Art, publishing and a change of purpose
August Florian Jaccaci was born in Fontainebleau, France, in 1856 or 1857; institutional sources differ on the year. After travels that included Mexico and Cuba, he settled in the United States in the early 1880s. He worked as a decorative painter before moving into New York’s illustrated publishing world, with editorial work for magazines including Century and McClure’s. His own book On the Trail of Don Quixote, illustrated by Daniel Vierge, was published by Scribner’s in 1896.
A surviving letter from James McNeill Whistler shows the practical work behind such publications. Writing to Jaccaci around April or May 1896, Whistler selected lithographs for reproduction, corrected a title and considered whether a particular print would reproduce successfully. Jaccaci later collaborated with John La Farge on Noteworthy Paintings in American Private Collections, whose first volume appeared in 1907. The projected series sought to document major private collections, but did not reach its intended scale. He also edited the Art in America section of The Burlington Magazine, continuing to connect art scholarship with an international readership.
The outbreak of war in 1914 redirected his energies. In France he helped organise the Society for the Protection of Children of the Frontier and established a children’s hospital. His Century Association memorial, written by Alexander Dana Noyes, contrasts the demanding art editor remembered in New York with the man who devoted his later efforts to children affected by the conflict. Jaccaci died in France in July 1930. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art preserves extensive papers from his publishing career, including correspondence, research files and photographs.
