Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
Collection Citation:
Norma Merrick Sklarek Archival Collection, 1944-2008. National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of painter and educator Ethel Katz date from 1883 to 1974 and measure 1.7 linear feet. The scattered papers include biographical material, correspondence, photographs, printed material, extensive sketches and sketchbooks, and writings.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter and educator Ethel Katz date from 1883 to 1974 and measure 1.7 linear feet. The scattered papers include biographical material, correspondence, photographs, printed material, extensive sketches and sketchbooks, and writings.
Letters are from Katz's relatives in France, galleries, art organizations, and the Civil Defense Volunteer Office regarding her work during World War II. Other correspondents include her pupils and colleagues from the Art Students League, including Patricia Hand, Marjorie and Hon-Chew Hee, Jose Morales, and Stewart Klonis. One letter dated 1883 is from Katz's father, painter Theophile Schneider written upon arrival in the United States. Photographs depict Katz, her family, her friends, and her paintings, and Theophile Schneider. Writings are on art and include art supply lists and outlines for class lectures at the Art Students League. Katz's sketches, drawings and sketchbooks comprise the bulk of the collection, and include figure drawings and landscape sketches from the United States West, New England, and Eastern Canada. Works by others are by Isabel Bishop and Patricia Hand.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Ethel Katz (1895-1989) was a painter and educator active in New York City, New York. She was a longtime instructor at the Art Students League.
Ethel Katz was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1895 to painter Theophile Schneider, and Julia Schneibler. Katz began her formal art education at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, continued at the Art Students League, and completed a summer term in Colorado with Randall Davey. Katz returned to the Art Students League in 1943 where she taught Saturday classes for young adults and children. During World War II, Katz volunteered with the Greater New York Bureau of Arts and Decorations for the American Women's Voluntary Services and with the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office.
Katz produced many landscape paintings, inspired by her trips to Colorado and the United States West, New England, and Eastern Canada. Her works were exhibited at Midtown Galleries, Weyhe Galleries, and the New York Water Color Club among many others. She showed her work in a father and daughter exhibit at the Riverside Museum in 1938.
Provenance:
Ethel Katz donated her papers in several installments from 1972 to 1977.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
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.
Occupation:
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Ethel Katz papers, 1883-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of this collection received federal support from the Collections Care Initiative Fund, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and the National Collections Program
