ALICIA M. KEYES PAPERS, 1877-1941 (BULK 1882-1924)
Not to be reproduced without permission from the Concord Free Public Library.
Vault A45, Keyes, Unit 1
EXTENT: 8.5 linear ft. (10 containers, including oversize portfolio).
ORGANIZATION: Organized into ten series: I. Correspondence; II. Lectures and classes; III. Journals, notebooks, sketchbooks, loose sketches, and paintings; IV. Printed books, pamphlets, and catalogs; V. Artifacts; VI. Clippings; VII. Financial; VIII. Photographs; IX. Printed ephemera; X. Biographical and reference material compiled by Bessie Keyes Hudson and Amelia Forbes Emerson.
BIOGRAPHY: Artist and art teacher/lecturer, resident of Concord, Mass. Born in Concord, daughter of John Shepard Keyes and Martha Lawrence Prescott Keyes, June 13, 1855; died in Concord, June 1, 1924. Sister of Annie S. Keyes (Mrs. Edward Waldo Emerson), Florence Keyes (Mrs. Charles Walcott), and Prescott Keyes. When the Keyes family lived in Boston in the winter of 1862 (during the tenure of John Shepard Keyes as U.S. Marshal), Alicia lived with the Emersons, under the particular care of Ellen Emerson. Following the Civil War, the Keyes family lived in the Bullet Hole House on Monument Street in Concord. After attending boarding school in Belmont, Alicia returned to Concord, studied with Mary Wheeler, later studied art with May Alcott. Having suffered illness and emotional instability, she left in 1884 with companion Alice Curtis for Europe (England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, and Italy), where she broadened her understanding of art. They travelled for three years and returned to Concord. Instructor in art at Wellesley College, 1899-1902; regular lecturer in art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from ca. 1911 to 1924. Alicia Keyes had numerous friends and acquaintances (many through her teaching and lecturing activities), including John Singer Sargent and Isabella Stewart Gardner. Deeply religious, she was a member of the First Parish in Concord. She was buried in Concord’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
SCOPE AND CONTENT: Papers, 1877-1941 (bulk 1882-1924), relating largely to Alicia Keyes’ Museum of Fine Arts lectures and classes. Correspondence, 1890-1924, includes two letters from sister Annie Keyes Emerson, several notes from Isabella Stewart Gardner, and a letter and card from Caroline Hazard, President of Wellesley College. Materials 1891-1924 relating to lectures and classes include class lists, syllabi, etc., 1901-1923, and voluminous lecture and class notes, 1891-1924. Journals, notebooks, sketchbooks, and loose sketches and watercolors, 1882-1919, include several sketchbooks of places in Europe visited by Alicia Keyes. Series containing printed travel guides, museum and exhibition catalogs, reprints, and pamphlets, 1882-1923, includes an inscribed copy of An April Day by Edward Waldo Emerson. Artifacts include a golden thimble and an example of Coptic-style embroidery. Clippings, 1877-1924, have been photocopied for patron reference, the originals discarded. Financial material, 1897-1923, relates mainly to stock and bond holdings. Papers also include a small number of photographs relating to teaching topics, miscellaneous printed ephemera, 1882-1921, and a file of manuscript and typescript biographical material and transcripts by Bessie Keyes Hudson and Amelia Forbes Emerson (the Emerson material prepared for presentation to Concord’s Tuesday Club), 1926-1941.
SOURCE OF ACQUISITION: Gift from the estate of Amelia Forbes Emerson, Nov. 30, 1982.
ASSOCIATED MATERIALS: The Concord Free Public Library Art Collection includes two paintings by Alicia M. Keyes. Contact the Curator of Special Collections for additional information.
PROCESSED BY: LPW; finding aid prepared 3/27/96; prepared for mounting on the Web by CM, 03/04-04/04.
CONTAINER LIST
SERIES I. CORRESPONDENCE, 1890-1924 (much undated):
Box 1, Folder 1:
Correspondents A-E.
Box 1, Folder 2:
Correspondents F-J.
Box 1, Folder 3:
Correspondents L-W.
Box 1, Folder 4:
Correspondent not fully identified.
SERIES II. LECTURES ANFD CLASSES, 1891-1924:
Class lists, syllabi, etc., 1901-1923:
Box 2, Folder 1:
Loose materials, dated.
Box 2, Folder 2:
Loose materials, undated.
Box 2, Folder 3:
Bound volumes (2 v.).
Lectures and class notes, etc., 1891-1924:
Box 2, Folder 4:
Highlights: Mantegna (1922), Crivelli.
Box 2, Folder 5:
Highlights: Leonardo, Millet, Tintoretto.
Box 2, Folder 6:
Highlights: Fenway Court (1920, 1921), Durer.
Box 2, Folder 7:
Highlights: Chinese Room at Fenway Court, Van Dyck, Hogarth, Art Nouveau.
Box 2, Folder 8:
Highlights: color, Sargent’s panels, Botticelli’s portraits, Degas.
Box 2, Folder 9:
Highlights: Mantegna (1923), Sargent, poetry.
Box 2, Folder 10:
Highlights: Schongauer, Luxembourg exhibitions (1919).
