Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collection
Graphic art, papers, and cookbook collection of Joseph and Elizabeth
Robins Pennell
View images from the collection
Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) launched his career as an illustrator
by
selling picturesque drawings of south Philadelphia to Scribner's
Monthly in 1881. Following the success of his sketches in New Orleans,
published in George W. Cable's book The Creoles of
Louisiana (1884), he married Elizabeth Robins (1855-1936), formerly his
collaborator on a Century magazine article. The couple moved to
London and became friends with the American artist James McNeill Whistler. Pennell,
a prolific artist and writer, experimented with new graphic techniques and sought
to draw critical attention to book illustration. His wife, a well-known columnist
and biographer, frequently collaborated with the artist on travel writings. The
couple returned to the United States in 1917, and Pennell taught for several
years at the Art Students' League in New York City. Through the Pennells' bequest,
the Library acquired their collection of books, manuscripts and graphic art,
some of which had been deposited as early as the 1910s. In addition, the Library
was provided with a special fund for the acquisition of modern
prints.
The Prints and Photographs
Division has copies of virtually all of Pennell's published
graphic works, approximately 1,885 prints. Included are his
famous series on Philadelphia and the Panama Canal as well
as "War Work in America," "War Work in England," and numerous
depictions of industrial and urban scenes in Europe and America.
The prints are listed in the fine prints card catalog and
in American Prints in the Library of Congress: A Catalog
of the Collection, (Baltimore: Published for the Library
of Congress by the Johns Hopkins Press, 1970) compiled by
Karen F. Beall and others. In addition, the division's copies
of Louis A. Wuerth's Catalogue of the Lithographs of
Joseph Pennell (Boston: Little, Brown, 1931) and Catalogue
of the Etchings of Joseph Pennell (Boston: Little,
Brown, 1928) are annotated to indicate collection holdings.
Available upon request are several hundred original drawings,
watercolors, etchings plates, books illustrated by the artist,
and miscellaneous works from the Pennell's private library.
The Pennells' bequest also brought to the Library their personal
papers, the papers of Mrs. Pennell's uncle Charles Godfrey
Leland (1824-1903), and their compilation
of Whistleriana -- a total of 94,000 items. An addition
2,600 items were acquired from 1969 to 1979. The Pennell papers
include correspondence with publishers, art dealers, and exhibitors;
letters from leading writers and artists of the period such
as Ford Madox Ford, Cass Gilbert, Henry James, Auguste Rodin,
and John Singer Sargent; private excahnges between the couple
written during the years 1883 to 1923; and a group of 400 letters
from Whistler. The papers also contain manuscripts and galley
proofs for their publications, research notes for their biography The
Life of James McNeill Whistler (1908), drafts for lectures,
sketches, drawings, and legal papers. The Manuscript
Division has prepared an unpublished finding aid for the
Pennell material.
Writing extensively on gastronomy,
Elizabeth Pennell amassed a
large collection of European
cookbooks. My Cookery
Books (New York: Houghton
Mifflin, 1903) is a personal
account of her cooking activities
and describes many of the 433
volumes on cookery from the
Pennell bequest in the Rare
Book and Special Collections
Division.
The collection is strongest
in French and Italian cookbooks
from the sixteenth through eighteenth
centuries and includes such
notable items as a fully illustrated
edition of Bartolomeo
Scappi's Opera (Venice:
1574). Also in the division
are 299 volumes of fine printing,
bibliography, and literature
from the Pennell library. Many
works are listed in a separate
author/title card file as well
as the division file.
Note: Information
for this entry was compiled
in the late
1970's for inclusion in: Special
Collections in the Library of
Congress: A Selective Guide.
Compiled by Annette Melville.
Washington, D.C.: Library of
Congress, 1980. The entry has
not been revised.
U.S. Library of Congress, Annual Report of the Librarian
of Congress, 1926, p. 3-5, 335-341; 1936, p. 159-160.
Crutcher, Anne. "So You Think YOUV'E Got a Lot of Cookbooks," The
Washington Star, October 27, 1976: D1, D4.
U.S. Congress, House Committee on the Library. Accept
Property Bequethed [sic] to United States by Josph Pennell
... Report to Accompany H.J. Res. 526 3 p. 74th Congress,
2d session. House. Rept. no. 2269.)
U.S. Library of Congress. Joseph Pennell Memorial Exhibition,
Catalogue (Washington: 1927).
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