Papers of Jessie Tarbox Beals, 1866-1989 (inclusive), 1880-1942 (bulk)

The papers of Jessie Tarbox Beals include her own papers, as well as those of her family members. The collection includes diaries; correspondence; autograph and photograph albums; poems; essays and other writing; volumes of Beals' photograph lists and prices; printed material, much of it related to bohemian Greenwich Village; ephemera and memorabilia; and audio recordings. Family papers also include letters from Beals's sister Grace Tarbox, a missionary in Venezuela from 1896 to 1907, and brother Edward Tarbox, a missionary with wife Maude in Ecuador in 1898-1899.

Jessie Tarbox Beals's papers and photographs were given to the Schlesinger Library by her daughter, Nanette Beals Brainerd, beginning in 1982. A preliminary inventory for accessions 82-M122 and 83-M38 was created in 1988 by Jane S. Knowles. Some of that material was microfilmed (see below). All photographs (including family photographs) were arranged in a separate collection (PC 60), and most of Beals' house and garden photographs were given to the Frances Loeb Library at the Harvard School of Design. Later accessions came periodically from Nanette, with some material in identifying envelopes, some loose. Family photographs and other photographs by Beals from later accessions will eventually be described as part of PC 60. Nanette Beals Brainerd's identifying notes (primarily in green pen) can be found on documents throughout the collection. Folder headings were assigned by the archivist. Correspondence is generally filed by recipient.

Series I, JESSIE TARBOX BEALS, 1875-1984 (#1.1-8.2, 11.9m, 12.1m, M-124, F+D.1-F+D.3, F+D.5, OD.1, PD.1sl), includes material related to Beals's teaching career and her life as a photojournalist and portraitist, as well as personal and family correspondence, printed material, and ephemera. The series is arranged in five subseries.

Subseries A, Biographical and personal, 1875-1979 (#1.1-2.11, M-124, F+D.1-F+D.3, F+D.5, OD.1), includes vital records (including birth, death, and marriage certificates and divorce decree); biographical information; a childhood autograph book; ephemera; printed material; a cookbook and other material related to Beals's time teaching school classes in Williamsburg and Greenfield, Massachusetts; address books; etc. A diary page tells the partial story of Beals' beginnings in photojournalism as she took photographs of a city fire in Jacksonville, Florida. While some printed material collected by Beals dates to her early life in Canada and Massachusetts, most is about bohemian Greenwich Village in the 1910s and 1920s. Most of the clippings received in 1982 and 1983 were arranged by topic and then microfilmed (see below for details). Microfilmed material includes clippings about Beals's photo exhibitions (1926, 1946, 1976); examples of her photojournalism (1902-1942); a scrapbook of magazine clippings of her house and garden photos (1929-1932); clippings, invitations, programs, etc., re: Beals's work and other activities (1904-1979). Several folders of material were retained after microfilming and are also included. Address books are mainly for the city listed; some also include contacts in other cities. Some of the biographical clippings in this series may also have been microfilmed (M-124). The subseries is arranged by type of material, with biographical information first, followed by diaries, recipes, and collected printed material, then by teaching material, address books, etc.

Subseries B, Poems and other writings, ca.1905-1950 (#2.12-4.1), contains typescript and handwritten poems, several essays, and drafts of lectures written by Beals. Some poems from the 1920s are written on the back of menus for Mori Restaurant, at 144 Bleecker Street, and a few other Greenwich Village eateries. Mori's menus were handwritten from 1920 to 1922, later ones were printed. A few of Beals' poems were accepted for publication in small periodicals. In 1928, she published Songs of a Wanderer, which was privately printed in an edition of 200, and illustrated with her own photos. Other writings include drafts and final copies of Beals' comments on gardens, Greenwich Village, etc., many prepared for lectures or radio broadcasts. Beals' writings on photography can be found in #7.15-7.19. The subseries is arranged with poems first, then other writings. Poems are arranged by date, if known. Dates were determined either by a date written on the poem or by the address typed or written on the poem. A few poems written by others (some addressed to, or about, Beals) are filed at the end of the subseries.

Subseries C, Correspondence, 1880-1942 (#4.2-5.6), includes letters written to Beals, as well as a few letters she wrote to others. Letters Beals wrote to other members of her family can be found in Series II and III; her professional correspondence about photography is in Subseries D. Letters from sister Grace discuss her life as a missionary in Venezuela. Several letters from brother Edward discuss his photography business in Boone, Iowa. Alfred Beals' courtship letters describe his bike trips around New England and research on photographic chemicals, etc. Several letters from World War I soldiers are in response to letters Beals wrote to them. Letters written by Beals are arranged first, followed by letters to her from family members, then general incoming letters.

