Archival Collections

The papers of Hildreth Meière measure 23 linear feet and date from 1901 to 2011, with the bulk of material dating from 1911 to 1960. The collection documents Meière's life and travels, and her long and prolific career as an architectural muralist through biographical material, correspondence, writings, thirteen diaries, files regarding her war relief work during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, printed materials, extensive photographs and slides, eight sketchbooks, and two videocassettes and 93 reels of motion picture film documenting her travels, her volunteer efforts in Spain following the civil war, artwork, and home movies.

During World War II, Hildreth Meière was vice president of the Citizen’s Committee for the Army and Navy and director of the Artists’ Committee. She organized a group of artists who designed and painted over 500 portable triptychs for the Service chaplains. She herself painted over 70, three of which have been digitized by the Archives of American Art. Slides of additional triptychs by Hildreth Meière are contained in the Citizens Committee for the Army, Navy and Air Force Records.

Hildreth Meière was a student at the Art Students League from 1912-13, studying with Frank Vincent du Mond, Deward Duffner, V. Pressing, Kenneth Hays Miller, and George Bridgman. She studied at the school again in 1916 with Kenneth Hays Miller. In 1916 she filled in a term on the Board of Control; in 1918 she was elected to the Board for her own term; was elected again in 1920; was elected Woman’s Vice President in 1923, and Vice President in 1927 and 1929.

Records of Meière’s time as a student and as a Board member can be found in the League’s Archival Records.

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Papers (and papers for the successor firms Bertram Goodhue Associates, later Mayers, Murray & Phillip)

Hildreth Meière’s collaboration with Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, Bertram Goodhue Associates, later Mayers, Murray & Phillip, at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln; the University of Chicago Rockefeller Chapel, St. Bartholomew’s Church, and Temple Emanu-El in New York is reflected in pencil drawings, blackline prints, photostats, watercolors, and advertisements.

The collection contains six series: architectural drawings, administrative and technical records, project files, factory orders, slides, and sample products and fragments. Meière’s work with the R. Guastavino Company at the Nebraska State Capitol is documented. The Guastavino collection includes Meière’s watercolor cartoon for the vestibule dome at the Nebraska State Capitol.

The Rambusch Company Papers include Meière’s work with the Rambusch Company at the Nebraska State Capitol, the 1939 New York World’s Fair, St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York, and St. Michael’s Monastery Church in Union City, New Jersey.

Extensive correspondence in German between Pühl & Wagner and Ravenna Mosaics refers to the fabrication of Hildreth Meière’s mosaic designs at Temple Emanu-El, St. Bartholomew’s Church, AT&T Long Distance Building, and One Wall Street in New York; St. Katharine of Sienna in Baltimore; St. Aloysius in Detroit; and the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis.

The archive also includes Meière’s cartoons for Temple Emanu-El, correspondence with Meière regarding various commissions, photographs of mosaic work at different stages of completion, and invoices.

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis Museum Collection, open to the public, contains a model to-scale of the Dome of the Twelve Apostles and information on the mosaic-making process.

The Hedrich-Blessing Photograph Collection Includes exterior and interior views of the Westport Room, a Fred Harvey cocktail lounge and restaurant in Union Station in Kansas City (Missouri). Exterior view shows a glass block front with glass double doors. Interior view shows a small corner bar with murals featuring motifs relating to early Kansas City history. Photographed for architects Holabird & Root by Hedrich-Blessing studio.

Meière’s design in graphite, black wash, and gouache on paper for a sand-blasted mural to decorate the Communication Hall at the Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago was never executed. The commissioning architect was Raymond M. Hood.

As Cranbrook's official repository, the Archives is responsible for collecting, preserving, and making available community and divisional records of permanent value. Among the records are papers of George Gough Booth and the records of Christ Church Cranbrook.

Meière designed three altarpieces for the Fordham University Chapel in 1942. The full-scale studies for the right and left side panels in gouache on paper for the main altarpiece are in the collection of the William D. Walsh Family Library, Fordham University, a gift from the Jesuit Center, Wernersville, Pennsylvania. The library’s collection also includes a study for the side altar depicting the Holy Family.

Meière’s additional work at Fordham University can be seen at:

Hildreth Meière was an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design in 1942.

Photographs by Gottscho-Schleisner of Meière’s altarpiece in the crypt chapel of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Huntington, New York are in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Hildreth Meière’s gowns and accessories by Italian designer Maria Gallenga (1880 -1944) form part of the collection at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Hildreth Meière was commissioned by Livingston Platt to design costumes for the Reginald de Koven opera The Canterbury Pilgrims, which had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera during the 1917 season, with seven performances. Sketches in gouache on paper for the costumes are in the collection of the Metropolitan Opera Archives.

The National Academy of Sciences Building Records Group documents the conception, fundraising, construction, maintenance, and enhancements of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council Building in Washington, DC from 1918 forward. There is some correspondence from Meière about the design and execution of the artwork in the Great Hall, and some sketches of which can be found in the related Photograph File. Most of the Building Records Group’s correspondence is between Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the architect, with the NAS building committee and contractors, and the construction company. The NAS-NRC Building was Meière’s first major commission and the first of her collaborations with Goodhue. Research at the NAS Archives is by appointment only.

In addition to Meière’s cartoons for designs at the capitol, the collection at the capitol includes Erwin Barbour drawings on which Meière’s designs for the rotunda floor are based. There are also copies of correspondence between Meière and Hartley Burr Alexander, the originals of which are housed in the Scripps College, Ella Strong Denison Library, Hartley Burr Alexander Papers.

Meière executed several sketches of Anna Pavlova and company dancing at the Cort Theatre in San Francisco in 1915.

Meière’s early sketches of Margaret Anglin form part of the collection of the Billy Rose Theater Division. The collection also includes Alfred Lunt and Helen Hayes in Clarence, 1919.

The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair records at the New York Public Library contain references with photographs of several of Meière’s eleven commissions on the exterior of World’s Fair buildings:

The German firm Pühl & Wagner’s American affiliate Ravenna Mosaics was originally based in St. Louis, moved to New York from 1928-39, and then returned to St. Louis. The Ravenna Mosaic Company records include correspondence and sketches regarding Meière’s extensive work at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York, Washington National Cathedral, and the Medicine and Public Health, Science and Education Complex at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. There is also information on the mosaic-making process.

The collection includes Hartley Burr Alexander’s extensive correspondence with architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, muralist Hildreth Meière, and sculptor Lee Lawrie.

Hildreth Meière was meticulous about photographing her studies and cartoons before they left her studio. She also had her completed murals photographed by such well-known photographers as Peter A. Juley and Walter Russell. Although they are in black and white, several photographs document Meière’s nonextant murals, such as the two she painted for the lobby of 25 West 43rd Street in Manhattan. The black-and-white photographs also document the original appearance of her altarpiece for St. Mark’s Church in Mount Kisco, New York.

The Passionist Historical Archives Collection contain documents, photographs, and newspaper articles relating to Hildreth Meière’s decoration of the Chapel of the Passion at St. Michael’s Monastery Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, the subsequent fire, and her painting of the altar, chancel, and pendentives in the main sanctuary of the rebuilt church.

The Archives of Washington National Cathedral contains correspondence from 1950-60 between Hildreth Meière, architect Phillip Frohman, and deans of the cathedral with regard to decoration of the Resurrection Chapel, as well internal memos written by members of the building committee. There are also copies of Meière’s sketches for niche mosaics that were not executed, and supplemental published materials.