Thomas A. Cole
Papers, 1821-1863
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Biographical Note:

Thomas Cole was born in Bolton-le-Moor, Lancashire, England, February 1, 1801. His father, a woolen manufacturer, moved the family to Philadelphia in 1819, where he opened a dry-goods shop while Thomas took up wood-engraving which he had already practiced at Liverpool. The family soon moved to Steubenville, Ohio, where the father set up a wallpaper factory; Thomas remained in Philadelphia.

Thomas rejoined his family in 1820, aiding his father in the manufacture of wallpaper. His chance meeting with an itinerant portrait painter named Stein resulted in his decision to become an artist. Stein taught him the rudiments of mixing color and lent him a treatise on the theory of color.

Since the wallpaper business was losing money, his father decided to move to Pittsburgh in 1823. Thomas again remained behind, painting, but soon joined his family to help in his father’s newest venture: manufacturing floor coverings. He next spent some months in Philadelphia and then rejoined his family who had moved to New York City.

A New York merchant, George W. Bruen, who had admired some of Cole’s studio paintings, paid his steamboat fare up the river to explore the Catskills. Cole took the three oil paintings that resulted from this trip to a frame shop on Broadway in New York City where they were seen by Col. John Trumbull, president of the American Academy of Fine Arts and, at the time, one of the most influential men in New York art circles. Trumbull introduced Cole’s work to collectors and artists alike and from then on his fame spread and the Hudson River School of landscape painting was launched.

Over the next few years many weeks were spent in travel and the exploration of scenery in the Catskills and the White Mountains.

In 1826 Cole was invited to become a founder of the National Academy of Design.

In June 1829 he sailed for England, where he stayed for two years; he toured France and Italy before returning to New York in November 1832. In November 1836 Cole married Maria Bartow and settled at Catskill.

His two most famous works, "The Course of Empire" and "The Voyage of Life," were commissioned by Luman Reed and Samuel Ward, respectively, both of whom died before the works were completed.

Of "The Course of Empire," James Fenimore Cooper said it was "the work of the highest genius this country has ever produced." The series was exhibited in the fall of 1836 and then was stored until it was donated to the New-York Historical Society in 1858.

Cole again visited Europe in 1841-1842, the Adirondacks in 1846 and Niagara Falls in 1847.

A week after his 47^th birthday he died of a virulent pneumonia.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists of eight boxes of manuscripts generated by or related to Thomas Cole, an artist, poet and founder of the Hudson River School style of landscape painting. The papers cover the period ca.1818-1964, with the bulk of the papers covering the years 1821-1848. They are divided into five series comprising approximately six linear feet.

A majority of the material was collected by Cole’s daughter and granddaughter, Mrs. Florence Cole Vincent, from whom the collection was received by the New York State Library in 1935.

The collection covers both his personal and public life.

Included are letters written by and to Cole, journals, notebooks, essay and lecture notes, verse and poetry, personal accounting records, and newspaper articles by and about Cole and his work. Also included are an 1827 sketchbook, miscellaneous sketches, exhibit registers and catalogs, and articles and catalogs from exhibits of his work after his death. The sketches include rough versions of typical Cole landscape paintings.

Cole made use of every scrap of paper for jotting down ideas for paintings, names of people who commissioned him to paint pictures, and ideas he encountered in his readings. Thus, the collection is a cornucopia of words and pictures.

Four finding aids created about 1935 facilitate access to the letters:

1. Two name indexes of the people with whom Cole corresponded divided into the following sections: people who wrote to Cole and people to whom Cole wrote. Each name is followed by the date(s) of the letter(s) in the collection.  These indexes are included at the end of this finding aid.
2. A two-page unpublished list available at the repository of painters mentioned in letters to Thomas Cole, and
3. A one-page unpublished list available at the repository of letters from other painters to Cole.

The collection has been microfilmed (MB/FM,759.197,C689,200-5109). In the microfilm copy, the folder list for Box 6 is: Folder 1, Bills, accounts, etc.; Folder 2, Notebooks, verse, etc.; Folder 3, Sketchbook; Folder 4, Sketches, and Folder 5, Exhibition catalogs. The accompanying finding aid does not replicate the order in which items were microfilmed.

Record Series:

The Thomas Cole Papers are comprised of the following six series and subseries:

I. Correspondence, 1820-1855

1. Letters by Thomas Cole, 1821-1847
2. Letters to Thomas Cole, 1821-1848
3. Letters of Robert Gilmor to and from Thomas Cole, 1826-1837
4. Drafts and fragments of letters by Thomas Cole
5. Family letters, 1820-1855 and n.d.
6. Letters to persons other than Thomas Cole, n.d. and 1831, 1848-1863

The greater part of the collection consists of correspondence to and from Cole.

The three major subseries are Letters by Cole, 1821-1847 (Box 1), Letters to Cole, 1821-1848 (Boxes 2 and 3), and Family letters, 1820-1855 (Box 4). There are also several drafts and fragments of letters by Cole (Box 1, Folder 7).

A large part of the correspondence is with prominent American artists and writers.

