Charis Wilson journal, letters, and notes documenting the Whitman trip with Edward Weston
Finding aid prepared by Brooke M. Black
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
© 2016
The Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Charis Wilson journal, letters, and notes documenting the Whitman trip with Edward Weston
Inclusive Dates: 1936-2009
Bulk Dates: 1941-1942
Collection Number: mssWilsonjournal
Creator OR Collector:
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009
Extent:
202 items in two boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection contains the journal, letters, and notes documenting the Whitman trip Charis Wilson took with photographer
Edward Weston.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Administration Information
Access
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please go to following
web site .
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Charis Wilson journal, letters, and notes documenting the Whitman trip with Edward Weston, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Acquisition Information
The collection was purchased from Rachel Harris, Charis Wilson's daughter, by the Library Collector's Council in January 2003.
Rachel Harris later gave more material in August 2014.
Biography
Widely known as photographer Edward Weston’s model and muse, Charis Wilson (1914-2009) was also a writer. She was born in
San Francisco in 1914. She met Weston in Carmel, California in 1934, and they started a romantic relationship shortly thereafter.
In 1937 Weston received a Guggenheim Fellowship and he and Wilson spent the year traveling around California and the American
West. While Weston made pictures, Wilson kept a detailed journal of their experiences. In 1939 they married, and, in 1940
California and the West. In 1941 Weston was asked to take photographs to illustrate a Limited Edition Club edition of Walt
Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Weston and Wilson traveled the United States by automobile for two years to complete both the Guggenheim
and the Whitman projects. They divorced in 1946 and Wilson married labor activist Noel Harris. Harris and she had two daughters
before divorcing in 1967. Wilson’s memoir, Through Another Lens was published in 1999. She died in Santa Cruz, California
in 2009.
Scope and Content
This small collection includes Charis Wilson’s typed journal for the eight-month trip she and Weston took during 1941 for
the “Whitman” tour as well as supporting material including correspondence, the trip itinerary, notes, photographs, letters
of introduction for Weston, newspaper clippings, brochures and miscellaneous ephemera, a negative list, and a list of illustrations
for Leaves of Grass with Whitman quotations selected by Wilson. The journal typescript draft contains two black and white
photographs.
Also included is correspondence between Weston, Wilson, George Macy, and Merle Armitage regarding the Limited Editions Club
project as well as letters Weston and Wilson received during the “Whitman” trip. Among the authors of letters of introduction
for Weston are photographer and curator, Beaumont Newhall, and artist Charles Sheeler.
The material was kept in the order in which it came to the Huntington Library. The original folders were also retained (if
present).
The Huntington Library also has Charis Wilson’s journal (typescript) from her and Edward Weston’s Guggenheim-funded trip throughout
California and the West in 1937 to 1939, which resulted in the book California and the West. Call number: HM 51997
Indexing Terms
Personal Names
Armitage, Merle, 1893-1975
Macy, George
Moe, Henry Allen, 1894-1975
Newhall, Beaumont, 1908-1993
Pearce, Charles A., 1906-1970
Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965
Weston, Edward, 1886-1958
Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. Leaves of grass
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009
Corporate Names
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Limited Editions Club
Subjects
Photographers -- United States
Genre
Diaries -- United States -- 20th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century
Notes -- United States -- 20th century
Photographs -- United States -- 20th century
Photographs -- United States -- 21st century
Box 1
Charis Wilson's Journal and Supporting Material
Folder 1
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009. Journal: typescript, draft
(1941, May 27-1942, Jan. 15)
Includes handwritten edits, notes in pencil, and sketches, presumably by the author, as well as two black and white photographs.
232 pages. 1 item. Supporting material in next six folders.
Folder 2
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009. Journal Entries pp. 1-32
(1941, May 28-June 27)
Includes travel to Arizona & New Mexico. Includes letters of introduction from Ramsen Bird, President of American Colleges
Assn.; Arthur E. Hohmann, L.A. Chief of Police; Leonard Reed, General Mgr., Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; Henry A. Moe,
Guggenheim Foundation; Philip Townsend Hanna, Automobile Club of Southern California; George Macy, President, Limited Editions
Club. 14 items.
