Scope and Content Note
The Arnold T. Schwab Collection on Marian Nevins MacDowell spans the years 1731 to 1993, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1929 to 1955. Collector Arnold T. Schwab amassed these materials in preparation for a biography of Marian Nevins MacDowell. The Writings series contains the rough outline of this book that was never completed, as well as interviews and lists of colonists.
Included in the collection is a large cache of MacDowell-related Correspondence, mostly photocopies, to and from Edward MacDowell, Marian Nevins MacDowell, and their family, assembled from a variety of sources. Schwab often stamped the name of the original source or home repository on the reverse of the first page of the letter. The Arnold T. Schwab subseries contains copies of Schwab’s letters to and from various friends and acquaintances of the MacDowells and MacDowell colonists. Notable correspondents include Carl Carmer, Aaron Copland, Mabel Daniels, Marjorie Chandler Hazard, George Kendall, Nina Maud Richardson, Cecil Smith, Conrad Spohnholz, Louise Talma, and many others.
The Iconography series contains photographs, postcards, and negatives depicting the MacDowell Colony, colonists, family, friends, and residential architecture. Schwab also assembled six Scrapbooks that he organized by date. The large group of Index Cards are arranged by various subjects representing aspects of Schwab's research. The Bound Volumes consist of a book by Edward MacDowell, two books about him, a selection of poems by MacDowell Colony poets, and three sets of reports from the Edward MacDowell Association dating from 1913 to 1942.
The Pamphlets contain more Edward MacDowell Association reports (1907-1948), as well as information about Peterborough and the MacDowell Colony. The Papers of the Nevins-Perkins-Griswold Family of Connecticut make up the bulk of the Microfilm series, which also includes Columbia University's Edward MacDowell Papers, Marian MacDowell's autobiography, correspondence, and photographs. The final series, Miscellany, includes clippings, legal documents, medical information, an inventory of books, and a masters thesis on the MacDowell Colony landscape. Photocopies of materials collected by Schwab from the Music Division’s Edward and Marian MacDowell Collection and the Manuscript Division’s MacDowell collections were not retained.