B. Stafford Good 1893-1969 Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection contains materials that follow the artist and illustrator B. Stafford Good’s career as a student, illustrator, teacher, muralist, and landscape painter. Materials within this collection are dated between 1907 and 1980 and include both primary and secondary source material. A bulk of the collection contains secondary materials, such as two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings that follow the artist’s life and career, exhibition catalogues, and brochures. Materials that document the artist’s work and process are included as well, such as a list of illustrations planned for his unpublished book, “Adventures in Karki,” (based on his experience in World War I); a fabric binder inscribed by the artist’s wife Jeanne Good: “1970, To: Brandywine River Museum,” which contains artist notes; and an original water color painting.
The first folder contains additions made to the collection at an unknown period. Within this folder is a photocopy of a handwritten document by the artist’s wife Jeanne Good on Stafford Good’s life and career. The original note from Jeanne Good is stored within the curatorial files at the museum.
Dates
- Creation: 1907 - 1997
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1910 - 1970
Creator
- Good, Bernard Stafford, 1893-1969 (Person)
- Good, Jeanne (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for researchers by appointment only. Please contact the Research Center for information on access and research.
Conditions Governing Use
Materials held within the Research Center may be protected by copyright. Authorization to reproduce, publish, or quote from any restricted material requires permission from the copyright holder and is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain.
Biographical / Historical
Bernard Stafford Good was born in England in 1893, then moved to Manitoba, Canada in 1910 where he worked on Canadian Pacific Railroad and as a cartoonist. He left Canada for Illinois in 1914 to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, but before finishing he returned to Canada to serve in the Royal Canadian Engineers under the British Expeditionary Force in France during World War I . After the war, Good resumed his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he developed connections with other contemporary American artists and illustrated advertisements for Sears and Roebuck, the Santa Fe Railroad, and the Chicago Herald. Good graduated in 1920, and shortly after moved to New York to study at the Art Students League, where he met Harvey Dunn and Pitt L. Fitzgerald. Through Dunn and Fitzgerald, Good met N.C. Wyeth, who invited Good and Fitzgerald to join him in Chadds Ford. During this period, he illustrated for magazines such as Scribner’s, Country Gentlemen, and book illustrations for Viking Press.
Between 1927 to 1933 Good relocated to Folcroft, Pennsylvania, where he created illustrations for Scribner’s, Saturday Evening Post, McCall’s, Adventure; as well as illustrated children’s books such as The Children of the New Forest, Jack the Giant Killer, and Red Beard of Virginia. In 1934, Good moved to Wilmington, Delaware where he taught at the Wilmington Academy of Art (now the Delaware Art Museum), and painted murals in Smyrna, Delaware for the Delaware branch of the Works Progress Administration. Around 1940 the artist moved to New Hampshire, where he occupied a key role in the local arts community leading the Laconia Arts Group and assisting in the creation of the New Hampshire Art Association. Good passed away in Laconia, New Hampshire in 1969 at the age of 81.
Bernard Stafford Good exhibited work throughout his career, including exhibitions at the Brandywine River Museum of Art in 1972, and the New Hampshire Art Association Gallery in 1977.
Extent
1.997 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection contains materials on B. Stafford Good’s career as an illustrator, such as: clippings, scrapbooks, print proofs, photographs, original sketches, and a manuscript that records an outline of the illustrations planned for “Adventures of Karki”, based on Good’s own experience during World War I.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in two boxes. One legal-sized document box and one flat box containing oversized materials. These materials are arranged in chronological order to the folder level. A three-ring cloth binder containing materials was disassembled for preservation purposes. The materials were placed in folders maintaining the original order of their location within the binder. The binder, inscribed by the artist’s wife, had rusting metal parts and acidic paper linings and as such, was photo documented and discarded. An addition to this collection was made at an unknown time, placed within the first folder titled: “Biographical 1969-circa-1980".
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Jeanne Good, 1970; Correspondence to Brandywine Museum of Art curator from James Gergat, 1997.
Accruals
No further accruals expected.
Bibliography
Casey, Peter. Letter and short biography mailed to Brandywine Curatorial Assistant. Brandywine Museum of Art, November 2, 2021.
Delaware Art Museum. Works – Stafford Good – Artists – Delaware Art Museum. Retrieved June 5, 2024, from https://emuseum.delart.org/people/1753/stafford-good/objects
Processing Information
This collection was minimally processed upon arrival in 1970 and re-processed in 2019 by intern Charissa Skoutelas. At reassessment in 2019, the collection was found stored in one record box that contained two scrapbooks, seven folders, one plastic binder of photographs within top-loading plastic sheets, and one fabric binder of the artist’s notes. In 2024 the finding aid was revised to meet DACS compliance by intern Bri Cronin. The scrapbooks contain aged news clippings and other materials attached with tape or glue. These were interleaved with acid-free paper to separate the pages from direct contact. A framed watercolor painting was photographed, removed from its frame, and placed in its own archival folder. A notebook with illustrations for “Adventures in Karki” was photo-documented, pages were removed in original order, then interleaved with acid-free paper, and rehoused in an archival folder. Some contents within the fabric binder were loose and had been grouped in the front of the box. The condition of materials within the binder ranged from good to poor. Due to the state of the materials, the contents of the binder were removed and rehoused in original order across five archival folders. Three folders contain loose sheets, and two folders housebound sheets; all interleaved with acid-free paper. Pages removed from a small-scale notebook and any fragile pages were placed in mylar sleeves. Correspondence between the donor and the museum staff was removed from the collection box and placed in the Research Center’s donor file. One item, an oversized letter written on paper towel, was kept with the collection. During a reassessment of the finding aid and collection in 2024, the contents of a binder containing photographs of the artist, studio, and students were removed and placed in a folder for preservation purposes.
Subject
- Delaware Art Museum (Organization)
- Good, Bernard Stafford, 1893-1969 (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid to the B. Stafford Good 1893-1969 Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Charissa Skoutelas
- Date
- 2019
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2021-2022: Edits made by Manager Virginia O'Hara
- 2024: Edits and DACS formatting made by Bri Cronin
Repository Details
Part of the Walter & Leonore Annenberg Research Center - Archives & Special Collections Repository
1 Hoffman's Mill Road
PO Box 141
Chadds Ford PA 19317 United States
610-388-8310
research@brandywine.org