William Sidney Mount Papers, bulk 1830-1874
Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- Papers of William Sidney Mount include correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, notebooks, invitations, exhibit catalogs, business papers and miscellaneous printed materials.
- Extent:
- 40 cubic feet
- Language:
- English
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Papers of William Sidney Mount include correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, notebooks, invitations, exhibit catalogs, business papers and miscellaneous printed materials. Correspondents include family members, friends, other artists, musicians, writers, publishers, art, collectors and patrons, among them Shepard Alonzo Mount, Robert Nelson Mount, Elizabeth Reeves Ford Mount, Maria Seabury, Theodorus Bailey, August Belmont, William Cullen Bryant, E.L. Carey, William M. Davis, John M. Falconer, Charles Lanman, James Lenox, William H. Ludlow, Thomas McEltrath, Luman Reed, William Schaus, Francis B. Spinola, Jonathan Sturges, Benjamin Franklin Thompson and Effingham Tuthill. Diaries or journals, 1843-1868, include many sketches. Bound notebooks and loose notes include autobiographical notes, lists of commissions and paintings, notes on a variety of subjects such as painting techniques and materials, other painters, health and medications, carriage painting, boat design, improvements to the harbor at Saint James, New York, politics, spiritualism and religion. There are also social invitations, calling cards, notices of exhibits and other announcements of the National Academy of Design, books and catalogs from Mount’s library, an administrator’s account for Mount’s estate, miscellaneous music written or copies by Mount, and patterns, varnish recipes, memoranda, notes, a U.S. patent and other papers concerning Mount’s invention of a hollow-backed violin called the “Cradle of Harmony.”
- Biographical / historical:
-
William Sidney Mount of Stony Brook was a noted genre and portrait painter and one of the first artists to paint realistic studies of African Americans.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Painting
- Names:
- Mount, William Sidney, 1807-1868
- Places:
- Stony Brook (N.Y.)
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The Long Island Museum's archive collection is by appointment only. Please email the Collections Manager, Andrea Squeri at asqueri@longislandmuseum.org to schedule an appointment.
- Terms of access:
-
Requests for permission to publish material from this collection must be approved with the Collections Manager and formal paperwork must be completed. Proper credit to The Long Island Museum must always be given. Material is subject to copyright regulations.
- Location of this collection:
- Contact:
- 6317510066asqueri@longislandmuseum.org