Scope and Content Note
The papers of Marian Griswold Nevins MacDowell (1857-1956) span the period 1876 to 1969 but bulk largest during the years between 1908 and 1938. They consist of correspondence, writings, greeting cards, memorabilia, clippings, and printed and near-print material and chiefly relate to MacDowell's activities with the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Her correspondence, except for nearly one hundred letters which she wrote to her close friend Nina Maud Richardson, consists of letters received. These include letters of recommendation of one creative artist by another and letters requesting permission to stay at the colony, announcing times of arrival and departure, and letters thanking MacDowell and the MacDowell Association for their support, and letters of condolence at the time of the death of Edward MacDowell. Major correspondents include Hamlin Garland, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Thornton Wilder. Among the many other literary and artistic figures represented are Aaron Copland, Theodore Dreiser, Daniel Chester French, DuBose Heyward, Archibald MacLeish, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Roger Sessions, and Upton Sinclair.
Several short articles written by MacDowell about the colony are included in the Miscellany file, along with clippings about her. A scrapbook contains greetings and tributes from well-wishers on the occasion of Marian MacDowell Day, August 15, 1952.
Papers of her husband, the musician Edward MacDowell (1860-1908), received with these papers consist mainly of personal and family letters received by him during the period 1890-1904. Included in the miscellany file of this series are several short pieces about Edward MacDowell and reviews of performances of his works, photographs, and a copy of his ink portrait sketch of Franz Liszt, along with some 1924 correspondence of the MacDowell Club of New York relating to the establishment of a memorial to him.
In addition to manuscripts of Edward MacDowell's compositions, about 125 letters he wrote to his wife in the period 1880 to 1903 document his musical activities in considerable detail. The scores, totaling more than one hundred pages, include some of the composer's earliest compositions written when he was seventeen years old and drafts of heretofore unknown pieces. This material complements the collection of MacDowell music manuscripts and correspondence in the Library's Music Division.
A second group of material includes records of the Edward MacDowell Association, the New York-based foundation which finances and administers the MacDowell Colony. The records consist primarily of recommendations of prospective colonists by established artists in the same field. Newspaper clippings about the colony are included in the miscellany, as well as poems, articles, and illustrations by members of the colony.
A third group of papers comprises the Nina Maud Richardson file, consisting of Richardson's papers, chiefly correspondence. Correspondence with Marian MacDowell provides glimpses of MacDowell, especially for the period of the 1930s. Other correspondents include Van Wyck Brooks, O. Louis Guglielmi, Hermann Hagedorn, and Jean Starr Untermeyer.