Archives of American Art
Alson Skinner Clark papers
Clark, Alson Skinner, 1876-1949
AAA.claralso
Archival Resource Key
7.2 Linear feet
1870-1971
bulk 1890-1940
The papers of painter and muralist Alson Skinner Clark measure 7.2 linear feet and date from 1870 to 1971, with the bulk of the material from 1890 to 1940. Clark's career is documented through biographical material; correspondence with family, friends, galleries, and dealers; eleven diaries by the artist as well as 16 by his wife Medora Clark; stories and essays by Medora; financial records and business files of art and civilian concerns; assorted printed material including exhibition catalogs and announcements, maps, news clippings (singly and in scrapbooks), advertisements, and ephemera; and photographs of the artist, his friends and family, studio, travels, and artwork.
Collection is in English.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 9 series. Glass plate negatives are housed separately and not served to researchers.
Missing Title
- Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1890-1958 (Box 1; 6 folders)
- Series 2: Correspondence, 1895-1962 (Boxes 1-2; 1.7 linear feet)
- Series 3: Diaries, 1889-1922 (Boxes 2-4; 1.5 linear feet)
- Series 4: Writings, circa 1900-1962 (Boxes 4-5; 0.9 linear feet)
- Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1889-1930 (Boxes 5, 8; 0.7 linear feet)
- Series 6: Printed Material, 1890-1971 (Boxes 5-6; 0.2 linear feet)
- Series 7: Artwork, circa 1910-1920 (Box 6; 2 folders)
- Series 8: Photographs, circa 1885-1935 (Boxes 6, 8, 9; 1.6 linear feet)
- Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1902-1955 (Boxes 7, 8; 0.5 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical
Alson Skinner Clark (1876-1949) was a painter and muralist who travelled and worked in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Panama, and the United States, ultimately settling in southern California.
Clark was born in Chicago, Illinois, and began training in 1891 at the age of 11 at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1896 he studied under William Merritt Chase at the Art Students' League of New York and briefly at the Chase School of Art before moving to Paris to train with James Abbott McNeill Whistler at the Academia Carmen in 1898. Alongside his wife, Medora (married 1902), Clark travelled extensively, painting the landscapes and urban activity of Chicago, New York, Quebec, France, Dalmatia, and Spain.
In 1913, Clark journeyed to Panama to document the construction of the canal, and in 1919, after serving as a military photographer in World War I, he settled in Pasadena, California, where he adopted the landscapes and colonial architecture of Mexico and the American West as subjects en plein air. It was during this time that Clark began to take on work as a muralist, accepting commissions from the local bank and theatre while also embarking on a teaching career at Occidental College and eventually the Stickney Memorial School of Fine Arts, where he served as director.
Conditions Governing Access
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Terms of Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The 1897 diary, sales notebook, glass negatives, and albums of negatives were donated in 1986 by Joseph Moure, an art historian who purchased the material from occupants of Clark's former studio. The remainder was donated by Clark's son, Alson Clark, in 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1997 and by Clark's grandniece, Deborah Clark, in 2006.
Preferred Citation
Alson Skinner Clark papers, 1870-1962, bulk 1890-1940. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Scope and Contents
The papers of painter and muralist Alson Skinner Clark measure 7.2 linear feet and date from 1870 to 1971, with the bulk of the material from 1890 to 1940. Clark's career is documented through biographical material; correspondence with family, friends, galleries, and dealers; eleven diaries by the artist as well as 16 by his wife Medora Clark; stories and essays by Medora; financial records and business files of art and civilian concerns; assorted printed material including exhibition catalogs and announcements, maps, news clippings (singly and in scrapbooks), advertisements, and ephemera; and photographs of the artist, his friends and family, studio, travels, and artwork.
Processing Information
The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared in 2015 by intern Kimberley Henze.
