Tennessee State Library and Archives Nell Savage Mahoney Papers
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State of Tennessee Department of State Tennessee State Library and Archives Nell Savage Mahoney Papers, 1852-1978 (bulk 1900-1960) COLLECTION SUMMARY Creator: Mahoney, Nell Savage, 1890-1986 Inclusive Dates: 1852-1978, bulk 1900-1960 Scope & Content: The Nell Savage Mahoney Papers, containing approximately 2500 items, cover the period 1852-1978, although the bulk of the material is limited to the years 1900-1960. While much of the collection is arranged by document type, there are three sections of the collection arranged by subject. These sections are composed of material and information amassed by Nell Savage Mahoney about the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly and the architects Benjamin Henry Latrobe and William Strickland. As a student of history (and Tennessee history in particular) whose parents owned a cottage at Monteagle, Tennessee, Mahoney developed a keen interest in the history of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly and the Chautauqua Movement to which it belonged. The collection contains a wealth of primary and secondary source materials pertaining to the Assembly. Included among these materials are a copy of the Assembly's 1882 charter and map of the Assembly grounds, as well as clippings, correspondence, memorabilia, notes, numerous photographs, printed materials, and daily programs (dating to 1903). Mahoney also assembled a vast amount of research data on her two favorite architects: Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820) and William Strickland (1787- 1854). Latrobe is best remembered for supervising the construction of the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D. C. Through the course of her research at the Library of Congress and the National Archives, Mahoney accumulated extensive notes, photographs, and drawings on Latrobe's life and work. The collection also includes an unfinished biographical manuscript about Latrobe. William Strickland, a student of Latrobe, is known for designing several buildings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville. There are extensive notes, photographs, and drawings in the collection related to Strickland's work in Nashville and elsewhere. There is also a copy of Mahoney's M. A. thesis on William Strickland, "The Building of the Tennessee State House." In her own work as an interior designer and decorator for several Nashville families (most notably for the family of John Hancock Cheek, owners of Oak Hill), Mahoney had a strong interest in the styles and material culture of famous historic homes in America. Her work in the area is represented in the collection, which contains notes taken in interior design courses, correspondence related to purchase orders for supplies used in her projects, catalogs and photographs of exhibition rooms and furniture, and texts of speeches she wrote on the subject. The collection also contains notes, clippings, and photographs related to individuals and homes in Nashville as well as outside Tennessee. Among the collection's photographs of historic houses, there are also 98 photographs of homes in Virginia and Washington, D. C., taken by the noted photographer and photojournalist Frances Benjamin Johnston (one of the first American women to achieve prominence as a photographer). A substantial number of drawings, notes, and purchase records were also previously placed with the Interior Design Department, Watkins College of Art and Design, Nashville, Tennessee. As a researcher, Mahoney took copious notes, and her notebooks within the collection are divided into two series: Nashville (N Series) and Washington, D. C. (W Series). The notebooks represent the cumulative efforts of years of research spent in Nashville at the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) and in Washington, D. C. at the Library of Congress and National Archives. The information in these notebooks became the basis for her manuscripts and magazine articles. Along with these notebooks, the collection also consists of class and lecture notes from the art and history classes she attended at the University of the South (Sewanee, Franklin County, Tennessee) and at Vanderbilt University. During the 1940s and 1950s, Mahoney was also a frequent contributor to the Nashville Tennessean Magazine. Her articles dealt with topics of local history. In addition to these short, published articles, the collection has several longer, unpublished articles, which she apparently intended to be published in book form under the general title "Portrait of Nashville." Along with her published essays and articles, the collection includes a draft of an unpublished short story, entitled "Contentment," as well as a rejection letter from the Ann Watkins, Inc., literary agency. Now Watkins/Loomis, the agency represented