Box 2, Folder 11:
Highlights: Rodin, Gauguin, clouds.
Box 2, Folder 12:
Highlights: poetry (original and transcribed, by various individuals, 1891-1911, some dated earlier but clearly transcribed after date of composition, much undated), including "Epic of the Concord Females" by Charles E. Hoar.
Box 2, Folder 13:
Highlights: exam questions, St. Bernard’s School, 1908.
Box 2, Folder 14:
Highlights: notes (some fragmentary) on many topics, including Spedale della Scala, Max Meldrum, rain (transcribed poetry), pieces by Rembrandt, "What spiritualizes a picture, a place, or a person," loose sketches and watercolor (student work).
Box 2, Folder 15:
Highlights: Rodin, Venice, Naples, Ravenna (etc.), Burne-Jones, history an aid to painting.
Box 2, Folder 16:
Highlights: skies, branches, paths, poetry by various individuals.
Box 2, Folder 17:
Highlights: [the color] white.
Box 2, Folder 18:
Highlights: mountains, rivers, quotations and original verse from pupils.
Box 2, Folder 19:
Highlights: exhibitions, "Review of the lessons of the winter of 1918," details.
Box 2, Folder 20: Highlights: notes (some fragmentary) on many topics, including paisley, "A universe in itself," novels, acanthus, Firenze, "Plato has said that art is the splendor of Truth," Rembrandt, Renaissance, "Art is science & poetry," "All in thyself," Claude Lorrain.
Box 2, Folder 21:
Highlights: poems and quotations for lectures. "Speech at Simmons College, Jan. 14th, 1914," some notes dated 1917.
Box 2, Folder 22:
Highlights: student work.
Box 3, Folder 1:
Highlights: acanthus, winds, Rembrandt, St. Peter.
Box 3, Folder 2:
Highlights: Sargent, Titian (some material dated 1903), Puvis de Chavannes.
Box 3, Folder 3:
Highlights: El Greco (1910, 1922), rosaries, reflections.
Box 3, Folder 4:
Highlights: old age (1920), poems for 1923 lectures.
Box 3, Folder 5:
Highlights: smiles, Velasquez, Renaissance, Rembrandt (1924), Rubens/Mrs. Gardner’s Duke of Arundel.
Box 3, Folder 6:
Highlights: Michelangelo, Hawthorne on the Old Masters, Raphael.
Box 3, Folder 7:
Highlights: sacred and profane love, catacombs, towers.
Box 3, Folder 8:
Highlights: Greek temples at Agragas (typescript), Andrea de Solario, tapestries, Abbott Thayer, William Morris, class notes on color (1922).
Box 3, Folder 9:
Highlights: clouds, LaFarge, horses, haloes/aureoles, morning glory, Delacroix, grass (including typescript).
Box 3, Folder 10:
Highlights: rain (1924), French’s statue of Herodotus (gift to Concord High School; 1898), [the color] green (1921), color, Monet (Fitchburg, Feb. 28, 1921), Girgent (Feb. 1922).
Box 3, Folder 11: Highlights: Sargent (largely typescript), Piero della Francesca.
Box 3, Folder 12:
Highlights: acanthus, novels (including material dated 1903, 1907), ladders and steps, France.
Box 3, Folder 13:
Highlights: generalizations, Turner (1915?), wings (Feb. 15, 1924), Vivarini.
Box 3, Folder 14:
Highlights: Michelangelo (some typescript material), Botticelli.
Box 3, Folder 15:
Highlights: William Blake, Whistler.
Box 3, Folder 16:
Highlights: Master of S. Severin, Assisi, foam, Japanese screens, Kovin, horizon.
Box 3, Folder 17:
Highlights: Meryon (1919), De Hooghe, MFA (lecture given 1911 and 1912), Manet, concert of artists (Feb. 1920), the middle distance, miniatures, rays of light.
Box 3, Folder 18:
Highlights: St. George and the dragon, shadows, Sorolla (1922).
Box 3, Folder 19:
Highlights: Renoir, shadows, [the color] white (1922), "Poem on St. Maria Maggiore" (typescript), "The Mountain" (typescript of a sketch in words), "Of Whom is the New Valesquez a Portrait?" (typescript), "Human Hands by Marshall Ilsley, Read at the Luncheon for Prof. Charles Zueblin at the Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, November 7, 1908" (typescript).
Box 3, Folder 20:
Highlights: [the color] black, poems (one dated 1908), 1915 lecture "Giotto and S. Francis of Assisi" (typescript).
Box 3, Folder 21:
Highlights: portion of letter from C.E. Norton to J.C. Summer and of "Col. Charles Francis Adams. The Journeyman’s Retrospect," 1919 class notes.
SERIES III. JOURNALS, NOTEBOOKS, SKETCHBOOKS, LOOSE SKETCHES, AND PAINTINGS, 1882-1919:
Sketchbooks:
Box 4, Item 1:
Watercolor, pencil, 1885 (European sketches).
Box 4, Item 2:
Watercolor (European sketches).
Box 4, Item 3:
Watercolor, pencil, pen and ink (European sketches, etc.).
