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Holger Cahill papers

Creator:
Cahill, Holger, 1887-1960  Search this
Names:
American Artists' Congress  Search this
American Council of Learned Societies  Search this
American Federation of Arts  Search this
Artists' Union (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Cartoonists Guild  Search this
Federal Art Project (U.S.)  Search this
Federal Music Project (U.S.)  Search this
Federal Theatre Project (U.S.)  Search this
Index of American Design  Search this
New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Shakers  Search this
The Design Laboratory (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Treasury Relief Art Project  Search this
United States. Work Projects Administration  Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration  Search this
Abbott, Berenice, 1898-1991  Search this
Brown, Samuel Joseph, 1907-1994  Search this
De Rivera, José Ruiz, 1904-1985  Search this
Halpert, Edith Gregor, 1900-1970  Search this
Hopkins, Harry Lloyd, 1890-1946  Search this
Knaths, Karl, 1891-1971  Search this
Miller, Dorothy Canning, 1904-2003  Search this
Morris, Carl, 1911-1993  Search this
Olds, Elizabeth, 1896-1991  Search this
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962  Search this
Rowan, Edward Beatty, 1898-1946  Search this
Scaravaglione, Concetta, 1900-1975  Search this
Segal, George, 1924-2000  Search this
Speck, Walter, 1895-  Search this
Ward, Lynd, 1905-1985  Search this
Weisenborn, Rudolph, b. 1881  Search this
Extent:
15.8 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Government records
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Slides (photographs)
Photograph albums
Drawings
Place:
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945
Date:
1910-1993
bulk 1910-1960
Summary:
The papers of Holger Cahill (1887-1960) date from 1910 to 1993, with the bulk of the material dating from 1910-1960, and measure 15.8 linear feet. The collection offers researchers fairly comprehensive documentation of Cahill's directorship of the Works Progress/Projects Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) in addition to series documenting his work as a writer and art critic. Material includes correspondence, reports, artist files, scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Holger Cahill (1887-1960) date from 1910 to 1993, bulk 1910-1960, and measure 15.8 linear feet. The collection offers researchers fairly comprehensive documentation of Cahill's directorship of the FAP in addition to series documenting his work as a writer and art critic. FAP records include national and state administrative reports, records of community art centers, photographic documentation of state activities, artist files, divisional records about teaching, crafts, murals, and poster work, files concerning the Index of American Design, scrapbooks, and printed material.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into nine series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material and Personal Papers, 1931-1988 (Box 1; 19 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence Files, 1922-1979, 1993 (Boxes 1-2; 1.5 linear ft.)

Series 3: Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, 1934-1970 (Boxes 2-14, 18, MMs009; 10.75 linear ft.)

Series 4: Writings, Lectures and Speeches, 1916-1960 (Boxes 14-15, 18; 1.0 linear ft.)

Series 5: Minutes of Meetings and Panel Discussions, Non-FAP, 1939-1947 (Box 15; 5 folders)

Series 6: Notes and Research Material, 1935-1970 (Boxes 15-16; 0.25 linear ft.)

Series 7: Artwork, undated (Boxes 16, 18; 2 folders)

Series 8: Printed Material, 1910-1985 (Boxes 16-17; 1.8 linear ft.)

Series 9: Photographs, circa 1917-1960 (Box 17; 6 folders)
Biographical Note:
Holger Cahill was born Sveinn Kristjan Bjarnarson in Iceland in a small valley near the Arctic Circle, on January 13, 1887. His parents, Bjorn Jonson and Vigdis Bjarnadottir, immigrated to the United States from Iceland sometime later in the 1880s. In 1904, his father deserted the family, forcing Sveinn to be separated from his mother and sister to work on a farm in North Dakota. He ran away and wandered from job to job until settling in an orphanage in western Canada, where he attended school and became a voracious reader.

