The collection is arranged as 6 series. Series 1: James Chapin, 1941, 1955-circa 1984 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1) Series 2: Burgoyne Diller, 1932-2001 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 1-3) Series 3: Dorothea S. Greenbaum, 1919-1980 (2.7 linear feet; Boxes 4-6) Series 4: Jack Levine, 1961-1991 (2.1 linear feet; Boxes 6-8) Series 5: Elizabeth Olds, 1931-1992 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 8-9) Series 6: Other Artists, 1929-1998 (1.0 linear foot; Boxes 9-10)
Access Note / Rights:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Summary:
The Kenneth and Emma-Stina Prescott research material on artists measures 9.4 linear feet and dates from 1919 to 2001, with the bulk of the material dating from 1973 to 1991. Kenneth Prescott, an art historian and educator, and his wife Emma-Stina, also an art historian, maintained extensive files concerning artists James Chapin, Burgoyne Diller, Dorothea S. Greenbaum, Jack Levine, and Elizabeth Olds. These files typically include correspondence, artwork inventories, exhibition catalogs and other printed materials, notes, interviews, photographs, and slides. A small amount of material also documents the works of Richard Anuszkiewicz, Byron Browne, Jose de Creeft, Lorrie Goulet, Richard Hunt, Sam Maitin, and Hunt Slonem.
Citation:
Kenneth and Emma-Stina Prescott research material on artists, 1919-2001, bulk 1973-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use Note:
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.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art are the Burgoyne Diller papers which include papers and artwork donated by Kenneth and Emma-Stina Prescott. The Kenneth W. Prescott and Emma-Stina Prescott Collection of Ben Shahn is available at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Biography Note:
Kenneth Wade Prescott (1920-2013) was an art historian and educator in Austin, Texas. Prescott's wife, Emma-Stina (1924-2021) was also an art historian.
Kenneth Prescott received a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Michigan. While living in Ann Arbor he met his future wife Emma-Stina Johnsson, who was visiting from Stockholm, Sweden. His early career included directorships of the Kansas City Museum, Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the New Jersey State Museum. During his career he arranged and curated many exhibitions throughout the country and abroad and administered a grant program in the visual arts for the Ford Foundation. He and his wife moved to Austin, Texas in 1974, and he served as Chairman of the Art Department at the University of Texas at Austin. While there he introduced a Ph.D. program in Art History. Prescott regularly published in the fields of ornithology and the visual arts, including several publications on Ben Shahn and retrospective exhibition catalogs for the works of Elizabeth Olds, Burgoyne Diller, and Jack Levine. He also collaborated with his wife on The Complete Graphic Work of Jack Levine which was published in 1984.
Language Note:
The collection is in English.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in several installments by Kenneth and Emma-Stina Prescott from 1987 to 2001.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
