This subseries contains both personal and professional correspondence from the early years of Wood's career as an actress and artist until the end of her life. Included in this series are letters to and from friends, family, clients, other artists, gallery owners, museums, and editors. An an avid writer, Wood maintained lifelong relationships through her letters. Correspondents include John Estenza, Anna Bing Arnold, Ruth Maitland, Ruth Dayan, Reginald Pole, Anais Nin, Dorothy Liebes, Rue McClanahan, Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, Rupert Pole, Esther Rosencrantz, Michael Weightman-Smith, and Geesche Ninke. Wood also formed many personal and professional relationships with individuals she met during her three trips to India in 1961, 1966, and 1971. Among these correspondents are Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, N. Suri Ram, P. K. Vyas, Srimali Rukmini Devi, and N. Kumar Das.
Several art museums are represented in this subseries, including DeYoung Memorial Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Pasadena Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Art, and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
See Appendix for a list of correspondents from Series 2.1.
Arrangement note:
Material is arranged chronologically by date. Undated letters can be found at the end of the subseries, arranged by last name of correspondent. Note that Wood's correspondence with the galleries is found in Series 3: Personal Business Records. Additional correspondence with publishers is found in Series 4: Notes and Writings.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
The unprocessed addtion to this collection is currently closed for processing and digitization. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Beatrice Wood papers, 1906-1998, bulk 1930-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.