Alice Frye Leach (1857-1943) was a painter and architect in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and was a founder and member of the Copley Society.
The scattered papers of Alice Frye Leach measure 0.7 linear feet and date from circa 1900-circa 1950. Found are artworks including an unfinished portrait and watercolor and pencil sketches, biographical material, photographs, and printed material.
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This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Catherine and Elizabeth Leach, daughters of Alice Frye Leach, donated the papers to the Archives of American Art in 1978.
The collection is available on 35mm microfilm reel 3092 at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Alice Frye Leach papers, circa 1900-circa 1950. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers received a preliminary level of processing and were microfilmed on reel 3092 after receipt. The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2022 with support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
Artworks include two pencil sketches of Leach's daughters, four watercolor sketches of a home she designed in Brookline, Massachusetts, and an unfinished canvas portrait of Leach's brother, James Albert Frye. Biographical materials contain an unpublished biographical sketch written by Leach's daughter, Catherine Leach, and an advertisement for an umbrella and note explaining Leach's patent for the product. Photographs depict Leach at her easel in 1938; her paintings, photos of which are annotated by her daughter; and Leach's home in Chesnut Hill, Massachusetts. Also found are reproductions of works of art and photocopies of exhibition catalogs.