1860-1912
Guide to the Collection
Restrictions on Access
Use of originals is restricted. Microfilm is available for use in the Reading Room and digital images are available online. Consult reference librarian for more information.
Abstract
This collection consists of diaries kept by portrait painter Sarah G. Putnam from the age of nine (26 November 1860) until near her death at the age of 61 (10 April 1912). The diaries document her career as a portrait painter and her extensive travels. Putnam also used the diaries as scrapbooks for programs, playbills, letters, postcards, and newspaper clippings, and lists of books read. Her career as an artist is documented through ink and pencil sketches and approximately 400 pasted-in watercolors, with lists and programs of her exhibited paintings. Pasted into the diaries are also 526 photographs corresponding to Putnam's written and painted entries.
Biographical Sketch
Sarah Gooll Putnam, a Boston portrait painter, was born in 1851 to Harriet and John Pickering Putnam. Born into a wealthy family with old Boston ties, Putnam lived most of her life in Boston and in summer homes in Andover and Nahant, Mass. In her youth, Putnam moved into the newly filled Back Bay, where she lived for the remainder of her life.
As a young girl, Putnam did sketches and later progressed to more sophisticated work, including oils and watercolors. She studied art in New York, Munich, and Holland. She painted many portraits in oil of family, friends, and other Bostonians of her social standing. During her career, she exhibited her paintings to critical success in Boston, New York, and Chicago, including two shows at Boston's St. Botolph Club. In addition to oil portraits, Putnam used watercolor, pencil, and ink for landscapes, still lifes, cartoons, and sketches.
Putnam kept her diary from age nine until near her death at age sixty-one in 1912. From age fifteen until late in life, she traveled extensively, visiting the American south and west and Europe many times. Sarah Putnam never married.
Diary Description
Sarah G. Putnam kept her twenty-seven volume diary from 26 November 1860 until 10 April 1912. The diary contains both daily and monthly entries, some written in the form of letters sent home while traveling.
In addition to her diary entries, the volumes contain Putnam's artwork, beginning with sketches done as a child. The volumes are heavily illustrated with Putnam's watercolors, probably removed from a sketchbook. Some sketches and drawings illustrate specific entries, while other work has been pasted in without textual reference. Putnam numbered her illustrations in the first ten volumes.
Putnam also used the volumes as scrapbooks containing photographs, postcards, correspondence, place cards, magazine illustrations, fabric swatches, playbills, dinner party guest lists, and newspaper clippings.
At the end of each of the first several volumes, Putnam recorded books she had read and gifts received from family members for holidays and birthdays. Later volumes contain lists of sitters, dates of sittings, and prices for her portraits.
The final volume in the collection contains photographs of her portraits, including the catalogs of five exhibitions. The captions identify dates and subjects of most paintings. A ledger of her paintings from 1877 to 1911 can be found at the end of this volume.
Acquisition Information
This collection was a gift of Mrs. Harold Buckminster Hayden, May 1964.
Restrictions on Access
Use of originals is restricted. Microfilm is available for use in the Reading Room and digital images are available online. Consult reference librarian for more information.
Other Formats
The 28 diaries of Sarah Gooll Putnam are available in their entirety in two other formats: microfilm and digital images. The volumes are located on microfilm (P-792) as follows:
| Reel | Volumes |
| Reel 1 | Vol. 1-8 |
| Reel 2 | Vol. 9-13 |
| Reel 3 | Vol. 14-16 |
| Reel 4 | Vol. 17-18 |
| Reel 5 | Vol. 19-22 |
| Reel 6 | Vol. 23-28 |
Sarah Gooll Putnam's diaries are available online via the MHS website. Use the links in the Detailed Description of the Collection below to view these digital reproductions. All pages containing color have been digitized in color and collated with grayscale images from the microfilm to create a complete digital copy of each volume. Loose pages from the volumes have also been digitized and included in their corresponding locations.
