Series I: Photographic Prints

Scope and Contents note

Series I consists of the images from approximately 500 assignments by Hewitt and Smith. The majority of the prints are credited to one photographer or the other with a stamp on the verso or the photographer's insignia in the print. The images are mostly silver bromide prints made on standard 8x10 inch commercial paper, and many are toned.

Notes about the assignments made on original file folders accompany the prints and may include the location, decorator or designer, the date photographed, and subsequent dates that prints were made for various publications. Research indicates that the images did not always appear in the periodicals on the dates noted, suggesting that prints were commissioned or submitted but not necessarily published.

Mattie Hewitt's photographs of New York City residences record both the "machine age" interiors of the first decades of the 20th century and the more classic, historicizing style that eventually eclipsed it. Sometimes referred to as "Forties Style," it originates in the work of several Paris decorators of the late 1930s and involves judicious use of Baroque, Rococo, and other period forms in modern settings. In the Hewitt photographs, the interiors of Elsie De Wolfe, A. A. Rateau, and Serge Roche best epitomize the style. Among Hewitt's more prestigious residential commissions are the homes of theatrical agent Elizabeth Marbury (De Wolfe) at 13 Sutton Place; Ann Morgan (De Wolfe) at 3 Sutton Place; decorator Rose Cumming (Cumming) at 54 East 55th Street; publisher Conde Nast (De Wolfe) at 1040 Park Avenue; banker and collector George Blumenthal (A. A. Rateau) at 50 East 7th Street; and actress Hope Hampton (De Wolfe) at 1145 Park Avenue. Also represented in the collection are furniture and rooms designed by Donald Deskey (Ypsilanti Reed Furniture Company); John Vassos (Studio of Margaret Bourke White); and architects George Howe and William Lescaze (home of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Dreyfus).

Hewitt's commercial interiors are well represented. She photographed the numerous hotels, restaurants, and clubs including Ruby Foo Restaurant, Town & Country Restaurant, the St. Regis Hotel, the Gramercy Park Hotel, and the Court House Club in Manhattan. A number of design exhibitions and displays from the twenties and thirties are also pictured, such as the Decorators Club 1928 Exhibition, the National Sculpture Exhibition, the Metal Products Exhibition, and the Old New York Exhibition. Hewitt's excursions into product photography range from the shiny fixtures made by International Nickel Co. to the exotic flowers raised by Hortus International.

General note

Grand Central Palace (exhibition)

General note

Charles Roberson of London, 1930-1933, inclusive

Offsite-Box: 4, Folder: 70 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

General note

36 West 44th Street

148 East 48th Street

290 Park Avenue

Offsite-Box: 9, Folder: 205 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

General note

137 Riverside Drive

Offsite-Box: 12, Folder: 2828 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

General note

599 Fifth Avenue

Offsite-Box: 38, Folder: 806 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

General

Mountain Avenue, Pleasantville, NY

Lehman, Arthur, Mrs., 1930, inclusive

Offsite-Box: 13, Folder: 296 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

General note

45 East 70th Street

200 Madison Avenue

General note

509 Madison Avenue (shop)

General note

Offsite-Box: 19, Folder: 493 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

General note

240 West 52nd Street

General note

Park Avenue and 67th Street

284 Park Avenue

Seventh Avenue and 51st Street

247 Park Avenue

Offsite-Box: 40, Folder: 882 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)