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Artists' studios -- Photographs
Landscape painting
Mural painting and decoration, American
Painters -- California
Painting, American
Diaries
Glass negatives
Clark, Medora
Biographical Material
Series 1
Archival Resource Key
6 Folders
Box 1
circa 1890-1958
Scope and Contents
This series contains scattered biographical documents. Found here are legal documents of citizenship, driving, and parking papers; miscellaneous biographical material, including a recipe, address list, and Chicago social organization roster; documents from Medora Clark's membership in a Pasadena society club; and the typewritten and annotated transcript in two drafts of Margaret Truax Hunter's oral history interview with Medora Clark in 1956.
Legal Papers
Archival Resource Key
1913-1958
1
1
Miscellaneous Biographical Material
Archival Resource Key
circa 1890
1
2
Town Club Membership Material, Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1925-1960
1
3
Transcript of Oral History Interview with Medora Clark, Part 1, 2nd Draft
Archival Resource Key
1956
1
4
Transcript of Oral History Interview with Medora Clark, Part 2, 1st Draft
Archival Resource Key
1956
1
5
Transcript of Oral History Interview with Medora Clark, Part 2, 2nd Draft
Archival Resource Key
1956
1
6
Correspondence
Series 2
Archival Resource Key
1.7 Linear feet
Boxes 1-2
1895-1962
Scope and Contents
Correspondence includes mostly personal exchanges with family and friends, but professional communications with galleries and dealers are also interspersed. Correspondence between Clark and his wife Medora constitute a large share of the series, with a significant body of letters from Clark's time as a military photographer in World War I (1917-1919).
Family correspondence is primarily with the artist's mother Sarah Clark during the artist's travels abroad and after settling in California in 1919. The artist's brothers, Mancel Talcott Clark and Edwin Hill Clark, are also represented. Fellow artist and good friend Rufus Dreyer appears in correspondence from Paris in 1917.
Correspondence with Amelia (Mela) Baker, a family friend since childhood, includes letters (sometimes illustrated) and postcards from Clark, his brothers, his mother, and Medora from 1895 to 1910.
Correspondence with Amelia Baker
Archival Resource Key
1895-1910
1
7-31
General Correspondence, undated
Archival Resource Key
circa 1895-1950
1
32-33
General Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1870-1915
1
34-39
General Correspondence
Archival Resource Key
1916-1962
2
1-21
Miscellaneous Envelopes
Archival Resource Key
1897-1916
2
22
Diaries
Series 3
Archival Resource Key
1.5 Linear feet
Boxes 2-4
1889-1922
Scope and Contents
This series contains 11 diaries belonging to Alson Skinner Clark and 16 belonging to his wife Medora. Of interest are Clark's diaries from his first tour of Europe as a 13-year-old (1889); accounts of activities in the Art Students' League and the Chase School of Art (1897 and 1898); and entries from his time as a military photographer (1918). Medora's travel diaries include anecdotes and descriptions of the people and places the couple visited on their European travels (circa 1904-1909).
Arrangement
The series is arranged as 2 subseries.
Missing Title
- 3.1: Diaries of Alson Skinner Clark
- 3.2: Diaries of Medora Clark
Diaries of Alson Skinner Clark
3.1
Archival Resource Key
1889-1922
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
May-July 1889
2
23
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
July-November 1889
2
24
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1894
2
25
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1897
2
26
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1898
2
27
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1899
3
1
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1900
3
2
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1902
3
3
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
November 1917-January 1918
3
4
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1918
3
5
Diary of Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
1919-1922
3
6
Diaries of Medora Clark
3.2
Archival Resource Key
1891-1915
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1891-1892
3
7
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1902
3
8
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1903
3
9
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1904
3
10
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1905
3
11
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1906
3
12
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1907
3
13
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1908
3
14
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1910
4
1
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1911
4
2
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1912
4
3
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1914
4
4
Diary of Medora Clark
Archival Resource Key
1915
4
5
Travel Diary of Dalmatia and Venice
Archival Resource Key
circa 1904
4
6
Travel Diary of Malaga and Grenada
Archival Resource Key
circa 1909
4
7
Travel Diary of Spain
Archival Resource Key
circa 1909
4
8
Writings
Series 4
Archival Resource Key
0.9 Linear feet
Boxes 4-5
circa 1900-1962
Scope and Contents
Writings are by Medora Clark and include notes and notebooks of drafts and story ideas as well as typewritten fiction short stories, nonfiction essays, and poems that she submitted to magazines for publication. Of interest are Medora's accounts of her visit with Clark to the Panama Canal and her ruminations on art and art viewing.