Subseries D, Photography, 1888-1984 (#5.7-7.20, 11.9m, 12.1m), contains material relating to Beals's career as a photojournalist and portrait and garden photographer. It includes a scrapbook primarily about the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, memorabilia, press passes, correspondence, etc., from her early days as a professional photojournalist. Daybooks dating from 1926 to 1942 include daily lists of photographic transactions along with photograph numbers, and are arranged (by Beals) by subject and organization. Professional correspondence is generally about assignments, with a few orders for photographs. The subseries is arranged by type of material, with memorabilia and correspondence first, followed by volumes with lists of photographs and financial recordings, pamphlets with printed Beals's photographs and writings about Beals's published photographs, then Beals' notes and writings on photography.

Subseries E, Alfred Tennyson Beals and Beals family, 1904-1970 (#8.1-8.2, PD.1sl) contains material regarding Alfred's photography career, and genealogical information about his family. For Alfred's courtship letters to Jessie Tarbox Beals, see #4.12. See #10.8 for his letters to Nanette Beals Brainerd and obituary.

Series II, TARBOX FAMILY, 1866-1989 (inclusive), 1875-1912 (bulk) (#8.3-9.13, F+D.4), includes family correspondence, clippings, genealogical information, several autograph and scrapbooks of Grace Tarbox, etc. Letters to individual family members are grouped by writer. Some Bassett family papers (Marie Tarbox's family) can be found in Subseries C. The series is arranged in three subseries.

Subseries A, Marie Antoinette and John Nathaniel Tarbox, 1866-1899 (#8.3-8.11, F+D.4), contains letters from the Tarbox children, financial documents, and obituaries. Letters from Jessie Tarbox Beals describe her time at the 1893 Chicago Columbian Expedition and her trip home to Massachusetts through Canada. For letters her parents wrote to Beals, see #4.4-4.8. Letters from Grace Tarbox discuss her missionary work in Venezuela beginning in 1896; letters from Edward Tarbox and his wife Maude describe their own missionary work in Ecuador beginning in 1898. The subseries is arranged with incoming letters first, then other material.

Subseries B, Grace Tarbox, 1875-1907 (#8.12v-9.5), includes correspondence, a diary, a photograph album, a scrapbook, and an obituary. Letters to Grace were sent to her during her missionary work in Venezuela; a diary describes her trip from New York to Caracas. A photograph album and scrapbook are from Grace's youth in Canada, and contain some material from her missionary training at Bible Institutes. Some of the material found loose in the scrapbook seems as if it were put there later by Beals. The subseries is arranged chronologically.

Subseries C, Other Tarbox family and Bassett family, 1877-1989 (#9.6-9.13), includes correspondence and genealogical information. Some Bassett family genealogy was collected by Beals, the rest was compiled after her death by Nanette Brainerd and Beals's cousin Bertha Grace Bassett Jackson.

Series III, NANETTE BEALS BRAINERD, 1911-1989 (#9.14v-11.7), contains a baby book, school documents, correspondence, and notes. Brainerd's baby book was kept by her mother, Jessie Tarbox Beals, and includes photographs, letters, poems, lists of words spoken, etc. Nanette was often sick as a child and resided either in hospitals or at boarding schools in the country for much of her early years. Letters from her parents thus begin while she is a young child. For her mother's letters about a 1926 Panama trip, see #10.5-10.6. Letters Brainerd wrote to her mother, as a child and later, can be found in #4.14-4.15. Other correspondence includes condolences on her mother's death, and shows Nanette's continuing attempts to publish and exhibit Jessie's photographs after her death; and congratulatory letters re: Nanette's marriage to Henry Bowen Brainerd and the birth of their first child. It is arranged with personal material first, followed by correspondence and Brainerd's notes.

Series IV, MEMORABILIA, OVERSIZED, AND AUDIOVISUAL, 1875-1941 (#11.8m-12m.1, FD.1-FD.2, F+D.1-F+D.7, OD.1-OD.3, SD.1, Phon-51.1-Phon-51.2), includes Jessie Tarbox Beals' first camera, fliers and invitations to Greenwich Village parties, and a recording of Beals reading her poetry. It is arranged in three subseries by format.

Subseries A, Memorabilia, 1888-1904, n.d. (#11.8m-12m.1), includes Beals's first camera, her press pass from the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, coins representing the first money she earned from teaching and from elocution, and a cloth marker from a Bassett family Bible. The subseries is arranged chronologically.

Subseries B, Oversized, 1875-1941 (#FD.1-FD.2, F+D.1-F+D.7, OD.1-OD.3, SD.1), includes material listed and described in the previous series, and sheet music. This subseries serves as a shelflist for the oversized material.

Subseries C, Audiovisual, 1940 (#Phon-51.1-Phon-51.2), contains two 78rpm records recorded on April 18, 1940. One is a recording of Jessie Tarbox Beals reading several of her poems; the other includes Beals speaking as well as a song, "Oh Bobby," sung by Ruth Machat Halperin and Bobby Machat.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be cataloged in VIA, Harvard University's Visual Information Access database. Others, referred to as "uncataloged" photographs, are not of sufficient research interest to warrant cataloging and are simply treated as part of the documents they accompany; they are marked on the back with an asterisk in square brackets [*].