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Interviewee:

Marioni, Paul  Search this

Interviewer:

Riedel, Mija, 1958-  Search this

Creator:

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Names:

A.C. Fischer Glashütte  Search this

California College of Arts and Crafts -- Faculty  Search this

College of Marin -- Faculty  Search this

Glass Art Society  Search this

Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America  Search this

Penland School of Handicrafts (Penland, N.C.) -- Faculty  Search this

Pilchuck Glass Center (Stanwood, Wash.) -- Faculty  Search this

San Francisco State University -- Students  Search this

Spectrum Glass Co.  Search this

University of Cincinnati -- Students  Search this

University of Dayton -- Students  Search this

Ben Tré, Howard, 1949-2020  Search this

Blaine, Sandy  Search this

Bolles, John S., 1905-  Search this

Bosworth, Thomas L. (Thomas Lawrence), 1930-  Search this

Brychtová, Jaroslava, 1924-  Search this

Chihuly, Dale, 1941-  Search this

Dreisbach, Fritz  Search this

Libenský, Stanislav, 1921-2002  Search this

Lipofsky, Marvin, 1938-2016  Search this

Marioni, Dante, 1964-  Search this

Marquis, Richard, 1945-  Search this

McCann, Cecile  Search this

Milhoan, Randy  Search this

Nelson, Gunvor  Search this

Nelson, Robert A.  Search this

North, Judy, 1937-  Search this

Signoretto, Pino, 1944-  Search this

Sindler, Allan P.  Search this

Sindler, Leonore  Search this

Troutner, Ann Margaret  Search this

Vallien, Bertil, 1938-  Search this

Extent:

11 Items (Sound recording: 11 sound files (8 hrs., 18 min.), digital, wav)

112 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Place:

Europe -- description and travel

Japan -- Description and Travel

Mexico -- description and travel

South America -- description and travel

Thailand -- description and travel

Date:

2006 September 18-19

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Paul Marioni conducted 2006 September 18-19, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the artist's home and studio, Seattle, Washington. Marioni speaks of his childhood in Ohio; excelling in math as a young student; being labeled a troublemaker in high school; his interest and skill in fixing cars and motorcycles; attending the University of Dayton, the University of Cincinnati, and San Francisco State University; receiving bachelor's degrees in English and philosophy; an interest in filmmaking; the joys and struggles of raising two children by himself; his unorthodox parenting philosophy; learning glass techniques from Judy Raffeal North; teaching experiences at College of Marin, California College of Arts and Crafts, Pilchuck Glass School, and Penland School of Crafts, among others; the importance of fostering idea formation and creativity in educational institutions; his experiences as Artist-in-Residence at A.C. Fischer Glashutte and Spectrum Glass Co.; the development of his process for producing cast glass; the great number of public architectural commissions that resulted from the ability to work with cast glass; the more than 85 commissions he has completed alone and in collaboration with Ann Troutner; the difference between his gallery work and commission work; the pleasure he gets from working in the studio; travels throughout Europe, South America, Japan, Thailand, Mexico; his use of ambient light; strong responses received from his political artwork; his dislike of art critics; the vital role Glass Art Society played in supporting the studio glass art movement; the emphasis of human nature in his art; and plans for the future. Marioni also recalls Robert Nelson, Gunvar Nelson, John Bolles, Cecile McCann, Marvin Lipofsky, Dale Chihuly, Tom Bosworth, Fritz Dreisbach, Richard Marquis, Howard Ben Tré, Bertil Vallien, Jaroslava Brychtová, Stanislav Libenský, Randy Milhoan, Dante Marioni, Pino Signoretto, Sandy Blaine, Allan and Lenore Sindler, and others.

Biographical / Historical:

Paul Marioni (1941- ) is a glass artist from Seattle, Washington. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is a curator and writer, from San Francisco, California.

General:

Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 11 digital wav files. Duration is 8 hrs., 18 min.

Provenance:

This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.

Restrictions:

Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

Occupation:

Art critics  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Political aspects  Search this

Cast glass  Search this

Decorative arts  Search this

Glass art  Search this

Glass art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Glass art -- Technique  Search this

Glass artists -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- Interviews  Search this

Parenting  Search this

Politics in art  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Sponsor:

Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.

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.

Identifier:

AAA.marion06

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-marion06

Creator:

Smith, Myron Bement, 1897-1970  Search this

Source:

Blake, Marion Elizabeth  Search this

Names:

Aga-Oglu, Mehmet, 1896-1949  Search this

Ettinghausen, Richard  Search this

Field, Henry  Search this

Herzfeld, Ernst, 1879-1948  Search this

Kuban, Dogan  Search this

Moe, Henry Allen  Search this

Pope, Arthur Upham, 1881-1969  Search this

Former owner:

Blake, Marion Elizabeth  Search this

Extent:

192 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

circa 1910-1970

Summary:

The Myron Bement Smith collection consists of two parts, the papers of Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine and the Islamic Archives. It contains substantial material about his field research in Italy in the 1920s and his years working on Islamic architecture in Iran in the 1930s. Letters describe the milieu in which he operated in Rochester NY and New York City in the 1920s and early 1930s; the Smiths' life in Iran from 1933 to 1937; and the extensive network of academic and social contacts that Myron and Katharine developed and maintained over his lifetime. The Islamic Archives was a project to which Smith devoted most of his professional life. It includes both original materials, such as his photographs and notes, and items acquired by him from other scholars or experts on Islamic art and architecture. Smith intended the Archives to serve as a resource for scholars interested in the architecture and art of the entire Islamic world although he also included some materials about non-Islamic architecture.

Scope and Contents:

The Myron Bement Smith Collection consists of two parts, the papers of Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine and the Islamic Archives. The papers include some biographic material about Myron but little about his wife. Information on his academic and professional experience is sketchy and his diaries and appointment books often contain only sporadic entries. The papers contain substantial material about his field research in Italy in the 1920s and his years working on Islamic architecture in Iran in the 1930s. Correspondence comprises the largest and most potentially useful part of the papers. Letters describe the milieu in which he operated in Rochester, NY and New York City in the 1920s and early 1930s; the Smiths' life in Iran from 1933 to 1937; and the extensive network of academic and social contacts that Myron and Katharine developed and maintained over his lifetime.

The Islamic Archives, formally entitled The Archive for Islamic Culture and Art, was a project to which Smith devoted most of his professional life. It includes both original materials, such as his photographs and notes, and items acquired by him from other scholars or experts on Islamic art and architecture. Most of the latter consists of photographs and slides. Smith intended the Archives to serve as a resource for scholars interested in the architecture and art of the entire Islamic world although he also included some materials about non-Islamic architecture. The core collection of the Archives consists of Smith's original photographs and architectural sketches of Iranian Islamic monuments made during his field research in the 1930s. He meticulously photographed the interior and exterior of monuments, including their decorative detail. Some of the photographic materials subsequently loaned, purchased, or donated to the Archives may enable scholars to document sites over time but in many cases the materials are poorly preserved or reproduced. A notable exception to this is the glassplate negatives and prints of 19th century Iranian photographer Antoin Sevruguin.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into 2 major series with further subseries. A third series inventories the outsized and miscellaneous materials.

Series 1: Papers

Subseries 1.1: Biographic Materials

Subseries 1.2: Professional Experience

Subseries 1.3: Notebooks, Journals and Appointment Books

Subseries 1.4: Correspondence

Subseries 1.5: Published and Unpublished Materials

Subseries 1.6: Italy Research 1925, 1927-1928

Subseries 1.7: Iran Research 1933-1937

Subseries 1.8: Katharine Dennis Smith Papers and Correspondence

Series 2: The Islamic Archives

Subseries 2.1: Islamic Archives History, Collection Information

Subseries 2.2: Resource Materials Iran

Subseries 2.3: Resource Materials Other Islamic World and General

Subseries 2.4: Myron Bement Smith Architectural Sketches, Plans and Notes, Iran, 1933-1937

Subseries 2.5: Myron Bement Smith Iran Photographs, Notebooks and Negative Registers

Subseries 2.6: Country Photograph File

Subseries 2.7: Lantern Slide Collection

Subseries 2.8: Myron Bement Smith 35 mm Color Slides

Subseries 2.9: Country 35 mm Color Slide File

Subseries 2.10: Myron Bement Smith Negatives

Subseries 2.11: Country Photograph Negatives

Subseries 2.12: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs

Series 3: Outsize and Miscellaneous Items

Subseries 3.1: Map Case Drawers

Subseries 3.2: Rolled Items

Subseries 3.3 Items in Freezer

Subseries 3.4 Smithsonian Copy Negatives

Biographical Note:

Myron Bement Smith was born in Newark Valley, New York in 1897 and grew up in Rochester, New York. He died in Washington D.C. in 1970. He showed an early interest in drawing, and after graduation from high school, he worked as a draftsman for a Rochester architect. He served in the US Army Medical Corps in France during World War I and on return again worked as an architectural draftsman. He studied at Yale University from 1922 to 1926, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. During summer vacations, he worked as draftsman or designer for architectural firms in New York City. After graduation, he received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant and spent two years in Italy doing research on northern Italian brick and stone work. He used photography as an tool for his research and published several well-illustrated articles. On return he joined an architectural firm in Philadelphia and in 1931 became a registered architect in New York. He enrolled in Harvard University graduate school in 1929 pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree.

In April 1930, Smith was appointed Secretary of the newly created American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology founded by Arthur Upham Pope and located in New York City. He had no prior academic or work experience in Islamic art or architecture, and his job entailed designing publications, arranging lectures, organizing exhibitions and fund raising. That summer he arranged an independent study course at Harvard University on Persian art and subsequently studied Persian language at Columbia University and attended graduate courses at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. His work and academic credentials enabled him to compete successfully for a research fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies in 1933 to study Iranian Islamic architecture.