As a young man, he worked at many different jobs and attended night school. While working on a freighter, he visited Hong Kong, beginning his life-long interest in the Orient. Returning to New York City, he eventually became a newspaper reporter, continued his studies at New York University, and changed his name to Edgar Holger Cahill. In 1919 he married Katherine Gridley of Detroit. Their daughter, Jane Ann, was born in 1922, but the couple divorced in 1927.

Cahill met John Sloan circa 1920, and they shared a residence. Cahill also wrote publicity (until 1928) for the Society of Independent Artists, through which he made many friends in the arts. From 1922 to 1931, he worked under John Cotton Dana at the Newark Museum, where he received his basic experience in museum work, organizing the first large exhibitions of folk art.

From 1932 to 1935, he was the director of exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. In 1935, Cahill was appointed director of the Works Progress/Projects Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP), until its end in June 1943. In 1938, Cahill organized a countrywide exhibition "American Art Today" for the New York World's Fair. He also married MoMa curator Dorothy Canning Miller in that year.

Profane Earth, Cahill's first novel, was published in 1927, followed by monographs on Pop Hart and Max Weber, miscellaneous short stories, and a biography of Frederick Townsend Ward, entitled A Yankee Adventurer: The Story of Ward and the Taiping Rebellion. Following the end of the Federal Art Project, Cahill wrote two novels, Look South to the Polar Star (1947) and The Shadow of My Hand (1956).

Holger Cahill died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in July 1960.
Provenance:
The Holger Cahill papers were donated to the Archives of American Art through a series of gifts by Cahill's widow, Dorothy C. Miller, between 1964 and 1995.
Restrictions:
The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via the Archives of American Art website.
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:
Arts administrators  Search this
Topic:
Federal aid to the public welfare  Search this
Art and state  Search this
Federal aid to the arts  Search this
New Deal, 1933-1939  Search this
Public officers  Search this
Genre/Form:
Prints
Government records
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Slides (photographs)
Photograph albums
Drawings
Citation:
Holger Cahill papers, 1910-1993, bulk 1910-1960. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.cahiholg
See more items in:
Holger Cahill papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw93d4a8dc7-a7be-470b-8216-ae763d3bc9e2
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-cahiholg

