an incredibly prolific diarist. In his almost 4,500 diary entries in 1872-1890, McEntee records his thoughts, observations, activities, encounters, and anxieties. He paints a vivid picture of an artist's daily life with his words, and he provides a window on the New York art scene during and after the Gilded Age. The letters of his sister, Mary McEntee Vaux, and others further illuminate his life.

McEntee discusses the art market, patrons and collectors, his work, the Century Club, the impact of European art on the US art world, and his residence in the Tenth Street Studio Building, where he and his wife were at the center of a salon that included some of the best-known artists, writers, and actors of the time. You can explore the rest of the fully digitized Jervis McEntee papers on the Archives of American Art website!

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Project Progress (details)

3 pages completed

Difficulty

4 out of 5

(details)

About Project Difficulty

Level 1 - BEGINNER

Content: all typed
Language: English
Format: letters, diaries, flyers, pamphlets, and one-page documents
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: none required

Level 2

Content: mostly typed, handwritten in print, or otherwise very clearly written/readable
Language: English
Format: memorabilia, advertisements, image captions, telegrams, diaries, letters, notes
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: none required

Level 3 - INTERMEDIATE

Content: typed and handwritten materials in cursive or print
Language: English
Format: newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, letters/diaries/notes that may include annotations or margin notes
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: experience reading cursive writing may be useful

Level 4

Content: handwritten materials, primarily in cursive or somewhat difficult to read (predominantly from the 19th and 20th centuries) , audio recordings that are relatively easy to hear/decipher, and scientific materials
Language: English and/or other languages that use Roman script but may require the use of diacritics (French, Spanish, German, Italian, etc.)
Format: audio recordings, letters, diaries, notes and other written materials, projects with templated fields and special instructions
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: some knowledge of non-English Roman-character/script languages and diacritics may be useful, as well as experience reading cursive handwriting. A general knowledge or familiarity with scientific terminology.

Level 5 - ADVANCED

Content: handwritten materials in cursive (from the 19th century or earlier) or in a non-Roman script language, audio recordings that are difficult to hear or are not in English, specialty materials/projects such as numismatics projects and the Project Phaedra notebooks
Language: foreign languages that use non-Roman characters (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Greek/Cyrillic, Native American and Indigenous languages, etc.) and English
Format: audio recordings, columned data/tables, manuscripts, letters, diaries, notes, currency sheets, coins
Subject Area Expertise/Special Skills: knowledge of a specific language and access to a keyboard with the characters in that language may be required for certain projects. Experience reading cursive handwriting and familiarity with 19th century (or prior) handwriting and conventions/abbreviations may be useful, as well as knowledge of scientific terminology, astrophysics data, or linguistics.

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