Scope and Contents of the Collection

Search Terms

BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS

SMITH COLLEGE

U.S. NAVY

ARTWORK

EXHIBITIONS

BOOKS ON SHELF

OVERSIZE MATERIALS

Frances Rich Papers, 1914-1980

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by mnsss.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2003


Collection Overview
	Creator:	Rich, Frances
	Title:	Frances Rich Papers
	Dates:	1914-1980
	Abstract:	Sculptor; Director, Smith College Public Relations; and Officer, United States Naval Reserve, World War II. Focuses primarily on her career as a sculptor, with a small amount of material on her work (as student and staff) at Smith College and in U.S. Navy. Material includes correspondence, biographical articles, research files, clippings, exhibit catalogs (sculptures of notable people), posters, scrapbooks, and photographs.
	Extent:	4 boxes; 3 volumes, oversized materials(1.5 linear ft.)
	Language:	English.
	Identification:	MS 129

Biographical Note

Frances Rich was born in Spokane, Washington in 1910, daughter of actress Irene Rich. She received a B.A. from Smith College in 1931. In 1933 she met sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, and studied with her in Paris for two years. On her return to the U.S., Rich did intensive work at the Boston Museum School and established her own studio in New York City. Between 1937 and 1940 she was a resident student at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she met sculptor Carl Milles, with whom she worked for the next eighteen years. She has been featured in many publications and has exhibited in major art centers. Her works include portrait busts at Smith College; the Army-Navy Nurse Monument in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.; a bronze pelican in front of Pelican Building, University of California, Berkeley; marble bust of Alice Stone Blackwell for the Boston Public Library; and portrait busts of Lotte Lehmann, Margaret Sanger, Diego Rivera, Katharine Hepburn, and others. Rich was a Lieutenant Director in the U.S. Navy Reserve from 1942 to 1946 and Director of Public Relations at Smith College from 1947 to 1950. Frances Rich died in 2007.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

Papers focus primarily on Rich's career as a sculptor, with a small amount of material on her work as Director of Smith College Public Relations, and her service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Types of material include correspondence, biographical articles, research files, clippings, exhibit catalogs, posters, scrapbooks (including a scrapbook of her student years at Smith College), and photographs of her work and family. Photographs, exhibition catalogs, and correspondence document her sculptures of such notable people as Lotte Lehmann, Diego Rivera, Katherine Hepburn, Margaret Sanger, and Alice Stone Blackwell. The Papers are arranged as follows: Biographical materials, Smith College, U.S. Navy, Artwork, and Exhibitions. Biographical materials consists of articles, photographs, interviews, correspondence, newspaper clippings and scrapbooks. The Smith College section includes materials from Rich's time as both a student and the Director of Public Relations. The U.S. Navy material includes photographs, correspondence and articles from Rich's time as Lieutenant Director in the U. S. Navy Reserve. Artwork consists mostly of photographs of Rich's work, but also contains some related correspondence. The Exhibitions section includes primarily photographs and correspondence regarding exhibits by Rich.

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