There are several letters to and from Robert Gilmor, a Baltimore merchant and one of Cole’s most influential patrons (Box 3, Folder 8), and several letters to Luman Reed and his heirs regarding the five paintings entitled “The Course of Empire.”

The letters written by Cole contain comments on his travels, personal life and professional obligations.

One small noteworthy group of letters is Cole’s correspondence with William Adams regarding the design of the state house in Ohio and how and when Cole would repay a monetary debt owed to Adams.

The letters written to Cole cover the same general topics as the letters written by Cole but also include letters of introduction written on Cole’s behalf to people in Europe.

The letters regarding commissions for paintings sometimes include prose descriptions of the works and price quotes.

The family correspondence consists mainly of letters written by Cole to his wife, Maria. Also included are letters from Maria to her husband. Of particular interest are the two letters to Cole’s son, Theddy (Theodore) by Frederic Church.

The letters to persons other than Cole (Box 3, Folder 9) include letters of condolence sent to Maria at the time of her husband’s death.

A collection of drafts and fragments of letters by Cole (Box 1, Folder 7) indicates Cole often prepared at least one draft of a letter and then edited it before preparing the final copy. These fragments include prose descriptions of works contemplated or in progress, and references to commissions and invitations. Also in this folder are several autographs (Cole’s and others), which were cut from letters, and small sketches (doodles?).

The correspondence is arranged chronologically. However, as mentioned above, there is an index of names of people to whom Cole wrote letters and an index of names of people who sent letters to Cole. The indexes are arranged alphabetically by surname and then chronologically by date on letter.

II. Writings, 1818-1848

A. Journals

The collection includes three bound journals, book signatures used as journals, and sheets of paper evidently cut from bound volumes (Box 4).

One of the signatures covers a trip from Philadelphia to Ohio in 1818? and may have been written by Thomas Cole’s father.

One bound journal has scattered entries from November 5, 1834, through February 1, 1848. The other two bound journals contain accounts of Cole’s trips to Europe in 1829 and 1841.

The other journals cover Cole’s excursions in France and Italy (1831), including trips to Volterra (1831), Naples (1832), and Florence (1832), and his trip from Rome to Sicily in 1842. A final set of loose papers cover his trip to Mount Desert Island, Maine.

Cole also wrote a five-page autobiography about his time in Chillicothe, Ohio (1822) (Box 4, Folder 5).

B. Essay and lecture notes

The essay and lecture notes (Box 5) include drafts of Cole's "Essay on American Scenery" published in the January 1836 issue of American Monthly, "Sicilian Antiquities & Scenery" published as "Sicilian Scenery and Antiquities" in The Knickerbocker in February and March 1844, "Letter to the Publick on the Subject of Architecture," "Verdura, or a Tale of After Time," which contains his thoughts on what life would be like at the close of the 20^th century, and two drafts of "The Death of Chocorua," a Native American legend he painted and entitled "Chocorua's Curse."

C. Verse and poetry, ca.1825-1847

The dates of the dated poems range from 1825 through 1847. Most of the poems deal with nature or life as an allegory although one poem is entitled "To Maria," one was written "On Hearing of the Death of Mr. Reed" and one is entitled "Written on My Birthday, Feb. 1^st, 1830". Other titles are "Etna," "The March of Time," "Just Before Sunrise" and "Twilight". Included is a 20-sheet draft of "The Voyage of Life, Parts 1 and 2," which he apparently wrote to accompany the four-painting series of the same name. (Printed copies of this poem were used by Cole as scrap paper and can be found throughout the collection.)

D. Notebooks

Of the five notebooks in the collection, one contains prose descriptions of scenes in Italy, sketches of the scenes and notations on colors; a second notebook, entitled Catskilliana, contains heavily-edited prose sketches which, according to a note at the beginning, were "written in the evenings after the fatigues of the day," and three notebooks contain drafts of "The Spirits of the Wilderness: A Poem". Two of the three notebooks on the poem appear to be related (one is numbered 1 to 75; the second is numbered 76 to 91 and is dated April 27, 1837); the third notebook on the poem appears to be another draft. The two prose sketchbooks include Italian grammar exercises.

III. Sketches, exhibition catalogs and visitors' registers, calling Cards

This series consists of an 1827 sketchbook, miscellaneous sketches, registers and catalogs from exhibits held throughout his career, and articles and catalogs from exhibits of his work after his death. Included are four sketches on commerce (Commerce Meeting the Nations, Commerce Rising, Commerce Reigning and Commerce Sleeping). The sketch of Commerce Sleeping is on the back of a letter from William Firth, dated August 28, 1842.

IV. Personal finance papers

The personal finance papers (Box 6, Folders 11 and 12) cover his personal life, including receipts for clothes bought, and professional expenses, such as receipts from New York City newspapers in which Cole advertised paintings and exhibits.

V. Newspapers and newspaper clippings

Included in the newspaper clippings are critiques and reviews of exhibits, an article on a hike to Kaaterskill Falls in The Catskill Messenger written by Cole and stories related to his death.

Box and Folder List:

1935 Index to Letters from and to Thomas Cole

Letters from Thomas Cole

Letters to Thomas Cole and Others