The papers of New York tapestry éditeur Gloria Ross measure 14.5 linear feet and date from circa 1924-1998. The bulk of the papers consist of project files that document her collaborations with artists to make tapestries of their paintings and collages. Also found are scattered biographical material, professional correspondence, exhibition files, professional activity files, personal business records, printed material, photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York tapestry éditeur Gloria Ross measure 14.5 linear feet and date from circa 1924-1998. The bulk of the papers consist of project files that document her collaborations with artists to make tapestries of their paintings and collages. Also found are scattered biographical material, professional correspondence, exhibition files, professional activity files, personal business records, printed material, photographs, and artwork.
Biographical material includes resumes and career summaries, as well as an interview of Ross on one videocassette, and a few Frankenthaler family documents. Correspondence is with artists, weavers, workshops, publications, and galleries and is of a professional nature.
Project files document Ross's collaborations with prominent artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Romare Bearden, Louise Nevelson, Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, and others. Project files may include correspondence, contracts, invoices, notes, photographs, yarn samples, and a few maquettes and cartoons. Also of note are extensive files regarding her collaborations with Navajo weavers to create tapestries based on geometric paintings by Kenneth Noland. Other project files include a commissioned tapestry for Temple Emanu-El in New York.
Exhibition files document various solo and group exhibitions of Gloria Ross tapestries and includes one videocassette from a 1978 exhibition. Records of her professional activities include her participation in symposia, lectures, and public events. Files may include correspondence, draft lectures, programs, and event publicity. Two short documentaries found on two videocassettes were produced for the Denver Art Museum. Personal business records document Ross's business relationships with weaving workshops and art galleries, most notably Atelier Raymond Picaud, Pinton atelier, Edinburgh Tapestry Company (Dovecot Studios), and Pace Editions, the major sales agent of Gloria Ross tapestries.
Printed material consists of catalogs, announcements, press releases, and other publications regarding exhibitions of Gloria Ross tapestries and Navajo tapestries. Photographs depict Ross, the Frankenthaler family, Ross's tapestries, weaving studios, and Navajo weavers. Artwork includes one painting by Paul Jenkins and unidentified textile and yarn samples.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 9 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1926-1998 (5 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1965-1998 (0.7 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Project Files, 1960-1998 (7.3 linear feet; Boxes 1-7, 14-15, 17-19, OVs 20, 22-24, Artifact)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1967-1994 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 17)
Series 5: Professional Activities, 1955-1997 (0.7 linear feet; Box 8)
Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1964-1998 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 8-10, OV 21)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1970s-1990s (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 10-11, 14)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1924-1990s (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 11, 16)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1970s-1990s (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 11-14, 17, 19)
Biographical / Historical:
Gloria F. Ross (1923-1998) was a tapestry éditeur in New York, New York.
Ross was born Gloria Frankenthaler in New York in 1923. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1943 and married Alfred Ross. They had three children: Alfred, Beverly, and Clifford. In 1954, Gloria Ross made her first needlepoint work from a design by her sister, abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler, and by the mid-1960s, she was exhibiting her tapestries and hooked rugs in New York. She established Gloria F. Ross Studio in 1966 and began regularly collaborating with artists such as Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, Jack Youngerman, and Jean Dubuffet to make their works into tapestries. She created business partnerships with weaving workshops in Scotland and France to produce the works. In 1973 she had her first exhibition at Pace Editions, Inc., beginning a long relationship with the gallery as her main sales agent.
In 1979, Ross first traveled to the Navajo Nation to find weavers for a collaborative project with artist Kenneth Noland. She continued to visit the Southwest at least once a year until 1994, and she donated her collection of Navajo rugs and other textiles to the Denver Art Museum. Throughout the 1980s Ross traveled extensively for projects, exhibitions, and symposia. Her final commissioned project, completed in 1997, was a tapestry designed by artist Mark Podwol for Temple Emanu-El in New York. That same year she established the Gloria F. Ross Center for Tapestry Studies in Tucson, Arizona.
Provenance:
Donated in 2013 by the Gloria Ross estate via Michael I. Katz, executor, with assistance from the Gloria F. Ross Tapestry Program, University of Arizona, via Ann Lane Hedlund, director.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
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.
Correspondence is with artists, weavers, workshops, publications, and galleries. Contents are primarily of a professional nature discussing tapestry commissions and sales, artist collaborations, exhibitions. Subject matter may directly relate to correspondence found within project files, exhibition files, and personal business records. Some of the correspondence is in French.
Arrangement:
Correspondence is arranged chronologically.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Project files primarily document Ross's collaborations with prominent artists to create tapestries of their paintings. She worked with artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Romare Bearden, Louise Nevelson, Milton Avery, and Stuart Davis to create designs and selected weavers to translate the artworks into tapestries. She also oversaw commissions and sales of these works to individuals, corporations, and museums. Project files may include correspondence, contracts, invoices, notes, photographs, yarn samples, and a few maquettes and cartoons. Also of note are extensive files regarding her collaborations with Kenneth Noland, with whom she had the longest working relationship of any artist. Included is documentation regarding the Native/Noland series. For this series Ross worked with Navajo weavers to create tapestries based on Noland's geometric paintings. Researchers should note that a few files document project collaborations that were never realized.
Other project files found here include a commissioned tapestry for Temple Emanu-El in collaboration with artist Mark Podwal, as well as commissions for Mazza Gallerie, Phoenix Civic Center, and Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. Documents include correspondence, invoices, agreements, photographs, and notes. Files regarding a Vesti Corporation mostly contain legal records and correspondence regarding Gloria Ross's role in the project.
Arrangement:
This series is arranged as 2 subseries.
Missing Title
3.1: Artist Collaborations, 1960-1998
3.2: Other Projects, 1971-1997
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
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.
Collection Citation:
Gloria Ross papers, circa 1924-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
