Viewing page 17 of 32

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Guardian [[image]] America's Heritage

National Trust for Historic Preservation
THE DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH PAPERS

1785 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, N.W.   WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036  (202) 673-4000

September 13, 1982

Mrs. Robert Row Thompson
Vinson Hall, Apt. 362
6251 Old Dominion Drive
McLean, Virginia 22102

Dear Mrs. Thompson, 

The Daniel Chester French Papers is a documentary editing project devoted to collecting, editing, and publishing a selected edition of the correspondence of this prominent early American sculptor, who lived from 1850 to 1931. Two of French's best known works include the Minute Man (1875) in Concord, Massachusetts and the statue of Lincoln (1922) in Washington D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial.

I am writing to learn if you might have any letters written by or to Daniel Chester French in your family's papers. May Hill, a doctoral student at the City University of New York, recently sent us photocopies of two letters that French wrote to Robert Vonnoh on the 1st and 11th of July, 1918, that she acquired from your collection. She informed us that you are Bessie Potter Vonnoh's cousin and suggested that you might have some more pieces of French's correspondence. 

French was acquainted with both Mr. and Mrs. Vonnoh. Their relationship is noted in some 1912 correspondence with his brother, William M.R. French, when D.C. French was hopeful that the Vonnohs might purchase the property adjacent to Chesterwood, the sculptor's summer home and studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. They settled elsewhere, but Robert Vonnoh returned to Chesterwood in June of 1913 to paint portraits of Daniel Chester French and of his daughter, Margaret French Cresson. I understand that these portraits still hand in the Chesterwood home. 

As the trustee and chairman of the Committee on Sculpture during the first quarter of this century at the Metropolitan Museum, French had contacts with many sculptors including your cousin. I am enclosing copies and a transcription (originals are in the French Family Papers at the Library of Congress) of the only two letters concerning the Maetropolitcan's 1918 sculpture exhibition, we have of their correspondence: the original letter Mrs. Vonnoh wrote to French on April 17, 1918 and the file copy of the letter he returned on the next day April 18, 1918. Might you have the original letter French wrote on April 18, 1918? We would be most interested in obtaining a photocopy of it and other letters in which French is mentioned or is a correspondent. Would this be possible? We of course would reimburse you for the xeroxing expenses. If you prefer, and at your convenience, we would be willing to look at your collection ourselves for any French related documents. This is of course at your discretion; I make this suggestion only to make your efforts on our behalf less inconvenient for you.

This project, funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will be published by the University of California Press.

Transcription Notes:
A little amusing that this letter from a transcription project is being transcribed.