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Collection Data
- Description
- Eugenia Hughes (1909-1964) was an artist who lived in Greenwich Village, New York City. She was born in Pennsylvania and moved to New York in the mid-1930s. Collection contains correspondence, diaries, art work, writings, family papers, photographs, memorabilia of Hughes and her family, and printed matter. Family correspondence, 1861-1963, consists of letters among family members. General correspondence, 1902-1936, contains letters to Hughes and to her father, Roy V. Hughes (also an artist), from friends and includes many love letters. Complementing the correspondence are Eugenia Hughes's diaries, 1921-1964; a 1900 diary of her mother, Josephine Gosline; a 1950 diary of Roy Hughes; sketches and watercolor studies by Roy and Eugenia Hughes; exhibition catalogs; Eugenia Hughes's notes and writings; family papers; photographs of family and friends; personal memorabilia; ephemera; and clippings.
- Names
- Hughes, Eugenia, 1909-1964 (Creator)
- Hughes, Eugenia, 1909-1964 (Compiler)
- Hughes, Josephine Gosline (Creator)
- Hughes, Roy V (Creator)
- McLeary, Kindred (Contributor)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1861 - 1969
- Library locations
- Manuscripts and Archives Division
- Shelf locator: MssCol 1460
- Topics
- Artists
- Greenwich Village (New York, N.Y.)
- New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs
- Painting, American
- Bowman family
- Gosselin family
- Hughes family
- Genres
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Diaries
- Drawings
- Illustrations
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Eugenia Hughes (1909-1964) was born in Dormont, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Roy V, Hughes and Josephine Gosline Hughes. Her father was an artist and newspaper illustrator for the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times who moved to Greenwich Village, New York City to find work as an artist. Eugenia joined him in the mid-1930s and both remained long-time Village residents (with frequent returns to Pennsylvania for financial and health reasons).
- Content: The papers contain correspondence, diaries, photographs, art work, and memorabilia which document the life of a single woman and a widower from the 1930s to the 1960s, their social and romantic involvements with the artistic community in Greenwich Village and Pennsylvania, and three generations of the Hughes, Gosline, and Bowman families. The Family Correspondence (1861-1963) contains numerous letters exchanged among Eugenia, her parents, grandparents, aunts, and other relatives. Included are letters between Roy Hughes and Josephine Gosline during their courtship. The letters between Roy and Eugenia are rich in detail about the life of a struggling artist, the social life of New York City, and the relationship between father and daughters. The correspondence is arranged by name of recipient or sender. The General Correspondence (1902-1963) contains letters to Eugenia and Roy Hughes primarily from their friends during the 1930s-1950s, many of whom were artists. Some of Eugenia's letters are also present. Many love letters can be found as Eugenia was romantically involved with several of the correspondents. Most of the letters are arranged by correspondent with unarranged letters filed by chronological period. Included are letters of WPA muralist Kindred McLeary. Complementing the correspondence are Eugenia's diaries (1921-1964), a 1900 diary of Josephine Gosline, and a 1950 diary of Roy Hughes, art work by Roy and Eugenia exhibition catalogues listing their contributions, Eugenia's notes and writings, family and personal memorabilia, ephemera, financial and legal papers, clippings, and an extensive collection of photographs of Eugenia, her family, and friends. The majorities of the photographs have captions prepared by Eugenia Hughes which identify persons mentioned in the correspondence and clarify some family relationships. Predominantly from the 1900s to the 1950s.
- Physical Description
- Wet collodion negatives
- Watercolors
- Negatives
- Extent: 6.6 linear feet (14 boxes)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Identifiers
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b11868627
- MSS Unit ID: 1460
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 4cc4f970-e2c6-0136-809e-438ff09d9b8d