Notebook
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
9
Notebook
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
10
Notebook
Archival Resource Key
circa 1917
4
11
Notebook, "Art, My Wiggly Tooth, M. Seguin's Goat"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
12
Notebook, "The Buying Public"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
13
Notebook, "London in Seven Days"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
14
Notebook, "Samplers, Canadian Story, Rochefort"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1902-1910
4
15
Notebook, "Shipboard Story, en route to Tropics"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1913
4
16
Notes, Miscellaneous
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
17
Fiction, "After-Glow"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1921
4
18
Fiction, "Aftermath of a Drought"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1960
4
19
Fiction, "Un Aperitif"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
4
20
Fiction, "A Bit of Desiccated Cloisonne"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
21
Fiction, "A Breton Mutiny"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
4
22
Fiction, "Casarabonela"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
23
Fiction, "A Chevrolet Flying"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
24
Fiction, "Connecticut"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
25
Fiction, "Consequences"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
26
Fiction, "The Court of LeRay de Chaumont"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
27
Fiction, "A Day of Court Life in Paris"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
28
Fiction, "The Drums"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1905-1915
4
29
Fiction, "The Fields of Pemzec"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
4
30
Fiction, "The Green Bottle"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1905-1915
4
31
Fiction, "The Happiness Kit"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
32
Fiction, "The Highway" (Three Versions)
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
33
Fiction, "The Highway" Notes
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
34
Fiction, "The Highway" Working Drafts
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
35-37
Fiction, "Jack's Ghost Story"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1900
4
38
Fiction, "The Lion in Captivity"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
4
39
Fiction, "Milady's Retainer" (Incomplete)
Archival Resource Key
circa 1905-1915
4
40
Fiction, "The Moment," Acts I, II, and III
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
41
Fiction, "The Moment," Act I (Two Versions)
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
42
Fiction, "The Moment," Act II
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
43
Fiction, "The Moment," Act III (Two Versions)
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
44
Fiction, "The Pasterijica"
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
45
Fiction, "Peacock and Almonds"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1905-1915
4
46
Fiction, "People" (Two Versions)
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
1
Fiction, "The Release of the Lizards"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
5
2
Fiction, "Reproaches to a Work-Table"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
5
3
Fiction, "A Successful Experiment"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
4
Fiction, "Sunspots"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
5
Fiction, "Torbas" (Three Versions)
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
6
Fiction, "Tumorius"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
5
7
Fiction, "Two Afternoons in the Woods"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
5
8
Fiction, "Two Irish Anecdotes"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
5
9
Fiction, "Two Legends of Trecessions" (Two Versions)
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
10
Fiction, "Within the Gates" (Three Versions)
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
5
11
Fiction, "The Yellow Helmet"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
12
Nonfiction, "Breton Life"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1910
5
13
Nonfiction, "Breton Slide Lecture"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1910
5
14
Nonfiction, "Defense Against Disaster"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
15
Nonfiction, "Early Settlers of Jefferson County, New York"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
16
Nonfiction, "The Fourth in Brittany"
Archival Resource Key
circa 1905
5
17
Nonfiction, "French Art" (Incomplete)
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
5
18
Nonfiction, "How to Look at Pictures"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
19
Nonfiction, "Letter to Century Magazine Regarding 'Our Barbarous Fourth'"
Archival Resource Key
1908
5
20
Nonfiction, Miscellaneous
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
21
Nonfiction, "A Painter in Panama"
Archival Resource Key
1913
5
22
Nonfiction, "The Real Bohemia"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
23
Nonfiction, "Smells"
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
24
Nonfiction, Untitled Essay
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
25
Nonfiction, "The Zone from A Woman's Point of View" (Two Versions)
Archival Resource Key
circa 1915
5
26
Poems
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908-1962
5
27
Personal Business Records
Series 5
Archival Resource Key
0.7 Linear feet
Boxes 5, 8
1889-1930
Scope and Contents
This series contains financial and occupational documents related to art materials, memberships, sales, and shipping, as well as non-art transactions, such as hotel and restaurant receipts, home and car purchases, and invoices for leisure and material goods. Mailing lists include museums as well as private buyers.
