Henry Clay Frick Papers, Series II: Correspondence

Henry Clay Frick's Correspondence series (1882-1929, and undated) consists chiefly of incoming letters, including circular letters, telegrams, statements, reports, memoranda, and notes, as well as enclosures and related material. In some cases, copies of Frick's outgoing responses are also included. Items in this series are arranged alphabetically, either by the last name of the correspondent, or by the name of the firm, organization, or publication (e.g. Chas. D. Barney and Co., Seamen's Church Institute, Princeton University, Scottdale Observer, etc.) In a handful of instances, materials are filed by subject (e.g. La Sarraz, Switzerland; painter Andrea del Sarto, etc.) Topics discussed in Frick's correspondence vary widely, and include business dealings, investments, art collecting, philanthropy, politics, real estate, and family matters.

The earliest items in this series date from 1882, and include correspondence with Andrew Carnegie and the distillery A. Overholt & Co. From the 1880s through the 1910s, though, Frick corresponded with a wide array of industrialists, bankers, investment firms, executives, and managers, and was a frequent correspondent with members of the Phipps, Mellon, Morgan, and Rockefeller families. Frick's principal business activities were in the areas of coal and coke, iron, steel, and railroads. Materials pertaining to these concerns may be found either under the name of the corporate entity or under the names of individual executives. For instance, in addition to the correspondence filed under Carnegie Steel Co., additional letters can be found under Andrew Carnegie, Millard Hunsiker, A.L. Griffin, J. Ogden Hoffman, F.T.F. Lovejoy, H.M. Curry, and John C. Fleming. Similarly, H.C. Frick Coke Co. correspondence also appears under the names Thomas Lynch, Robert Ramsay, and W.C. Magee. Other executives in the coke, steel, and railroad industries with whom Frick corresponded include Jay C. Morse, W.L. Brown, W.H. Donner, Elbert H. Gary, J.W. Gates, E.B. Leinsenring, Samuel Mather, George W. Perkins, Morris Ramsay, Josiah V. Thompson, and A.R. Whitney, as well as Alexander J. Cassatt, Samuel Rea, William H. Joyce, James McCrea, and John S. Wilson, all of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Examples of industrialists and bankers associated with Frick are Henry G. Morse, Carl C. Law, F.W. Haskell, S.L. Schoonmaker, H.C. McEldowney, and E.B. Morris. Also documented in this series are Frick's investments at various brokerage houses, largely through statements and transactional correspondence with firms such as Lee, Kretschmar and Co., Boissevain and Co., Charles Smith and Sons, James D. Smith and Co., and Kuhn, Loeb and Co.

Letters to Frick on the subject of art collecting range from offers of paintings and other objects available for purchase, to requests to visit Frick's gallery, to transactional correspondence regarding the purchase, framing, conservation, insurance and transport of paintings. Such letters are filed under the names of his principal art dealers, M. Knoedler and Co. and Charles Carstairs, as well as under Duveen Brothers, through whom Frick made acquisitions from J.P. Morgan's estate among other purchases, Roger Fry, who assisted Frick in the acquisition of Rembrandt's Polish Rider and also alerted Frick to the availability of other works, and Arthur Tooth & Son, through whom Frick purchased his first old master painting. Additional correspondents who wrote about acquisitions or possible acquisitions include Alice Creelman, Virginia P. Bacon, James H. Dunn, H. Silva White, Julius Oehme, and Jacques Seligmann, among numerous others. An index of works offered to Frick in these files is available, and additional art correspondence can be found in the Henry Clay Frick Papers, Series I: Art Files and in the Henry Clay Frick Art Collection Files in this repository.

Correspondence on philanthropic matters documents Frick's contributions to museums and other cultural institutions, colleges and universities, hospitals, churches, and civic organizations. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, American Museum of Natural History, the American Academy in Rome, Harvard University and its Arnold Arboretum, Princeton University, from which Frick's son Childs graduated in 1905, and Columbia University. Materials may be filed under the name of the institution, but can also appear under the names of officials and administrators, as in the case of John Grier Hibben of Princeton University, and Nicholas M. Butler of Columbia University. Notable civic organizations in receipt of Frick's assistance were the Pittsburgh Newsboys' Home, Pittsburgh Association for the Improvement of the Poor, Kingsley House Association, and the Henry Clay Frick Educational Commission, founded by Frick in 1909 with the assistance of Pittsburgh astronomer John Brashear.

In addition to his interests in business and art, Frick's papers also document his political activities. Though he himself never held office, he was a strong supporter of the Republican Party, and took an interest in both national politics and those in Pennsylvania, where he maintained legal residency and returned to cast his ballot annually. Frick had prominent political connections, as evidenced by correspondence with Senators Boies Penrose, M.S. Quay, and Philander Chase Knox (later a cabinet member to Presidents Roosevelt and Taft), Representative Edward E. Robbins, and Judge Joseph Buffington, Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary, Leslie M. Shaw, and Roosevelt's personal White House secretary, William Loeb, Jr. Frick's correspondence contains letters to and/or from all U.S. Presidents from Harrison through Wilson, though in some instances there is only a letter or two. The bulk of Frick's presidential correspondence is with Theodore Roosevelt, through whom Frick donated a painting to the White House in 1903. Topics discussed in Frick's political correspondence include campaign contributions, nominations and appointments, and the political climate of the time. Local politics and civic matters are also discussed, especially in the letters of H.D.W. English, Frank F. Nicola, and Pittsburgh mayor William A. Magee.

Frick's correspondence concerning real estate details the acquisition, improvement, and administration of property, whether for the family's personal use, or for commercial, industrial, or rental purposes. Of note is his correspondence with various architects of the period, including F.J. Osterling and F.E. Alden, who undertook projects at the Frick residence in Pittsburgh; Little & Browne, who designed the Frick house in Prides Crossing, Mass.; Thomas Hastings, architect of the Frick family's New York residence; Daniel Burnham, who designed the Frick Building in downtown Pittsburgh as well as the Frick monument in Homewood Cemetery; and Hunt & Hunt, who made alterations to the Vanderbilt mansion in New York during the time of the Frick family's residency there. Files of letters to and from George Lockhart Allen, a real estate and insurance broker based in Salem, Mass., document the acquisition of land for Frick's Prides Crossing estate, relations with his neighbors, and the social climate of the area at that time. Another correspondent of note, D.B. Kinch, was at times responsible for the administration of the Frick Building in Pittsburgh, and superintending the construction of the Frick residence in New York.

These letters sometimes give insight into Frick's personal interests and hobbies, especially those items documenting his memberships in various sporting, social, and fraternal organizations, as well as in correspondence with C.L. Charley, a Parisian auto dealer who imported cars for Frick, and the naval architectural firm of Tams, Lemoine and Crane, through whom he chartered a yacht just after the turn of the century. These papers also document aspects of Frick's private life and the operation of his office and household through correspondence with his immediate family (his wife Adelaide, son Childs, and daughter Helen Clay), members of the extended Frick, Childs, and Overholt families, employees at his various residences, and office staff in New York and Pittsburgh.