Booth Tarkington Art Collecting Papers, 1932-1981

1.8 cubic feet
2.2 linear feet
5 document cases (letter)

This collection consists of 18 scrapbooks, originally assembled by Booth Tarkington and his secretary, Elizabeth Trotter. While there are no precise dates for the creation of these works, included clippings indicate that they were largely assembled during the 1930s and 1940s, during the final years of Tarkington’s life; he spent much of this time at Seawood in Kennebunkport, Maine, but clippings and exhibition programs provide evidence of travel between Indianapolis and Seawood. In content, the materials center around the paintings Tarkington owned, including a great deal of quoted research material and biographical information about the artists and portrait subjects. Typically, each original binder contained materials related to one or more paintings, and several binders included title sheets/tags indicating that they referenced works from a particular room in Seawood (e.g., dining room). Materials include photographs of the works, often in situ on exhibit or in Tarkington’s home; newspaper and magazine clippings about artists or exhibitions; exhibition brochures and catalogs; gallery materials related to purchase and display of the works; correspondence related to acquisition, research, loans, and discussion of Tarkington’s portraits; book jackets and manuscripts or texts written by Tarkington about art; book reviews and critical reception; and many retyped, excerpted or quoted texts relating to the paintings derived from other authors, experts in the field, or historical/primary sources. Correspondence and reviews indicate interaction with prominent historical figures, including: the art historian Erwin Panofsky; art critic Royal Cortissoz; art gallery representatives Daniel H. Farr, Robert C. Vose, Bert Newhouse, Sophia Ruskin, and John Levy; and art museum curators and directors, including Wilbur D. Peat of the John Herron Art Institute (now Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields).

The collection is divided into 2 series as listed below.
Series I: Seawood Collection Scrapbooks, 1932-1945
Series 2: Miscellaneous Papers, 1939-1981

Acquisition of the papers pre-dates the 2010 formal establishment of the Archives. Presumably, Tarkington or his representative donated the bulk of the material to the John Herron Art Institute in the mid-20th century following or during his board activity. Additions were likely made by museum staff, circa 1961-1981.

Gift, circa1945.

Three boxes contained 18 binders, assembled by Tarkington and Trotter, and there was no consistent pattern linking the various binders in alphabetical or chronological arrangements. The binders were not numbered (save by the processor for convenience of identification), and they seem to have been included in boxes as they fit and in no particular order. However, each binder was
carefully curated and ordered, with clippings, correspondence, etc., inserted in (crumbling) plastic sleeves or pasted to pages. The original order within the binders was maintained, but materials were rehoused in folders with imposed titles. Materials
in plastic sleeves were housed together in folded archival paper to indicate the originator’s groupings, and photographs showcasing the paintings in situ in Seawood or art galleries were preserved in photographic sleeves. Evidence of previous intervention or preservation efforts, presumably by museum staff, includes copied correspondence. Copies were three-hole punched and the original brittle letters were retained and housed in glassine sleeves, often stapled to the copy. Additionally, one of the three boxes contained several folders obviously assembled later than the binders (circa 1961-1981). These relate to the posthumous distribution
of the art collection and contain auction information, sales receipts, information about donation, and transcripts from a 1981 commemoration of Booth Tarkington’s birthday.