Accompanied by his new bride Katharine Dennis, Smith left for Iran in 1933. They suffered a horrendous motor vehicle accident in Iraq en route and required a lengthy recuperation in Lebanon and Cyprus. The Smiths eventually arrived in Isfahan, Iran, where they established their "Expedition House," as Smith called it, in a rented faculty house at Stuart College. Smith's research consisted of meticulous photographic documentation of Islamic monuments and architectural sketches and drawings of many of them. He concentrated on the Isfahan area but also documented monuments elsewhere in Iran. Smith outfitted his station wagon as a combination camper and research vehicle in which he and his staff traveled widely. Katharine sometimes traveled with him but generally she remained in Isfahan managing the household and logistics for the "expedition." The Smiths left Iran in 1937.

Smith published several articles about Iran's Islamic monuments based on his field research and in 1947 completed his PhD thesis for The Johns Hopkins University on the vault in Persian architecture. His professional career from 1938 until his death in 1970 consisted of a series of temporary academic positions, contract work and government or academic sponsored lecture tours and photographic exhibits. He had a long lasting relationship with the Library of Congress where he served as an Honorary Consultant from 1938 to 1940 and again from 1948 to 1970; from 1943 to 1944 he was Chief of the Iranian Section at the Library. Despite his lack of published material, Smith was well-known among academic, government and private citizens who worked, traveled or were otherwise interested Iran and the Islamic world.

Smith developed an extensive network of professional and social contacts that dated from his early student days and increased markedly during his time at the Persian Institute and later in Iran. He kept in touch with them and they touted him to others who were interested in Iran or Islamic art and architecture. This network served him well in realizing his ambition of creating a resource for scholars that relied on photographs to document Islamic architecture. The Islamic Archives began with his own collection of photographs from his Iran research and grew to include all manner of photographic and other materials not only on the Islamic world but also other areas. Creating and managing the Archives became the main focus of Smith's professional life and career. In 1967 he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to revise his PhD thesis as a publishable manuscript but died before he could complete it.

Related Materials:

The Antoin Sevruguin Photgraphs

Ernst Herzfeld Papers

Lionel B. Bier Drawings

Lionel D. Bier and Carol Bier Photographs

Provenance:

Gift of Myron Bement Smith

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Topic:

Islamic architecture  Search this

Islamic Architecture-Turkey  Search this

Iran-description and travel  Search this

Iran-History 20th Century  Search this

Islamic Architecture-Middle East  Search this

Iran-social life and customs  Search this

United States-Social life and customs  Search this

Mosques  Search this

Architecture -- Iran  Search this

Citation:

The Myron Bement Smith Collection. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Identifier:

FSA.A.04

See more items in:

Myron Bement Smith Collection

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-04

Creator:

Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919  Search this

Extent:

131 Linear feet (29 architectural drawings)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Diaries

Financial records

Correspondence

Photographs

Place:

China

Syria

Egypt

India

London (England)

Japan

Boston (Mass.)

Detroit (Mich.)

Washington (D.C.)

Kandy (Sri Lanka)

Sri Lanka

Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka)

Date:

1876-1931

Summary:

The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, and photographs.

Scope Content:

The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, financial material, architectural drawings, and photographs.

Correspondence, circa 1860-1921, includes Freer's correspondence, 1876-1920, with artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and public figures; letterpress books contain copies of Freer's outgoing letters, 1892-1910; correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler, and his wife Beatrix, 186?-1909, with Lady Colin Campbell, Thomas R. Way, Alexander Reid, Whistler's mother, Mrs. George W. Whistler, and others; correspondence of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, 1904-1913, regarding works in Canfield's collection; and correspondence of Freer's assistant, Katharine Nash Rhoades, 1920-1921, soliciting Freer's letters from his associates, and regarding the settlement of his estate.

Also included are twenty-nine pocket diaries, 1889-1890, 1892-1898, 1900-1919, recording daily activities, people and places visited, observations, and comments; a diary kept by Freer's caretaker, Joseph Stephens Warring, recording daily activities at Freer's Detroit home, 1907-1910. Inventories, n.d. and 1901-1921, of American, European, and Asian art in Freer's collection, often including provenance information; vouchers, 1884-1919, documenting his purchases; five volumes of scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeill Whistler, 1888-1931, labeled "Various," "Peacock Room," "Death, etc.," "Paris, etc.," and "Boston...London" ; three volumes of newsclippings, 1900-1930, concerning Freer and the opening of the Freer Gallery of Art.

Correspondence regarding Freer's gift and bequest to the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1916; and photographs, ca. 1880-1930, of Freer, including portraits by Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edward Steichen, Freer with others, Freer in Cairo, China and Japan, Freer's death mask, and his memorial service, Kyoto, 1930; photographs of artists and others, including Thomas Dewing, Ernest Fenollosa, Katharine Rhoades taken by Alfred Stieglitz, Rosalind B. Philip, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbott H. Thayer, Dwight Tryon, and Whistler; and photographs relating to Whistler, including art works depicting him, grave and memorial monuments, works of art, the Peacock Room, and Whistler's memorial exhibition at the Copley Society.

Organization of the Papers:

This collection is organized into twelve series.

Series 1: Genealogical and Biographical Data

Series 2: Correspondence

Series 3: Diaries

Series 4: Freer Colleague Materials

Series 5: Art Inventories

Series 6: Financial Materials

Series 7: Exhibition Loan Files

Series 8: Biblical Manuscripts and Gold Treasure Files

Series 9: American School of Archaeology in China

Series 10: Printed Material

Series 11: Outsize Material

Series 12: Photographs

Biographical Note:

1854 February 25 -- Born in Kingston, New York

1873 -- Appointed accountant and paymaster of New York, Kingston and Syracuse Railroad by Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927)

1876 -- Moves to Indiana to work, with Hecker, for the Detroit and Eel River and Illinois Railroad

1880 -- Moves to Detroit, participates in organization of the Peninsular Car Works with Hecker

1883 -- Becomes vice president and secretary of Peninsular Car Company when it succeeds Peninsular Car Works

1883 -- Begins collecting European prints

1884 -- Peninsular Car Company constructs plant on Ferry Avenue

1887 -- Meets Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)

1887 -- Acquires proofs of 26 etchings, Venice, Second Series(1886), by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

1887 -- Purchases a small Japanese fan attributed to Ogata Karin(1658-1715)

1887 -- Buys land on Ferry Avenue

1889 -- Meets Frederick Stuart Church (1826-1900) and Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925) in New York

1890 -- Commissions Wilson Eyre (1858-1944) to design house on Ferry Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

1890 -- On first trip to London, meets James McNeill Whistler(1834-1903)

1892 -- Moves to Ferry Avenue house

1892 -- Tryon and Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) undertake decoration of reception rooms

1893 -- Lends American paintings to World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

1893 -- Purchases first piece of Chinese art, a small painting of white herons by an anonymous Ming dynasty (1368-1644) artist

1894 -- Begins yearlong trip around the world, which includes visit to the Whistlers in Paris and first trip to Asia, stopping in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, China, and Japan

1896 -- Meets Matsuki Bunkyo (1867-1940) in Boston

1899 -- Takes part in consolidation of railroad-car building companies then retires from active business

1900 -- Attends Exposition International Universelle in Paris

1900 -- Buys villa in Capri with Thomas S. Jerome

1901 -- Meets Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) in Paris and Ernest Fenollosa(1853-1908), who visits Freer in Detroit

1902 -- Meets Dikran Kelekian (1868-1951)

1902 -- Spends summer in Britain building Whistler collection

1902 -- Views Whistler's, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room

1904 -- Purchases Whistler's Peacock Room

1904 -- Offers his art collections and funds to build a museum in which to house them to the Smithsonian Institution

1905 -- Smithsonian committee visits Freer in Detroit

1906 -- United States government formally accepts Freer's gift on January 24

1906 -- Freer signs Deed of Gift to Smithsonian Institution on May 5

1907 -- On second tour of Asia, meets Hara Tomitaro 1868-1939) in Yokohama, Japan

1908 -- Takes third trip to Asia, specifically to West Asia to study Rakka ware

1909 -- Tours Europe to study art museums

1909 -- On fourth trip to Asia, attends memorial ceremony for Fenollosa (d.1908 September) at Miidera, Japan, and meets Duanfang (1861-1911) in China

1910 -- On last trip to Asia, visits Longmen Buddhist caves in China

1911 -- Suffers stroke

1912 -- Lends selection of objects for exhibition at Smithsonian Institution

1913 -- Meets Eugene (1875-1957) and Agnes E. (1887-1970) Meyer

1913 -- Commissions Charles Adams Platt (1861-1933) to design museum building in Washington

1914 -- Meets Katharine Nash Rhoades (1885-1965) in Detroit

1915 -- Settles in New York City

1915 -- Site of future Freer Gallery of Art is determined

1916 -- Platt's plans for Freer Gallery are approved by Smithsonian Regents and Commission of Fine Arts and ground is broken in September

1918 -- After falling ill in Detroit, Freer travels to New York for treatment

1918 -- Work on the museum building is delayed by the war

1919 -- Freer appends codicil to will permitting acquisitions of Asian, Egyptian, and Near Eastern (West Asian) art

1919 -- Dies in New York City on 25 September and is buried in Kingston, New York

1919 -- Construction of Freer Gallery completed

1920 -- John Ellerton Lodge (1876-1942) is appointed director of the Freer Gallery

1923 -- Freer Gallery opens to the public on May 9

1930 -- Memorial ceremony for Freer is held at Koetsuji, Kyoto

Charles Lang Freer was an American industrialist who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. He was a well-known collector of Asian art, and strongly supported the synthesis of Eastern art and Western art. One of his most famous acquisitions was James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room.

Index:

Index to cross-referenced correspondents in the series Charles Lang Freer correspondence

Beal, Junius E. -- See: -- Warring, Joseph Stephens

Black, George M. -- See: -- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Board of Education (Kingston, New York) See: Michael, M. J.

Bonner, Campbell See: University of Michigan

Boughton, George H. See: Yardley, F. C.

British Museum See: Binyon, Laurence; Hobson, R. L.