such writers as Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Carson McCullers, Ezra Pound, Ayn Rand, Dorothy Sayers, Gertrude Stein, and Dylan Thomas. It should be noted that several of the story's elements criticized in the rejection letter are now accepted and commonplace literary stylistic devices. Mahoney's deep interest in the fine arts is also reflected in the collection. She acquired an extensive collection of photographs of portrait paintings by Nashville and Tennessee artists. The majority of these photographs have been scanned and entered into TSLA’s photograph database. Each photograph has a database number that is recorded with the item description in the container list below. Many of these photographs also have duplicates in the Colonial Dames of America Portraits in Tennessee Painted Before 1866 Photograph Collection, Ac. No. 95-108 (where applicable, this has been noted on the appropriate folder). Boxes 36-38 contain Mahoney’s index of the artists and portrait photographs. The index includes biographical information about an artist or portrait subject, portrait size, medium, condition, date, and owner (as of ca. 1955). While many of the portrait photographs in the collection were donated to TSLA after Mahoney's death in 1986, she had also sold approximately 150 portrait photographs to TSLA in 1955. In 2005, these latter photographs were removed from the Library Photograph Collection in two batches and added to the Nell Savage Mahoney Papers. This, however, resulted in three separate alphabetized groupings of portrait photographs within the collection. The collection was reprocessed in order to consolidate the photographs, correct some inaccuracies and errors in the original processing, and integrate the 1988 addition with the collection. The Nell Savage Mahoney Papers represent a rich source of data on the social and cultural history of Nashville and other parts of Tennessee. The collection should be particularly useful for researchers interested in early Nashville architecture and Tennessee and American artists. Physical Description/Extent: 18.5 cubic feet Accession/Record Group Number: THS 457, THS 681 Language: English Permanent Location: THS VI-B-2 -C-2, Microfilm Ac. No. 1120 Repository: Tennessee State Library and Archives, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville, Tennessee, 37243-0312 Administrative/Biographical History July 16, 1890 Born Leslie Nelson Savage to Leslie Alice Jones and ophthalmologist Dr. Giles Christopher Savage, Nashville, Tennessee (some sources list the year as 1889, but her "delayed certificate of birth" issued by the State of Tennessee lists the year as 1890) 1899-1908 Educated at Ward Seminary, a private school in Nashville 1908 Began study at Vanderbilt University 1909 Transferred to Goucher College, Baltimore, Maryland 1912 Received B. A. from Goucher College 1915 Cooper Union and Arts Student League, New York City 1916 Began study at Ward Belmont School (now Belmont University), Nashville, completing Certificate in Interior Decorating July 1918 Hired as clerk in the Surgeon General’s Office, Washington, D. C. October 1918 Resigned clerk position January 30, 1924 Married Charles Hallam Mahoney (some sources list the year as 1923) October 1924 Margaret Ellerbe Mahoney (daughter) born May 26, 1925 Divorced Charles Hallam Mahoney 1925 Substitute teacher in Nashville public schools 1926 Successful commercial artist, Nashville 1927 Assistant society editor, Nashville Tennessean 1928-ca. 1941 Interior designer and lecturer for homes in Middle Tennessee 1935 Country Life writing on historic sites 1937 Entered graduate school at Vanderbilt University 1939 Received M. A. in History from Vanderbilt University with thesis, "The Building of the Tennessee State House, 1845- 1854" 1944 Worked for Department of Military Intelligence in the Signal Corps 1940s-1950s Magazine journalist, Nashville Tennessean January 30, 1986 Died at Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, and interred in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Nashville December 22, 2011 Death of her daughter, Margaret E. Mahoney Conditions of Access and Use Restrictions on Access: No restrictions. Restrictions on Use and Reproduction: While TSLA houses an item, it does not necessarily hold the copyright on the item, nor may it be able to determine if the item is still protected under current copyright law. Users are solely responsible for determining the existence of such instances and for obtaining any other permissions and paying associated fees that may be necessary for the intended use. Index Terms Personal Names: Johnston, Frances Benjamin, 1864-1952 Latrobe, Benjamin Henry, 1764-1820 Mahoney, Nell Savage, 1890-1986 Strickland, William, 1787-1854 Corporate Names/Organizations/Government Bodies: Fairmount Female College (Monteagle, Tenn.) Monteagle Sunday School Assembly University of Nashville