Charles Coleman Sellers Collection Circa 1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 American Philosophical Society 3/2002 105 South Fifth Street Philadelphia, PA, 19106 215-440-3400 [email protected] Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 Table of Contents Summary Information ................................................................................................................................. 3 Background note ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Scope & content ..........................................................................................................................................6 Administrative Information .........................................................................................................................7 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Indexing Terms ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................9 Collection Inventory ..................................................................................................................................10 Series I. Charles Willson Peale Portraits & Miniatures........................................................................10 Series. II. Mr. Peale's Museum............................................................................................................. 51 Series III. Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture........................................................................................ 57 Series IV. Washington Portraits............................................................................................................ 58 Series V. Paintings by the Peales..........................................................................................................64 Series VI. Artists' File........................................................................................................................... 87 Series VII. Correspondence...................................................................................................................92 Series VIII. Miscellaneous materials.....................................................................................................95 - Page 2 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 Summary Information Repository American Philosophical Society Creator Sellers, Charles Coleman, 1903-1980 Title Charles Coleman Sellers Collection Date [inclusive] Circa 1940-1978 Call number Mss.Ms.Coll.3 Extent 19.5 Linear feet Location LH-B-34-5; LH-B-24-2 (OS) Language English Abstract The collection of Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980) contains copious and detailed documentation of the art of Charles Willson Peale and his family. It consists of working files for Sellers's numerous publications, including his Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale (1952); Charles Willson Peale with Patron and Populace (1969); C. W. Peale's Portraits of Washington (1951); Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (1962); Mr. Peale's Museum (1980). Most files include photographs of the art work, notes on the piece, and correspondence with authorities or owners. Other series include one relating to the paintings of various other Peales, including Anna C., James, Mary Jane, Raphaelle, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Sarah Miriam, and a miscellaneous artist file, which includes the same type of material and information on many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artists, including Thomas Eakins, George Healy, Robert Edge Pine, William Rush, Thomas Sully, Benjamin West, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, etc. There is a - Page 3 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 separate Sellers collection at Dickinson College, primarily personal in nature. Preferred Citation Cite as: Charles Coleman Sellers Collection, American Philosophical Society. - Page 4 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 Background note Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980) was a noted historian of early America, best known for his numerous works on the life and artistic production of the family of his own great-grandfather, Charles Willson Peale. Born in Overbrook, Pa., in 1903, Sellers attended Haverford College (1925) and Harvard (MA 1926), before taking a position as librarian at Wesleyan College (1937-1949) and, later, Dickinson College (1956-1968). For several years in the late 1940s, Sellers worked at the American Philosophical Society as Research Associate. Sellers's numerous books and articles focused largely on the voluminous artistic output of the Peale family and on the Peale Museum, an important site in the early Republic for presenting natural history to the general public. Sellers also conducted research on Benjamin Franklin and others among the Peales' contemporaries. He was awarded the Bancroft Prize in 1970 for his work on Peale and was elected to membership in the APS in 1979. He died in 1980 while on a visit to Australia. - Page 5 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 Scope & content The Sellers Collection consists of the working file of the historian, Charles Coleman Sellers, pertaining to his research on the artistic oevre of Charles Willson Peale and his family. The Collection is organized in seven series, corresponding roughly to Sellers's publications on the subject, plus a series containing general notes on other contemporary artists and a small miscellaneous correspondence file. Series I Charles Willson Peale Portraits 7 linear feet and Miniatures Series II Mr. Peale's Museum 3 linear feet Series III Benjamin Franklin in 0.5 linear feet Portraiture Series IV Washington Portraits 1 linear foot Series V Paintings by the Peales 4 linear feet Series VI Artist File 1 linear foot Series VII Correspondence 1 linear foot Series VIII Miscellaneous materials 19 items; 2.5 linear feet Native American Images Note : Reprinted black and white photographs from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard of Native American artifacts once held by Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum. Some of the items include Plains and Northwestern Indian utensils, clothes and canoes of the early 1800s. Of note, Thomas Jefferson’s Indian collection including a peace pipe, a painted buffalo robe, Cree Indian dresses and an Indian hunting shirt worn by Captain Cook. Some later dated images, ca. 1840s, depict native Hawaiian and Caribbean objects. Primarily housed in Series II. - Page 6 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 Administrative Information Publication Information American Philosophical Society 3/2002 Restrictions Restrictions on Use Photographs of portraits owned privately or owned by other institutions can not be reproduced. Provenance Acquisition Information Gift of the estate of Charles Coleman Sellers, 1980 (accession number 1980-276ms). Related Materials Related Material Several collections of papers pertaining to the Peale Family are housed at the APS, and these have been issued as a microfiche set, Lillian B. Miller, ed., The Collected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus Microform, 1980). There is a Sellers collection at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., primarily personal in nature. Indexing Terms Family Name(s) • Peale family - Page 7 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 Genre(s) • Gelatin silver prints • Photographs Personal Name(s) • Eakins, Thomas, 1844-1916 • Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790 • Healy, George Peter Alexander, 1813-1894 • Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 • Peale, Anna Claypoole, 1791-1878 • Peale, Charles Willson, 1741-1827 • Peale, James,1749-1831. • Peale, Mary Jane, 1827-1902 • Peale, Raphaelle, 1774-1825 • Peale, Rembrandt, 1778-1860 • Peale, Rubens, 1784-1865 • Peale, Sarah Miriam, 1800-1885 • Pine, Robert Edge, 1730?-1788 • Rush, William, 1756-1833 • Sully, Thomas, 1783-1872 • West, Benjamin, 1738-1820 • Whistler, James McNeill, 1834-1903 Subject(s) • Art • Artists • Comanche Indians • Cree Indians • Crow Indians • Dakota Indians • Eastern Woodlands Indians • Indians of North America--Great Lakes (North America) • Indians of North America--Oklahoma • Indians of North America--Pacific Coast • Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) • Mandan Indians • Northwest Coast Indians - Page 8 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection ca.1940-1978 Mss.Ms.Coll.3 • Ojibwa Indians • Painters--United States • Plains Indians • Tlingit Indians • Washington, George, 1732-1799--Portraits, caricatures, etc Bibliography Sellers, Charles Coleman, "Charles Willson Peale's Portraits of Washington," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (February 1951). Call no.: 920 Pam. 133. Sellers, Charles Coleman, Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale, APS Transactions 42 (1952). Call no.: 506.73 Am4t Sellers, Charles Coleman, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (New Haven: Yale, 1962). Call no.: B F85se. Sellers, Charles Coleman, Charles Willson Peale with Patron and Populace, APS Transactions 59 (1969). Call no.: 506.73 Am4t Sellers, Charles Coleman, Mr. Peale's Museum (N.Y.: Norton, 1980). Call no.: B P31se - Page 9 - Charles Coleman Sellers Collection