E.P. (Edgar Preston) and Constance Richardson papers

Creator:
Richardson, Edgar Preston, 1902-1985  Search this
Richardson, Constance, 1905-  Search this
Names:
Archives of American Art  Search this
Castano Galleries (Boston, Mass.)  Search this
Detroit Institute of Arts  Search this
Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum  Search this
Historical Society of Pennsylvania  Search this
Macbeth Gallery  Search this
National Collection of Fine Arts (U.S.)  Search this
National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution)  Search this
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts  Search this
Philadelphia Museum of Art  Search this
White House (Washington, D.C.)  Search this
Peale family  Search this
Allen, Joseph  Search this
Allston, Washington, 1779-1843  Search this
Andrews, Wayne  Search this
Aram, Siegfried F.  Search this
Bishop, Isabel, 1902-1988  Search this
Bostick, William A.  Search this
Bouché, Louis, 1896-1969  Search this
Boyd, Julian P. (Julian Parks), 1903-  Search this
Castano, Giovanni, 1896-1978  Search this
Cohn, Harold  Search this
Copeland, Lammot du Pont  Search this
Culver, Charles B. (Charles Beach), 1908-1967  Search this
Fleischman, Lawrence A. (Lawrence Arthur), 1925-1997  Search this
Flexner, James Thomas, 1908-2003  Search this
Frankenstein, Alfred V. (Alfred Victor), 1906-1981  Search this
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998  Search this
Freeman, Michael W.  Search this
Garrison, Eve Josephson, 1903-2003  Search this
Groce, George C., 1899-  Search this
Hardy, Jeremiah Pearson, 1800-1889  Search this
Heil, Walter, 1890-1973  Search this
Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967  Search this
Jungwirth, Irene G. (Irene Gayas), 1913-  Search this
Krentzin, Earl, 1929-  Search this
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this
Lee-Smith, Hughie  Search this
Lewis, W. S. (Wilmarth Sheldon), 1895-1979  Search this
Lynes, Russell, 1910-1991  Search this
Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this
Mast, Gerald, 1908-1971  Search this
McDermott, John Francis, 1902-  Search this
Middeldorf, Ulrich Alexander, 1901-  Search this
Morse, John D., 1906-  Search this
Moser, Liselotte, 1906-1983  Search this
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this
Oliver, Andrew, 1906-  Search this
Peale, Charles Willson, 1741-1827  Search this
Pleasants, J. Hall (Jacob Hall), 1873-1957  Search this
Ripley, S. Dillon (Sidney Dillon), 1913-2001  Search this
Rockefeller, John D., 1906-  Search this
Rockefeller, Nelson A. (Nelson Aldrich), 1908-1979  Search this
Rutledge, Anna Wells  Search this
Sellers, Charles Coleman, 1903-  Search this
Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965  Search this
Simper, Fred, 1914-  Search this
Simpson, Corelli C. W.  Search this
Soria, Regina, 1911-  Search this
Spark, Victor D. (Victor David), 1898-1991  Search this
Speck, Walter, 1895-  Search this
Stevens, William B.  Search this
Valentiner, Wilhelm Reinhold, 1880-1958  Search this
Vose, Robert C. (Robert Churchill), 1911-1998  Search this
Watkins, Franklin Chenault, 1894-1972  Search this
Wedda, John  Search this
Woolfenden, William E. (William Edward), 1918-1995  Search this
Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009  Search this
Extent:
28.7 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Manuscripts
Interviews
Diaries
Transcripts
Sketches
Lectures
Place:
Detroit (Mich.)
Date:
1814-1996
bulk 1921-1996
Summary:
The papers of art historian E. P. Richardson measure 28.7 linear feet and date from 1814-1996, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-1996. Within the papers are scattered biographical materials; acquisition files for Richardson's personal art collection; professional and personal correspondence with colleagues, art historians and critics, artists, museums, galleries, and dealers; numerous writings, including manuscripts and research files for his published books, articles, and lectures; general research notebooks and files compiled by Richardson on a wide variety of art-related topics and artists; professional and committee files; as well as a smaller amount of Constance C. Richardson's papers.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian E. P. Richardson measure 28.7 linear feet and date from 1814-1996, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-1996. Within the papers are scattered biographical materials; acquisition files for Richardson's personal art collection; professional and personal correspondence with colleagues, art historians and critics, artists, museums, galleries, and dealers; numerous writings, including manuscripts and research files for his published books, articles, and lectures; general research notebooks and files compiled by Richardson on a wide variety of art-related topics and artists; professional and committee files; as well as a smaller amount of Constance C. Richardson's papers.

Biographical materials include certificates, awards, and honorary degrees, membership information, personal and family photographs, a few sketches, and a transcript of an oral history Interview with E.P. Richardson conducted by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1982.

There are acquisitions files for the Richardsons' personal art collection that invoices, photographs, correspondence with galleries and collectors, appraisals, price lists, and artwork examination forms.

Correspondence is with colleagues, art dealers, collectors, museums and museum curators, foreign scholars, organizations, galleries, artists, art historians and critics, publishers, editors, librarians, friends, and family. Topics regard purchasing art for various collections, consultations about art and collecting including authentications and attributions, publishing, general art history, lectures, and personal matters, among other topics. There is correspondence with the Archives of American Art, Castano Galleries, Lawrence Fleischman, James Thomas Flexner, Alfred V. Frankenstein, George Croce, Walter Heil, Earl Krentzin, Wilmarth Lewis, Russel Lynes, John Francis McDermott, Philadelphia Museum of Art, J. Hall Pleasants, Anna Rutledge, Charles Sellers, Smithsonian Institution, Regina Soria, Victor Spark, William Stevens, Robert Vose, William Woolfenden, and many others. Scattered correspondence with artists is with Isabel Bishop, Louis Bouche, William Bostick, Eve Garrison, Edward Hopper, Irene Jungwirth, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Hughie Lee-Smith, Reginald Marsh, Gerald Mast, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Walt Speck, and John Wedda, among many others. The greatest extent of correspondence is with Andrew Wyeth, Harold Cohn, and Frederick Simper. There is also personal correspondence with family and friends, and between E.P. and Constance Richardson.

