Letter to Carolyn Bockius, Needham, MA, September 17, 1904

This collection consists of manuscript correspondence written by NCW (both professional and personal) and personal photographs of NCW, his family, friends, and travels. Additional supplemental information and research from BJW and other Wyeth Foundation or Brandywine Museum staff members has also been added to supply context, clarification, and/or correction to information surrounding certain pieces within the collection.

The personal correspondence of NCW primarily consists of letters written to his mother, Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, up until her death in 1925. Other personal letters consist of those written to his wife, Carolyn Bockius (1886-1973), as well as his father, Andrew Newell Wyeth II (1853-1929). Frequent correspondence also occurs between NCW and his brothers, Edwin (1886-1960), Nathaniel (1888-1954), and Stimson (1891-1970), also known as “Babe,” with whom he corresponded the most out of his siblings. Later in the collection, personal correspondence includes letters to the Wyeth children, with a majority of them written to his daughter Henriette and her husband Peter Hurd (1904-1984), who moved to New Mexico in 1939. Finally, personal correspondence also includes letters to friends, such as Harl McDonald (1899-1955), Stanley Arthurs (1877-1950), Sidney Marsh Chase (1877-1957), Frank Schoonover (1877-1972), and Allen Tupper True (1881-1955).

NCW’s personal letters to his mother read like a private diary, not just in terms of their frequency, but also in the level of detail of daily life and the confessional nature of his innermost thoughts and emotions. Letters to his brothers, especially Stimson, often read in a philosophical tone, where “big brother” Convers expounds at length on his personal views of the world and advice on how to better their lives and careers. Later letters to his young adult children also read in a similar tone. These narratives not only provide a detailed look at this monumental artist’s career and daily life, but they also show the mental and personal struggles of a man who often felt conflicted by his professional identity and legacy—was it better to be revered as an illustrator or a true fine artist and painter?

Additional professional correspondence can be found throughout the collection as well, some dispersed within the personal letter binders chronologically by BJW, with a majority of those from the height of his career housed in Volume 45 designated as “NCW Business Letters” (December 5, 1919 – October 18, 1945). These were typically written between NCW and the various publishing agencies he worked with throughout his career and provide a great deal of important provenance and creation information regarding his major works. In Volume 44, there is an additional binder curated by BJW entitled, “Letters concerning NCW after his death” that spans from approximately 1945-1998, beginning with sympathy letters to the Wyeth family regarding the accident, letters from Peter Hurd to Carolyn Bockius over the years updating the family on life in New Mexico, and other correspondence written to the Wyeths pertaining to NCW.

Besides manuscripts, additional items and artifacts can be found within the collection, such as the doctor’s bill for the birth of NCW, a notarized copy of his death certificate, and the comb (with hair remnants) left on his dresser on the day of his death, preserved in an envelope. The most prominent non-manuscript items though are photographs. Dispersed throughout the volumes by BJW, these photos provide visual context for certain people, places, and subjects discussed within NCW’s letters. A large majority of the photos were taken by NCW himself, such as those from his trips “out West” and of his wife and children, proving his skill at another art form. For the most part, the photographs are arranged chronologically, sometimes included with the letter they were originally sent with, though not always, as some of the letter and photograph pairings were created artificially by BJW for context, demonstrating her curatorial eye and ability to craft a narrative from the collection.

This curatorial influence by BJW is evident throughout the entirety of this unique collection. Not only can the researcher learn more about the inner workings of NCW’s mind and life, but they can also learn about BJW and her devotion to the Wyeth family as their personal archivist. Her careful organization and labeling touches every item, whether that is through her own handwritten notes or her numbering system. Letters that were transcribed by BJW for her publication The Wyeths: the Letters of N.C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (published 1971 by Gambit) have a number that matches the corresponding number in the published volume—as such these have been kept with their respective items by the Manager, referred to as “BJW#’s.” For example, letter 100 in the published book is notated as BJW#100 on the folder in the collection. Often, letters were not published, however, those were marked by BJW with blue, circular stickers on the plastic sleeves, referred to by the Manager as “blue dots” and labeled on their respective folders as “omitted,” to indicate that the item was unpublished. Bright green, circular stickers, or “green dots,” indicate letters purchased by BJW at an auction on November 12, 1989. Most of these purchased letters were written to Stimson Wyeth by NCW. Unless noted otherwise, it is believed that a majority of the letters in this collection come from various members of the Wyeth family. However, it is often unclear who supplied these letters, even after reviewing the notes left in the collection by BJW or Wyeth Foundation staff. Letters that appear as photocopies occasionally have provenance notes from BJW. For example, some photocopied letters are reference copies sent by other collecting institutions with Wyeth-related archives, such as the Boston Public Library and the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institution). It is unclear as to the origins of some photocopied personal correspondence, though it is assumed by the Manager that these may have been “borrowed” by BJW from other members of the family for her transcription project, with the originals returned to the owner for their personal collections. To date, the current locations of some of these copied letters are unknown.

It is also worth noting that not only did BJW have organizational control over the collection prior to its transfer to Brandywine, but she also had intellectual and informational control over its contents—there is the possibility that some correspondence deemed “missing” by researchers were intentionally omitted or destroyed by BJW out of concern for the family’s privacy. What is represented in this collection today is exactly what was received by Brandywine’s Research Center staff—there were no privacy restrictions placed on the collection in its official donation and transfer to the Museum.

Finally, two boxes of additional supplemental materials were included in this transfer by Mary Landa in 2024 and are listed at the end of this collection. The first is a box containing research and other related collection notes by Brandywine’s former N.C. Wyeth Curator Christine Podmaniczky. Within the box are photocopies of NCW and Carolyn Bockius letters noted as belonging to BJW or the WFAA (Wyeth Foundation for American Art), as well as photocopies from other collecting institutions such as the Scribner Archives of Princeton University, the National Cathedral, private collectors, and the Houghton Mifflin collections of Houghton Library, Harvard University. Additional notes from Podmaniczky can be found throughout the NCW collection as well. For example, in cases where a letter was undated, BJW would often estimate and assign a date to the letter. During her catalogue raisonné research, Podmaniczky often found some of these dates to be inaccurate, and would occasionally leave a note, newspaper article, or other piece of primary source information that proves the date inaccuracy with that item. The second box contains BJW’s research notes related to her publication and transcription project for The Wyeths, with materials such as the aforementioned research, a few handwritten drafts, lists, provenance notes, some original NCW material that had not been filed, and correspondence with her publisher (Gambit) regarding the book.

In summary, this collection contains an incredible amount of research value, not just documenting the life and career of NCW, a prominent and prolific artist of the early to mid-twentieth century, but also in relation to his family members, such as his children, who would go on to become prominent artists themselves. These letters also provide a firsthand glimpse of important events and culture in twentieth-century American history, from the inauguration of presidents to both world wars, to the Great Depression, the Spanish flu epidemic, polio, and technological advancements, such as the debut of electricity and film. Their meticulous collection, organization, and preservation reflect BJW’s great care and make them incredibly unique compared to other archival collections of this size. This continued level of stewardship by the Research Center will allow them to endure for researchers to come.