Collection number: MC 61
Size: 3 boxes
(1.53 cu.ft.)
About Gladys Brannigan
Gladys Ames Brannigan was born June 14, 1882 in Hingham, MA. When she was seven years old, her family moved to New Hampshire. By 1900 Brannigan was living in Washington D.C., where she attended Georgetown University, earning her B.A. in 1903 and M.A. in 1904, and later studied at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. In 1910 she exhibited at the WCC, and in 1911 with the Society of Washington Artists, of which she was a member. She also worked as an artist on the staff of the Washington Evening Star. By 1921 Gladys had married Robert A. Brannigan, a patent lawyer, and was residing in New York City, where she studied at the Art Students’ League and the National Academy of Design with H.B. Snell.
In 1929 Gladys Brannigan moved to Portsmouth, NH, where she resided until 1941, at 32 Livermore Street. She also resided for a time at 4 Church St. in Dover, NH. During the 1930s she continued to keep a residence in New York City, traveling back and forth between Portsmouth and the city. Her driver’s licenses from this time show her holding both New Hampshire and New York State licenses for the years 1932-1934. She was also known to be the Head of the Art Department at Hollins College in Roanoke, VA at some point during this time, although the exact dates are unknown.
In 1930 Brannigan had two exhibitions, one, from March 4th to 17th in New York City at the Macbeth Gallery located on 15 East 57th St., and the other, from April 9th to the 22nd, in Boston at Doll and Richards, located at 71 Newbury Street. Both exhibits featured her watercolors, which appears to have been her preferred medium.
Gladys Brannigan is best known for her mural work produced during the 1930s as part of the W.P.A. She was among three New Hampshire artists commissioned to paint a series of murals for the University of New Hampshire Library (then located in Hamilton-Smith Hall). The murals were painted under the direction of Omer T. Lassonde, State Supervisor of the New Hampshire WPA Art Project. Brannigan painted the murals for the Newspaper Room (Room 103). The remaining mural is in Room 141.
Others of her murals in NH were in Parker Hall, Keene, the Municipal Building in Dover, and a series mural of “Landmarks of Portsmouth” in the historic Livermore House. Portsmouth Public Library owns sketches for the murals that once adorned the Portsmouth Junior High School (now the Middle School).
Outside of NH her paintings are at George Washington University in Washington D.C.; Wesleyan College in Macon Georgia; the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, and Women’s University College in NYC. She also painted the reredos for St. John’s Church in Massena, NY, and has a lithograph in the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
Gladys Ames Brannigan died in New York City on April 27, 1944.
About the Gladys Brannigan papers
The Gladys Brannigan papers consist of a few research notebooks and sketchbooks for the artist’s New Hampshire murals, a small amount of correspondence from and to Brannigan and her husband, some of her poetry, and photographs of the artist and of her work, and miscellaneous other items, such as her driver’s licenses from the early thirties. The bulk of the collection is from the 1930s. Unfinished art work, most of it thought to be the work of Gladys Brannigan, though some is clearly by an artist named M.A. Harris, was added in 2009. This can be found in oversize box 1.
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
This collection is open.
Copyright Notice
Contents of this collection are governed by U.S. copyright law. For questions about publication or reproduction rights, contact Special Collections staff.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], [Folder], [Box], Gladys Brannigan Papers, 1924-1939, MC 61, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.
Acquisitions Information
Donation, Nancy Beck, Portsmouth NH, 2005 (Accession number: 2005.13)
Transfer, Portsmouth Athenaeum from the estate of Dorothy Vaughan, 2009
Collection Contents
Series 1: Papers
Box 1 | ||
---|---|---|
Box 1, Folder 1 | Correspondence from and to Gladys Brannigan and Robert Brannigan, 1924-1939 | |
Box 1, Folder 2 | Sketch books: Peabody research and sketches, undated | |
Box 1, Folder 3 | Sketch books: research and sketches for mural for the Dover Municipal Building, N.H., undated | |
Box 1, Folder 4 | Sketch books: mainly human figures, undated | |
Box 1, Folder 5 | Sketch books: research and sketches for mural for Parker, Keene, N.H., 1937 | |
Box 1, Folder 6 | Notebooks: background research for "Landmarks at Portsmouth" (?), undated | |
Box 1, Folder 7 | Notebooks: Irish language notes, undated | |
Box 1, Folder 8 | Notes: background notes on Ireland and the Irish, undated | |
Box 1, Folder 9 | Poetry, undated | |
Box 1, Folder 10 | Exhibition announcements, 1930 | |
Box 1, Folder 11 | Various licences, registrations, receipts, etc., undated | |
Box 1, Folder 12 | Publications: Purple and Gold, Vol. 4, No. 7, November 1936. Contains a description of the murals at Portsmouth Junior High School, pp.9-10 | |
Box 1, Folder 13 | Publications: The Living Church, January 21, 1936. Contains obituary of Rev. William Walter Webb, p. 355. Webb's relation to Gladys Brannigan is not known, although there are also three photographs of him in the collection (see f.18. | |
Box 1, Folder 14 | Publications: The American Magazine of Art, October 1936 | |
Box 1, Folder 15 | Miscellaneous items: papers and wallet, undated | |
Box 1, Folder 16 | Landscape Photographs
| |
Box 1, Folder 17 | Brannigan Portraits
| |
Box 1, Folder 18 | Portraits cont.; Kenya Photographs
| |
Box 2 | ||
Box 2, Folder 1 | Sketch Book: Kenya, animals, people and notes, undated | |
Box 2, Folder 2 | Misc. papers and sketches from Sketch Book of Kenya, undated | |
Box 2, Folder 3 | 2 Sketch Books with landscapes and instruments, undated | |
Box 2, Folder 4 | sketch Book with Guatemala and branches, undated | |
Box 2, Folder 5 | 20 water colors, mostly 8 1/2 by 61/2 | |
Box 2, Folder 6 | Newspapers articles, 1936 and 2010 |
Series 2: Art Work
Oversize Box 1 | ||
---|---|---|
Oversize Box 1, Item 1 | Eight oil paintings on canvas, unframed, and two watercolors, unframed, thought to be the work of Gladys Brannigan, undated | |
Oversize Box 1, Item 2 | Two watercolors on board, five pencil sketches, and one ink drawing by Gladys Brannigan, undated | |
Oversize Box 1, Item 3 | Twenty-nine studies, some watercolors, some pencil drawings, various sizes, thought to be the work of Gladys Brannigan, undated | |
Oversize Box 1, Item 4 | Eight pencil sketches by M.A. Harris, 1880-1890 | |
Oversize Box 1, Item 5 | Fourteen oil paintings on canvas, artist unknown, undated |