Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Richard Carver Wood Photographs
Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964
Asch, Patsy
Wood, Richard Carver
NMAH.AC.0964
Archival Resource Key
2 Cubic feet
11 boxes
1935-1978, undated
Photographs taken by Wood including persons prominent in the New York City social, literary, and theatrical fields. Other subjects include architecture, landscapes, still life, dunes, military, and theater in the United States and other countries.
English
.
Richard Carver Wood Photographs
Biographical / Historical
Richard Carver Wood was born in 1902 in Binghamton, New York to Frank Hoyt and Eva Wood. He studied at Hamilton College then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1922-1929 where he graduated with a degree in architecture. In the 1930s, Wood struggled to find work in his field and turned his attention to photography. His adopted father, a professor at Hamilton College, put him in contact with a former student, Alexander Woollcott, by then a theater critic with The New Yorker. It was through Woollcott that Wood met many of the famous people he photographed, many on Woollcott's Lake Bomoseen, Vermont, property, though Wood also photographed places, buildings, and subjects like the Perkins School for the Blind.
When America became involved in World War II, Wood was stationed in Hawaii as part of the Army Signal Corps. It was there that he turned to film, and after the end of World War II he worked first with a small dental company for a few years, and then began freelancing. His film work culminated with the 1954 Academy Award winning documentary The Unconquered, a biography of his one-time photography subject Helen Keller.
It was around the time of the Keller documentary that Wood again found work as an architect with an East Hampton firm. He would remain in architecture from then on, rarely taking photographs. Wood died on November 23, 1989 at the age of eighty-seven years old.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into three series.
Series 1: People, 1935-1960, undated
Series 2: Places, 1939-1978, undated
Series 3: Subjects, 1941, undated
Scope and Contents
Photographs, in both print and negative form, by Richard Carver Wood, including architectural photographs; art photographs, including landscapes and still life's; portrait and family photographs; photographs of persons prominent in the New York City social, literary, and theatrical fields. Many of these were taken at theater critic Alexander Woollcott's property at Lake Bomoseen in Vermont, and include Dorothy Parker, Vivien Leigh, Ethel Barrymore, and numerous others. Materials were maintained in the three series that Wood created: Series 1, People, Series 2, Places and Series 3, Subjects. The materials in each series are arranged in alphabetical order by Wood's folder titles.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Immediate Source of Acquisiton
Donated by Wood's daughter, Patsy Asch, to the Archives Center in 2007.
Preferred Citation
Richard Carver Wood Photographs, 1935-1978, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Patsy Asch.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Vanessa Broussard- Simmons.
Vermont
Celebrities -- 20th century
Photographers -- New York
Barrymore, Ethel
Borge, Victor
Bowman, Patricia
Abbott, George, 1887-1995
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, 1929-1994
Baragwanath, Jack
Barrett, Edith
Gordon, Ruth, 1896-
Hart, Moss, 1904-1961
Fontanne, Lynn
Frost, Robert, 1874-1963
Lunt, Alfred
Martin, Mary, 1913-
Keller, Helen, 1880-1968
Leigh, Vivien, 1913-1967
Cornell, Katharine, 1893-1974
Coward, Noel, 1899-1973
Cassini, Igor, 1915-
Castle, Irene, 1893-1969
Edmonds, Walter Dumaux, 1903-1998
Fleischmann, Raoul L.
Dowling, Eddie
Eckstein, Gustave
Swope, Herbert Bayard, 1882-1958
Rice, Grantland, 1880-1954
Brown, John Mason, 1900-1969
Woollcott, Alexander, 1887-1943
Miller, Alice Duer, 1874-1942
Meade, Donald
Skinner, Cornelia Otis, 1901-
McMein, Neysa
Marx, Harpo, 1888-1964
Radziwill, Lee Bouvier, 1933-
Parker, Dorothy, 1893-1967
Olivier, Laurence, 1907-1989
People
Series 1
Archival Resource Key
1935-1960, undated
Baraquanath, John (Jack)
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
1
Barrett, Edith
Archival Resource Key
1939-02
3
Boll, William
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
2
Borge, Victor
Archival Resource Key
undated
3
Bouvier, Jacqueline
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
1
Bouvier, Jacqueline and Lee
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
3
Bouvier, Jacqueline and Lee
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
4
Bouvier, Jacqueline and Lee
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
5
Bouvier, Jacqueline and Lee, winter scene
Archival Resource Key
undated
3
Bouvier, Jacqueline and Lee
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
2
Bowman, Patricia
Archival Resource Key
undated
3
Brown, John Mason
Archival Resource Key
1939-09-09
3
Bull, Howard Sr.
