Administrative Information
Provenance
The collection is composed of items acquired between 1898 and 1956 from 38 different identified sources. Many are of unknown provenance. The prints were acquired through gift, purchase, copyright and through transfer from other Library divisions. The collection includes gifts from: Castlemann Beatty, C. Dixon, Edward H. Goodman, W. C. Hibbs, G. Morton Illman, Cordelia Jackson, Barton Longacre Keene, Mrs. M. Llungstedt, Archibald MacLeish, Leila Mechlin, W. T. Moore, Mrs. F. W. Powell, Joseph Verner Reed, and Ernest C. Rost. The collection includes purchases from: The Briggs Collection, William E. Curtis, Goodspeed's Book Shop, J. Jay Gould, B. B. Lovett, and the Yudin Collection.
Accession numbers for items in the collection include: DLC/PP-1898:3704; DLC/PP-1899:14233; DLC/PP-1899:15855; DLC/PP-1900:23272; DLC/PP-1900:37127-37312 (does not include items from every number in the range); DLC/PP-1901:41499; DLC/PP-1901:41501; DLC/PP-1901:41503; DLC/PP-1903:41783; DLC/PP-1903:41791; DLC/PP-1903:41834; DLC/PP-1903:41940; DLC/PP-1905:42454; DLC/PP-1906:42970; DLC/PP-1907:43166; DLC/PP-1908:43450; DLC/PP-1908:43489; DLC/PP-1908:43614; DLC/PP-1908:43860; DLC/PP-1913:44583; DLC/PP-1913:44604; DLC/PP-1919:45970; DLC/PP-1921:46282; DLC/PP-1926:46930; DLC/PP-1928:47235; DLC/PP-1933:201; DLC/PP-1935:061; DLC/PP-1935:089; DLC/PP-1936:063; DLC/PP-1940:031; DLC/PP-1940:051; DLC/PP-1956:R05
Processing History
The collection is an accrual of prints from many different sources that were brought together by Library staff sometime prior to 1989. The origin of the collection is unclear, but because the material was for many years controlled under the title "James T. Mitchell collection of American book illustrations" (known as the Stauffer Collection prior to 1955) the collection probably began as the material that remained after most of the Mitchell collection was processed into other series in the Prints and Photographs Division. Upon arrival at the Library the Mitchell collection consisted of an estimated 6,000 prints and there are fewer than 500 of them in this study collection. Prints from the Mitchell Collection are stamped "Stauffer Collection" on the back of the paper mounts to which they are adhered. Most also have the Stauffer number, the entry number cited in American Engravers upon Copper and Steel by David McNeely Stauffer, written on the front of the print though a few are lacking this number. Some of the other prints in the collection also have a Stauffer number written on the front of the print but are not part of the Mitchell Collection. It appears that a similarly unprocessed subset of the 1,991 American prints purchased by the Library in 1900 from the Goodspeed's Book Shop were added to this group of prints. These can be identified by a number in the range of 37127 to 37312 written on the back of the print. Both of these groups consisted almost entirely of steel or copper plate engravings. For unclear reasons, other prints from at least 36 other sources were added to the group introducing a small number of prints made by European engravers and a few woodcuts and lithographs.
The collection was processed by Nicholas Pernot and Brett Carnell in 2021. Finding aid encoded by Brett Carnell in 2021.
Related Material
Additional 18th and 19th-century American engravings, as well as later engravings and prints made using other processes, are described in our Online Catalog and searchable by call number or descriptive words:
- Biographical File (Call No.: BIOG FILE)
- Fine Prints filing series (Call No.: FP )
- Popular and Applied Graphic Arts filing series (Call No.: PAGA 7)
- Popular Graphic Arts filing series (Call No.: PGA)
- Presidential File (Call No.: PRES FILE)
- Ruthven Deane Bookplate Collection (Call number: PR 13 CN 1935:144) finding aid available
Online Content
To see already digitized images from this collection, search our Online Catalog by call number or descriptive words.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Study collection of 18th and 19th-century American book illustrations and portrait prints, LOT 15199, and reproduction number, if available [e.g., LC-DIG-ppmsca-12345]