Artist files are found for Alice Barber, George Chemeche, and Dorothy Gillespie. Files contain photographs, scattered letters, and printed material. Biographical materials include biographical notes, identification cards for art schools, travel papers, and four small date books from the 1980s. Correspondence is with friends and family including writer Joseph Freeman, her siblings, and father Louis Pizitz. Many of the letters concern Silvia Pizitz's strained relationship with her family regarding inheritance and ownership of Pizitz department stores in Alabama. Records on the donation of her art collection to Cornell University, New York University, the University of Birmingham and other institutions include correspondence, appraisals, deeds of gift, and shipping records.
Personal photographs include snapshots and portraits of Pizitz, Pizitz with friends and family, and travel. Photographs, negatives, and slides of works of art are by others, and are presumably pr items from Pizitz's collection. Some photos are of works by Raeford Liles. Of note are photos from an exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art of the Silvia Pizitz Collection. Printed materials include clippings and exhibition announcements, many of which concern the Pizitz family and her art collection. Also found are commemorative materials produced for or by the Pizitz department store to celebrate milestones and accomplishments.
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:
Silvia Pizitz papers, 1927-1989. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of this collection received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
