This series contains seven scrapbooks with newspaper clippings, magazine articles, caricatures, illustrations, scattered letters, photographs, event invitations, and original artwork extensively documenting Lamarque's personal and professional life.
Four scrapbooks include covers for magazines Lamarque designed as well as his published caricatures and illustrations for such magazines as Bally-hoo, Film Fun, Inside Detective, Modern Screen, Screen Romances, and others.
Scrapbook 1 includes a copy of Lamarque's first cartoon published in 1921 and correspondence from Lamarque's lawyer regarding his application for a patent for his "radiocatures," a radio broadcast that verbally transmitted his pictures and caricatures while the audience followed a diagram printed in the Telegram-Mail.
Of special interest in Scrapbook 3 are two letters addressed to Cuban caricaturist and publisher Conrado Massaguer from Vanity Fair magazine expressing an interest in Abril Lamarque's artwork. Examples of Lamarque's business stationary are also found in this scrapbook.
Scrapbook 4 is devoted to artwork Lamarque created for the Dell Publishing Company, including advertisements designed by Lamarque for Ballantine Ale, a beer company owned by George T. Delacorte, owner of the Dell Publishing Company.
Scrapbooks 5 and 7 document Lamarque's interest in magic and his numerous performances as an amateur magician in connection with the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Scrapbook 6 contains clippings of book reviews for Brooklyn U.S.A., written by John Richmond and Abril Lamarque.
Arrangement:
The scrapbooks are disassembled, but the materials are arranged in original order.
Collection 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.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Abril Lamarque papers, 1883-2001, bulk 1904-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
