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Catalog Data

Creator:
Gammon, Reginald A. (Reginald Adolphus), 1921-2005  Search this
Subject:
Andrews, Benny  Search this
Wynberg, Jonathan  Search this
Overton, Harry  Search this
Lee-Smith, Hughie  Search this
Greenberg, Joseph J.  Search this
Fray, Thomas  Search this
Browne, Vivian E.  Search this
Bearden, Romare  Search this
King, Patrick  Search this
Spiral (Group of artists)  Search this
Western Michigan University  Search this
New Mexico African American Artists' Guild  Search this
Anacostia Community Museum  Search this
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library  Search this
Midtown Galleries (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center (U.S.)  Search this
Harwood Art Center (Albuquerque, N.M.)  Search this
Type:
Photographs
Interviews
Paintings
Sketches
Drawings
Sound recordings
Video recordings
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
2.4 Linear feet; 5.3 Gigabytes
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series. Series 1: Biographical Material, 1936-2006 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, 3, 5.29 GB; ER01-ER03) Series 2: Correspondence, 1964-2005 (0.8 linear feet; Box 1-3) Series 3: Writings and Notebooks, 1948-circa 2000 (0.1 linear feet; Box 2) Series 4: Teaching Files, 1969-1991 (0.1 linear feet; Box 2) Series 5: Printed Material, 1955-2005 (0.4 linear feet; Box 2, OV 4) Series 6: Photographic Material, 1927-2007 (0.2 linear feet; Box 2-3, 0.010 GB; ER04) Series 7: Artwork, 1937-circa 1999 (0.5 linear feet; Box 2-3)
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.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings and electronic records with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Summary:
The papers of African American painter, printmaker, and educator Reginald Gammon measure 2.4 linear feet and 5.30 GB and date from 1927 to 2007, with bulk of the materials dating from 1960-2005. The collection consists of scattered biographical materials, including video and sound recordings of interviews; correspondence with artists, galleries, organizations, and museums; writings and notebooks; teaching files; printed materials; photographic material; and artwork in the form of sketches, drawings, and paint sketches.
Citation:
Reginald Gammon papers, 1927-2007, bulk 1960-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2016 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website. Materials not digitized include blank pages, blank versos of photographs, and duplicates. In some cases, exhibition catalogs and other publications have had their covers, title pages, and relevant pages scanned.
Additional digital content, such as electronic records and digital user copies of sound and video recordings, may also be available for use at Archives of American Art offices.
Funding:
Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and 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.
Biography Note:
Reginald A. Gammon (1921-2005) was a painter and art educator who worked in New York City, Michigan, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was a member of Spiral, an African American artist's collective based in New York City, as well as a member of the New Mexico Afro-American Artist Guild. He taught in the New York public schools and at Western Michigan University.
Gammon was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1941, he received a scholarship to study art at the Philadelphia Museum College of Arts (then the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts) and the following summer worked in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard refurbishing battleships for the war effort. While working, he also attended school at night. He was drafted and served in the Navy from 1944-1946 with an African-American unit stationed in Guam. He lived in Philadelphia briefly after the war and moved to New York City in 1948. During his early years in New York City, Gammon worked at various jobs such as sorting mail for the post office and designing advertising copy. Around this time, he first met his future wife Janice Goldberger whom he married in 1972.
In 1963, Gammon was invited to join Spiral, a group of African American artists which included Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, Alvin Hollingsworth, Norman Lewis, Richard Mayhew, and Hale Woodruff. As a member of this group, Gammon participated in the 1965 exhibition First Group Showing: Works in Black and White . Spiral disbanded later that same year. In 1969, Gammon and Benny Andrews formed the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. This politically active group of artists picketed the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art to protest the exclusion of black artists and curators.
Gammon also taught at the Saturday Academy Program for New York public schools. He set up an informal studio so that children from Harlem could work with resident artists. This position and a recommendation from Hughie Lee-Smith led to an offer from Western Michigan University for a visiting lectureship that turned into a full-time teaching position in which Gammon served until 1991, when he retired as Full Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts and Humanities.
After his retirement from Western Michigan University, Gammon and his wife moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and he became involved in the New Mexico Afro-American Artist Guild and the Albuquerque United Artists, among other civic organizations. He regularly participated in exhibitions and art fairs sponsored by the Guild and served as their treasurer from 1999 until his death. He was artist-in-residence from 1992-2005 at the Harwood Art Center where he also maintained a studio.
Gammon was also one of the founding members of the New Grounds Print Workshop, where he completed his final collection of artworks - a collection of over 100 prints of historically significant gospel singers and jazz musicians. Gammon died on November 4, 2005.
Language Note:
The collection is in English. Some correspondence is in French.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 2007 and 2008 by Reginald Gammon's widow Janice Gammon.
Digitization Note:
This site provides access to the papers of Reginald A. (Reginald Adolphus) Gammon in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2017, and total 2,258 images.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching  Search this
Artists' studios -- Photographs  Search this
African American artists  Search this
African American educators  Search this
African American painters  Search this
African American printmakers  Search this
Theme:
African American  Search this
Lives of artists  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)13635
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)272096
AAA_collcode_gammreg
Theme:
African American
Lives of artists
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_272096