Inventories of artwork, including sales records and exhibition submissions, are represented in a card file inventory, notebooks, and a sales list. These inventories furnish information on the title, size, date, canvas, place of origin, varnish, exhibition history, and buyer (when applicable). Additionally, the sales notebook and sales list include small black and white photographs of artworks.
Bills and Receipts, Art Related
Archival Resource Key
1914-1928
5
28
Bills and Receipts, Non-Art Related
Archival Resource Key
1907-1927
5
29
Card File Inventory of Clark's Paintings
Archival Resource Key
circa 1903-1911
(shoebox)
5
30
Hotel and Restaurant Receipts
Archival Resource Key
1889
5
31
Mailing Lists
Archival Resource Key
circa 1915
5
32
Sales Notebook
Archival Resource Key
circa 1915-1930
5
33-35
Submission Notebook
Archival Resource Key
1905-1914
5
36
Oversized Sales List with Images
Archival Resource Key
circa 1915
8
1
Printed Material
Series 6
Archival Resource Key
0.2 Linear feet
Boxes 5-6
1890-1971
Scope and Contents
This series contains a Victoria and Albert Museum Accession Catalog from 1913; a Popular Monthly article on photography by Lawrence Fletcher, Ph.D.; exhibition announcements and catalogs; two pre-World War I maps of France and Brussels; arts and civil membership and association materials; miscellaneous ephemera, including a theatre program and tickets, ration notes, art material advertisements, and a Grand Canyon tour brochure; news clippings on the arts and Clark; and unmarked postcards of European landmarks and American laborers.
Accession Catalog
Archival Resource Key
1913
5
37
Article, "A Talk About Photography"
Archival Resource Key
1890
5
38
Exhibition Announcements
Archival Resource Key
circa 1920-1930
5
39
Exhibition Catalogs
Archival Resource Key
1910-1971
5
40
Exhibition Catalogs
Maps
Archival Resource Key
circa 1910
5
41
Memberships and Associations
Archival Resource Key
1915-1946
5
42
Miscellaneous Printed Material
Archival Resource Key
1912-1957
5
43
News Clippings
Archival Resource Key
circa 1909-1937
5
44
Postcards
Archival Resource Key
undated
6
1
Artwork
Series 7
Archival Resource Key
2 Folders
Box 6
circa 1910-1920
Scope and Contents
Artwork includes two pencil landscape drawings, labeled "Conquest of California by Sloat at Monterey" and "Gold Discovery;" one colored pencil figure drawing; and two small watercolor figure sketches, labeled "Uncle 'Al'" and "Madam's Assistant." Also found here is a pen and ink diagram of the Panama Canal.
Pencil and Watercolor Studies
Archival Resource Key
circa 1910-1920
6
2
Profile of Panama Canal
Archival Resource Key
1913
6
3
Photographs
Series 8
Archival Resource Key
1.6 Linear feet
Boxes 6, 8, 9
circa 1885-1935
Scope and Contents
Found here are personal photographs of the artist, his friends and family, his Pasadena home and Palm Springs studio circa 1930, and his travels in Mexico and the American West. There is also a set of five cabinet cards of theatre portraits and the Treasure Island set that Clark designed for the Pasadena Playhouse. Photographs of artwork consist mostly of Clark's paintings but also include reproduced engravings of California circa 1850 (filed in Photographs of Artwork, The West) and Alfred Maurer's portraits.