Brown, Harold H. See: Art Association of Indianapolis

Buchner, Evelyn B. See: Knoedler, M., and Company

Buckholder, C. H. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Butler, S. B. See: Unidentified correspondents

Carnegie Institute See: Balken, Edward Duff; Harshe, Robert B.

Carpenter, Newton H. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Caulkins, Horace James See: Pewabic Pottery

Chao, Shih-chin See: Gunn, Chu Su

Chicago & North Western Railway Co. See: Hughett, Marvin

Clark, Charles Upson See: Clark, Arthur B.

Cleveland Museum of Art See: Whiting, Frederic Allen

Columbia University See: Braun, W. A.; Gottheil, Richard; Hirth, Friederich

Commission of Fine Arts See: Moore, Charles

Corcoran Gallery of Art See: Minnigerode, C. Powell

Crocker, Anna B. See: Portland Art Association

Dannenberg, D. E. See: Karlbeck, Orvar

De Menoncal, Beatrice See: Lien, Hui Ch'ing Collection

De Ricci, Seymour See: Ricci, Seymour de

Defnet, William A., Mrs., See: Franke, Ida M.

DeMotte See: Vigouroux, J.

Detroit Institute of Arts See: Detroit Museum of Art

Detroit Publishing Company See: Livingstone, W. A.

Detroit School of Design See: George Hamilton; Stevens, Henry

DeVinne Press See: Peters, Samuel T.; Witherspoon, A. S.

Dyrenforth, P. C. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Eddy, Arthur J. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Eggers, George Williams See: Art Institute of Chicago

Farr, Daniel H. See: Robinson and Farr

Farrand School (Detroit) See: Yendall, Edith

Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) See: Laufer, Berthold

Flagg, Frederick J. See: Allen, Horace N.

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University See: Forbes, Edward; Pope, Arthur Upham; Sachs, Paul J.

French, M. R. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Fu, Lan-ya See: Pang, Lai-ch'en

Fujii, Yoshio See: Yoshio, Fujii

Gerrity, Thomas See: Knoedler, M., and Company

Goupil Gallery See: Marchant, William

Gray, William J. See: Barr, Eva

Great Lakes Engineering Works See: Hoyt, H. W.

Grolier Club See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Heinemann, W. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Holden, Edward S. See: West Point, U. S. Military Academy

Hudson, J. L. See: Weber, William C.

Hutchins, Harry B. See: University of Michigan

Hutchins, Charles L. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Kelekian, H. G. See: Kelekian, Dikran G.

Kent, H. W. See: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lee, Kee Son See: Li, Chi-ch'un

Levy, John See: Schneider, A. K.

Library of Congress See: Rice, Richard A.; Wright, Helen

Louvre (Paris, France) See: Midgeon, Gaston

Matsuki, Z. See: Matsuki, Kihachiro

McKim, Mead and White See: White, Stanford

Mills, A. L., Colonel See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Miner, Luella See: Lien, Hui Ch'ing Collection

Minneapolis Institute of Arts See: Breck, Joseph; Van Derlip, John R.

Monif, R. Khan See: Rathbun, Richard

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston See: Lodge, John Ellerton

Naser, Katen & Nahass See: Katen, K.

Nordlinger, Marie, Miss See: Meyer-Riefstahl, Marie

Panama Pacific International Exposition See: Moore, Charles C.; Trask, John E. D.

Peabody Museum See: Morse, Edward Sylvester

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts See: Trask, John E. D.

Perry, Mary Chase, Miss., See: Pewabic Pottery

Philip, Ronald M. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Pope, G. D. See: Barr, Eva

Reinhart, A. G. See: Gottschalk, E.

Reitz, Sigisbert Chrétien Bosch See: Bosch-Reitz, Sigisbert Chrétien

Rutgers College See: Van Dyke, John C.

Saint-Gaudens, Augusta H. See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Saint-Gaudens, Homer See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Samurai Shokai See: Nomura, Yozo

San Francisco Art Association See: Laurvik, J. Nilsen

Scribner's, Charles, Sons See: Van Dyke, John C.

Shaw, Wilfred B. See: University of Michigan

Shirae, S. Z. See: Yamanaka and Company

Smith College See: Clark, Arthur B.

Smithsonian Institution See: Holmes, William Henry; Rathbun, Richard; Ravenel, Walcott, Charles D.

Society of Arts and Crafts (Detroit) See: Plumb, Helen

Societe des Beaux-Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Stevens, George W. See: Toledo Museum of Art

Stratton, Mary Chase Perry See: Pewabic Pottery

Tanaka, Kichijiro See: Yamanaka and Company

Tuttle, William F. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Union Trust Company (Detroit) See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

United States Military Academy See: West Point, U. S. Military Academy

University of Chicago See: Zug, George Breed

University of Pennsylvania, Univ. Mus. See: Gordon, George Bryon

Ushikubo, D. J. R. See: Yamanaka and Company

Wallis & Son See: Barr, Eva; Thompson, C. Croal Ward, Clarence See: Oberlin College

Warren, Edward K. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Warring, Stephen See: Warring, Joseph Stephens

Watkin, Williams R. T. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Watson, Margaret, Miss See: Parker, Margaret Watson

Whistler, Anna See: Stanton, Anna Whistler

Whiting, Almon C. See: Toledo Museum of Art

Williams College See: Rice, Richard A

Wright, F. G. See: Orbach and Company

Yatsuhashi, H. See: Yamanaka and Company

Index to cross-referenced correspondence in the series Whistler correspondence

Bell, William See: Unidentified correspondents

Brown, Ernest See: Painter Etchers' Society, Committee

Cowen, John T. See subseries: Charles Lang Freer Correspondence

Ford, Sheridan See: Reid, Alexander

Haden, Francis Seymour See: Painter Etchers' Society, Committee

Haden, Francis Seymour, Lady See: Haden, Deborah Whistler

Leighton, Frederick, Baron See: Campbell, Lady Colin

Moore, Albert See: Reid, Alexander

Morley, Charles See: Pall Mall Gazette

Morris, Harrison S. See: Reid, Alexander

Pennell, Joseph See: Miscellaneous typescripts

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Prange, F. G. See: Reid, Alexander

Societe des Beaux-Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Society of Portrait Painters See: Reid, Alexander

Stevens Fine Art See: Reid, Alexander

Studd, Arthur See: Miscellaneous typescripts

[Vanderbilt?], George, Mrs. See: George, Mrs.

Whistler, William McNeill, Mrs. See: Whistler, Nellie

Whistler Memorial Committee See: Miscellaneous typescripts

Related Material:

The Archives of American Art microfilmed portions of the Freer papers in 1992. The microfilm is available at the Archives of American Art's Washington D.C. office, the Freer Gallery of Art Library, and through interlibrary loan.

Provenance:

Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Topic:

Art, American -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Architecture -- Asia  Search this

Genre/Form:

Diaries

Financial records

Correspondence

Photographs

Citation:

Charles Lang Freer Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Identifier:

FSA.A.01

See more items in:

Charles Lang Freer Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-01

Creator:

Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965  Search this

Names:

Arms, John Taylor, 1887-1953  Search this

Biddle, George, 1885-1973  Search this

Dunaif, George M.  Search this

Duncan, Elizabeth, 1871-1948  Search this

Eliasoph, Paula  Search this

Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951  Search this

Kleinholz, Frank, 1901-  Search this

Maria-Theresa, 1896-1987  Search this

Olinsky, Ivan G. (Ivan Gregorewitch), 1878-1962  Search this

Pach, Walter, 1883-1958  Search this

Schapiro, Louis  Search this

Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946  Search this

Traubel, Horace, 1858-1919  Search this

Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this

Photographer:

Genthe, Arnold, 1869-1942  Search this

Jacobi, Lotte, 1896-  Search this

Newman, Arnold, 1918-2006  Search this

Valente, Alfredo  Search this

Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964  Search this

White, Clarence H., 1871-1925  Search this

Extent:

2.9 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Transcripts

Interviews

Date:

1904-1969

Summary:

The papers of painter Abraham Walkowitz date from 1904-1969, and measure 2.9 linear feet. Found within the papers are biographical material; letters from artists, friends, and art collectors; business records; four interview transcripts; notes and writings; exhibition announcements, cataloges, and other printed material; and photographs of Walkowitz, friends, colleagues, and artworks.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of painter Abraham Walkowitz date from 1904-1969, and measure 2.9 linear feet. Found within the papers are biographical material; letters from artists, friends, and art collectors; business records; four interview transcripts; notes and writings; exhibition announcements, catalogs, and other printed material; and photographs of Walkowitz, friends, colleagues, and artworks.

Biographical material consists of autobiographical notes, a citizenship certificate, membership and registration cards, medical records, and address books.

Letters, with scattered responses from Walkowitz, are primarily from colleagues including artists John Taylor Arms, George Biddle, Paula Eliasoph, Ivan G. Olinsky, Walter Pach, Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, and Max Weber, Boston art collector Louis Schapiro, publisher E. Haldeman-Julius, writer Horace Traubel, and dancers Elizabeth Duncan and Maria-Theresa Duncan, the sister and adopted daughter of Isadora Duncan respectively. Individual letters are primarily from the diverse group of notable people to whom Walkowitz had sent copies of his books. Also found are letters from art organizations and museums.

Business records consist of documents concerning the will of art collector George M. Dunaif, letters of acknowledgement of gifts of art work donated by Walkowitz to various museums, and miscellaneous financial material. Transcripts are of three interviews with Walkowitz and an interview with Walkowitz and Frank Kleinholz. Notes and writings include lists of names, addresses, and art work, miscellaneous lecture notes, and writings by Walkowitz and by others. Printed material consists of clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, reproductions of art work, and books by Walkowitz, and by Walkowitz and E. Haldeman-Julius.

