Charles Coleman Sellers Collection, American Philosophical Society

Table of contents

Abstract

The collection of Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980) contains copious and detailed documentation of the art of Charles Willson Peale and his family. It consists of working files for Sellers's numerous publications, including his Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale (1952); Charles Willson Peale with Patron and Populace (1969); C. W. Peale's Portraits of Washington (1951); Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (1962); Mr. Peale's Museum (1980).

Most files include photographs of the art work, notes on the piece, and correspondence with authorities or owners. Other series include one relating to the paintings of various other Peales, including Anna C., James, Mary Jane, Raphaelle, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Sarah Miriam, and a miscellaneous artist file, which includes the same type of material and information on many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artists, including Thomas Eakins, George Healy, Robert Edge Pine, William Rush, Thomas Sully, Benjamin West, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, etc. There is a separate Sellers collection at Dickinson College, primarily personal in nature.

Background note
Scope & content
Administrative information
Additional information
- Related material
- Bibliography
Added entries
Contact information
Collection inventory
- Series I. Charles Willson Peale Portraits & Miniatures
- Series. II. Mr. Peale's Museum
- Series III. Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture
- Series IV. Washington Portraits
- Series V. Paintings by the Peales
- Series VI. Artists' File
- Series VII. Correspondence
- Series VIII. Miscellaneous materials

Background note

Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980) was a noted historian of early America, best known for his numerous works on the life and artistic production of the family of his own great-grandfather, Charles Willson Peale. Born in Overbrook, Pa., in 1903, Sellers attended Haverford College (1925) and Harvard (MA 1926), before taking a position as librarian at Wesleyan College (1937-1949) and, later, Dickinson College (1956-1968). For several years in the late 1940s, Sellers worked at the American Philosophical Society as Research Associate.

Sellers's numerous books and articles focused largely on the voluminous artistic output of the Peale family and on the Peale Museum, an important site in the early Republic for presenting natural history to the general public. Sellers also conducted research on Benjamin Franklin and others among the Peales' contemporaries. He was awarded the Bancroft Prize in 1970 for his work on Peale and was elected to membership in the APS in 1979. He died in 1980 while on a visit to Australia.

Scope and content

The Sellers Collection consists of the working file of the historian, Charles Coleman Sellers, pertaining to his research on the artistic oevre of Charles Willson Peale and his family. The Collection is organized in seven series, corresponding roughly to Sellers's publications on the subject, plus a series containing general notes on other contemporary artists and a small miscellaneous correspondence file.


Series I	Charles Willson Peale Portraits and Miniatures	7 linear feet
Series II	Mr. Peale's Museum	3 linear feet
Series III	Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture	0.5 linear feet
Series IV	Washington Portraits	1 linear foot
Series V	Paintings by the Peales	4 linear feet
Series VI	Artist File	1 linear foot
Series VII	Correspondence	1 linear foot
Series VIII	Miscellaneous materials	19 items; 2.5 linear feet

Administrative information

Restrictions

Photographs of portraits owned privately or owned by other institutions can not be reproduced.

Provenance

Gift of the estate of Charles Coleman Sellers, 1980 (accession number 1980-276ms).

Preferred citation

Cite as: Charles Coleman Sellers Collection, American Philosophical Society.

Additional information

Related material

Several collections of papers pertaining to the Peale Family are housed at the APS, and these have been issued as a microfiche set, Lillian B. Miller, ed., The Collected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus Microform, 1980).

There is a Sellers collection at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., primarily personal in nature.

References

Sellers, Charles Coleman, "Charles Willson Peale's Portraits of Washington," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (February 1951). Call no.: 920 Pam. 133.

Sellers, Charles Coleman, Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale, APS Transactions 42 (1952). Call no.: 506.73 Am4t

Sellers, Charles Coleman, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (New Haven: Yale, 1962). Call no.: B F85se.

Sellers, Charles Coleman, Charles Willson Peale with Patron and Populace, APS Transactions 59 (1969). Call no.: 506.73 Am4t

Sellers, Charles Coleman, Mr. Peale's Museum (N.Y.: Norton, 1980). Call no.: B P31se