E.P. Richardson's prominence as an art historian, writer, and expert on collecting is well documented through his prolific writings. Materials include drafts, notes, typescripts, and outlines for articles, exhibition catalog essays, and lectures. Also found are research files and publishing documentation for Richardson's books, including Washington Allston: A Study of the Romantic Artist in America (1948), Painting in America (1956), Charles Willson Peale and his World (1983), and American Romantic Painting (1944). There are also miscellaneous notes and four diaries. Two of the diaries comment on the social and cultural life of Detroit; the authenticity of paintings; Richardson's reflections on contemporary American painting, thoughts about museums, dealers, artists, and art historians (especially Wilhelm R. Valentiner); and travel.

Notebooks compiled by Richardson on a wide variety art-related topics cover nearly six decades. There are also numerous research files organized Richardson about individual artists and art history. And, the art collector files contain reference materials about art collectors and their collections including Lamont du Pont Copeland, Michael W. Freeman, Nelson Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Allen, and the Marquis de Somerlous. There are three index card file boxes containing bibliographic data on published books and articles.

Professional and committee files document Richardson's professional and consulting work for the Art Quarterly, Detroit Institute of Arts, National Collection of Fine Arts, the National Portrait Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the John D. Rockefeller III collection, Winterthur Museum, the White House, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Constance C. Richardson's papers include business and professional correspondence with various institutions, most extensively with the Macbeth Gallery. In addition, there is a smaller amount of personal correspondence, photographs and slides of her artworks, printed materials, two illustrated notebooks on her work, and miscellaneous notes. Also included is Constance's artist palette.
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian, museum director, and writer E. P. (Edgar Preston) Richardson (1902-1985) served as director of the Detroit Institute of Arts (1945-1962) and Winterthur Museum (1963-1966). He was also a board member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1966-1977 and, in 1954, co-founded the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

E. P. Richardson was born in 1902 in Glens Falls, New York and died in Philadelphia in 1985. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1925 and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for the three years following graduation. In 1930 he became educational secretary at the Detroit Institute of Arts, was quickly named assistant director in 1933, and served as director from 1945 to 1962. He left Detroit to take the position of director of the Winterthur Museum, where he remained until 1966. Richardson married Constance Coleman in 1931. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1905, Constance Coleman Richardson was an award-winning and widely exhibited realist style painter of American landscapes. She gave up painting in the 1960s and died in 2002.

While at the Detroit Institute of Arts, E. P. Richardson co-founded the Archives of American Art with Lawrence Fleischman, and served as the Archives' first director. Richardson was also art advisor to John D. Rockefeller III for over ten years, editor of Art Quarterly from 1938 to 1967, and a member of various boards, including the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Arts Commission, and the National Portrait Gallery. He authored numerous books including ones on artists Washington Allston and Charles Willson Peale, and The Way of Western Art: American Romantic Painting (1939), Painting in America: The Story of Four Hundred and Fifty Years (1956), A Short History of Painting in America (1963), and American Art, an Exhibition of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3d (1976).
Related Materials:
Related collections among the holdings of the Archives of American Art include an interview with E.P. Richardson dated February 6, 1978 conducted by Linda Downs; and several miscellaneous manuscripts that include an E.P. Richardson Letter to Rockwell Kent, June 15 1959; E.P. Richardson letters to Lawrence Arthur Fleischman, May 13, 1962 and August 22 1954; and a Yasuo Kunioshi letter to E.P. Richardson, July 25 1948.

