Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 21 min.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Summary:
An interview of Margaret Tomkins conducted 1984 June 6, by Bruce Guenther, for the Archives of American Art's Northwest Oral History Project at the artist's studio in Seattle, Washington.
Tomkins speaks of her childhood in Los Angeles; her education; the art collections in the Los Angeles area; the importance of the WPA project; the founding (with her husband James Fitzgerald) of the Artists Gallery in Seattle in 1958; being a woman artist and a working mother; finishing Fitzgerald's work after his death; her current work; and the influence of abstract expressionism.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Margaret Tomkins, 1984 June 6. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript available on line.
Location of Originals:
Transcript also available at the University of Washington, Manuscripts Collection, and at the Oregon Historical Society.
Funding:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Biography Note:
Margaret Tomkins (1916-2002) was a painter from Seattle, Washington.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' Northwest Oral History Project, begun in 1982 to document the Northwest artistic community through interviews with painters, sculptors, craftsmen, educators, curators, and others, in Oregon, Washington and Montana.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001