The photographs series contains the most significant material in the collection. The majority of photographs are of Abraham Walkowitz, taken by many notable photographers including Arnold Genthe, Lotte Jacobi, Arnold Newman, Alfredo Valente, Carl Van Vechten, and Clarence White. Also found are photographs of friends and colleagues, as well as photographs of art work by Walkowitz and others.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 7 series:

Series 1: Biographical Material 1906-1944 (Box 1, 5; 8 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1906-1966 (Box 1; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 3: Business Records, 1930-1956 (Box 1; 5 folders)

Series 4: Interview Transcripts, 1944-1958 (Box 1; 5 folders)

Series 5: Notes and Writings, 1904-1949 (Box 1-2; 26 folders)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1910-1969 (Box 2, 5; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 7: Photographs, 1904-1958 (Box 2-5; 0.9 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Abraham Walkowitz (1878-1965) was a painter in Brooklyn, New York. Walkowitz was born in Tumen in Siberian Russia, the son of Jacob and Rita Schulman Walkowitz. Following the death of his father, a lay rabbi and cantor, in the late 1880s, Walkowitz immigrated to the United States with his mother and siblings and settled in the Lower East Side of New York City.

Walkowitz began his study of art at the Educational Alliance, at Cooper Union, and at the National Academy of Design. In early adulthood he worked as a sign painter and taught at the Educational Alliance from 1900 to 1906. He managed to save enough for passage to Paris where he continued his studies at the Académie Julian under Academic painter Jean-Paul Laurens. During this time, Walkowitz met Max Weber who introduced him to Matisse, Picasso, and Gertrude and Leo Stein. They exerted a considerable influence on Walkowitz's artistic development toward abstraction. Weber also introduced him to Isadora Duncan, whose style of improvisational dance inspired Walkowitz to create over 5,000 drawings and watercolors of her dancing form over the next four decades.

Walkowitz returned to New York in 1907 and laid claim to being the first to exhibit truly Modernist paintings in the United States with his exhibition at the Haas Gallery in 1908. After 1909, he became an intimate of Alfred Stieglitz's 291 Gallery where he became a regular exhibitor along with Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and John Marin, among others. Walkowitz's work appeared in landmark avant-garde exhibitions including the 1913 Armory Show, the Forum Exhibition of 1916, the People's Art Guild showings of contemporary art from 1915-1917, and the inaugural show of the Société Anonyme in 1920.

When interest in the Modernist movement diminished during the 1930s, Walkowitz's career also diminished, but he continued as an avid member and officer in the Society of Independent Artists. In the mid-1940s, he explored the varieties of the modernist vision in the form of an exhibition of 100 portraits of Walkowitz by 100 artist colleagues. The result was widely discussed and was featured in Life magazine in 1944. In 1945, Walkowitz travelled to Kansas to reunite with his colleague, E. Haldeman-Julius, to publish in a series of books concerning Walkowitz's art work. He also executed a series of drawings of the barns and strip mines in the area. But by 1946, glaucoma had begun to impair Walkowitz's vision, leading to his eventual blindness. Also in the mid-1940s, Walkowitz lost the contents of his studio to fire.

In 1963, Walkowitz received the Marjory Peabody Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His work is represented in the collections of the Newark Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Abraham Walkowitz died on January 26, 1965 in Brooklyn, New York.

Related Material:

Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview of Abraham Walkowitz conducted by Abram Lerner and Mary Bartlett Cowdrey, December 8 and 22, 1958.

Provenance:

Portions of the papers were donated in 1959 by Abraham Walkowitz; in 1966 by Dr. Rosa E. Prigosen, the artist's niece; in 1981 through a transfer of material from the National Museum of American Art/National Portrait Gallery Library; and in 1996 by Howard and Lila Schulman.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Abraham Walkowitz papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

Topic:

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painting, American  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Transcripts

Interviews

Citation:

Abraham Walkowitz papers, 1904-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation of American Art

Identifier:

AAA.walkabra

See more items in:

Abraham Walkowitz papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-walkabra

Creator:

Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969  Search this

Gropius, Ise  Search this

Names:

Architects Collaborative, Inc.  Search this

Bauhaus  Search this

Walter Gropius Foundation  Search this

Aalto, Alvar, 1898-1976  Search this

Albers, Josef  Search this

Bayer, Herbert, 1900-1985  Search this

Beckmann, Hannes, 1909-1977  Search this

Breuer, Marcel, 1902-  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Cascieri, Arcangelo, 1902-1997  Search this

Chermayeff, Ivan  Search this

Chermayeff, Serge, 1900-  Search this

Davis, Charles H. (Charles Harold), 1856-1933  Search this

Feininger, Lyonel, 1871-1956  Search this

Gabo, Naum, 1890-1977  Search this

Gropius, Walter, 1883-1969  Search this

Huxley, Julian, 1887-1975  Search this

Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944  Search this

Kepes, Gyorgy, 1906-2001  Search this

Klarmann, Adolf D., 1904-  Search this

Klee, Paul, 1879-1940  Search this

Klemperer, Otto, 1885-1973  Search this

Koch, Helmut  Search this

Le Corbusier, 1887-1965  Search this

Mahler, Alma, 1879-1964  Search this

Marcks, Gerhard  Search this

Miró, Joan, 1893-  Search this

Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946  Search this

Muche, Georg, 1895-  Search this

Pei, I. M., 1917-  Search this

Petit, Claude  Search this

Pritchard, Jack, 1899-  Search this

Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957  Search this

Scharoun, Hans, 1893-1972  Search this

Schmidt, Joost, 1893-1948  Search this

Schwitters, Kurt, 1887-1948  Search this

Sert, José Luis, 1902-  Search this

Stravinsky, Igor, 1882-1971  Search this

Tange, Kenzō, 1913-  Search this

Wachsmann, Konrad, 1901-1980  Search this

Werfel, Franz, 1890-1945  Search this

Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959  Search this

artók, Béla, 1881-1945  Search this

Extent:

0.4 Linear feet ((24 microfilm reels))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

1883-1981

Scope and Contents:

Biographical material, correspondence with architects and artists (1903-1978), writings (1923-1969), a diary, an autograph book, subject files, printed material, photographs (1883-1979) and 5 photograph albums reflect the career of Walter Gropius, the activities of his wife Ise, and her recollections of the Bauhaus. Also included are 5 cassette tapes, untranscribed and unmicrofilmed.

REELS 2270-2283: Walter Gropius' correspondence concerns family matters (1903-1933), locating his sister in Berlin after World War II (1945-1946), and the Bauhaus Archiv (1957-1968). Ise Gropius' correspondents (1969-1978) include Alvar Aalto, Herbert Bayer, Hannes Beckmann, Arcangelo Cascieri, Ivan and Serge Chermayeff, Adolf Klarmann, Helmut Koch, Gerhard Marcks, Jack Pritchard, Hans Scharoun, and Konrad Wachsmann. Other correspondence concerns exhibitions about Gropius (1969-1976). Writings by Walter Gropius include lecture notes and short essays on architecture and design. A subject file (1945-1954) concerns visits to Japan. Printed material (1910-1978) includes galley proof sheets and clippings (1913-1957).

REELS 2284-2286: Photographs (1896-1937) show family members including Gropius' first wife Alma Schindler and their daughter Manon; Gropius' architectural projects including finished buildings, models, blueprints, and drawings (1906-1952); and an exhibition in London on Gropius.

REEL 2287: Biographical material (1883-1979) consists of Gropius' birth, marriage and death certificates, his military record (1914-1917), contracts, U.S. naturalization papers (1941-1944), financial documents (1945), Ise Gropius' will (1979), a list of works, a history of the Gropius family, real estate records, and membership cards. Excerpts from letters written by Marcel Breuer describe his European travels (1931-1937). A file on the Walter Gropius Foundation contains letters and notes (1969). An autograph book kept by Ise Gropius (1924-1981) contains illustrations by Herbert Bayer, Gyorgy and Juliet Kepes, Joan Miro, Kurt Schwitters, and Phyllis Terry, as well as autographs, notes and photographs. Writings by Ise Gropius include lecture notes and printed essays (1935-1943).

REEL 2287a: Twenty-six letters (1932-1952) from Herbert Bayer, written in German and English, to Gropius. Thirteen excerpts from Bayer's letters (1932-1949) are translated into English.

REELS 2330-2331: Photographs (1883-1979) show Walter Gropius, family members, and colleagues including Alvar Aalto, Bela Bartok, Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Alexander Calder, Arcangelo Cascieri, Naum Gabo, Julian Huxley, Gyorgy Kepes, Paul Klee, Le Corbusier, I. M. Pei, Diego Rivera, Jose Luis Sert, Kenzo Tange, Frank Lloyd Wright, and members of Gropius' firm, The Architects Collaborative. Other photographs show a skit by students of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Bauhaus (1979).

REEL 2393: English translations of correspondence between Ise and Walter Gropius (1931-1969) and Ise's 1928 letter to a journalist commenting on Walter Gropius' resignation from the Bauhaus. A handwritten German copy (with a typewritten English translation) of a section of Ise Gropius' unpublished memoir describes her first meeting with Gropius and their courtship and marriage (1923-1929). A German transcript was not filmed. A typewritten English translation of Ise Gropius' diary (1924-1928) describes activities at the Bauhaus and mentions Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Otto Klemperer, Alma Mahler, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Georg Muche, Kurt Schwitters, Igor Stravinsky, and Franz Werfel. A handwritten translation is filmed on reel 4130.

REEL 2764: One photograph album (1925-1930) contains photographs of Walter and Ise Gropius and colleagues including Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Georg Muche, Claude Petit, and Joost Schmidt; construction of the Bauhaus (1925-1926); and sights in Germany and Italy. Four albums on the United States contain Gropius' photographs of New York City architecture, the Brooklyn Bridge, Chicago, California housing and industry, the Grand Canyon, and American Indians.

UNMICROFILMED: 5 cassette tapes, untranscribed, including a lecture delivered by Walter Gropius as part of "The Heritage of Man" lecture series, Cleveland, Ohio, February 13, 1952; an interview of Ise conducted by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, October 28, 1977; and 3 of a monologue delivered by Ise, 1978, in which she speaks of her early childhood.

