1920-1995, predominant 1920-1940
85M-01-314-Z-B-0403
GUSN-329198
This collection is an unpublished manuscript, divided into chapters, photographs, notes and acquisition letter, pamphlets, a journal, a receipt and a notebook related to author's personal collections and New England decorative arts. The bulk of the extensive notes and manuscript, which are typed or handwritten in pencil or pen, date from the 1920s to the 1940s.
books
decorative arts
architecture (object genre)
architecture (discipline)
landscape architecture
interior design
antiques (object genre)
gardens
museums (institutions)
manuscripts for publication
photographs
notes
pamphlets
letters (correspondence)
periodicals
suitcases
1.38 linear feet, (2 legal-sized document cases, 1 suitcase)
An electronic finding aid is available through Historic New England's Collections Access Portal. A paper finding aid is available in the Library & Archives.
Rose Standish Nichols' nephew, Sidney Shurcliff, gave a suitcase containing the unpublished manuscript to K. Thompson. K. Thompson donated it to Abbott Lowell Cummings, the president of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) at an unknown date.
MS058
Rose Standish Nichols unpublished manuscript collection, 1920s-1995
MS058
This collection consists of an unpublished manuscript by Boston author and early landscape architect Rose Standish Nichols. The topic is American decorative arts. The collection comprises notes from ten chapters, fifteen subjects, a handwritten notebook, photographic images, pamphlets, and the suitcase in which the papers were stored.
Gift
Gift, K. Thompson; date unknown.
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
Beacon Hill (Boston, Suffolk county, Massachusetts) [neighborhood]
Cornish (Sullivan county, New Hampshire)
Nichols, Rose Standish, 1872-1960 (Author)
manuscripts for publication
photographs
notes
pamphlets
letters (correspondence)
periodicals
suitcases
Nichols, Rose Standish, 1872-1960
Nichols, Arthur Howard, 1840-1922
Nichols, Elizabeth (Fisher Homer), 1844-1929
Shurcliff, Margaret (Homer Nichols), 1879-1959
Nichols, Marian Clarke, 1873-1963
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907
Despradelle, Constant Desire, 1862-1912
Hastings, Thomas, 1860-1929
Platt, Charles A., 1861-1933
Historic New England
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
Nichols House Museum
This collection is open and available for research.
The following conservation and preservation activities have been completed on this collection:
Acid-free paper was used to separate original folders from papers. Photocopied brittle newspaper articles
on acid-free paper. Metal fasteners were removed.
Collection
85M-01-314-Z-B-0403
Accruals are not expected.
Materials are predominantly in English, with some French and German.
Item identification. Box #, folder #. (MS058). Historic New England, Library & Archives.
Katharine Jane, 2018
This finding aid is Second Edition DACS-compliant.
The Nichols family were prominent Bostonians, and daughter Rose Standish Nichols (1872-1960) became a successful landscape garden designer/architect and author of three books, plus numerous magazine articles. She was a pupil of architect Charles Platt in Cornish, New Hampshire at the family's home there. She also studied architecture with Thomas Hastings in New York City while taking classes at the Art Students League in 1896. In 1899 she studied with a professor from MIT, Constant Desire Despradelle, as a special student. She studied horticulture at the Bussey Institute of Harvard University, and was a student in Paris and London.
Arthur Nichols, Rose's father, was a physician trained at Harvard Medical School. He was married to Elizabeth (Homer) Nichols, Rose's mother on November 11, 1869. Rose had two sisters: Marian, born in 1873 and Margaret, born in 1879. Their uncle was Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The girls were educated and well-traveled, particularly for the time period. The family owned the home at 55 Mount Vernon Street, which Rose inherited from her parents and later became the Nichols House Museum in 1961, following her death in 1960. Rose took many trips, including destinations overseas, and designed approximately seventy gardens. Her books were English Pleasure Gardens (1902), Spanish and Portuguese Gardens (1924) and Italian Pleasure Gardens (1928).
The Nichols Family Papers, held at the Nichols House Museum, hold correspondence from Rose Standish Nichols, referencing her writing a book about Bay State Colony furniture in 1944. Rose Standish Nichols' health deteriorated in the late 1950s, during which time her writing was likewise reduced. She died in 1960.
Hutchinson, B. J. (2011). At Home on Beacon Hill: Rose Standish Nichols and Her Family.Published by the Board of Governors, Nichols House Museum. \n Nichols House Museum website, retrieved from
The collection is arranged in the following five series:
Series I. Manuscript Chapters, undated
Series II. Subjects (A-Z), 1920s-1940s
Series III. Notes, 1920s-1950
Series IV: Photographic Images, undated
Series V. Non-manuscript related, 1940s-1950s
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
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