Ogden Codman's Correspondence

Ogden Codman, Jr.
Thomas Newbold Codman (1868-1963) Bar Harbor, Maine, 1887
Albumen print
Codman Family Papers, Historic New England

Codman’s personal correspondence reveals his scrutinizing eye. In this 1883 letter to his mother he proposes specific pieces for the family home, adding, “papa will scorn my furniture.” His 1894 letter to friend and fellow architect Arthur Little (1852-1925) minutely catalogues his new wardrobe. Ending his letter “you would hardly recognize me I look so smart,” Codman provides a sketch of his stylish mustache also captured in this 1887 portrait taken by his brother Tom. In later letters to his siblings, dating from the 1920s onward, Codman demands “kodaks” of the Codman Estate’s interiors to ensure the proper execution of his designs. 

Codman met his distant cousin, the future novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937), at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1891. Calling her “the cleverest and best friend I have ever made,” he affectionately referred to her as “Puss”; in turn, Wharton addressed the young architect as “Coddy.” In 1897 they co-authored the enormously successful treatise The Decoration o/ Houses, a project Wharton references in this letter addressed to “Coddy.” Advocating a trickle-down theory of style, their book pronounced: “When the rich man demands good architecture, his neighbors will get it too.” 

Read full transcripts and zoom into Ogden’s letters below.

Ogden Codman Jr. to Sarah Bradlee Codman

December 13, 1883

Transcription of a letter from Ogden Codman Jr. to Sarah Bradlee Codman dated December 13, 1883. Codman often dispensed with punctuation, as reflected here. The quotation used in exhibition label is in BOLD. 

[PAGE 1] 

96 Charles St            Dec 13 evg  

Dear Mama –  

You ask me in your letter / how I like my room. 

I like it so little that I have / taken another and am moving / in. 

I am going to No.15 Charles St. 

The reason I have not told you / of my moving was that I was / not sure that I should be able to / do so, and I did not want you / or any one to know how discontented / I was unless there was a reason- / able chance of my being / able to change. 

When I first came here / to 96 I understood I was to / have my breakfast in a little / room [illeg.] the front door / at a reasonable price.  

Ogden Codman Jr. to Arthur Little

April 10, 1894

Transcription of a letter from Ogden Codman Jr. to Artur Little dated April 10, 1894. Codman often dispensed with punctuation, as reflected here. The quotation used in exhibition label is in BOLD. 

[PAGE 1] 

Tuesday April 10th    1894. 

  1. RUE DE PONTHIEU

Dear Arthur: I have enjoyed / your letters so much / I am just reading the / last one – about the 

[illeg.] / I will wait till I come / home for them!  

How funny about Archie / Coolidge & Corinna  I wonder / if they will be engaged / again I  

wonder if you mean Phil Lydig – / who I consider rather / handsome  I think it / must have been  

fun at / Farleys that ev’g as / the man [illeg.] by Lil Cod must have been too  

Letter from Edith Wharton to Ogden Codman Jr.

c. 1896

Transcription of a c. 1896 letter from Edith Wharton to Ogden Codman Jr. The reference used in exhibition label is in BOLD. 

[PAGE 1] 

Thursday [1896?] 

884 PARK AVENUE 

Dear Coddy, 

Mr. McKim has sent / me three pages of notes / on the Introductory Chapter / of the book, & as some of his suggestions are very / good, & as he represents / the “high-water-mark” / of criticism in that line / in America I think it / would be well in some / respects to remodel the / Introduction – or rather, / a few pages of it – The other chapters he entirely / agrees to, which is nice. 

I send you a page of / the Introduction to be / re-typed, as I found, to  

[PAGE 2] 

notes – 

I shall be in at tea / time any day, but I / can’t work then, so it / isn’t much use. 

Yrs sincerely

E. Wharton

 

 

 

The Decoration of Houses

Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr.; New York: Charles Scribner’s; 1897; Codman Family Papers, Historic New England 

In 1897 Ogden Codman Jr. and future novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937) co-authored their landmark study, The Decoration of Houses (1897). It is unclear who initiated the project, but by December 1896 they were hard at work. Most of the completed writing is likely Wharton’s, yet the book’s photographs, bibliography, and preference for French design all point to Codman. A resounding success from the moment it appeared, it has never gone out of print.          

Although The Decoration of Houses was not the first American guide to home decoration, its outsized influence may be attributed to its systematic presentation of rules, authoritative tone, and lavish illustrations of homes “of some importance.” By declaring “proportion is the good breeding of architecture,” dispensing advice about the proper outfitting of a ballroom, and frequently lapsing into untranslated French, Wharton and Codman struck a tone of unassailable patrician authority that appealed to aspirational readers. Championing the principles of order, hierarchy, and symmetry (dubbed “the sanity of decoration”), the pair banned all originality of expression (“to conform… is no more servile than to pay one’s taxes”). For good measure, they condemned wallpaper, electric light, and Christmas trees. 

Unlike earlier design reformers who promoted “honesty” in decoration, Wharton and Codman—as The Nation quipped—“snap their fingers at sincerity [and] have no horror of shams.” False doors and windows, concealed entrances, imitation materials, and illusionistic spaces were all allowable as long as they contributed to the visual pleasure of an overall design. Explaining it was the decorator’s mission “not to explain illusions, but to produce them,” the authors revealed more about their own lives than they might have realized. Much of Codman’s world, of course, was built upon a series of successfully managed illusions—while Wharton founded her literary career upon characters who often wield the power of a beautifully told lie.

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