Use of the microfilm is restricted to the MHS Reading Room.
Digital images of all 28 diaries are available via the collection guide. Images of diaries 2-7 are also available individually via the MHS image database and are linked separately.
Detailed Description of the Collection
Includes a preface written by Sarah G. Putnam's mother, Harriet Upham Putnam, about Sarah's infancy, illness, and inoculations. Entries refer to school, her best friend Helen Paine, and brother John Pickering Putnam. Includes letters pasted in.
Records daily events and contains list of schoolmates. Includes letters to her grandmother Putnam.
Entries detail daily events. Includes references to the Civil War.
Daily events and Civil War.
Daily events.
Daily events.
Daily events. Travel to Liverpool, London, Rome, and Paris. Contains list of books read
Loose items removed from volumes 1-7, arranged by volume in the order in which they were removed.
Travels in Paris, Lyons, Avignon, Marseilles, Nice, Geneva, Angelica, Genoa, Naples, Pompeii, Caprice, Rome (at Easter), Bologna, Florence, and Bern. Paris wedding of her sister Mary Upham Putnam to Charles Frederick Fearing on 9 July 1866. Contains photographs, color inserts, pressed flowers.
Continued travels in Europe to Baden-Baden and Lake Lucerne. Returns to Boston 17 February 1868.
Loose items removed from volumes 8-9, arranged by volume in the order in which they were removed.
Important birth dates listed on page 1. Participates in many formal balls. Gives a party and lists attendees. Portrays Grandmother Bustle in the play "The Greatest Plague in Life" at 83 Mount Vernon St. Numbered illustrations end.
Travels to south with her ill sister Hattie via train to New York City and steamer to Charleston, South Carolina. Her travels continued to Savannah and several Florida stops including Magnolia and St. Augustine. Putnam's entries include sketches of African Americans. On her return, visited Philadelphia, Bethlehem, Pa., Niagara Falls, and Toronto.
Daily entries skip around. Traveling in Canada and the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia in June 1876. Contains two sketches Taken by John P. Putnam. Includes a photo of Hans Christian Andersen sent to her because she illustrated some of his translated stories.
Philadelphia Centennial continued. Illustrated with program guides to the exhibit.
Visits Montreal. Takes course in oil painting (p. 83). Daily entries skip around.
Travels to Mount Desert, Albany, and Montreal for winter carnival. Exhibits two paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts (p. 208). Brother John marries Grace Cornelia Stevens.
Takes watercolor lessons. European travels. SGP's letters from Europe hinged in and make up half of the volume.
Entire volume made up of letters from her travels in Europe. Watercolors include portraits, boats, windmills, and birds. Cumulative page numbering ends.
Entire volume made up of letters from Europe. Photos of city sites. SGP declares on 18 November 1888 that diary will be include only "important or interesting things."
Vacation in Adirondacks. Newspaper clippings about her paintings and shows. Exhibits with others in Chicago. Visits Colombian Exhibition in Chicago and then travels to St. Paul, Minneapolis, Sioux City, Denver, Provo, Salt Lake City, and Kansas City. Lists travels and mileage via railroad.
Loose items removed from volumes 10-19, arranged by volume in the order in which they were removed.
Chicago Columbian Exhibition recorded. Includes brochures. Exhibition catalog from SGP's Chase Gallery show. Visits sulfur springs in Richfield Springs, N.Y.
Visits Richfield Springs, N.Y. and Dublin, N.H. Doll and Richards Gallery show. Newspaper clippings on the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine and the Spanish-American War.
Newspaper clippings of Spanish surrender in Spanish-American War and letters to the editor from Putnam family members. Anti-sparrow campaign, anti-imperialism strong in Boston. Paris 1900 Exhibition stamps.
Chase Gallery and Cobb's Gallery shows of SGP's portraits. Newspaper articles on McKinley assassination and Great Chicago Fire.
