Foster and Martha Stearns, 1905-1966

This collection contains the papers of Frank Stearns and his son, Foster Stearns as well as his wife Martha Stearn and her father, John F. Genung. Materials in the collection date from 1882 to 1966. It is arranged into the following four series: Frank Stearns; Foster and Martha Stearns; Art and Objects belonging to Foster and Martha Stearns and John F. Genung.

The Frank Stearns series consists of one box of correspondence and a political scrapbook from August 1923, when Calvin Coolidge became president of the United States. There are letters from Calvin Coolidge to Stearns as well as retained copies of Stearns’ letters to Coolidge. Most of the correspondence involves greetings, thank you notes and personal comments. The “political letters” concern Massachusetts politics and Coolidge’s election.

The Foster and Martha Stearns series includes personal correspondence, some relating to Massachusetts politics, personal interests, and donations of materials to Dinand Library. Additionally, there are letters from Cardinal Spellman, Mary Balascheff, a White House employee and other correspondents. There also are family genealogies, albums documenting the Stearns’ activities and travels to Europe, family portraits, photograph graphs of family members and classmates of Martha Stearns and seven scrapbooks documenting Stearns’ political career.

The Art and Objects belonging to Foster and Martha Stearns series holds a variety of objects and artwork. Notably, the Stearns’ medals collection is found in this series and includes his personal medals of honor, papal, civil and military. Additionally, pieces from the couple’s art collection are held. The Stearns were supporters of the arts, which is evident through the art they collected while living in Turkey. Many of the pieces in his series were the work of Russian emigre artists, who settled in Turkey after the Russian Revolution. Other highlights include a mosaic tile, a lace crochet piece by Grace Coolidge and Easter Cards distributed to Russian Soldiers by the Imperial Family.

Finally, the John F. Genung Series mostly contains photographs of the Genung family including John and his daughter, Martha. Of note are the travel journal documenting a family trip to Europe and a photograph album of a trip to Sinai in 1907.