Sylvia Lotspeich Correspondences, 1962-1997

The Franny Taft collection was donated to the museum archives by Franny’s heirs following her death in 2017. The collection documents Franny’s life, career, and community involvement through visual and textual materials and ephemera. The collection provides researchers with in-depth information about the life of one of Cleveland’s first Pre-Columbian art historians and one of the city’s most prolific collectors of Cleveland art. The collection consists of seven series.

Series one contains works of art including oversized sketches from college art courses, oversized watercolors, and sketchbooks containing both sketches and watercolors. Sketchbooks that are specifically devoted to Franny’s travels are part of Series Four.

Series two includes all of Franny’s correspondence, and is divided into five subseries. The first subseries, Family Correspondence, includes correspondence between Franny and members of her family. The second subseries is General Correspondence from Franny Taft and consists of copies of letters that Franny sent to friends and colleagues.General Correspondence, the third subseries, is arranged alphabetically by correspondent’s surname and chronologically thereunder. Correspondents with no last name are arranged alphabetically by their first name, and unknown correspondents are filed last. Franny filed some correspondence by topic, and these are arranged alphabetically by topic. The fouth subseries contains Taft family Christmas cards, which are arranged chronologically. The fifth and final subseries, Franny Taft's Invitations and blank cards, is arranged chronologically, with undated cards at the end.

Series three, subject files, is divided into subseries related to Franny Taft’s career, professional associations, research, writings, and lectures. This series includes documents by and about both Franny Taft and Seth Taft’s service in the United States Navy during World War II. Subseries are arranged alphabetically.

Series four is made up of genealogical materials about the Prindle and Taft families, including research documents about each family, biographies about specific members of the Taft family, lectures and speeches about William Howard Taft, and local histories. Franny Taft authored a number of these documents. The series is organized first with general research of the Prindle and Taft families, Seth and Franny's records, family photo albums and scrapbooks, and ends with biographies. The biographies are organized alphabetically.

The fifth series contains all materials relating to Franny Taft’s travels.This includes planning documents, handwritten travel diaries, watercolors, typed final copies of travel diaries, and travel scrapbooks and photo albums. Franny wrote in her travel diary during each trip, and later had these journals typed up to be sent to family and friends and to be placed in her travel scrapbooks. The files and items in each subseries are arranged chronologically, with undated documents placed at the end.

Series six, audiovisual materials, includes Franny’s large collection of slides, many which were taken during her travels and later used in her lectures. It also includes photographs and negatives of family, friends, events, and trips. Films include early 20th century vignettes of the Taft and Prindle families and follow Franny through her military service and later career and family. A number of early films have been digitized. Many of these older films cover events that Franny discusses in her autobiography "Sketches from Life", and one film, “Wisteria School”, contains a vignette of the Hindenburg as it passes overhead. VHS tapes, DVDs, and cassette tapes include Taft family trips, school events, and a number of Franny’s lectures. The subseries in series six are arranged alphabetically. Cassette Tapes, CDs, and VHS Tapes have been arranged alphabetically. Films, negatives, and photographs have been kept in their original chronological order. Slides are also in the order that Franny organized, by theme or location.

The final series in this collection, series seven, includes awards that were bestowed upon Franny Taft and her collection of lapel pins.