Scope and Content Note
The papers of Katharine McCook Knox (1890-1983) span the years 1802-1975 and consist of correspondence, an index to correspondence, genealogical notes, research material on artists and art collections, clippings, printed matter, and other papers. Main topics include Knox’s work on the Sharples, a family of British portraitists who did extensive work in the United States before the Revolutionary War; G. P. A. Healy, whose portrait of Abraham Lincoln, partly through her influence, was issued as a postage stamp honoring the president on the sesquicentennial of his birth; and the history of the “Fighting McCooks,” the family of Civil War soldiers from which she was descended. Other materials relate to Washington, D.C., social life and to Republican Party activities in which Knox was prominent locally.