Francis Henry Dart Collection
Scope and Contents
The Francis Henry Dart Collection is arranged into six series. Series 1 Biographical consists of Dart's account of his life titled "Myself " (typescript, 45 pages); his recollections of his parents (typescript, 6 pages); and his mother's autobiography (typescript, 9 pages). The typescripts (copies) recount the great hardships Dart faced as a pioneer in Kansas and the many financial and other difficulties that befell his family. He writes of his painting and efforts for an education.
Series 2 holds sixteen F.H. Dart diaries (1880, 1890, 1922‑35), an address book, and notes and orders for paintings. The 1890 diary contains brief accounts of his daily activities including study abroad. Series 3, Correspondence from F. Sidney Dart, comprises letters written by F.H. Dart’s son Sidney and his wife Clara while in Rhodesia, South Africa as missionaries. It also includes two copies of a compilation by Ruth Dart Smith, “From Rhodesia with Love: A Family Saga,” 1994. For additional correspondence by F.H.D. and his son and daughter-in-law, see the Little Family Papers.
Materials in Series four through six comprise original drawings, photographs and paintings by F.H. Dart, as well as later documentation of two Dart paintings by an Oberlin professor in 1984. The photographs include portraits of F.H. Dart and certain family members with one daguerreotype, one ambrotype and one tintype, and several photographic prints. The collection includes fifteen of Dart’s glass plate negatives, some of which are copy negatives, from which contact prints were made in the 1990s. There are a number of Dart’s photographs of his studio, both exterior and interior shots. The photographs of Dart’s paintings are especially useful as documentation of his artistic output. The largest number of photographs were taken in natural and scenic areas, some with persons engaged in recreational activities. These may have served as studies for paintings; the collection holds four landscape oil sketches from 1882-84 of areas in Brecksville and Birmingham, Ohio. An additional oil painting is a formal portrait of Helen M. Leonard, Dart’s mother.
Dates
- Creation: 1849 - 1984
- Creation: Majority of material found in 1849-1935
- Other: Date acquired: 1983 November 17
Creator
- Dart, Francis Henry, 1845-1935 (Person)
- Dart, Helen Mary Kellogg, 1825-1916 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Glass plate negatives restricted; cased images and paintings require special handling.
Biographial Sketch
Francis Henry Dart was born in Brecksville, Ohio, on August 1, 1845 to Duranson (1819-1878) and Helen Mary Kellogg Dart (1825-1916). He had two younger brothers, Benjamin West (1854-1878) and Sidney Kellogg (1875-1877). His family moved to Ilion, New York (near Saratoga Springs) when he was a child, but returned to Ohio before 1864, when Dart enrolled in the Preparatory Department and the College in Oberlin. During these years he also worked as a teacher in the local schools. In 1868, he had to leave Oberlin for financial reasons.
Dart spent the next few years, 1868-70, traveling around the country. He lived in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois, and Kansas, and kept sketchbooks of the sights he saw. Once again, Dart returned to Ohio, this time to Mt. Union College in Alliance, where he finished his education, receiving both AB (1877) and AM degrees (1880). In 1877, Dart took a job as a janitor in the Mount Union Art Museum where he eventually worked his way up to a position as curator (according to his account).
In 1879, Dart headed out West to mine for gold near Breckenridge, Colorado. His journals from this trip are filled with stories of adventures. Before long, he moved back to Oberlin in 1880, where he opened his first professional studio. That same year, he married Mary Tryphena Leonard (1856-1919, 1872-77 Prep. & Lit.), a former Oberlin College student (daughter of Harvey Leonard). The 1880s were good years for Dart, working as a successful landscape and portrait painter. In 1890, he moved to Paris to study art for a time, planning upon his return to open a school for painting and photography in Oberlin with A.C. Falor. While Dart was in Paris, Falor moved away from Oberlin. Dart decided to move to Saratoga Springs, New York, and owned a downtown studio for the next two years.
In 1892 he moved to Elmore, Ohio, where he farmed and painted. In 1900, Francis, Mary, and their two children, Francis Sidney (1882-1952) and Helen Maretta (1889-1957), moved for the last time—to Oberlin. Dart again opened a studio, and worked in Oberlin until his death in 1935 at the age of 89.
Sources Consulted
Haverstock, Mary Sayre, Jeannette Mahoney Vance, and Brian L. Meggitt, eds.Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary. Kent, OH & London: Kent State University Press, 2000.
Oberlin College Archives, RG 28 Alumni Records.
Note written by Roland M. Baumann.
Extent
5.22 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Method of Acquisition
The bulk of the materials were received from Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Dart, Claremont, California, in November 1983, and from John and Kay Dart, Maui, Hawaii, in August 1984. An 1883 diary of Francis Dart was received in 2014 [2014/044]. The ink drawing of Oberlin’s Music Hall was found in the general photographs record group (32/4) in 2015; as more items by Dart are discovered they will be transferred to the Francis Henry Dart Collection.
Accruals and Additions
Accession Nos: 1983/38, 1988/11, 1994/057, 2014/044
Genre / Form
- address books
- daguerreotypes
- diaries
- drawings (visual works)
- gelatin dry plate negatives
- glass plate negatives
- letters (correspondence)
- manuscripts
- paintings (visual works) -- oil paintings
- photographic prints
- photographs
- photographs -- ambrotypes
- photographs -- daguerreotypes
- photographs -- gelatin dry plate negatives
- photographs -- photographic prints
- photographs -- tintypes
- sketchbooks
Topical
- Title
- Francis Henry Dart Collection Finding Guide
- Author
- Roland M. Baumann, Anne Cuyler Salsich
- Date
- 1999 April 1
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 1999 April: Intitial arrangment and biographical sketch by Roland M. Baumann.
- 2015 April: Rearranged into series with additional description of visual materials by Anne Cuyler Salsich.
- 2024: Prepared for migration by Emily Rebmann and Lee Must.
Repository Details
Part of the Oberlin College Archives Repository
420 Mudd Center
148 West College Street
Oberlin OH 44074-1532 US
440-775-8014
440-775-8016 (Fax)
archive@oberlin.edu