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COLLECTION Identifier: HUM 349

Edward W. Forbes personal correspondence

Overview

Edward Waldo Forbes (1873-1969), an American art historian, was the director of the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University from 1909 to 1944. The collection consists of ten letters written to and from Edward W. Forbes from 1923 to 1946 with his nephew William H. Forbes, his niece Margaret Forbes Schroeder, and M. Gertrude Huckins. The letters refer chiefly to personal and family matters.

Dates

  • Creation: 1923-1946

Researcher Access

Open for research.

Extent

.17 cubic feet (1 half-document box)

This collection consists of ten letters written to and from Edward W. Forbes from 1923 to 1946. The first series contains three letters written by Forbes to his nephew William H. Forbes and his niece Margaret Forbes Schroeder (1905-1993), the wife of Eric Schroeder (1904-1971), the keeper of Islamic Art at the Harvard Fogg Museum of Art. These letters refer to chiefly personal and family matters and events. The second series contains seven letters, one written by Edward W. Forbes to his nephew William H. Forbes and six written by M. Gertrude Huckins (born 1869?) to Edward W. Forbes. The letter from Edward to William introduces Huckins to William, probably because Edward thinks William can help Huckins find new living quarters. It is unclear what the relationship was between Huckins and Forbes. Her letters refer to an exchange of Christmas and New Year’s Day cards and suggest some personal familiarity between Huckins and the Forbes family. They may have been acquaintances. The letters indicate that Huckins was seventy-five years old and perhaps in ill-health when she was seeking Forbes’s help to change her living arrangements. Written during World War II, while the United States was fighting the Japanese Empire in the Pacific, Huckins expresses her concern that her landlady might rent a room to a Japanese person.

Biographical note on Edward Waldo Forbes

Edward Waldo Forbes (1873-1969), an American art historian, was the director of the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University from 1909 to 1944. Under Forbes’s direction, the Fogg Museum built a distinguished teaching collection of art objects and photographs, sponsored archaeological expeditions to classical sites, and trained curators and directors for many American museums. Forbes introduced the x-ray study of painting at Harvard and established a conservation department for saving irreplaceable works. Forbes made extensive alterations to the museum, added Oriental as well as Western works of art to the collection, and in 1913 organized the Friends of the Fogg Museum to support its activities. Forbes introduced a course on Florentine Painting as part of the Fine Arts curriculum at Harvard in 1907 and later became Martin A. Reyerson Lecturer in Fine Arts in 1935. In 1927, under Forbes’s leadership, a new building was constructed for the Fogg Art Museum on Quincy Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Forbes graduated from Harvard University in 1895; attended the University of Oxford, studying English Literature from 1900 to 1902; and taught at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts from 1903 to 1904. In 1904, Forbes decided to study the history of art instead of the history of literature, traveling abroad several times to study in the art galleries of Europe. In 1909, he became director of the Fogg Art Museum. Forbes married Margaret Laighton (1885-1966) on January 29, 1907. They had five children including John Murray (1910-1992), Mary Emerson (1912-1949), Elliott (1917-2006), Anne (born 1919), and Rosamond (1908-2004).

Biographical note on William Hathaway Forbes

William Hathaway Forbes (1902-1995), a physiologist and biochemist, studied at Harvard University (AB 1923; AM 1932). He received a D.Phil. at the University of Cambridge (1932) and MD at John Hopkins University (1952). Forbes’s research interests involved various aspects of physiology, including the effects of heat, cold, altitude, and exercise on the body. A teacher and researcher, Forbes was an instructor in physics at the American University, Beirut (1923-1924); instructor and tutor in biochemical sciences at Harvard University (1929-1936); and a resident tutor at Eliot House (1931-1935). From 1932 to 1947, Forbes was associated with the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory, a research center designed to investigate the physiological, sociological, and psychological impacts of fatigue caused by daily activities. He served as an assistant (1932-1936), research fellow (1938), acting director (1941-1942), and assistant director (1942-1947). After the laboratory closed in 1947, Forbes taught at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he served as a physiology lecturer, assistant to the Dean, and faculty advisor to international students. Forbes retired in 1973. William H. Forbes married Anne Pappenheimer (1911-1992), an endocrinology researcher and clinician at Harvard Medical School, on December 31, 1935. They had five children including Andrea (born 1940), Elise (1942), Peter M. (born 1944), Anthony W. (born 1946), Beatrice A. (born 1947).

Arrangement

The collection is organized into two series:

  1. Letters from Edward W. Forbes to William H. Forbes and Margaret Forbes Schroeder, 1923, 1926, 1946
  2. Letters from M. Gertrude Huckins to Edward W. Forbes, 1943-1944

Acquisition information

Gift of Beatrice F. Manz

  1. Accession number: 2019.148; 2018 December 24.

Related Material

In the Harvard University Archives
  1. Papers of Edward Waldo Forbes, 1956-1971 (HUGFP 139.xxx and HUGBF 656.xxx): the papers document the personal and professional life of Edward Waldo Forbes.
  2. Harvard University Photograph Collection: Portraits, approximately 1852-approximately 2004 (HUP): collection contains photographs of Edward Waldo Forbes.
In the Harvard Art Museum Archives
  1. Papers of Edward Waldo Forbes, 1867-2005 (HC 2): the papers document Edward Waldo Forbes’s administration of the Harvard Fogg Art Museum.
In the Countway Library of Medicine
  1. William H. Forbes Papers, 1941-1978 (H MS c323): the papers chronicle the personal and professional activities of William H. Forbes.

References

  • Forbes, Edward Waldo. Harvard Class of 1895, Fifth Report. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Printed for the Class, Crimson Printing Company, June 1915.
  • Forbes, Edward Waldo. Harvard Class of 1895, Fiftieth Anniversary Report. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Printed for the Class, 1945.
  • Forbes, William Hathaway. Harvard Class of 1923, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Printed for the Class, 1948.
  • Forbes, William Hathaway. Harvard Class of 1923, Fiftieth Anniversary Report. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Printed at the University, 1973.
  • Harvard University Biographical (i.e. “Quinquennial”) files, 1700- , Forbes, Edward Waldo. HUG 300, Harvard University Archives.

Inventory update

This document last updated 2022 July 20.

Processing Information

Edward W. Forbes personal correspondence processed in August 2019 by Dominic P. Grandinetti. Processing included rehousing the records into appropriate containers and the creation of this finding aid. Folder titles supplied by the archivist.

Title
Forbes, Edward W. (Edward Waldo), 1873-1969. Edward W. Forbes personal correspondence, 1923-1946: an inventory
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hua16019

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository

Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.

Contact:
Pusey Library
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Cambridge MA 02138 USA
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