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Summary:
Letters; sketches (mostly photocopies) of medals; photographs; an interview on DVD, and medals concerning Wacks' involvement in the work of medalist Gerta Ries Wiener for the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, a project and institution created by the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, Calif.
Letters, circa 100, from Wiener to Wacks concerning commemorative medals created by Wiener and commissioned by Wacks for the Judah L. Magnes Museum, from Emma Lazarus, Adolph Ochs, Benjamin N. Cardozo, Béla Schick, Ernestine L. Rose, Gertrude Stein, Louis D. Brandeis, Gershom Mendes Seixas, Henrietta Szold, Golda Meir, Gershom Mendes Seixas, and Jascha Heifetz (medal not made). Photographs are of medals and subjects used for medals. Interview on DVD is of Wiener conducted by Wacks, December 30, 1994. Five commemorative medals are by Wiener of Schick, Ochs, Brandeis, Rose, and Rebecca Gratz.
Citation:
Mel Wacks papers relating to Gerta Ries Wiener and the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, 1970-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Biography Note:
Mel Wacks (b. 1938) is Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, Woodland Hills, Calif. The Jewish-American Hall of Fame was a project of the Judah L. Magnes Museum from 1969 through 2001 and is currently a division of the American Jewish Historical Society.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
Donated 2007 and 2009 by Mel Wacks, director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
