Chesterwood Archives Grow
A second group of documents has been transferred to the Chapin Library from Chesterwood, the former Stockbridge, Massachusetts country home and studio of the sculptor Daniel Chester French. The bulk of the Chesterwood Archives was given to the Library in June 2010, but plan files and a few boxes were kept back for further sorting. These have now come to Williams, divided between the Library’s temporary quarters in the Southworth Schoolhouse and Williams’ off-site Library Shelving Facility. The new materials include drawings and blueprints by Henry Bacon (1866–1924), an architect with whom Daniel Chester French often worked.
Dana Pilson, who has been working in the Chapin Library to research the contents and former appearance of French’s studio at Chesterwood (her website documenting her work may be found here), has called our attention to the fact that Daniel Chester French’s nephew, Prentiss French (1894–1989), graduated from Williams College in 1917. From Williams, he went on to Harvard, receiving in 1921 the degree of Master of Landscape Architecture. His mother, Alice Helm French, a portrait painter who lived in Williamstown for many years, helped in the creation of costumes and scenery for performances of Williams’ drama association “Cap and Bells”. Prentiss French’s father, William M.R. French, was Director of the Art Institute of Chicago. – WGH