Papers of Catherine Russell Hammond, circa 1928-1975
Overview
This collection contains correspondence, sketches, school notebooks, writings, and other papers of Catherine Russell Hammond.
Dates
- Creation: 1928-1975
Conditions on Access:
Access: Unrestricted.
Conditions on Use:
Copyright: The donor has transferred any copyright held in these papers to the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright in some papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and Harvard Art Museums Archives before publishing quotations from any material in the collection.
Copying: Papers may be copied in accordance with the Harvard Art Museums Archives' usual procedures.
Extent
3 linear feet (3 file boxes, 1 half file box, oversize materials)These papers are comprised of Catherine Russell Hammond's writings, notebooks, sketches, and correspondence. The earliest documents are from her time at the Amy Sacker School for Design (1928-1930). The remaining documents range from the late 1950's to 1975, the year before her death.
The papers contain the manuscript for 20 Common Mushrooms and How to Cook Them (International Pocket Library, 1965), for which Hammond was the illustrator. The collection also contains correspondence, notes and hand-drawn illustrations relating to mushrooms and other topics of interest to Ms. Hammond, papers from clubs and associations to which she belonged and exhibitions and lectures she attended, and teaching materials.
One videotape in the collection has been digitized, and one large poster that has been housed in an oversized cabinet to ensure preservation. Items have been placed in acid-free folders.
Biography:
Catherine Russell Hedge Hammond (nicknamed "Caffy") was born in 1909. Her father, Henry Hedge, was born c. 1873. He was raised in Plymouth, Mass., and later moved to Brookline. Catherine attended the Winsor School and later the Amy Sacker School of Design in Boston (1928-1930). She studied landscape painting in France under the guidance of Clara Perry of Boston. She married attorney Franklin Hammond in 1931. The couple had four children: John Wilkes Hammond, Jr. (1933), Henry Hedge Hammond (1936), Franklin Tweed hammond III (1940), and Catherine Russell Hammond ("Kate"-1943).
The August, 1947 issue of National Geographic Magazine contained an article titled "Land of the Pilgrims' Pride" which featured a re-enacted Pilgrim family scene. Because of the long-held Hedge family ties to Plymouth, the Hammond family was selected as the models for the photograph, taken in the Harlow House (built 1677).
Franklin T. Hammond Jr. was born in 1901. He grew up on Scott Street in Cambridge, where he and his siblings (notably his sister, Harriet) were neighbors and friends of the family of Paul Sachs. Sachs, the Assistant/Associate Director of the Fogg Museum from 1915-1948, lived in "Shady Hill," the home formerly owned by the art historian Charles Eliot Norton.
In c. 1933 Franklin Hammond purchased a home for the family on Traill Street in Cambridge, designed by a woman architect, Lois Lilley Howe (1864-1964), in c. 1900. The Hammonds moved to Washington D.C. when Franklin Hammond was hired to work for the Pentagon during World War II. He subsequently served in North Africa and Italy, where he prosecuted war crimes.
During this time, Catherine frequented USO "canteens," where she made quick crayon sketches of servicepeople passing through; later she would bring this talent to local church and school fairs.
After her youngest child entered high school, Hammond resumed her art education at the Museum School of Boston's Musuem of Fine Arts. Throughout her adult life, she was a prolific artist, concentrating on portraits in charcoal and crayon; landscapes; watercolors and drawings of nature. Hammond's work appeared in several exhibitions in Boston, Cambridge and Plymouth, and as illustrations in botanical books. In addition to her artistic endeavors, Hammond was an enthusiastic and skilled figure skater and ballroom dancer.
She died in Cambridge, Mass., in 1976. Frank died in 1996
Series in the Collection
An archivist at the Botany Libraries of Harvard arranged the papers into five series.
- Series I. Notebooks and Journals
- Series II. Common Mushrooms and How to Cook Them
- Series III. Notes
- Series IV. Clubs and Associations
- Series V. Personal/Biographical
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated to the archives by Henry Hammond (Ms. Hammond's son) in November 2010. Additional materials were transferred from Harvard University's Botany Libraries in January 2011.
Box and Folder Locations
- Box 1: 1-20
- Box 2: 21-57
- Box 3: 58-77
- Box 4: 78-89
General note
Names
- Amy Sacker School of Design
- Boston Mycological Club
- Hammond, Catherine Hedge
- New England Wildflower Society
- Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph), 1878-1965
General note
Subjects
- Art in Education--Massachusetts--Cambridge
- Art school
- Artists.
- Botanical Artists
- Cambridge (Mass.)
- Drawing
- Graphic arts.
- Graphic design.
- Illustrations--American.
- Illustrators
- Mushrooms.
- Mushrooms--Identification
- Mushrooms--Pictorial works
- Sketches.
- Women artists.
General note
Form/Genre Terms
- correspondence
- drawings
- illustration(s)
- journals (notebooks)
- lecture(s)
- manuscripts
- notebook(s)
- posters
- sketch(es)
- sketchbook(s)
Processing Information:
The collection was processed in January, 2011 by Gabrielle Lang with assistance from Erin Murphy and Susan von Salis.
- Title
- Papers of Catherine Russell Hammond (SC 13), c.1928-1975: A Guide
- Author
- Harvard Art Museums Archives
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- art00028
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard Art Museums Archives Repository
The Harvard Art Museums Archives is the official repository for institutional records and historical documents in all formats relating to the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 1895 to the present. Its collections include papers of individuals and groups associated with the museums' history, including records of past exhibitions, architectural plans, photographs, scrapbooks, and memorabilia, as well as correspondence with collectors, gallery owners, museum professionals, and artists throughout the twentieth century. Its holdings also document the formation of the museums' collections and its mission as a teaching institution.
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