Manuscripts Collection
Charles S. Wells was born June 24, 1872 in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of James Wells and Jane McArthur Smith. Wells came to the United States in either 1886 or 1887 when he was 14 years old. He was educated at the Pratt Institute School of Art in Brooklyn, New York (1893), the Art Students League of New York (1893-1896 and 1900-1901), the National Academy of Design in New York (1897), and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1902-1903).
While studying in New York Wells was also employed as an assistant in the studios of a number of important late 19th and early 20th century American sculptors. From 1893 to 1898 he was employed as one of Karl Bitter's assistants. In Bitter's studio Wells worked on decorative elements for the Biltmore residence of George Vanderbilt, on exterior carvings for the Philadelphia railroad station, on the statues adorning the Triumphal Bridge at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and on figures for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. From 1901 to 1902 Wells was employed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens where he assisted on the equestrian statue of General Sherman and on decorative features for the Boston public library building. After this time Wells enlarged sketches for Henry Merwin Shrady and created a number of scale models for the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings. In 1909 Wells worked with George Julian Zolnay in St. Louis, Missouri on a commemorative relief of the 1904 World's Fair.
Wells came to Minneapolis in 1910 to create exterior details and interior carvings for St. Mark's Episcopal Church. In 1912 he joined the faculty of the Minneapolis School of Art and taught sculpture and drawing until 1914 when he began work on the fountain and ornamental details for Gateway Park. He returned to the Minneapolis School of Arts in 1918 and continued to teach there until 1931. After leaving the Minneapolis School Wells directed his own school for a year or two and then moved to Indiana to head the Fort Wayne Art School until it closed in 1934. Wells then returned to Minnesota to conduct psychological research for the State Training Center for Boys in Red Wing and to direct classes for a community art center in Minneapolis established as part of the WPA Federal Art Project and funded by the Minnesota Emergency Relief Administration.
He continued teaching in Minneapolis under the Federal Art Project until 1941 when he retired. He died on May 13, 1956 at the age of 83.
Other Minneapolis works sculpted by Wells include the portal of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, Lakewood Cemetery monuments, lions for the gateposts of the Charles S. Pillsbury residence, a relief portrait of Martha G. Ripley for the state capitol, and a relief portrait of Carl B. Storrs for the Minneapolis Public Library. Additional works included a memorial of superintendent Anna T. Lincoln for Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and a bust of chemist Harry Snyder for Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
The papers reflect on the career and work of 20th century Minneapolis sculptor and art instructor Charles S. Wells. Included are biographical data, business cards, correspondence, photographs, lecture notes, news clippings, and other miscellany that document Wells' relationship with other sculptors, most notably Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Karl Bitter, Wells' lectures on art history at the Minneapolis School of Art, and his sculptural works.
The correspondence includes letters from sculptors George Julian Zolnay, Henry Merwin Shrady, Lee Lawrie, and Fred P. Humphrey (1909-1953); from Karl Bitter and Bitter's estate concerning Wells' supervision of work on the Thomas Lowry Memorial in Minneapolis (1912-1915); from Charles H. Mayo and others regarding Wells' commissioned works and teaching appointments; from former students concerning Wells' departure from the Minneapolis School of Art (1929-1930); and from former student Bill Muir (1947-1955).
The photographs include informal portraits of Wells and illustrations of his sculptural work. Depicted are Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his assistants, including Wells, before a plaster cast of Saint-Gaudens' statue of General Sherman, Karl Bitter in his studio, a sculpture class of the New York Art Students League, Wells' ornamental and fountain details for Gateway Park in Minneapolis, Wells' scale model of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, and additional works by Wells including gatepost sculptures for the Charles S. Pillsbury residence and a garden fountain for the George B. Clifford residence.
Miscellaneous materials include Wells' passport, address book, a brief diary of a 1925 trip to Scotland, and two programs from Minneapolis sculpture exhibits.
Correspondence concerning Wells' work on a bust memorializing Dr. Pearl M. Hall, superintendent of the Minnesota Sanatorium for Consumptives (1918-1928), are found within the records of the Ah-Gwah-Ching Sanatorium in the Minnesota State Archives.
Accession number: 15,417
Processed by: Monica Manny Ralston, May 2001
Catalog ID number: 09-00322546
Includes a cyanotype of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his assistants, including Wells, before a plaster cast of Saint-Gaudens' statue of General Sherman as well as a cyanotype of Saint-Gaudens' Law. Also included are a postcard depicting Karl Bitter's studio on the cliffs of the Rahway River near Union, New Jersey, a photograph of Karl Bitter in his studio, and two photographs showing the students of a sculpture class at the New York Art Students League.
Includes photographs of the finished marble fountain tip, a
clay model for the relief of the fountain shaft, and clay models for ornamental
details on the Park's recreational building. Also includes a tearsheet from a
1916
Includes photographs of models and finished works memorializing Ditlev Monrad Frederickson, Robert Koehler, Albert Miller Lea, Anna Maley, Martha G. Ripley, and Carl B. Storrs.
Includes photographs of a scale model for St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, a scale model of an unidentified building for the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings, clay models of designs for a war memorial, a clay model of the lions used in the gateposts of the residence of Charles S. Pillsbury, a clay model of a garden wall fountain for the residence of George B. Clifford, and stations of the cross sculpted with Wells' assistance for the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.
Includes excerpts from a lecture on art and architecture, a typescript of remarks Wells made to graduating students of the Minneapolis School of Arts, and a mimeographed handout of the human skeleton that Wells used in his classes at the Minneapolis Community Art Center. The file also includes a sample letterhead from the Art Student's League of Minneapolis, a sculpture school that Wells directed between 1930 and 1933 after he left the Minneapolis School of Art. Additional miscellaneous materials include a handwritten start of a history of the U.S. and a general critique of the governing boards of cultural institutions based upon their composition of "men who as a rule are financially independent but have no actual qualifications for the position they occupy."
Includes a program for the first outdoor show of the Minnesota Sculpture Group held during the 1949 Minneapolis Aquatennial. Wells annotated the program with his critique of the exhibitors' works. Also includes an undated program from an exhibit at the University of Minnesota of African and South American Bush Negro sculptural art collected by anthropologist Melville Herskovits.