Negatives from the artist's personal albums contain mostly travel images of Rochefort (circa 1907), Quebec/New York (circa 1908), and the American West (circa 1919), and are accompanied by indices. Glass plate negatives document the artist's family, artwork, and Southern California landscapes. These images can be seen in the contact sheets enclosed in this series. Oversized photographs include eight "California Club" portrait paintings, two images of a mural for Polytechnic Elementary School in Pasadena, and one photograph of a screen painted for Dalzell Wilson's home in Pasadena.
Existence and Location of Copies
Glass plate negatives have been scanned.
Alson Skinner Clark
Archival Resource Key
circa 1915-1918
6
4
Friends and Family
Archival Resource Key
circa 1910s-1930s
6
5
Home and Studio
Archival Resource Key
circa 1930
6
6
Theatre Cabinet Cards
Archival Resource Key
circa 1885-1900
6
7
Travel
Archival Resource Key
circa 1915-1930
6
8
Treasure Island Set Design
Archival Resource Key
circa 1926
6
9
Photographs of Artwork by Alfred Maurer
Archival Resource Key
1925
6
10
Photographs of Artwork, California
Archival Resource Key
1920s
6
11
Photographs of Artwork, Chicago, Quebec, New York
Archival Resource Key
1904-1906
6
12
Photographs of Artwork, Circle Theatre
Archival Resource Key
circa 1926
6
13
Photographs of Artwork, European Paintings
Archival Resource Key
1904-1912
6
14-15
Photographs of Artwork, Figure Paintings and Still Lifes
Archival Resource Key
1904-1934
6
16
Photographs of Artwork, Landscape Paintings
Archival Resource Key
circa 1910-1925
6
17-20
Photographs of Artwork, Mexico
Archival Resource Key
circa 1920-1935
6
21-25
Photographs of Artwork, Miscellaneous
Archival Resource Key
1900s-1920s
6
26
Photographs of Artwork, Panama
Archival Resource Key
circa 1913
6
27-28
Photographs of Artwork, Pasadena First Trust and Savings Bank
Archival Resource Key
1928-1929
6
29
Photographs of Artwork, Spain
Archival Resource Key
1909-1910
6
30-31
Photographs of Artwork, The West
Archival Resource Key
circa 1920-1930
6
32
Film Negatives, Album A (Rochefort)
Archival Resource Key
circa 1907
6
33
Film Negatives, Album B (Quebec)
Archival Resource Key
circa 1908
6
34
Film Negatives, Album C (The West)
Archival Resource Key
1919
6
35
Film Negatives, Album Indices
Archival Resource Key
circa 1907-1919
6
36
Film Negatives, Miscellaneous
Archival Resource Key
circa 1910-1935
6
37
Contact Sheets of Glass Plate Negatives
Archival Resource Key
circa 1920-1930
6
38-39
Oversized Photographs of Artwork
Archival Resource Key
circa 1920-1933
8
2
Glass Plate Negatives
Archival Resource Key
circa 1920-1930
9
Glass Plate Negatives
Scope and Contents
see copy prints in Box 6, Folders 38-39
Scrapbooks
Series 9
Archival Resource Key
0.5 Linear feet
Boxes 7, 8
1902-1955
Scope and Contents
This series contains three news clipping scrapbooks of articles and images documenting Clark and his work. Pieces of correspondence, exhibition literature, and miscellaneous ephemera are interspersed.
Scrapbook
Archival Resource Key
1909-1925
7
1-4
Scrapbook
Archival Resource Key
1923-1955
7
5-9
Oversized Scrapbook
Archival Resource Key
1902-1913
8
3