Dates
- 1783 - 1974
- Majority of material found within 1910 - 1971
Scope and Contents
The Mary Bartlett Cowdrey Papers includes material related to Cowdrey's personal and professional life as an art historian, archivist, and writer, as well as information on material collected and curated by Cowdrey during the mid-20th Century, as well as a number of 19th Century materials from her collection.
Material related to Cowdrey's personal life include documents from her early life through her time at the New Jersey College for Women, which would later become Douglass College. These documents include certificates, identification cards, passports, clippings, and photographs. Her early life material documents Cowdrey's life until roughly 1937. Of note are a number of clippings detailing a scandal at Rutgers in the 1930s where a professor in the German department was accused of being a Nazi sypathizer, hiting a student with a book, and firing a professor for speaking out against the Nazis. Also included is a copy of a letter from Cowdrey on the matter to provide her account from when she was a student and took a class with one of the individuals involved in the scandal.
The correspondence found in these papers are primarily professional correspondence. Cowdrey corresponded with libraries, archives, museums, and universities including the Archives of American Art, Smith College, the New York Public Library, the Frick Art Reference Library, and more. Also of note are individuals she with whom she corresponded who have their own separate folders. The material in the correspondence sub-series primarily is professional in nature, but there is some personal correspondence included as well. This includes material about a car accident in 1955, and several research trips to England and Japan.
The correspondence sub-series makes up the bulk of the collection and primarily covers Cowdrey's correspondence from the late 1950s through 1971. There are notes suggesting that correspondence from before 1956 was donated to another archive, possibly to the Archives of American Art (now part of the Smithsonian), which was one of the institutions Cowdrey worked with.
Included are correspondence both to and from Cowdrey, as Cowdrey kept carbon copies of the letters she wrote. For some years, Cowdrey kept two carbon copies of her letters. These second carbon copies were kept in separate files, with the first carbon copies filed by correspondent.
Mary Bartlett Cowdrey was also an avid collector. She kept receipts and inventories of her purchases from the mid-1940s through the 1960s. She donated a number of these items to Rutgers in the early 1960s. There are detailed inventories of the items donated. The items that were donated include material primarily related to the history of American art, such as exhibition catalogs, monographs, and periodicals. These inventories, which were compiled by Cowdrey, show the titles of the donated material as well as an appraised value.
While the material in these inventories are not included in this collection, there are a number of 19th Century documents collected by Cowdrey that are represented. These are of special interest, as they document correspondence from and to artists and art dealers and those associated with the art world in the 19th Century as well as some sketches. Individuals of note are Rosa Bonheur, Samuel Putnam Avery, Albert Fitch Bellows, James Wells Champney, Frederick S. Church, William S. Mount, John Trumbull, and Robert Walter Weir. Noteably, there are a few illustrations by Thomas Nast found here.
Also included in this subseries are a few noteable objects, including a daguerreotype of John La Farge, and a carte de visite album with various 19th century photographs of individuals (many of which are labeled with the subject's name). Also included is a tome of apocrypha from around 1790, with notes by Cowdrey from 1960, and a family Bible, which may be Cowdrey's family Bible, through the Howe family.
Extent
12.5 Linear Feet (20 Manuscript Boxes, 1 Half-size Manuscript Box, 3 Oversize Boxes)
Language of Materials
In English and French
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions; advanced notice required to consult collection.
Abstract
Mary Bartlett Cowdrey (1910-1974) was an art historian, curator, writer, and lecturer. She graduated from the New Jersey College for Women (later Douglass College) in 1933. She worked in various museums including the Newark Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and as associate director of the Smith College Museum of Art. She specialized in American Art from the 19th century. Included in her papers are correspondence, published writings, scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, and items she collected. Of special interest is her collection of correspondence from artists, including 2 letters sent by Rosa Bonheur.
Biographical / Historical
Mary Bartlett Cowdrey (1910-1974) was an art historian, archivist, curator, writer, and lecturer. She graduated from the New Jersey College for Women (later Douglass College) in 1933 and later studied at the University of London. Cowdrey worked at a variety of prestigious institutions throughout her professional career, and was mainly based in New Jersey and New York.
In the 1930s, Cowdrey started in the field with jobs at the Newark Museum and the New Brunswick Art Center, but her career really gained momentum in the 1940s when she became a registrar at the Brooklyn Museum. From there, her correspondence with those in the art world began to grow. She attended professional conferences, like the American Association of Museums annual convention. She served as Curator of Maps & Prints at the New York Historical Society before moving to the Old Print Shop in New York in 1943. In 1949, Cowdrey started as a curator at the Smith College Museum before becoming the Assistant Director in 1952.
In 1955, Cowdrey returned to the New York area to serve as the archivist for the Archives of American Art at their New York offices. In the 1960s, Cowdrey worked as a curator for the New Jersey Historical Society.
Cowdrey was a member of several professional organizations, such as the College Art Association, the Manuscript Society, and the American Association of Museums.
In 1964, Cowdrey received an honorary doctorate from Douglass College, due to her impressive skills, reputation, and scholarship as an art historian and 19th Century art history specialist.
Cowdrey was a prolific writer with an impressive bibliography. She wrote a number of articles for periodicals such as American Collector, Antiques, Art in America, New York Historical Society Quarterly, and New York History. Her work provided important scholarship in the field of art history. Cowdrey specialized in 19th century American art and provided two two-volume reference books that were very important to the art world when they were published: The National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860 and The American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art Union 1816-1852.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into two main series. The first series documents Cowdrey's personal and professional life, while the second series documents Cowdrey's collection, including inventories and some material collected by Cowdrey. These series are further arranged into subseries. Please see the arrangement notes for these series for further arrangement information.
- Title
- Guide to the Mary Bartlett Cowdrey Papers
- Author
- Kate Van Riper
- Date
- 2021
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English
- Sponsor
- Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.
Part of the New Brunswick Special Collections Repository