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Catalog Data

Creator:
Saarinen, Lilian Swann, 1912-1995  Search this
Subject:
Venturi, Robert  Search this
Saarinen, Loja  Search this
Kreis, Henry  Search this
Milles, Carl  Search this
Eames, Charles  Search this
Eames, Ray  Search this
Saarinen, Eero  Search this
Saarinen, Eliel  Search this
Moholy-Nagy, László  Search this
Moholy-Nagy, Sibyl  Search this
Koch, Carl  Search this
Armitage, Merle  Search this
Crosby, Caresse  Search this
Weese, Harry  Search this
Midtown Galleries (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Reynal & Hitchcock  Search this
G Place Gallery (Washington, D.C.)  Search this
Knoll Associates, inc.  Search this
Massachusetts Institute of Technology  Search this
Cambridge Art Center  Search this
Otava Publishing Company  Search this
Cranbrook Academy of Art  Search this
Type:
Blueprints
Diaries
Illustrations
Sketches
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
9 Linear feet
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series. Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1930s-1960s (3 folders; Box 1, OV 12) Series 2: Correspondence, 1920-1974 (1.9 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 8, OV 12) Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1920s-1973 (1.3 linear feet, Boxes 2-3, 8, OVs 13-16) Series 4: Diaries, 1930-1973 (1.4 linear feet, Boxes 3-5, 8) Series 5: Project Files, 1931-1966 (1.7 linear feet, Boxes 5-6, 8, OVs 17-19) Series 6: Teaching Files, 1966-1970 (3 folders, Box 6) Series 7: Financial Records, 1940s-1970s (2 folders, Box 6) Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1930s-1970s (0.2 linear feet, Box 6) Series 9: Scrapbooks, circa 1909-1974 (2 folders; Boxes 6, 9) Series 10: Artwork, circa 1920s-circa 1960s (1.7 linear feet, Boxes 6-7, 9-10, OVs 20-27) Series 11: Photographs, circa 1940s, 1977 (0.5 linear feet, Boxes 7, 11, OV 27)
Access Note / Rights:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Summary:
The papers of Cambridge sculptor and illustrator, Lilian Swann Saarinen, measure nine linear feet and date from circa 1909 to 1977. The collection documents Saarinen's career through correspondence with artists, architects, publishers, and gallery owners; writings and notes, including manuscripts and illustrations for children's books and publications; project and teaching files; financial records; artwork, including numerous project sketches; and photos of Saarinen and her artwork. Saarinen's personal life is also documented through diaries and correspondence with friends and family members, including Eero Saarinen, to whom she was married from 1939-1953.
Citation:
Lilian Swann Saarinen papers, circa 1909-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2017 with funding provided by The Walton Family Foundation. Material not digitized includes blank pages of diaries, unannotated pages of engagement calendars, routine financial transactions, blank versos of photographs, and duplicates.
Material lent for microfilming is available on 35mm microfilm reels 1152 and 1192 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
Funding:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation; and John R. & Barbara Robinson and Deborah Schmidt Robinson & Dr. R. Perry Robinson, The Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation.
Use Note:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reels 1152 and 1192) including a scrapbook containing clippings, copies of letters and telegrams received, and reproductions of Saarinen's work. There is a copy of Saarinen's book, "Who Am I?", and three albums containing photographs of Saarinen, photographs and reproductions of her work, a list of exhibitions, quotes about her, and writings by her about sculpture. Lent material was returned to the lender and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Biography Note:
Cambridge artist and sculptor, Lilian Swann Saarinen (1912-1995), studied at the Art Students League with Alexander Archipenko in 1928, and later with Albert Stewart and Heninz Warneke from 1934-1936, before moving to Michigan where she studied with Carl Milles at the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1936-1940. Saarinen was an accomplished skier and a member of the 1936 US Olympic ski team.
At Cranbrook, Swann met architect Eero Saarinen, whom she married in 1939. She subsequently worked with Saarinen's design group on a variety of projects, including the Westward Expansion Memorial, which later became known as the "Gateway Arch" in St. Louis. Lilian and Eero had a son, Eric, and a daughter, Susie, before divorcing in 1953.
Saarinen, who had developed an affinity for drawing animals in childhood, specialized in animal portraits in a variety of sculptural media. In 1939, she exhibited her sculpture Night , which depicted Bagheera the panther from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book , at the World's Fair. The sculpture was placed in the Boston Public Garden in 1986. In the 1930s and 1940s Saarinen was commissioned to work on a variety of architectural projects, including reliefs for post offices in Bloomfield, Indiana, Carlisle, Kentucky, and Evanston, Illinois, and the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois. She also executed commissions for the Harbor National Bank in Boston, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) at JFK Airport, the Northland shopping Center in Detroit Michigan, and Toffenetti's Restaurant in Chicago.
Saarinen was a contributing author and illustrator for a variety of publications, including Child Life , Interiors and Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly . In 1935 she illustrated Picture Book Zoo for the Bronx Zoo and in 1946 Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc. published Who Am I? , a children's book which Saarinen wrote and illustrated.
Saarinen taught ceramic sculpture to soldiers for the Red Cross Arts and Skills Unit rehabilitation program in 1945, served on the Visiting Committee to the Museum School at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1959-1964, where she taught ceramics, and later taught a course entitled "The Language of Clay" at the Cambridge Art Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of Saarinen's private students at Cambridge was her cousin, Edie Sedgwick.
Saarinen died in Cohasset, Massachusetts, in 1995 at the age of 83.
Language Note:
The bulk of the collection is in English.
Provenance:
Lilian Swann Saarinen donated the collection in 1975. She lent additional materials for microfilming in 1976.
Digitization Note:
This site provides access to the papers of Lilian Swann Saarinen in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2017, and total 12,958 images.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Women artists  Search this
Art -- Study and teaching  Search this
Illustrated books, Children's  Search this
Gateway Arch (Saint Louis, Mo.)  Search this
Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this
Illustrators -- Massachusetts  Search this
Art, Municipal  Search this
Women sculptors  Search this
Women illustrators  Search this
Theme:
Women  Search this
Craft  Search this
Lives of artists  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)9049
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211240
AAA_collcode_saarlili
Theme:
Women
Craft
Lives of artists
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211240