Biographical / Historical:

Architect, educator and founder of the Bauhaus school. Born in Berlin, Walter Gropius studied at the University of Charlottenburg-Berlin and Munich. Following European travel and apprenticeship with Peter Behrens in Berlin, he established his own practice in 1910. After military service in WWI, he became director of the School of Applied Arts and the Academy of Arts, united the two and named the new institute Bauhaus Dessau in 1925. Between 1934 and 1937, he had a private practice in London. From 1938 to 1952, Gropius was chairman of Harvard's Graduate School of Design and maintained a private practice with Marcel Breuer from 1938 to 1941. Gropius married Alma Schindler, Gustav Mahler's widow, in 1915. In 1923, he married Ise (or Ilse) Franck (1897-1983).

Related Materials:

Additional photographs of Alma (Schindler) Mahler Werfel located at Bauhaus Archiv, Berlin, Germany.

Provenance:

Lent for microfilming by Ise Gropius and her daughter, Beate Gropius Forberg Johansen, 1982-1983, except for selected items on reel 2393, the handwritten translation of Ise's diary on reel 4130 and cassette tapes, which were donated in 1981, 1983 and 1987, respectively. Some photographs from albums on reel 2764 which would not reproduce were not microfilmed.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Occupation:

Architects  Search this

Educators  Search this

Painters  Search this

Photographers  Search this

Sculptors  Search this

Topic:

Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- Germany  Search this

Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Design, Industrial -- Germany  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Identifier:

AAA.gropwalt

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-gropwalt

Creator:

Cameron, Edgar Spier, 1862-1944  Search this

Names:

Cameron, Marie Gelon, 1872-1953  Search this

Laurens, Jean-Paul, 1838-1921  Search this

Extent:

2.8 Linear feet ((on 3 microfilm reels))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sketchbooks

Date:

1868-1968

bulk 1882-1968

Scope and Contents:

Genealogical material; letters; business records; notes; writings; art works; scrapbooks; printed material and photographs.

Notes and charts concerning the Spier and Cameron families, 1928-1938; letters, 1868-1947, include a few childhood notes, letters to his parents describing his courses, instructors; to classmates while at the Art Students League in New York, while studying art in Paris, and to his wife, Marie, in Chicago; and letters to Cameron from colleagues.

Among the business records are an application for letters patent, with colleague Mark Salomon, for a device used in the transformation of theater scenery, 1905, and copyright cards for paintings, 1911-1917; notes; a notebook, 1936; 38 cards, 1917-1920, containing information about art works; an undated draft and a typescript, 1940, for an autobiographical acccount "The Cusp of Gemini".

Art works by Cameron include a sketchbook, 1882-1883, primarily of costumed figures, 10 unbound sketches, 21 oil sketches, undated and 1899, some of which are studies for murals, an etching, and 2 copies of a lithograph portrait of a woman. Works by others include a pencil portrait, 1918, of Cameron by Fitzpatrick, and an ink sketch "Winter Morning" by Svend Svensen. Five scrapbooks, 1894-1968 contain clippings and photographs of Cameron, his wife, family members, and works of art.

Also included are clippings, 1888-1950, exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1899-1946, a catalog, 1926, for works by John Singer Sargent, and other printed material; material concerning Cameron's instructor Jean Paul Laurens, and reproductions of works of art including 43 engraved copies of classic works. Photographs, 1890-1918, include 19 of Cameron, 22 of his wife, 18 of family and friends, miscellaneous travel views, and works of art by the Camerons and others.

Biographical / Historical:

Mural painter; Chicago, Ill. Studied at the Chicago Academy of Design, the Art Students League of New York, and was a student of Cabanel, Constant and Laurens in Paris. His wife, Marie Gelon Cameron, was born in Paris, and was also a student of Cabanel, Constant and Laurens.

Provenance:

Donated 1988 by Arthur B. Carpenter and Marjorie L. Kimberlin, Cameron's nephew and niece.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm.

Occupation:

Art students -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art students -- France -- Paris  Search this

Muralists -- Illinois -- Chicago  Search this

Topic:

Painting, American  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sketchbooks

Identifier:

AAA.cameedga

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-cameedga

Creator:

Lippe, Aschwin, 1914-1988  Search this

Extent:

36 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Place:

India -- description and travel

Date:

1930 - 1988

Summary:

Aschwin Lippe was a research fellow and later curator in the Department of Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The collection includes his early research and writings on East Asian art, particularly Chinese paintings. It has substantial material on his involvement in selecting the paintings and writing the catalog for the 1961 Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition. He later shifted his research focus to medieval Indian sculpture. The collection includes journals kept during several years of field research in India as well as his extensive photo-documentation of Indian temples and religious sculpture.

Scope and Contents:

The collection contains limited biographic material. The material covering his career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art includes some memoranda and general items. During his time at the museum he frequently visited public and private art collections, keeping copious object notes. Material documenting his work on the 1961 Chinese Art Treasures exhibition includes a diary of his 1954 visit to Taipei and his notes on objects viewed at the Palace Museum storage facility in Taichung. Also included are his drafts and correspondence from 1960-1961 about proposed exhibit catalog descriptions for the Chinese paintings. Lippe's correspondence consists mostly of letters with scholars and colleagues. In general, the correspondence includes a few letters each to a large number of individuals. He kept correspondence about major projects in the file with other materials relating to that project. Materials on Lippe's research and publications include some items from his initial scholarly interest in Far Eastern art, particularly Chinese painting. This includes drafts and correspondence documenting his participation in the catalog for the Exhibition of Chinese Calligraphy and Paintings in the John M. Crawford Jr. collection. Most of the research collection concerns India and two major publications: "South Indian Architecture and Sculpture" in The Arts of India and his book Indian Medieval Sculpture. Of particular interest are his India field journals (1958-1977) that record visits to sites, travel notes, descriptions and photography. Lippe's wife Simone traveled with him and contributed to the field journals. Photography of temples and especially their sculpture was the focus of his field research. He made 8-by-10-inch black and white enlargements of sites and sculpture that he organized into study albums as needed for a particular article or project. The collection also includes a large number of 35 mm. color slides taken by Simone Lippe that record general views of sites, scenery, daily life and festivals. The collection includes slides and photographs taken during trips elsewhere in Asia and not directly related to Lippe's own research. These are mostly scenic views and general "tourist" pictures. The architecture of Hindu-Buddhist temples and sculpture in countries such as Indonesia and Cambodia may have been of scholarly interest as reflections of ancient Indian cultural influence.

Arrangement:

The Collection is organized into 5 series with subseries. A 6th series inventories items from other series but housed in an Outsize Box. Series 1: Personal and Professional Life

Subseries 1.1: Biographic Material and Metropolitan Museum of Art Career

Subseries 1.2: Notes on Collections

Subseries 1.3: Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition, 1961-1962

Series 2: Correspondence

Series 3: East Asia Research and Publications

Subseries 3.1: Background Material and Manuscripts Subseries 3.2: Crawford Collection Catalog Series 4: India Research and Publications

Subseries 4.1: India Background Materials Subseries 4.2: India Manuscripts and Publications Subseries 4.3: India Fieldwork 1958-1977: Field Journals, Travel Notes and Itineraries

Series 5: Photography

Subseries 5.1: Albums, Lists, and Contact Prints Subseries 5.2: India Photographs Subseries 5.3: Non-India Photographs Subseries: 5.4 India 35 mm. Color slides Subseries 5.5: Non-India 35 mm. Color slides

Series 6: Miscellaneous, Outsize Box

Biographical / Historical:

Aschwin Lippe [Ernst Aschwin Prinz zur Lippe-Biesterfeld] was born June 13, 1914 in Jena, Germany and died March 14, 1988 in The Hague, The Netherlands. In 1951 he married Simone Arnoux, born May 9, 1915 in Paris and died November 21, 2001 in The Hague. As a student in Germany, Lippe studied Chinese, East Asian art and archaeology, and the history of art. He received his Diploma of Chinese in 1933 from the Seminary for Oriental Languages in Berlin and his PhD in Sinology and Far Eastern Art and Archaeology in 1942 from Berlin University. Lippe began his museum career in the Department of East Asian Art of the State Museum in Berlin. In 1949 he joined the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as a Senior Research Fellow in Far Eastern Art. He became an Associate Curator in 1950, Research Curator in 1964, and Curator Emeritus in 1973. Lippe was a member of the Selection and Catalog Committee for the Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition in 1961, the first major American exhibition of works from the National Palace Museum in Taipei. An expert on Chinese Painting, he visited Taipei in 1954 and was able to travel to Taichung to view paintings and other art objects still in storage. In the 1960s his interests turned increasingly toward Indian medieval temple art and architecture, especially sculpture. Joined by his wife Simone, he made several research trips to India from 1958 to 1970 during which he took detailed photographs of Indian temples, documenting their sculpture. This research was the foundation for Lippe's "South Indian Architecture and Sculpture" section in The Arts of India (1981), and his major work Indian Medieval Sculpture (1978).

Related Materials:

Collections

James Cahill Papers

John A. Pope Papers

Provenance:

Gift of Thilo von Watzdorf

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.

Topic:

Sculpture -- India  Search this

Photography-India  Search this

Painting, Chinese  Search this

Temples-India  Search this

metropolitan museum of art  Search this

Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition 1961-1962  Search this

Citation:

The Aschwin Lippe Collection, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Identifier:

FSA.A2012.01

See more items in:

Aschwin Lippe Collection

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2012-01

Creator:

Muller, Robert O., 1911-2003  Search this

Extent:

7.5 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Auction catalogs

Exhibition catalogs

Photographic prints

Price lists

Correspondence

Place:

Japan -- Description and Travel

Date:

1930-1997

Summary:

Personal papers of Robert O. Muller, a Connecticut-based art dealer and collector who, over the course of seventy years, assembled one of the world's finest collections of Japanese prints from the late 1860s through the 1940s. The papers include Muller's correspondence relating to Japanese art, files relating to his and his wife's 1940 honeymoon in Japan during which he forged many contacts with Japanese artists and art dealers and purchased thousands of prints, subject files, catalogs, business transactions, magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs, and notes and drafts for a planned book.

