This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Research Library at the Nantucket Historical Association. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the internet.
Summary
Anne Ramsdell Congdon (1873-1958) was a watercolor and oil painter in New England and Nantucket, Mass., who trained in Paris, France in the early 1890s. This collections contains her daybooks, pencil sketchbooks, account books, correspondence journal, and European photo album.
Collection Details
- Collection Number:
- MS563
- Title:
- Anne Ramsdell Congdon Papers
- Date(s):
- 1884-1948
- Creator:
- Congdon, Anne Ramsdell, 1873-1958
- Repository:
- Nantucket Historical Association
- Language:
- Material is in English.
Information for Users
Restrictions to Access: No restrictions. Open for research.
Restrictions to Use: No usage restrictions.
Copyright Notice: Copyright is retained by the authors of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation: [identification of item], in the Anne Ramsdell Congdon Papers, Nantucket Historical Association.
Acquisitions Information:
Gift of the Congdon family. Scanned by NHA in January 2020.
Location of Originals: Held in private collection.
Sensitive Materials Statement:Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Nantucket Historical Association assumes no responsibility.
Related Collections
- Old Mill (Ac. 1982.0111.001), Nantucket Historical Association.
- Straight Wharf (Ac. 1982.0111.002), Nantucket Historical Association.
- Top Gale, Quaise (Ac. 1982.0111.003), Nantucket Historical Association.
- Head of Miacomet Pond (Ac. 1982.0111.004), Nantucket Historical Association.
- Unidentified Landscape (Ac. 1998.1080.001), Nantucket Historical Association.
- Painting, Nantucket Boat Basin (Ac. 2005.0020.001), Nantucket Historical Association.
- Marsh Landscape (Ac. 2007.0039.001), Nantucket Historical Association.
Subject Headings
-
Personal Names
- Congdon, Anne Ramsdell, 1873-1958.
-
Topical Terms
- Art – Massachusetts – Nantucket – 20th century.
- Women artists.
Biographical Information
Anne Ramsdell Congdon was born 8 December 1873 in Nashua, N.H., to George A. Ramsdell, former Governor of New Hampshire, and Eliza Wilson Ramsdell. She studied art at the Académie Delécluse in Paris, France, from 1891 to 1892. After returning to the United States, she also studied under Charles S. Woodbury in Ogunquit, Me., where she developed her watercolor style. In 1902, Ramsdell married Charles E. Congdon, with whom she had two sons: Robert and Allen. In the 1920s, she began to study oil painting under Frank Swift Chase on Nantucket, and in 1930 she moved her family to the island. From the 1920s to the 1940s, she exhibited her work at the Easy Street Galleries, and from the 1940s to the 1950s, at the Kenneth Taylor Galleries. She was an active participant of the Artists Association of Nantucket, with whom she helped organize the Sidewalk Art Show each summer. She was a founding member of the Nantucket Cottage Hospital Thrift Shop, in which she oversaw the antiques and books division. She died in Nantucket on 18 January 1958.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of manuscript daybooks, accounting books, pencil sketchbooks, and a photo album. Also included is a journal that records outgoing correspondence. Daybooks span her whole artistic career, and often document objects and scenes painted in addition to daily personal matters. The photo album includes scenes from her time in Europe.
Contents
DO-MS563/1 Daybook 1891
DO-MS563/2 Daybook 1904
DO-MS563/3 Daybook 1925-1928
DO-MS563/4 Daybook 1932
DO-MS563/5 Daybook 1934-1937
DO-MS563/6 Daybook 1938-1939
DO-MS563/7 Daybook 1940
DO-MS563/8 Daybook 1942
DO-MS563/9 Daybook 1945
DO-MS563/10 Daybook 1946
DO-MS563/11 Daybook 1947
DO-MS563/12 Daybook 1948
DO-MS563/13 Journal 1888
DO-MS563/14 Accounting book 1925-1926
DO-MS563/15 Accounting book 1925-1929
DO-MS563/ 16 Sketchbook 1884-1887
DO-MS563/ 17 Sketchbook 1888
DO-MS563/ 18 Sketchbook 1888
DO-MS563/ 19 Sketchbook 1889
DO-MS563/ 20 Sketchbook 1890
DO-MS563/ 21 Sketchbook 1890-1891
DO-MS563/ 22 Sketchbook 1891
DO-MS563/ 23 Sketchbook 1892
DO-MS563/ 24 Sketchbook 1894
DO-MS563/ 25 Sketchbook 1898-1899
DO-MS563/ 26 Photo Album 1901
Processing Information
Processed by Alex McGrath and Sara David, January 2020.