Includes sketches SGP did not like but did not want to throw away. Extensive description of caretaking of her mother at bedside and her deteriorating condition; mother dies on 21 May 1905. Includes letters of condolence. Sails for Europe on 18 July 1905. Describes and reviews museum art she sees in many cities.
In Europe. Moves father's remains from Montreaux to Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Describes favorite paintings at Louvre and London museums. Returns to Boston in December 1905. Sails again for Europe on 20 October 1906 and studies in France with American painter Richard E. Miller. Newspaper clippings of eruption at Mt. Vesuvius and earthquake in California.
Exhibits Taken by SGP at Charles E. Cobb Gallery and Twentieth Century Club. Great Chelsea fire, 12 April 1908. Suffrage clippings.
Walking becomes harder for SGP, using crutches, then wheelchair. Includes many watercolors. More sketches from memory as she does not get outside as much. Last watercolor shows her empty wheelchair.
Catalogues and photographs shown at five exhibits. Captions identify dates and subjects of most paintings. Includes painting ledger from 1877 to 1911.
Loose items removed from volumes 20-28, arranged by volume in the order in which they were removed.
Index to Photographs
Diary, 26 November 1860 - 26 June 1861
Bought 26 November 1860
Cut by an unknown artist.
Caption: "1860 / Dark Maroon Silk Dress."
Partial caption: "Blue Maroon Plaid Dress."
Diary, 27 June 1861 - 18 March 1862
These photographs have been digitized with the rest of the volume.
Click here to view the diary
online.
Diary, 20 March - 10 October 1862
This photograph has been digitized with the rest of the volume.
Click here to view the diary
online.
Diary, 11 October 1862 - 4 May 1863
This photograph has been digitized with the rest of the volume.
Click here to view the diary
online.
Diary, 5 May - 23 August 1863
This photograph has been digitized with the rest of the volume.
Click here to view the diary
online.
Diary, 24 August 1863 - 6 August 1864
These photographs have been digitized with the rest of the volume.
Click here to view the diary
online.
Caption: "These photographs of Mr Walton & his wife, were sent to us, in the early part of 1867, but I put them in this book, as Mr Walton was our farmer at Andover before we went abroad."
Diary, 8 August 1864 - 11 December 1865
Caption: "Taken with John's photograph machine / Winter of '64- 65'-"
Caption: "Taken with John's photograph machine / Winter of '64- 65'-"
Diary, 19 December 1865 - 31 August 1866
Caption written in Italian.
All identified and captioned by Sarah Gooll Putnam.
All identified and captioned by Sarah Gooll Putnam.
Diary, 1 September 1866 - 30 May 1868
Diary, 1 June 1868 - 30 March 1871
Diary, 1 April 1871 - 17 March 1873
Caption: "Taken a little while before his marriage - in 1871? I received the photograph in July, 1871."
Caption: "Hurst - Architect."
Caption: "Peabody - Architect."
Caption: "Peabody - Architects."
Diary, 24 March 1873-1 June 1876
Partial caption: "Photograph he sent to me through Mr Horace Scudder, April 27th 1874..."
Diary, 2 February 1879 - 31 January 1882
Diary, 31 January 1882 - February 1886
Caption: "This is a photograph Alice Russell gave me, of a tobaggen [sic] party. One of the girls she thought looked like me."
Caption: "'The Pen.' Phil Wynne stands outside. Mr & Mrs Emerson, Lizzie, Amy White, and Rafe(?) are on the piazza."
Caption: "The 'Shanty', and the 'Stoop.' Mary Loring standing - Hat Shaw sitting on ground. Mr Emerson, and Lizzie, on steps & Mrs Emerson standing above."
Caption: "View of Farm house & chalet, on the left are the barn + Dr. Bowditch's house. The bath house (old one) is this side of the bridge in the foreground."
Diary, 16 Feb. 1886 - 6 August 1887.