Scope and Contents:

The Robert O. Muller Papers consist of Mr. Muller's correspondence; research and subject files; indexes to his art collection; printed matter; photographs; and a draft manuscript and notes for a planned book. The papers document his art collecting and dealing, his relationships with a wide variety of art shops and other art dealers, his 1940 honeymoon to Japan, and the dealings of his various businesses from the 1940s through to the 1990s.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into five series:

Series 1: Correspondence and subject files

Series 2: Catalogs and indexes to Robert-Lee Gallery and Robert O. Muller's Art Collection

Series 3: Draft Manuscript

Series 4: Printed Matter

Series 5: Photographs and slides

Biographical / Historical:

Born in 1911 in Pelham, New York, art collector, dealer, and connoisseur Robert O. Muller assembled a collection of nearly 4,500 late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese prints throughout his life. As a history student at Harvard University, Mr. Muller's world renowned print collection began to take shape with the purchase of the print 'Kiyosu Bridge" by Kawase Hasui for $5.00 from the Shima Art Company in 1931.

Mr. Muller married Ingeborg Lee in 1940 and their honeymoon in Japan played a critical role in Mr. Muller's development as an art dealer and collector. They spent five months there and met with many important artists and dealers and purchased thousands of prints for both their personal art collection and for commerce.

Upon their return to the States, Mr. Muller purchased the Shima Art Company's assets and started the Robert Lee Gallery with his partner William Lee Comerford in 1940. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, Muller and Comerford closed the Robert Lee Gallery and later reopened it in a different Manhattan location. The Mullers moved to Newton, Connecticut, in 1946 and reestablished the Robert Lee Gallery there. In 1962, Muller purchased a frame shop, Merwin's Art Shop, in New Haven, Connecticut. Although primarily a framing shop, Muller not only befriended many scholars and academics from nearby Yale University but sold Japanese prints from the back room.

From that initial purchase of 'Kiyosu Bridge' in 1931 up until his death in 2003, Robert Muller amassed what many art historians, collectors, and curators regarded as the finest collection of its type in the world. Muller bequeathed his Japanese print collection, archival materials, and library to the Sackler Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Much of the biographical information comes from, Printed to Perfection: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection. (Washington, D.C. : Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in association with Hotei Publishing, c2004)

Further information and clarification from conversations with Dr. James T. Ulak, Deputy Director of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery .

1911 October 5 -- Born in Pelham, New York. Great-grandson of Charles Erhart, cofounder of Charles Pfizer & Company, now Pfizer Inc.

1931 -- Purchased first modern Japanese print, "Kiyosu Bridge", from the Shima Art Company in New York City.

1934 -- Earned Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Harvard University.

1936 -- Traveled to Germany aboard the Hindenberg. During return to United States, visited with and bought many prints from Japanese print collector Thomas Bates Blow in London.

1940 February 3 -- Married Ingeborg Lee and honeymooned in Japan.

1940 September -- Purchased the assets of the Shima Art Co. for $7,000. Remained friends with the former owners, Kazue Sumii and Hango Sumii and their daughter Noriko.

1940 October 21 -- Opened the Robert-Lee Gallery on 69 East 57th Street in Manhattan.

1941 December -- After attack on Pearl Harbor, closed Robert-Lee Gallery. Later reopened at new location at 32 West 57th Street

1941 - 1952 -- Mrs. Muller gave birth to four daughters and one son.

1942-1945 -- Worked for Pfizer Inc.

1946 -- Moved to farmhouse in Newtown, Connecticut and re-established Robert Lee Gallery there one year later.

1962 -- Purchased and ran Merwin's Art Shop in New Haven, Connecticut

1985 -- Handed over management of Merwin's Art Shop to his son Robert L. Muller

2003 April 10 -- Died as a result of Parkinson's Disease.

2003 May -- Bequeathed his collection of Japanese prints, cataloging records, papers, and library to the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery of Art.

Related Materials:

The Sackler Gallery of Art owns the Robert O. Muller Collection of Japanese prints.

Provenance:

Robert O. Muller bequeathed his Japanese print collection as well as his archival records to the Sackler Gallery in 2003.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.

Topic:

Printmakers  Search this

Prints, Japanese -- 20th century  Search this

shin-hanga  Search this

Prints, Japanese -- 19th century  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Genre/Form:

Auction catalogs

Exhibition catalogs

Photographic prints

Price lists

Correspondence

Citation:

Robert O. Muller Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Bequest of Robert O. Muller, 2003

Identifier:

FSA.A2003.14

See more items in:

Robert O. Muller Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2003-14

Creator:

Beato, Felice, b. ca. 1825  Search this

Extent:

1 Print (albumen, image 24 x 29 cm., mounted 38 x 41 cm.)

Container:

Box 3

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Prints

Prints

Photographs

Albumen prints

Place:

Lucknow (India)

Lucknow (India) -- History -- Siege, 1857

India -- Uttar Padesh -- Lucknow

Date:

1858

Scope and Contents:

One albumen print by Felix Beato, mounted on card, with "Alumbagh near Lucknow 1857-8" lightly inscribed in pencil below the print. View of the Alumbagh (or Alambagh) palace and surrounding entrenchments, circa 1858.

Arrangement:

One flat box.

Biographical / Historical:

Although he was born in Greece, Felice Beato worked as a press photographer in England and achieved recognition for his coverage of British political conflicts, photographing the Crimean War of 1855 and, together with his brother-in-law, James Robertson, the 1858 Indian Mutiny in Delhi and Lucknow. The images Beato took during this time are thought to be the first to depict actual human corpses on the battlefield. After moving to Yokohama in 1863, Beato opened the area's first photography studio and documented the people and culture of Japan for the next twenty years, taking photographs and selling them to tourists. During his travels, Beato was able to gain access to Japanese ports that were open only to diplomats by acting as an official photographer for the British navy.

Lucknow was the capital of the former state of Oudh (now spelt Awadh, and a region in the state of Uttar Pradesh), in India. The prolonged defense there by the British proved to be one of the key episodes in the unsuccessful Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858. Alumbagh (Alambagh) was a large residence and garden located about 4 miles from Lucknow. It was used as a fort by the rebels and later as the military command for the British.

Local Numbers:

FSA A1999.29

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Albumen prints

Identifier:

FSA.A1999.29

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1999-29

Creator:

Beato, Felice, b. ca. 1825  Search this

Extent:

1 Print (albumen, image 23 x 29 cm., mounted 38 x 41 cm.)

Container:

Box 3

Box 4

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Prints

Prints

Photographs

Albumen prints

Place:

Lucknow (India)

Lucknow (India) -- History -- Siege, 1857

India -- Uttar Pradesh -- Lucknow

Date:

1858

Scope and Contents:

One albumen print by Felix Beato, mounted on card, with "Residency" inscribed in black ink below the print. View of the shelled remains of the Residency in Lucknow, with two men sitting in the foreground, circa 1858.

Arrangement:

One flat box.

Biographical / Historical:

Although he was born in Greece, Felice Beato worked as a press photographer in England and achieved recognition for his coverage of British political conflicts, photographing the Crimean War of 1855 and, together with his brother-in-law, James Robertson, the 1858 Indian Mutiny in Delhi and Lucknow. The images Beato took during this time are thought to be the first to depict actual human corpses on the battlefield. After moving to Yokohama in 1863, Beato opened the area's first photography studio and documented the people and culture of Japan for the next twenty years, taking photographs and selling them to tourists. During his travels, Beato was able to gain access to Japanese ports that were open only to diplomats by acting as an official photographer for the British navy.

Lucknow was the capital of the former state of Oudh (now spelt Awadh, and a region in the state of Uttar Pradesh), in India. The prolonged defense there by the British proved to be one of the key episodes in the unsuccessful Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858.

Local Numbers:

FSA A1999.28

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Albumen prints

Identifier:

FSA.A1999.28

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1999-28

Creator:

Beato, Felice, b. ca. 1825  Search this

Extent:

1 Print (albumen, image 26 x 30 cm., mounted 38 x 41 cm.)

Container:

Box 3

Box 4

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Prints

Prints

Photographs

Albumen prints

Place:

Lucknow (India)

Lucknow (India) -- History -- Siege, 1857

Sikandar Garden (Lucknow, India)

India -- Uttar Pradesh -- Lucknow

Date:

circa 1858

Scope and Contents:

One albumen print by Felix Beato, mounted on card, with "Lucknow. Inside the Secunderabagh Shewing [sic] where 2600 Sepoys were Killed" inscribed in black ink below the print. View taken circa 1858 of the interior of the Sikandar Garden, with skeletal remains strewn across the grounds.

Arrangement:

One flat box.

Biographical / Historical:

Although he was born in Greece, Felice Beato worked as a press photographer in England and achieved recognition for his coverage of British political conflicts, photographing the Crimean War of 1855 and, together with his brother-in-law, James Robertson, the 1858 Indian Mutiny in Delhi and Lucknow. After moving to Yokohama in 1863, Beato opened the area's first photography studio and documented the people and culture of Japan for the next twenty years, taking photographs and selling them to tourists. During his travels, Beato was able to gain access to Japanese ports that were open only to diplomats by acting as an official photographer for the British navy.

The Sikandar Garden is a villa and garden complex located on the outskirts of Lucknow, which was the capital of the former state of Oudh (now spelt Awadh, and a region in the state of Uttar Pradesh), in India. The prolonged defense in Lucknow by the British proved to be one of the key episodes in the unsuccessful Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858. During the siege of the city, the Sikandar (or Secundra) Garden was used as a refuge by hundreds of sepoys who were under attack by British troops. On November 16, 1857, the villa was overrun and approximately 2000 sepoys were killed. After the fighting, the British dead were buried in a deep trench but the Indian dead were left to rot. In early 1858 Beato took this well-known photograph, possibly the first photographic depiction of human corpses, although there is some controversy over whether he had some of the corpses disinterred for dramatic effect.

