The archive comprises approximately 400 autograph letters, from upwards of 120 correspondents, addressed to Richard Redgrave (1804-1888). The letter writers include: George Henry Boughton; Charles Robert Cockerell; Edward William Cooke (16 letters); Charles West Cope, a close friend, including a vivid description of a cricket match (18 letters); Charles Lock Eastlake, including the question of admitting engravers as Academicians (10 letters); Thomas Faed; William Powell Frith (6 letters); John Gilbert; Edward A. Goodall; Francis Seymour Haden (6 letters); Philip George Hamerton, regarding a proposed book on etching; Francis Holl (3 letters); William Holman Hunt, on Etching Club matters (5 letters); John Callcott Horsley (45 letters); John William Inchbold, on which pictures he might send to the Paris Exhibition; John Prescott Knight (10 letters); Frederic Leighton (12 letters); Charles George Lewis; William Linnell, seeking Redgrave's verdict on several new pictures; Daniel Maclise on the choice of pictures for the Paris Exhibition; John Everett Millais, on arrangements regarding etchings (8 letters); Henry O'Neill (12 letters); Edward John Poynter; George Richmond (5 letters); David Roberts, about women painters; William Bell Scott (3 letters); Sydney Smirke on the lighting of the Royal Academy rooms (14 letters); George Clarkson Stanfield on the purchase by the nation of the collection of A.E. Chalon; George Edmund Street (4 letters); Frederick Tayler; Alfred Waterhouse; Richard Westmacott; and numerous others.
The collection comprises ten original sketchbooks, albums, and scrapbooks compiled by Mary Leighton (1799–1864) and her children. They cover the period 1824-1860, and were intended for private, family use. The materials provide a compelling example of the role of drawing and album-keeping in Victorian England. More than simple pastimes, these activities helped families such as the Leightons to locate themselves in the social order. The drawings contained in these ten sketchbooks and scrapbooks often portray the estates of acquaintances, picturesque landscapes, and portraits that—along with the maps, prints, and other materials in the volumes—track the family's circulation in society. Through the drawings and ephemera they created and preserved, Mary and her children placed themselves within a well-educated and well-traveled social network that spread far beyond the borders of their native Shropshire.
The collection comprises manuscript material concerning Matthew Shepperson, portrait copyist, art instructor to elite lords and ladies, and collector of portraits. It includes two account books, recording forty-three years of financial records. Also present are four visiting cards, the original will of Shepperson's mother (naming him as executor and heir), one manuscript receipt for paintings, and 18 autograph letters signed, four of the latter with red wax seals. A number of the letters are from John Childs, dated from about 1823 to 1826.
This collection consists of a special edition reprint of National Geographic magazine from March 1967 with the headline "The National Gallery after a Quarter Century by John Walker, Director, National Gallery of Art." It is 38 pages in length and includes color photographs. Paul Mellon and the Mellon family feature prominently within the magazine's articles.
The collection comprises business correspondence sent by clients to the Miles & Edwards company and its successor, Charles Hindley & Sons. The bulk of the letters date from either the 1830s-1840s or the 1870s, with a few scattered letters from the decades in between. The authors of the letters were overwhelmingly female, eighty percent being written by or on behalf of women. The unknown collector of the letters evidently chose to include them based on the importance of the author. The authors include many countesses, marchionesses, earls and barons, as well as several duchesses, a maid-of-honor to the Queen, and an archbishop. Many of the women were daughters of earls or barons who had married men of the same rank. Authors of both sexes ranked as baronets or higher, or occupied important posts in the clergy or military.
The collection comprises over 500 dried flower specimens from the area around Liverpool, assembled by Miss Rowe, of 2 Elizabeth Street, in 1861. Each specimen is mounted on a folded sheet of paper and held in place by small bands of paper. On the facing page of the folded sheet, Rowe identifies the specimen with its Latin and common name, the location the specimen was found, and the date collected. Each housed within a blue tinted envelope (13 x 20 cm), some of which are still sealed. The front of each envelope is adorned by a watercolor of the flower enclosed, along with a printed label (presumably manufactured for collecting activities such as this) giving the Latin name of family to which the specimens belong.
The Paul and Rachel Mellon Dealer Files contain records relating to the purchase of rare books and artwork, including prints, etchings, engravings, drawings, sculpture, and paintings, by the Paul Mellon family. The records comprise correspondence, records, images, and invoices between various dealers, Paul Mellon, and his assistants and art advisors. Many files include detailed provenance, biographical, and conservation information for the artworks, as well as photocopied exhibition catalogs. There are records pertaining to artwork found at the Yale Center for British Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, among other institutions. The John Baskett invoices are records related to artworks purchased through John Baskett, Ltd., a dealership run by Paul Mellon's close friend and advisor, John Baskett from 1964-1990, from whom the Mellon's purchased many works of British art currently on display at the Yale Center for British Art.
This collection consists of 126 8x10 color photographs taken of the Brick House, Paul Mellon's personal gallery on his property in Virginia. The photographs detail both the collection of work amassed within the gallery and the exterior of the house. The photos are attributed to Steven Tucker. They are believed to have been taken in the 1980's and sent to the Yale Center for British Art in 2001 for use in the exhibition catalogue "The Paul Mellon Bequest: Treasures of a Lifetime."
This collection consists of the biannual newsletters for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art from the charity's inaugural issue in December 1995 to May 2017.
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