Karolik-Codman Family Papers 1714-1964 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketch Collection Description Acquisition Information Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Arranged by generation

John Amory (1759-1832)
The eldest son of John and Catherine (Greene) Amory, John Amory, Jr. was born in 1759 in Boston, Mass. A store keeper by trade, he was a partner with his brother Thomas in the merchant firm John and Thomas Amory at 41 Marlboro Street before investing heavily in real estate. He married Catherine Willard in 1792 and had one child. He was referred to as “Newbury-Street John.” He died in Boston in 1832.

Stephen Codman (1758-1844)
Stephen Codman was born in Charlestown, Mass. on 4 December 1758, the son of John Codman and Abigail Soley Asbury Codman. He was a shipping merchant by trade with ships sailing to Bombay, China, and Europe. For a short time he conducted business from Portland, Maine where he met Hannah Robison, daughter of ship captain Thomas Robison and Elizabeth Robison. He married Hannah Robison (1768-1819) on 20 November 1788, and returned to Boston shortly thereafter. He died in 1844.

Henry Codman (1789-1853)
Henry Codman was born in Portland, Maine on 1 October 1789, the son of Stephen Codman and Hannah Robison Codman. He graduated from Harvard College in 1808 and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1811. He managed the family real estate business that he inherited from his father-in-law. He married Catherine Willard Amory, daughter of John Amory and Catherine Willard Amory on 21 October 1821. He died in Roxbury in 1853.

John Amory Codman (1824-1886)
John Amory Codman was born in Boston, Mass. on 30 June 1824, the son of Henry Codman and Catherine Willard Amory Codman. He managed the family’s business and real estate affairs, though not to the same extent as his father. He was a painter of portraits and landscapes including beaches, harbors, and marine scenes. Some of his paintings are included in the Martha and Maxim Karolik collections at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He married Martha Pickman Rogers (1829-1905), the daughter of John Whittingham Rogers and Anstiss Derby Pickman, on 1 June 1850.

Martha Pickman Rogers Codman (1829-1905)
Martha Pickman Rogers was born on 17 November 1829, the daughter of John W. Rogers and Anstiss Derby Pickman. She married John Amory Codman in 1850. She gathered genealogical materials which form part of this collection. She and her daughter, Martha Catherine Codman, traveled throughout Europe gathering family records, both original documents and copies. The extent of her wealth is reflected in vast property holdings in Boston and Newport, Rhode Island and in stocks in various mining and railroad companies. She and her daughter were well known in Boston, Newport, and Washington D.C. social circles.

Martha Catherine Codman Karolik (1858-1948)
Martha Catherine Codman Karolik (MCCK) was born on 24 July 1858, the only surviving child of John Amory Codman and Martha Pickman Rogers Codman. In addition to the collection of genealogical materials begun by her mother, MCCK was known for her philanthropic deeds and for her lively social life in Washington, D.C., Newport, New York, and Boston. This included hosting musicales, including one in Washington D.C. in 1927 featuring tenor Maxim Karolik who had recently arrived from Europe. The following year, she married Maxim Karolik in France. Her Aunt Mary (Mrs. Arthur Codman), who lived in Europe was MCCK’s only relative in whom she confided the news of her marriage. MCCK’s genealogical interests led her to collect early American furniture and portraits of her own family, and to publish the journal of her ancestor, Mrs. John Amory, as Journal of Mrs. John Amoryin 1923. She distributed copies of the journal nationwide to historical societies, museums, and libraries including the Library of Congress and the Massachusetts Historical Society. This interest in her ancestors led to what would later constitute the three major collections of early American furniture, paintings, and prints and drawings at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts that bear hers and her husband’s names. She died in 1948.

Maxim Karolik (1893-1963)
Maxim Karolik, a Russian émigré and tenor, married MCCK in 1928 and shared his wife’s interests in early American art. Together they developed two of the three major collections of American art which they gave to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. After the death of his wife, Karolik added a third Karolik collection of American art to the MFA, gave lectures throughout New England on American art, and pursued his singing career. As an art collector, author, and musician Karolik was associated with many of the important figures in these fields, including Nicholas Slonimsky, Serge Koussevitsky, Erich Leinsdorf, Ima Hogg, Leopold Stokowski, Alexandre Tcherpnine, Henry P. Rossiter, Edward Weeks and a host of art dealers museum curators and directors. He was honored on numerous occasions for his role in bringing a neglected period of American art to the attention of the art world, both nationally and internationally. He was also asked to lend his name to the parent group of what is now the National Endowment for the Arts. His singing career included performances in New York, Washington D.C., and Boston and the making of the album, "The Russian Art Song." He divided his residence between his estate in Newport, R.I. and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston. He died in 1963 of a heart attack in New York City while in New York to discuss instituting a series of chamber music concerts at the New York Public Library.

Collection Description

The Karolik-Codman papers consist of the interrelated Amory and Codman families of Salem and Boston, Massachusetts specifically those of merchants and real estate investors John Amory, Henry Codman, and John Amory Codman. The collection consists of family and business correspondence, financial material, genealogical information, diaries, estate papers, account books, recipe books, commonplace books, newspaper clippings, photographs, and printed material. The remainder of the collection relates to Martha Catherine Codman and her husband Maxim Karolik's career as a musician and art collector including correspondence, business papers, sound recordings, slides, and newspaper clippings documenting many of his activities. Also included are expense books and account books of Boston merchant and goldsmith Rufus Greene, 1728-1777; a copy of the diary of Catherine Green Amory, 1775-1776; photostatic copies of correspondence of Salem merchant and loyalist Benjamin Pickman to his family while he was living in England during the Revolution; historical materials including the letterbook and account book of William Fisher, 1761-1770 and the rent and account books of Benjamin Lamphear, 1803-1848; and genealogical material relating to the Amory, Cartwright, Codman, Derby, Greene, Robison, Rogers, and Willard families collected by Martha Pickman Rogers Codman and her daughter Martha Catherine Codman Karolik.

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1974.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Karolik-Codman family papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.