Local Numbers:

FSA A1999.27

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Albumen prints

Identifier:

FSA.A1999.27

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1999-27

Creator:

Thompson, Everett Edward, 1876-1962  Search this

Names:

Kuhn, Irene  Search this

Extent:

151 lantern slides (approximate number: 151 Items)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Lantern slides

Lecture notes

Photographs

Place:

Indonesia -- Description and Travel

East Indies

Java

Indonesia

Malaysia

Date:

1899-1962

Summary:

The papers, 1899-1962, of editor, lexicographer, author, and lecturer Everett Edward Thompson (1876-1962) primarily document his 1905 trip to Indonesia and subsequent lectures delivered from 1913-1919 and 1956. Portions of the papers are photocopies. Included are obituaries; a portrait photograph dated 1899; portions of a travel journal; announcements, notes, and 132 glass stereopticons assembled in preparation for lectures on Indonesia; a letter; printed material and clippings related to language and the Webster-Merriam dictionaries; and a handwritten copy of Irene Kuhn's 1961 news article on the early history of U.S. field teaching in the Philippines.

Scope and Contents:

The papers, 1899-1962, of editor, lexicographer, author, and lecturer Everett Edward Thompson (1876-1962) primarily document his 1905 trip to Indonesia and subsequent lectures delivered from 1913-1919 and 1956. Portions of the papers are photocopies. Included are obituaries; a portrait photograph dated 1899; portions of a travel journal; announcements, notes, and 132 glass stereopticons assembled in preparation for lectures on Indonesia; a letter; printed material and clippings related to language and the Webster-Merriam dictionaries; and a handwritten copy of Irene Kuhn's 1961 news article on the early history of U.S. field teaching in the Philippines. Total: 151 items

Arrangement note:

Series 1: -- Biographical Data

Series 2: -- Portrait Photograph

Series 3: -- Travel Journal

Series 4: -- Lecture notes and announcements

Series 5: -- Letter

Series 6: -- Printed Matter

Series 7: -- Lantern Slides

Biographical Information:

Editor, lexicographer, author, and lecturer Everett Edward Thompson was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in1876. He received an A.B. degree from Amherst College in 1899. From 1901-1905 Thompson fufilled an appointment to a government teaching position in the Philippines. In 1905 he traveled from Manila to Singapore, and then to Burma, India, Ceylon, Java, the Straits Settlements, and Japan. From 1905 to 1909 he was part of the editorial staff of the G&C Merriam Company, publisher of the Webster-Merriam dictionaries, Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1907 he married Emily Lecretia Bettes and two years later in 1909 received an M.A. from Amherst College where he wrote a thesis on, "The Spanish Element in the English Language." From 1910-1920 Thomspon served as editor of foreign language textbooks, American Book Company, New York City. In 1920 he received honorary doctor of letters (Litt. D) from Syracuse University. That same year Thompson rejoined the Webster dictionary editorial staff of G&C Merriam Company, Springfield, Massachusetts where he remained until 1949. Everett Edward Thompson died 1962 March 24 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1876 June 20 -- Born in Springfield, Massachusetts

1899 -- Received A.B. degree from Amherst College

1901-1905 -- Appointed government teaching position in the Philippines

1905 -- Traveled from Manila to Singapore, and then to Burma, India, Ceylon, Java, the Straits Settlements, and Japan

1905-1909 -- Joined editorial staff of the G&C Merriam Company, publisher of the Webster-Merriam dictionaries, Springfield, Massachusetts

1907 -- Married Emily Lecretia Bettes

1909 -- Received M.A. from Amherst College. Thesis on, "The Spanish Element in the English Language."

1910-1920 -- Editor of foreign language textbooks, American Book Company, New York City

1913 -- Birth of son Ronald

1920 -- Received honorary doctor of letters (Litt. D) from Syracuse University

1920-1949 -- Re-joined the Webster dictionary editorial staff of G&C Merriam Company, Springfield, Massachusetts

1962 March 24 -- Died in Springfield, Massachusetts

Provenance:

The collection was donated to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives by Everett Edward Thompson's son, Ronald Thompson, in 1991.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

No restrictions on use.

Topic:

Royalty, Netherlands  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lecture notes

Photographs

Citation:

Everett Edward Thompson Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ronald Thompson, 1991.

Identifier:

FSA.A1991.05

See more items in:

Everett Edward Thompson Lantern Slides

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1991-05

Creator:

Maury, Curt  Search this

Extent:

12.7 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Dye coupler transparencies

Place:

Gujarat (India)

Karnataka (India) -- Social life and customs

Kerala (India)

Maharashtra

Rajasthan (India)

India

Date:

1953-circa 1985

Summary:

The Curt Maury papers, dating from 1953 to circa 1985, measure 12.7 linear feet and include writings and notes for planned and published books; travel files and expense ledgers for trips to India; photograph ledgers; and extensive photographs and slides of India.

Scope and Contents:

The Curt Maury papers, dating from 1953 to circa 1985, measure 12.7 linear feet and consist of writings and notes for planned and published books; travel files and expense ledgers for trips to India; photograph ledgers; and extensive photographs and slides of India.

The collection was created by Maury primarily in preparation for an unpublished book to be titled, "India's Folk Tradition as the Mirror of Mankind's Religious History." Materials include manuscript and typescript drafts and notes for this book, as well as for published book, Folk Origins of Indian Art (1969). Travel files include printed maps of India, Maury's sketched map outlines of cities in India, and five travel expense ledgers. Photographic materials consist of black and white prints and slides depicting Indian folk art, including religious artifacts and structures, and Indian cultural activities and surroundings. Nine photograph ledgers describe images and locations of photographs and slides with roll and image number.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 3 series.

Series 1: Writings and Notes, circa 1960s-circa 1970s [3.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-5, 7-11]

Series 2: Travel Files, 1953-1975 [0.4 linear feet; Box 5, 1 OV Folder]

Series 3: Photographic Material, circa 1960-circa 1985 [8.5 linear feet; Boxes 6, 12-44]

Biographical note:

Curt Maury (1909-1989) was a writer, social services administrator, and scholar of Indian art. He was born in Germany, earned a PhD in German Literature from the University of Vienna in 1935, and immigrated to the United States in 1939. While pursuing a literary career through the publication of novels, plays, and poems, Maury developed an interest in India, which he visited many times from the 1950s through the 1970s. He conducted research on Indian folk art, and kept extensive photographic records.

Provenance:

The papers were donated to the Archives after Curt Maury's death in 1989 by his brother, Hans Tischler.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Due to cold storage requirements, digital surrogates are prefered for access. One week's notice is required prior to access originals.

Rights:

Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions Department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.

Topic:

Art, Hindu  Search this

Indian art  Search this

Cave temples  Search this

Taj Mahal (Agra, India)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs -- 1950-1960 -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin

Dye coupler transparencies

Citation:

Curt Maury Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Mr. Hans Tischler.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

Identifier:

FSA.A1989.05

See more items in:

Curt Maury Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1989-05

Creator:

Ferguson, John Calvin, 1866-1945  Search this

Names:

Ferguson, John Calvin, 1866-1945  Search this

Extent:

6.4 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Letters (correspondence)

Newspaper clippings

Photographs

Photograph albums

Speeches

Place:

Shanghai (China)

China

Nanjing (Jiangsu Sheng, China)

Date:

circa 1850s-1988

bulk 1900-1945

Summary:

The John Calvin Ferguson Family papers measure 6.4 linear feet, and date from circa 1850s to 1988, with the bulk dating from 1900 to 1945. The bulk of the papers consists of John Calvin Ferguson's personal, professional, and family correspondence, and correspondence between other members of the Ferguson family. The papers also include biographical materials; sermons, speeches, and writings by Ferguson and others; printed materials, both collected and given to Ferguson; and photographs, including five photograph albums.

Scope and Contents:

The John Calvin Ferguson Family papers measure 6.4 linear feet, and date from circa 1850s to 1988, with the bulk dating from 1900 to 1945. The bulk of the papers consists of John Calvin Ferguson's personal, professional, and family correspondence, and correspondence between other members of the Ferguson family. The papers also include biographical materials; sermons, speeches, and writings by Ferguson and others; printed materials, both collected and given to Ferguson; and photographs, including five photograph albums.

Biographical materials includes various business cards and professional contacts; an ink sketch portrait of Ferguson by Li Yuling; various membership documents and cards; memorial service and obituary materials for Ferguson and members of the Ferguson family; repatriation documentation and materials from the M. S. Gripsholm; and assorted genealogical and family documents.

Correspondence comprises the bulk of the collection, and is both professional and personal in nature. Much of John Calvin Ferguson's correspondence documents his activities and movements while living in China, as well as the state of the political and social climate during the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 and as the Second Sino-Japan War begins in 1937. His journey back to the United States aboard the M. S. Gripsholm, as well as his failing health, are also much discussed topics. Extensive correspondence between other members of the Ferguson family are also found within the papers, including Ferguson's wife, Mary Elizabeth Wilson, and his children.

Sermons, speeches, and writings reflect Ferguson's many career interests, including his work as a minister, education administrator, and as an ambassador with the Chinese government. The collection also contains printed materials and photographs, including five photograph albums.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged as 6 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1915-1981 [Box 1, 1 OV Folder; 0.5 linear feet]

Series 2: John Calvin Ferguson Correspondence, 1902-circa 1945 [Boxes 1-7; 2.2 linear feet]

Series 3: Ferguson Family Correspondence, 1886-1982 [Boxes 7-12; 2.1 linear feet]

Series 4: Sermons, Speeches, and Writings, 1896-1988 [Boxes 12-13; 0.3 linear feet]

Series 5: Printed Material, 1896-1988 [Boxes 13-14; 0.4 linear feet]

Series 6: Photographs, circa 1850s-1967 [Boxes 14-17; 0.9 linear feet]

Biographical / Historical:

John Calvin Ferguson (1866-1945) was an author, collector and scholar of Chinese art, Methodist minister, university president, and Chinese government advisor, born in Napanee, Ontario.