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
6
Castle, Irene
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
8
Cohan, George and Peggy Conklin
Archival Resource Key
1939-10-23
3
Cornell, Katharine
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
7
Cornell, Katharine
Archival Resource Key
undated
3
Coward, Noel
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
9
de Konning, Willem
Archival Resource Key
1960
3
Dietz, Howard
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
10
Dowling, Eddie (Joseph Nelson Goucher)
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
11
Eckstein, Gustav
Archival Resource Key
1936-11
4
Eckstein, Gustav and canaries
Archival Resource Key
1942
4
Eckstein, Gustav
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
12
Edmonds, Walter Dumaux
Archival Resource Key
1941-11-29
4
Edmonds, Walter Dumaux
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
13
Edmonds, Walter Dumaux, Northland, Boonville, New York
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
Emerson, Margaret
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
14
Eustice, Grace
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
15
Fleischman, Roaul
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
16
Fontanne, Lynn
Archival Resource Key
1935-08
4
Fontanne, Lynn
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
17
Frank, Morris
Archival Resource Key
1938-04-16
4
Franken, Rose, Redbook Magazine
Archival Resource Key
1943
4
Frost, Robert
Archival Resource Key
undated
4
Gordon, Jones
Archival Resource Key
1937-11
4
Gordon, Ruth, son, age 8
Archival Resource Key
1937-11-17
4
Gordon, Ruth, son
Archival Resource Key
1937-12-09
4
Gordon, Ruth
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
18
Harriman [William Averell]
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
19
Hayes, Helen and Gustav Eckstein, Hamilton College, New York
Archival Resource Key
1939-01
5
Hennessey, Joseph
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
20
Herbert, Cooper
Archival Resource Key
1938-08
5
Hill, George Washington, American Tobacco President, Fortune Magazine
Archival Resource Key
1936-10
5
Hunter family
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
Kaufmann, Beatrice (Bea)
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
21
Kaufmann, George S.
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
22
Keller, Helen
Archival Resource Key
1954
5
Keller, Helen
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
Knickerbocker, "Cholly"
Archival Resource Key
1939-04-10
5
Lederer, Charles
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
23
Lunt, Alfred
Archival Resource Key
1935-08
5
Lunt, Alfred
Archival Resource Key
undated
1
24
Lunt, Alfred
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
Lunt, Alfred and Lynn Fontanne
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
1
Lunt, Alfred and Lynn Fontanne
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
Lunt, Alfred and Lynn Fontanne
Archival Resource Key
undated
5
Mann, William M.
Archival Resource Key
1935
2
2
Martin, Mary, glamour
Archival Resource Key
1939-11-14
6
Marx, Arthur (Harpo)
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
3
Marx, Harpo (Arthur) at Bomoseen, Vermont with Alice Duer Miller and Ethel Barrymore
Archival Resource Key
undated
6
McMein, Neysa
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
4
Meade, Donald
Archival Resource Key
1940
2
5
Meade, Donald
Archival Resource Key
undated
6
Miller, Alice Duer
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
6
Parker, Dorothy
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
7
Rice, Grantland
Archival Resource Key
1938-11-14
7
Rodgers, Dorothy Feiner
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
8
Rogers, Richard, children
Archival Resource Key
1940-10-02
7
Richard Rogers, Mrs. Rogers, and children, number 323
Archival Resource Key
1940-10-20
7
Roosevelt, Eleanor Butler
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
9
Roosevelt, Theodore Jr.
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
10
Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
Archival Resource Key
undated
7
Skinner, Cornelia, Cosmopolitan Magazine
Archival Resource Key
1940-01-20
7
St. Vincent Millay, Edna
Archival Resource Key
undated
7
Stone, Edward
Archival Resource Key
undated
7
Swope, Herbert B., Sr.
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
11
Swope, Herbert B., Jr.
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
12
Wilder, Thornton
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
13
Woollcott, Alexander
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
14
Woollcott, Alexander
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
15
Woollcott, Alexander
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
16
Woollcott, Alexander
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
17
Woollcott, Alexander
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
6
Woollcott, Alexander and friends
Archival Resource Key
undated
7
Woollcott, Alexander and friends
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
7
Woollcott, Alexander and Gustav Eckstein
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
3
Woollcott, Alexander, Lake Bomoseen
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
18
Unidentified man
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
4
Unidentifed men
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
5
Places
Series 2
Archival Resource Key
1939-1978, undated
California
Archival Resource Key
1976
8
Clinton, New York, Hamilton College, Edward Root house
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
9
Heinz, Pittsburgh
Archival Resource Key
undated
8
Lake Bomoseen, Vermont
Archival Resource Key
circa 1938
8
Lake Bomoseen, Vermont
Archival Resource Key
1939-09-07
8
Lake Bomoseen, Vermont, winter scenes
Archival Resource Key
1941-01
9
Lake Bomoseen, Vermont
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Lake Bomoseen, Vermont
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
8
Ohio colleges
Archival Resource Key
undated
8
Sands Point, New York, croquet at Margaret Emerson's home
Archival Resource Key
undated
8
Sands Point, New York, croquet at Margaret Emerson's home
Archival Resource Key
undated
8
Vermont
Archival Resource Key
1978
9
Alpo, Capri, and Pompeii, Italy
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Coimbra, Portugal
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Europe
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Jamaica
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Les Baux-de-Provence, France
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Mexico
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Salamanca, Spain
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Sorbonne, Paris, France
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Sorrento and Amalfi Coast, Italy
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Wales
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Unidentified garden outside city house
Archival Resource Key
undated
9
Subjects
Series 3
Archival Resource Key
1941, undated
Architecture
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
22
Brook's Tourney, Lake Bomoseen, Vermont
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Dunes
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
23
Grounds
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
19
Here Come the Clowns, Eddie Dowling
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Houses
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
24
King Cort School (?)
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
25
Landscapes
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
26
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
27
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Archival Resource Key
1941-02-02
10
Men
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
20
Military
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
28
Ocean
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
29
People
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Seeing Eye
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Seeing Eye
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
10
Seeing Eye, M. Frank and Dog
Archival Resource Key
undated
11
11
Still life
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
30
Theater, Here Come the Clowns
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Three students on unidentified college campus
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Women
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
21
Miscellaneous
Archival Resource Key
undated
2
31
Miscellaneous
Archival Resource Key
undated
10
Unidenified
Archival Resource Key
undated
10