The collection is arranged as 6 series: Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1953-1970 (Box 1; 1 folder) Series 2: Correspondence, 1952-1979 (Boxes 1-2; 1.3 linear feet) Series 3: Business Records, 1953-1970 (Box 2; .7 linear feet) Series 4: Financial Material, 1953-1970 (Boxes 3-4; 2 linear feet) Series 5: Printed Material, 1952-1976 (Box 5; 3 folders) Series 6: Photographic Material, 1953-1969 (Box 5; 11 folders)
Access Note / Rights:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Summary:
Records of four of Nathan Halper's Provincetown galleries measure 4.2 linear feet and date from 1952-1979. The records relate to Kootz Gallery, H-C Gallery, HCE Gallery, and Sun Gallery - all based in Provincetown. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with artists, estate executors, collectors, galleries, and museums. There are also scattered business and financial records documenting operations and sales, photographs and slides, printed materials, and one poem. Correspondents include Milton Avery, Anthony Caro, John Murray Cuddihy, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hofmann, Samuel Kootz, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Richard Stankeiwicz, and many others.
Citation:
Nathan Halper business records, 1952-1979. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2011 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website. Materials which have not been scanned include blank pages, blank versos of photographs, unannotated photographs of artwork, duplicates, insurance policies, and routine financial transactions that do not document sales of artwork. In some cases, exhibition catalogs and other publications have had their covers, title pages, and relevant pages scanned.
Funding:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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 in the Archives of American Art are the Kootz Gallery records and oral history interviews with Nathan Halper conducted by Dorothy Seckler, July 17, 1963 and by Robert Brown, July 8-August 14, 1980. Columbia University also holds Nathan Halper's papers concerning his literary scholarly work.
Biography Note:
Nathan Halper (1907-1983) worked in Provincetown, Massachusetts as a contemporary American art dealer, writer, and James Joyce scholar.
Language Note:
The records are in English.
Provenance:
The Nathan Halper business records were donated by Nathan Halper in 1979. Additional materials were donated in 1983 and 1984 by his wife Helen Marjorie Windust Halper.
Digitization Note:
This site provides access to the papers of Nathan Halper in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2017. The papers have been scanned in their entirety, and total 5,282 images.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001