Box 4, Item 4:
Watercolor, chalk, pencil, pastel, 1893.
Box 4, Item 5:
Watercolor, pencil, chalk, 1893.
Journals, notebooks:
Box 4, Item 6:
Journal, 1882-1883; notes.
Box 4, Item 7:
Journal, 1884-1885.
Box 4, Item 8:
Journal, 1885-1886.
Box 4, Item 9:
Journal, notes, 1893-1919 ("California" and "Concord Art Center" pencilled on cover).
Box 4, Item 10:
Journal ("California" pencilled on cover).
Box 4, Item 11:
Notes, 1902.
Box 4, Item 12:
Journal (fragment).
Box 4, Item 13:
Notes and reflections (Europe, art).
Box 4, Items 14-15:
Notes on art.
Box 4, Item 16:
Poetry.
Box 4, Item 17:
Poetry, quotations, notes on God and religion, etc.
Box 4, Folder 1:
Loose art work, 1882-1919 (pencil, chalk, watercolor sketches).
SERIES IV. PRINTED BOOKS, PAMPLETS, AND CATALOGS, 1882-1923:
Box 5, Item 1:
Baedeker, Karl. Belgium and Holland. Handbook for Travellers … Seventh Edition … (Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1884). Inscribed on front free endpaper: A.M. Keyes / Munroe et Cie. / 7 Rue Scribe / Paris.
Box 5, Item 2:
Baedeker, Karl. Italy. Handbook for Travellers … Sixth Remodelled Edition … (Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1882). Inscribed on front free endpaper: Alicia M. Keyes / Em. Fenzi [?] et Co. / Piazza Signoria / Firenze.
Box 5, Item 3:
Baedeker, Karl. Paris and Environs ... Handbook for Travellers … Eighth Revised Edition … (Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1884).
Box 5, Item 4:
Hubner, Julius. Catalogue of the Royal Picture Gallery in Dresden … Reprint of the Fifth Edition Greatly Enlarged … (Dresden: Printed by William Hoffman, 1884).
Box 5, Item 5:
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston). Handbook of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston: [The Museum], 1914). Inscribed on front cover: Alicia M. Keyes.
Box 5, Folder 1:
Andel, Anton. Die Spirale in der Decorativen Kunst … Separat-Abdruck aus dem XX. Jahres-Berichte der K.K. Staats-Unterrealschule in Graz pro 1892 (Graz: Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers, 1892). Inscribed on front of wrapper: Alicia M. Keyes Nov. 1904.
Concord Art Association (Concord, Mass.). Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture (Concord, Mass.: [The Association], 1923).
Emerson, Edward Waldo. An April Day … (Cambridge: Printed at the Riverside Press, 1900). Inscribed on front of wrapper: To Alicia / from the grateful / Author.
Exhibition of Paintings by Ignacio Zuloaga Under the Auspices of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig. With Foreword by John S. Sargent. Introduction, Notes and Bibliography by Christian Brinton (New York: Redfield-Kendrick-Odell Co., Printers, c1916). Inscribed on front free endpaper: Alicia M. Keyes / Monument Street / Concord, Mass.
Joubert, Wilfred A. Neighbor Hans. Reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly (Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, [n.d.]). Inscribed on front of wrapper: A.M.K.
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston). Paintings from the Musee de Luxembourg [typescript listing, n.d.--not earlier than 1917].
Verestchagin, Vassili. Realism. Second Appendix to Catalogue of the Verestchagin Exhibition (New York: American Art Association, c1888).
SERIES V. ARTIFACTS:
Box 6:
"Mrs. Coolidge’s Coptic work" [embroidered cloth].
Golden thimble.
Domino.
Leather portfolio and cardholder.
SERIES VI. CLIPPINGS, 1877-1924 (photocopies only):
Box 7, Folder 1:
Dated and dateable clippings, 1877-1924.
Box 7, Folder 2:
Undated clippings.
SERIES VII. FINANCIAL, 1897-1923:
Box 8, Folder 1:
Stock and bonds, 1897-1911.
Box 8, Folder 2:
Stock and bonds, 1912-1914.
Box 8, Folder 3:
Stock and bonds, 1915-1922.
Box 8, Folder 4:
Appraisals, 1899-1916.
Box 8, Folder 5:
Middlesex Mutual Fire Insurance Co., 1911-1913.
Box 8, Folder 6:
Miscellaneous documents, 1897-1923.
Box 9, Folder 1:
SERIES VIII. PHOTOGRAPHS (in entirety).
Box 9, Folder 2:
SERIES IX. PRINTED EPHEMERA, 1882-1921 (in entirety).
Note: Series IX oversize items are shelved in separate portfolio (Box 10).
Box 9, Folder 3:
SERIES X. BIOGRAPHICAL AND REFERENCE MATERIAL COMPILED BY BESSIE KEYES HUDSON AND AMELIA F. EMERSON, 1926-1941 (in entirety).
Box 10 (portfolio):
Oversize material from SERIES IX (PRINTED EPHEMERA, 1882-1921), the remainder of which is contained in Box 9.
Mounted 7th Apr. 2004 -- rcwh.
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