Object Details
Creator
Ladd, Anna Coleman Watts, 1878-1939
Subject
Aldrich, William
Southwick, Jessie Eldridge
Hammond, Natalie Hays
Gardner, Isabella Stewart
Fabbricotti, Gabriella
American Red Cross. Studio for Portrait Masks (Paris, France)
Place of publication, production, or execution
United States
Physical Description
4.26 Linear Feet
Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 10 series. Glass plate negatives are housed separately and closed to researchers. Series 1: Biographical Material, 1910-1950 (Box 1; 4 folders) Series 2: Correspondence, 1895-1937 (Box 1-2; 1.1 linear feet) Series 3: Diaries, 1903-1912 (Box 2; 2 folders) Series 4: Financial Material, 1899-1934 (Box 2; 6 folders) Series 5: Writings and Notes, 1888-1949 (Box 2, 6, OV 7; 0.6 linear feet) Series 6: Artwork, 1901-1928 (Box 2, 6, OV 7; 0.2 linear feet) Series 7: American Red Cross Studio for Portrait-Masks File, 1914-1925 (Box 2-3, 6; 0.4 linear feet) Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1900-1940 (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet) Series 9: Printed Material, 1889-1942 (Box 3, 6, OV 7; 0.5 linear feet) Series 10: Photographs, 1881-1932 (Box 4-6, MGP 1; 0.8 linear feet)
Access Note / Rights
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Summary
The papers of sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd measure 4.26 linear feet, date from 1881-1950, and document the career of sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd. Found within the papers are biographical material, letters, diaries, financial material, notes and writings, art work, a file concerning the American Red Cross Studio for Portrait-Masks, scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs.
Citation
Anna Coleman Ladd papers, 1881-1950. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms
The collection was digitized in 2014 and is available via the Archives of American Art's website.
Funding
Funding for processing in preparation for digitization, and for the digitization of this collection, was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Use Note
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.
Biography Note
Born in 1878 in Philadelphia to John and Mary Watts, Anna Coleman Ladd (née Watts) was educated in private schools and Europe. She also studied in America under Charles Grafly.
She moved to Boston in 1905 and married Boston pediatrician Maynard Ladd with whom she had two daughters, Gabriella May Ladd and Vernon Abbott Ladd. Working in her studio on Clarendon Street, Ladd became one of the city's most prolific sculptors, creating fountain pieces, portrait busts, memorials, and reliefs in addition to authoring two novels, Hieronymus Rides in 1912, and The Candid Adventurer in 1913.
Between 1907 and 1915, Ladd had solo exhibitions at the Gorham Gallery in New York, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia. She was also invited to exhibit her bronzes at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. In 1914 she executed a bronze statuette of Eleanora Duse for which the actress posed, and later completed portrait busts of Anna Pavlova and Ethel Barrimore.
In late 1917 in Paris, Ladd founded the American Red Cross Studio for Portrait-Masks to provide cosmetic masks to be worn by men who had been badly disfigured in World War I. Her services earned her the Légion d'Honneur Crois de Chevalier and the Serbian Order of Saint Sava.
For many years, Ladd maintained a summer studio "Arden" at Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts. In 1923, she received an honorary degree of Master of Arts from Tufts College.
Anna Coleman Ladd died June 3, 1939 in Santa Barbara, California.
Language Note
The collection is in English, French, and Italian.
Provenance
The Anna Coleman Ladd papers were donated in 1991 by William Terry on behalf of Robert Edwards, a friend of Anna Coleman Ladd.
Digitization Note
This site provides access to the papers of Anna Coleman Watts Ladd in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2014, and total 6,188 images.
Location Note
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Record number
(DSI-AAA_CollID)10600
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)214076
AAA_collcode_laddanna
Type
Diaries
Drawings
Sketchbooks
Photographs
Sketches
Scrapbooks
Theme
Sketches & Sketchbooks
Women
Diaries
Lives of artists
Data Source
Archives of American Art
Topic
Women artists
Women sculptors
Women authors
Works of art
Portrait sculpture
Architectural sculpture
Artists' studios -- Photographs
World War, 1914-1918
Theme
Sketches & Sketchbooks
Women
Diaries
Lives of artists
Record ID
AAADCD_coll_214076