Guide to the Helen Hyde Papers MS 1085
Finding aid prepared by California Historical Society staff; revised by Mary
Morganti, 2009.
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
2001, 2009
Collection Summary
Title: Helen Hyde papers
Date (inclusive): 1881-1953
Collection Number: MS 1085
creator:
Hyde, Helen, 1868-1919.
creator:
Gillette, Edwin F.
Physical Description:
3 boxes
(1.75 Linear feet)
Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English with small amount of Japanese.
Abstract: Contains two diaries (1881-1882) kept by Hyde at age 13,
which primarily focus on everyday life of a well-educated daughter of a prosperous
family, including social visits, art and dancing lessons, birthday and holiday
celebrations as well as the death of her father and President Garfield's
assassination. Also includes letters written to her family while living and working
in Japan (1912-1914), sketches and sketchbooks (1892-1917), and etchings (1898),
along with records of her prints and exhibits, account books for prints sold,
printed catalogs and art journals, Hyde's Tokyo guest book (1906-1914) and other
personal memorabilia, and newspaper clippings.
Information for Researchers
Access
Publication Rights
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection
materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Library and
Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678
Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Consent is given on behalf of the
California Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not
intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such
permission must be obtained from the copyright owner.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use
of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Helen Hyde Papers, MS 1085, California Historical
Society.
Related Collections
William Birelie Hyde Letters (typed transcripts), [undated]. MS 1077, California
Historical Society. Originals at Stanford University.
Augusta Bixler Farms Records, 1876-1970. MS 202B, California Historical
Society.
Separated Materials
Photographs shelved as MSP 1085.
Engraving tools transferred to Cultural Materials Collection, CHS.Certificate
transferred to the Certificate Collection, CHS.
Original print by Taylor & Taylor transferred to the Kemble Collection,
CHS.
Certificate transferred to the Certificate Collection, CHS.
Accruals
No accruals are expected.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Account books.
Americans--Foreign countries.
Artists.
Diaries.
Japan--Description and travel.
Prints.
Women artists--California.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The Helen Hyde Papers were given to the California Historical Society by William
Hyde Irwin in 1972.
Accruals
No additions are expected.
Processing Information
Processed by California Historical Society staff.
Biographical Information
Helen Hyde was born in Lima, N.Y. and spent her girlhood in San Francisco. As a young
woman, she lived in France, Germany and Japan, either studying art or as a
practicing artist. She died in Pasadena, Calif., in 1919 and is buried at Mountain
View Cemetery in Oakland, Calif.
During her early years as an artist, Hyde maintained a studio in the home of her
“Aunt Gussie” at 2845 Pierce, on the corner of Pierce and Union Streets. She was a
member of a prosperous and talented family. Her grandfather, Oliver Hyde, Jr.
(1814-1901) was a self-taught engineer who traveled overland to California in 1852
and settled in Benicia. He established the first foundry in the Territory of Nevada.
His son, William Birelie Hyde, married Marietta Butler of Lima, N.Y. and later
settled in California, where he worked as an engineer during the years 1870-1880. He
died in Idaho at the age of 40, when Helen was 13 years old. Following his death,
his sister Augusta Hyde Storer Bixler (“Aunt Gussie”) helped to keep the Hyde family
together and financed Hyde’s interest in art. Mrs. Bixler accompanied Hyde to New
York, where she began her first formal study at the Art Students’ League.
Hyde continued her studies in Berlin under Skarbina; in Paris under Raphael Collins
and Albert Sterner; and in Japan under Kano Tomonoki, a master of brush painting.
With the exception of a print of the Golden Gate Bridge made from her Pierce St.
studio, Hyde confined her work to Chinese, Japanese and Mexican subjects, with
particular emphasis on women and children. She worked in many media, including
etchings, woodcuts, aquatints, oils, watercolors, and pastels. Hyde’s application of
color to woodcuts and etchings attracted attention and enhanced her reputation.
Etched prints were limited to runs of 100, each printed, signed and numbered by the
artist.
The letters which Hyde sent home from Japan during the Russo-Japanese War were also
printed in the San Francisco Argonaut. In collaboration with her sister Mable Hyde
Gillette, she wrote and illustrated a child’s nonsense book patterned after Lewis
Carroll’s work. It was published in San Francisco by A. M. Robertson but was lost in
the fire that followed the earthquake of 1906. She illustrated another book, Moon
Babies, with verses by G. Orr Clark, as well as Jingles from Japan, with verses by
Mabel Hyde Gillette.
Nearly complete sets of Hyde’s work can be found in the California State Library, the
Carnegie Library in Pittsburg, PA, and the Library of Congress. There are also
collections in the New York Public Library, the Chicago Art Institute, and the
University of Oregon.
Scope and Contents
Contains two diaries (1881-1882) kept by Hyde at age 13, which primarily focus on
everyday life of a well-educated daughter of a prosperous family, including social
visits, art and dancing lessons, birthday and holiday celebrations as well as the
death of her father and President Garfield’s assassination. Also includes letters
written to her family while living and working in Japan (1912-1914), sketches and
sketchbooks (1892-1917), and etchings (1898), along with records of her prints and
exhibits, account books for prints sold, printed catalogs and art journals, Hyde’s
Tokyo guest book (1906-1914) and other personal memorabilia, and newspaper
clippings.
Includes papers of Hyde's brother-in-law, Edwin F. Gillette, pertaining to the
management of Hyde's estate after her death. These include her estate book,
institutional gifts negotiated by him (1919-1936), catalogs, and sales and exhibits
of Hyde's work, primarily arranged by Gillette.
Box 1, Folder 2
Letter to her sister, Mrs. Will Irwin, on birth of son
1903 November 3
Box 1, Folder 3-5
Letters from Japan
1912-1913
Box 1, Folder 6
Letter from China
1913 August 19
Box 1, Folder 9
Miscellaneous letters and postcards and letter from The Authors
League of America
1918 March 29, undated
Box 1, Folder 10-11
Records of prints
1898-1918
Box 1, Folder 12
Record of work done
1907-1919
Box 2, Folder 14
Edwin F. Gillette list of prints
1936
Box 2, Folder 17
Orders for prints
1909-1914
Box 2, Folder 19
Prints sold
1913, undated
Box 2, Folder 21
Gifts of collections
after 1919
Box 2, Folder 22
Exhibits, sales and catalogs
after 1919
Box 2, Folder 23
Listing of exhibitions
1912-1918
Box 2, Folder 24
Copyright records
1909-1918
Box 3, Folder 25
Tokyo guest book
1906-1914
Box 3, Folder 26
Miscellaneous memorabilia
1913, undated
Box 3, Folder 27-28
Printed references relating to Helen Hyde
1900-1937, undated
Box 3, Folder 29
Newspaper clippings
1899-1922
Box 3, Folder 30
Newspaper clippings relating to the Japanese Empress’
death
1914
Box 3, Folder 39-41
Sketches
1906-1912, undated
Box 3, Folder 42
Color etchings
1898, undated
Including “The Borrowed Umbrella,” “Plum Blossom,” “Little One Two,” “The
Mandarin,” and “Cat and The Cherub”