NOTE: The numbering of the pages in Volume 16 is not continuous; each letter tipped into the volume has its own numbering system. The letters themselves are numbered in chronological order as they appear in the volume also referred to by Putnam. The letter numbers appear in brackets with the page numbers below.
Partial caption: "We walked down upon it from one of our rooms - Paris, July '87'."
Caption: "This is on the Grand Plaice. The Hotel de Ville is on the left. Antwerp. August, '87'."
Diary, August 1887 - February 1888
NOTE: The numbering of the pages in Volume 17 is not continuous; each letter tipped into the volume has its own numbering system. The letters themselves are numbered in chronological order as they appear in the volume also referred to by Putnam. The letter numbers appear in brackets with the page numbers below.
Corresponds to letter of 28 Aug. 1887.
Partial caption: "Mother with sunshade, Mary next on the left, then Miss Winsor. Johnny Hayden in foreground, Harriet behind him. Miss Howard, and Mary Hayden on extreme right." Corresponds to letter of October 2, 1887
Partial caption: "See page 3rd of 26th letter."
Partial caption: "See page 3rd of 26th letter."
Corresponds to "31st letter" [31 Dec. 1887].
Diary, August 1887-February 1888
NOTE: The numbering of the pages in Volume 18 is not continuous; each letter tipped into the volume has its own numbering system. The letters themselves are numbered in chronological order as they appear in the volume also referred to by Putnam. The letter numbers appear in brackets with the page numbers below.
Caption: "Photograph bought in Venice, June '1888.' See 56th letter."
Diary, August 1890 - 10 August 1893
Caption: "Photograph taken close by house of Charles Loring, Beverly Farms."
Partial caption: "Madeleine Wynne, Mr George Weld, Grace Minns, Rhetta C. Cummings, Lou Wadsworth, Mr Osborne Howes, and Jeannie Hooper."
Partial caption: Jeannie Hooper, Selma Bowditch, Dora, and Harold Bowditch, Mr Howes, Lu Wadsworth, Dr Bowditch, [Sarah Gooll Putnam], Herr von Westernhagen, & Mr & Mrs Ritchie."
Diary, 21 August 1893 - 13 February 1896
Subjects include: Jane G. Hooper, Eugenia Gardiner, Lorin F. Deland, Elizabeth R. Hooper, Elizabeth Putnam, Amy Lowell, Charles G. Loring, Mrs. William Sohier, Isa Coolidge, Mary Dexter, Seth Sprague, Lucy Lowell, Natalie Hooper, Charles F. Sprague, Edward A Silsbee, and Alice Parker.
Diary, 14 February 1895 - 15 July 1898
Partial caption: "Given me by Dr Blake..."
Partial caption: "Photograph from which I began a portrait, in April, '96'."
Diary, 16 July 1898 - 9 December 1900
Diary, 14 January 1901 - 21 May 1904
Partial caption: "Given to me by him"
Caption: "Photograph May Parker sent me this summer."
Diary, 23 May 1904 - 30 September 1905
Caption: Photograph given me by Miss [Bayard?]. Oranges in California."
Caption: "Photograph sent me from shanty by Selma Bowditch. Sept. 1905, with greetings from members of the shanty party."
Diary, 30 September 1905 - 1 June 1907
Partial caption: "Photograph taken in 1905 from a little daguerreotype of Mother taken about the time of her marriage - 1842 and put in little locket for Father."
Diary, May 1907 - 14 June 1911
Diary, June 1911 - 10 April 1912
Partial caption: "Jim is at the back of the picture - next to him is Marian, next Elizabeth, Molly, Louisa, Frances, Louise Richardson (a cousin) and lastly Jamie at the end of the rope."
Diary, Photographs of Portraits
This volume contains photographs of portraits painted by Sarah Gooll Putnam. All of the photographers are unknown, and all are undated. Some photos were individually numbered by Putnam herself, and do not represent an MHS photo call number. They appear in the volume in the order below:
Preferred Citation
Sarah Gooll Putnam diaries, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Access Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.