Additional E.P. Richardson papers are found at the Detroit Institute of Arts and in the archives of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel D46) including E.P. Richardson's research material on Jeremiah P. Hardy. These materials are housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Library and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Edith Wilkinson first donated a letter to E. P. Richardson from herself in 1957. E.P. Richardson donated papers to the Archives of American Art in 1958 and 1960 and lent materials for microfilming in 1961. Addition material was donated by Constance Richardson in 1985, and by Martha Fleischman in 2003.
Restrictions:
Use of original material requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact References Services for more information.
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:
Authors -- Michigan -- Detroit  Search this
Art historians -- United States  Search this
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Painting, American  Search this
Art, American  Search this
Romanticism  Search this
Art -- History -- Study and teaching  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Manuscripts
Interviews
Diaries
Transcripts
Sketches
Lectures
Citation:
Edgar P. Richardson papers, 1814-1996, bulk 1921-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.richedga
See more items in:
E.P. (Edgar Preston) and Constance Richardson papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9f0a154af-52ef-402b-b06d-60a290eec749
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-richedga
Online Media:

Michigan Art and Craft Project records

Names:
Federal Art Project (Mich.)  Search this
Michigan Art and Craft Project  Search this
Michigan Art and Craft Project  Search this
United States. Work Projects Administration  Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration  Search this
Beerbohm, Marvin, 1909-  Search this
Bergy, Grace  Search this
Calder, Clivia, 1909-  Search this
Casava, Frank  Search this
Cashwan, Samuel, 1900-  Search this
Fredenthal, David, 1914-1958  Search this
Pollock, Charles C.  Search this
Speck, Walter, 1895-  Search this
Yaeger, Edgar L., 1904-  Search this
Extent:
0.3 Linear feet ((on partial micrfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1940-1942
Scope and Contents:
Financial documents; project statistics; descriptions of programs; letters to Charles Pollock; a clipping about Pollock's mural in Lansing, Michigan; photographs of artists: Clivia Calder, Samuel Cashwan, and Frank Casava with their works; and photographs of works of art by Marvin Beerbohm, David Fredenthal, Walter Speck, and Edgar Yaeger.[Microfilm and box title WPA-Michigan]
Biographical / Historical:
The Michigan Art and Craft Project was a division of the Federal Art Project. Charles Pollock was the supervisor of the project.
Other Title:
WPA-Michigan Art and Craft Project.
Provenance:
Provenance unknown.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Topic:
New Deal, 1933-1939 -- Michigan  Search this
Federal aid to the arts -- Michigan  Search this
Federal aid to the public welfare -- Michigan  Search this
Art and state -- Michigan  Search this
Mural painting and decoration, American  Search this
Decorative arts  Search this
Handicraft  Search this
Identifier:
AAA.michart
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw98499ac9e-0379-4ac3-8ab4-975f6c9bee81
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-michart

Marvin Beerbohm papers

Creator:
Beerbohm, Marvin, 1909-  Search this
Names:
Detroit School of Art  Search this
Griffith, Hunter G.  Search this
Speck, Walter, 1895-  Search this
Extent:
173 Items
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
[ca. 1937]-1966
Scope and Contents:
Letters received, 1941-1966; photographs, slides, and color transparencies of Beerbohm, of his murals, and of his paintings; subject file on the Detroit School of Art, 1950-1951, which Beerbohm co-directed with Hunter G. Griffith and Walter Speck; and printed materials including clippings, exhibition catalogs, and exhibition announcements.
Biographical / Historical:
Educator and painter.
Provenance:
Transferred 1983 from the National Museum of American Art to the Archives of American Art.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters  Search this
Identifier:
AAA.beermarv
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw979445046-e2bc-4cb8-963f-c57fa6e348e2
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-beermarv

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