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Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Controlled Access Headings

Collection Inventory

Summary Information

Repository

The Frick Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives10 East 71st Street
New York, NY, 10021
archives@frick.org
 © 2018 The Frick Collection. All rights reserved.

Creator

Frick, Helen Clay, 1888-1984.

Title

Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series XI: Travel

ID

HCFF.02.11

Date

1887-1973, undated

Extent

10.4 Linear feet (36 boxes)

Abstract

Helen Clay Frick (1888-1984) was the daughter of industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick. She was also a philanthropist and founder of the Frick Art Reference Library in New York. This series documents her travels, both foreign and domestic, largely through correspondence, itineraries, receipts, maps and other guides, notebooks, postcards, and scrapbooks.

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Biographical Note

Helen Clay Frick (1888–1984) was the daughter of industrialist and art collector Henry Clay Frick and his wife, Adelaide Howard Childs Frick. Born at Clayton, the Frick family residence in Pittsburgh, her early education took place at home under the tutelage of Swiss governess Marika Ogiz. In 1905, Henry Clay Frick relocated his family to the Vanderbilt mansion at 640 Fifth Avenue in New York, and Helen Clay Frick enrolled at Miss Spence's School for Girls, graduating in 1908. She made her debut into society in Pittsburgh later that same year.

After the death of her father in 1919, Helen Clay Frick became one of the founding trustees of The Frick Collection, and was instrumental in guiding the museum's early acquisitions. In 1920, she established the Frick Art Reference Library in New York as a memorial to her father and as a public resource for those with an interest in art history. Helen Clay Frick was actively involved in the establishment of the Fine Arts Department at the University of Pittsburgh, and created the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburgh to house her own art collection in 1970. She died at Clayton in 1984.

Helen Clay Frick most likely traveled abroad with her family for the first time in the summer of 1889, but there is very little documentation from this trip (see: Adelaide H.C. Frick Papers, Series IV: Travel (Itineraries) in this repository). There is no evidence that the family traveled to Europe again until 1893, when they took an extended trip that included stops in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and England. The family appears to have traveled abroad every year for the remainder of the 1890s, though the level of documentation is sporadic. Thereafter, family trips became somewhat less regular, though significant trips were taken in 1905, 1909, and 1912. Helen Clay Frick traveled to Europe with both of her parents for the last time in 1914. She made her first solo trip in 1917, when she sailed to France to assist the Red Cross with the repatriation of refugees.

During the 1920s, Helen Clay Frick made a number of trips that coincided with the establishment and growth of the Frick Art Reference Library. These trips focused on England, France, and Italy, and she was occasionally accompanied by her mother, who died in 1931. Miss Frick returned to Europe in 1932, but travel was then disrupted by World War II, and she did not sail abroad again until 1947. She made trips in the 1950s and 1960s, with her last trip abroad taking place in 1967.

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Scope and Content Note

Series XI: Travel, 1887-1973 and undated, consists of correspondence, brochures, ephemera, itineraries, receipts, published maps and guides, notebooks, passports, postcards, receipts, ships' passenger lists, and scrapbooks documenting travel by Helen Clay Frick. Most documentation pertains to European travel, especially to the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, but some information about domestic trips can be found in this collection, particularly travel to Virginia and South Carolina. The bulk of this series is given to travel arrangements, including reservations for Atlantic crossings via steamship, hotel bookings, and daily itineraries. As she did at home, Helen Clay Frick employed a chauffeur while abroad, and these files document efforts to procure a suitable car and driver while traveling in Europe. Approximately ten notebooks describe places of interest in England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, France, and Spain. Typically arranged geographically, they often contain descriptions of historic homes and may have been compiled in connection with the Frick Art Reference Library's campaigns to photograph works of art in private collections.

Volumes comprise another significant portion of the series. These range from a scrapbook containing memorabilia collected over nearly four decades (1887-1922), to postcard albums (1897-1905 and undated) and travel scrapbooks (1920-1963), which often functioned as both scrapbook and diary by recording daily movements and visits to galleries, museums, and historic sites. Additionally, this series contains two travel diaries: one for a train trip to California in 1903, and one for a trip from Quebec to Europe in 1953. The remainder of Helen Clay Frick's travel diaries can be found in the Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series IV: Calendars and Diaries, notably her chronicles of experiences abroad in 1905, 1909, 1912, 1917-1918, and 1920. Photographs documenting travel can be found among the Frick Family Albums and Scrapbooks and Frick Family Photographs, both in this repository. Digitized versions of selected albums and images are available via Frick Digital Collections.

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Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by material type (e.g. arrangements and itineraries, maps and guides, notebooks, passports, volumes, etc.), then chronologically.

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Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

These records are open for research by appointment under the conditions of The Frick Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives Access Policy. For all inquiries or to schedule an appointment, please contact the Archives Department at archives@frick.org.

Provenance

Gift of the Helen Clay Frick Foundation, 2015.

Processing Information

Arranged and described by Julie A. Ludwig, 2018.

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Related Materials

Related Materials

Additional travel documentation can be found elsewhere among the Frick Family Papers in this repository. Most of Helen Clay Frick's travel diaries can be found in the Helen Clay Frick Papers, Series IV: Calendars and Diaries. Photographs documenting travel can be found among the Frick Family Albums and Scrapbooks and Frick Family Photographs. Digitized versions of selected albums and images are available via Frick Digital Collections.

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Controlled Access Headings

Genre(s)

• Diaries.
• Scrapbooks.

Personal Name(s)

• Frick, Adelaide Howard Childs, 1859-1931.
• Frick, Helen Clay, 1888-1984.

Subject(s)

• Chauffeurs.
• Ocean travel.
• Railroad travel.
• Travel.
• Voyages and travels.

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Collection Inventory