Folder 3
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009. Journal Entries pp. 33-74
(1941, June 28-Aug. 2)
Travel through New Mexico and Texas. 10 items. Includes seven photographs labeled “Renaud family photos and …?”
Folder 4
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009. Journal Entries pp. 75-96
(1941, Aug. 3-Aug. 20)
Travel through Texas and Louisiana. 9 items.
Folder 5
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009. Journal Entries pp. 97-128
(1941, Aug. 21-Sep. 12)
Travel through Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio. 7 items.
Folder 6
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009. Journal Entries pp. 129-166
(1941, Sep. 13-Oct. 26)
Also includes material for unpaginated journal entries. Travel through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Connecticut.
18 items. Includes two letters by Charis Wilson to Pete Fusco and related newspaper clipping (1978).
Folder 7
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009. Journal Entries pp. 167-197
(1941, Oct. 27-1942, Jan. 15)
Unpaginated journal entries. Travel through New York, New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, New
Mexico. 27 items.
Box 2
Correspondence, Notes, etc.
Folder 1
Correspondence between George Macy, Merle Armitage, Edward Weston, and Charis Wilson regarding Limited Editions Club project
(1941, Feb. 17-1942, Mar. 18)
Contains 90 items including drafts, carbons, and some photocopies of original letters; includes two original Edward Weston
letters. 90 items.
Folder 2
Correspondence received by Edward Weston and Charis Wilson while on the road during the Whitman trip
(1941-1942)
Correspondents include Mary McMeen (housesitter; 11 letters); Bea Prendergast (6 letters); George Zilliac (1 letter); “Zim”
(1 letter). 23 items.
Folder 3
Letters of Introduction
(1939-1941)
Typescript including names, addresses, and letters of introduction for the journey. Includes two letters from Beaumont and
Nancy Newhall; one letter from Charles Sheeler. 49 items.
Folder 4
Charis Wilson and Wendy Madar’s notes related to the pre-Whitman trip preparations
(1940-1941)
4 items. Includes notes from 1996.
Folder 5
Reading list suggestions from Charles Pearce of Duell, Sloane, and Pearce
(1941)
Folder 6
Leaves of Grass Negative List
(1941)
Lists 667 negatives. 2 pages contain instructions from EW to Brett – pp. 3, 21. 3 items.
Folder 7
List of illustrations for Leaves of Grass with accompanying Whitman quotations selected by Charis
[1942]
Folder 8
Photocopy of Leaves of Grass with handwritten captions by Charis Wilson. Paddington Press, Ltd.
(1976)
Folder 9
Empty folder entitled “Typd Add Lists Used -------- Unused with some letters.” Folder was empty when Library received it.
Folder 10
Correspondence between Edward Weston and George Macy
(1941)
Folder 11
Letter by Charis Wilson to Merle Armitage
(1942, Apr. 16)
Folder 12
Letter by George F. Vesper to Edward Weston and Charis Wilson
(1947, Apr. 26)
Folder 13
Letter by Herman More to Edward Weston
(1936, Mar. 10)
Folder 14
Letter by Mrs. Charles Everett McKinley, Jr. to Charis Wilson
(1941, June 27)
2 items. With envelope and calling card. The blank sheets have Charis Wilson's name and address written by her.
Folder 15
Letters by Edward Weston to Henry Allen Moe
(1939)
3 items. Copies. Includes reply letter.
Folder 16
Photographs of Charis Wilson
(1941-2009)
Folder 17
Places to See near Athens, GA: hand-drawn map
[undated]
Folder 18
Princeton: booklets
(1939-1940)
Folder 19
A Report on Snowflake by the United States Department of Agriculture
(1936, Feb.)
2 items. With handwritten notes and map of Region 8 (United States Southwest)