Ferguson attended Albert College in Ontario, received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886 from Boston University, and was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church shortly thereafter. He received his PhD from Boston University in 1902. In 1887, he married Mary Elizabeth Wilson (1866-1938) and was sent to China as a Methodist missionary, where he spent his first year studying Chinese in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, downriver from Nanjing on the Yangzi. In Nanjing, Ferguson helped found the Methodist school, Huiwen Shuyuan (later Nanjing University), and worked to establish a western curriculum with departments of liberal arts, medicine, and theology. He was the first president of the university, as well as treasurer and then superintendent of the Central China Mission until 1897, when he left the ministry.

In 1897, Qing official Sheng Xuanhuai (1847-1916) invited Ferguson to become first president of Nanyang College at Shanghai, where he worked for five years before leaving his position to assist Sheng with his governmental duties. Ferguson then became a member of the Treaty Commission and foreign secretary to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in 1902, and chief secretary of the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration a year later until 1905. Concurrently, he was foreign advisor to the Viceroys of Nanjing and Wuchang. While in Shanghai, he was Honorary Secretary of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and editor of the Journal from 1902 to 1911, then becoming president for a year. During his last year in Shanghai, he was Chairman of the Famine Relief Commission until moving to Beijing in 1911 to become foreign secretary to the Ministry of Posts and Communications. He remained in Beijing after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, becoming active in the Red Cross and subsequently Vice President of the Red Cross Society.

In Shanghai, Ferguson developed a popular Chinese-language daily newspaper in 1899, Sin Wan Pao, which he owned until 1929. He began collecting Chinese art objects while in Nanjing, and studied Chinese art and literature in earnest while in Beijing. In 1912, Ferguson became a buyer of Chinese art objects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, becoming a fellow in perpetuity and honorary fellow in recognition of his work. He was then wholly launched into the collecting field, becoming a dealer of Chinese art, working between collectors and vendors in Peking for American museums and individuals, as well as developing his own collection. After being appointed advisor to the new Chinese Republican government in 1915, he traveled between the United States and China until setting up permanent residence with his family in Beijing in 1919. During this time in Beijing he wrote and lectured extensively on Chinese art and archaeology. He ultimately donated the bulk of his personal collection, over one thousand Chinese art objects, to Nanjing University in 1934 for which he received an official thanks by public mandate from the Chinese government. Other gifts of his collection were made to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

He remained in his Beijing home until 1943 when he returned to the United States with his daughter, Mary, via the M. S. Gripsholm. He died in Clifton Springs, New York on August 3, 1945.

This biography draws heavily from Lara Jaishree Netting's book, A Perpetual Fire: John C. Ferguson and His Quest for Chinese Art and Culture, Hong Kong University Press, 2013; and R. H. Van Gulik's article, "Dr. John c. Ferguson's 75th Anniversary," Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies of the Catholic University of Peking, Vol. VI, 1941.

Genealogy Chart, Ferguson FamilyJohn Calvin Ferguson, m. Mary Elizabeth Wilson -- Luther Mitchell, m. Edith GrayHelen Matilda 1) m. George E. Tucker2) m. John C. BeaumontAlice MaryFlorence Wilson 1) m. Jay C. Huston2) m. Raymond C. MackayCharles John, m. Isabel M. MarindinMary EstherRobert Mason, m. Margaret SparrDuncan PomeroyPeter Blair, m. Elizabeth Hamlen

Provenance:

The John Calvin Ferguson Family Papers were donated to the Archives by Ferguson's grandson, Peter Ferguson, in 1999.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.

Occupation:

Political consultants -- China  Search this

Art collectors -- China  Search this

Genre/Form:

Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century.

Newspaper clippings

Letters (correspondence) -- 19th century

Photographs

Photograph albums

Speeches

Citation:

John Calvin Ferguson Family Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D. C., Gift of Peter Ferguson.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

Identifier:

FSA.A1999.33

See more items in:

John Calvin Ferguson Family Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1999-33

Creator:

Gordon, Elizabeth, 1906-2000  Search this

Names:

Claiborne, Craig  Search this

Gordon, Elizabeth, 1906-2000  Search this

Leach, Bernard  Search this

Extent:

3 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Periodicals

Photographs

Correspondence

Personal papers

Place:

Japan

Date:

1958-1987

Summary:

Papers, 1959-1987, of Elizabeth Gordon, editor of the periodical, House Beautiful from 1941-1964, mostly related to her research for the August and September 1960 issues of House Beautiful regarding the Japanese aesthetic concept of "shibui", and the subsequent travelling "shibui exhibition" from 1961-1964. Included are correspondence, some photocopies, 1959-1963; notes; drafts for articles and lectures; printed material including magazine and newspaper clippings, 1959-1987; 2 books, and exhibition announcements; drawings of paper and foil art; a photo album containing photos of exhibition installations; and photographs, slides, color transparencies, and lantern slides depicting people, sites, and objects reflecting the "shibui" aesthetic.

Scope and Contents:

The Elizabeth Gordon Papers measure 4.5 linear feet and span the years 1959-1987. The collection mainly documents Ms. Gordon's research for the August and September 1960 issues of House Beautiful regarding the Japanese aesthetic concept of "shibui", and the subsequent travelling "shibui exhibition" from 1961-1964. Included are correspondence, some photocopies, 1959-1963; research notes and materials; articles; lectures; printed material including magazine and newspaper clippings, 1959-1987; 2 books, and exhibition announcements; article materials; a photo album containing photos of exhibition installations; and photographs, slides, color transparencies, and lantern slides depicting people, sites, and objects reflecting the "shibui" aesthetic.

Arrangement note:

This collection is organized into eight series. 1. Biographical data, 2. Shibui research, 3. Shibui issues of, House Beautiful, 4. Correspondence, 5. Shibui promotion, 6. Exhibition files, 7. Printed materials, and 8. Photographs.

Biographical Information:

Born in Logansport, Indiana in 1906, Elizabeth Gordon served as editor of House Beautiful magazine 1941 to 1964. Ms. Gordon first became interested in Japanese aesthetics during the mid-1950s. As a result she began to read and study Japanese art, history and culture. In 1959, Gordon travelled to Japan with three staff people from, House Beautiful. In Kyoto she met Eiko Yuasa, a young woman then employed by the City of Kyoto to handle foreign V.I.P.s, who was assigned to assist Gordon during her stay there. It was Ms. Yuasa who, in the course of discussions of Japanese aesthetics, introduced the term "shibui." Around that term and its related concepts ("iki", "jimi", "hade") the theme for the issue began to crystallize. In August and September, 1960, House Beautiful, under the editorial control of Ms. Gordon, published two extremely popular issues devoted to the subject of "shibui". Due to the popularity of the issues, museum exhibits devoted to the concept of "shibui" travelled around the United States. Ms. Gordon died in Adamstown, Maryland in 2000.

Biographical Overview

1906 -- Born in Logansport, Indiana

1920s -- Attended the University of Chicago

1930s -- Moved to New York to work as a promotional copywriter for several newspapers

1930s -- Syndicated columnist on home maintenance for The New York Herald Tribune

1930s -- Editor at Good Housekeeping (here for 8 years)

1937 -- More House for your Money by Elizabeth Gordon and Dorothy Ducas published by W. Morrow and Company: New York.

1937 -- Married Carl Hafey Norcross

1939 -- Appointed editor of House Beautiful

1964 -- Left the magazine world

1972 -- Published a special issue on Scandinavian design and awarded the insignia of a knight, first class, in the Finnish Order of the Lion

1987 -- American Institute of Architects made her an honorary member

1988 -- Carl Hafey Norcross died

September 3, 2000 -- Died in Adamstown, MD

(The following biography of Elizabeth Gordon comes courtesy of curator Louise Cort. Written in consultation with Elizabeth Gordon, October 23, 1987)

The research papers, memoranda, magazines, books, photographs and color transparencies and other materials in this archives are related to the publication by Elizabeth Gordon (Mrs. Carl Norcross), editor of House Beautiful from 1941 to 1964 and creator of the August, 1960 issue of the magazine on the special theme of the Japanese aesthetic concept of "shibui". The "shibui issue" was followed by the September, 1960, issue of the same publication on the theme, "How to be shibui with American things." As a by-product of the issues, a "Shibui Exhibition" travelled to eleven museums in the United States during 1961-1964. Each exhibition was opened with a slide lecture by Elizabeth Gordon.

Miss Gordon first became curious about Japanese aesthetics in the mid-1950s when she began to see Japanese objects being displayed and used in the homes of Americans who had spent time in Japan during the Occupation and Japanese influence began to appear in wholesale showrooms of home furnishings manufacturers. It was clear that the time had come: she HAD to go to Japan!

She read for five years before going to Japan - history, social mores, art history. (Many of the books on Japan that she collected during this time have been presented to the library at the University of Maryland, College Park.)

An important bit of advice came from Alice Spaulding Bowen, owner of Pacifica, the highest quality shop of Asian antiquities in Honolulu, who told her, "Be sure to read, The Tale of Genji - then you'll understand everything."

She made her first trip to Japan in April, 1959, accompanied by three staff people from, House Beautiful. In Kyoto she met Eiko Yuasa, a young woman then employed by the City of Kyoto to handle foreign V.I.P.s, who was assigned to assist Miss Gordon during her stay there. It was Ms. Yuasa who, in the course of discussions of Japanese aesthetics, introduced the term "shibui." Around that term and its related concepts ("iki", "jimi", "hade") the theme for the issue began to crystallize.

Miss Gordon came home, planning to spend the summer researching "shibui" with the aid of the Japan Society. But she found virtually nothing written in English on the concept. So she returned to Japan in December, 1959 together with staff member Marion Gough, to dig deeper and to work out details and get better educated with Eiko Yuasa. One of their devices was to walk through department stores and discuss with sales personnel whether objects for sale were "shibui", or were "jimi" or "hade", and why. Between themselves, they did the same for the costumes of women they saw on the streets.

Lacking printed sources for information on "shibui", Miss Gordon sought out and interviewed experts, including Douglas Overton, head of the Japan Society in New York. In Japan in December, 1959, she met Yanagi Soetsu, founder of Japan's Folk Craft Movement and head of the Craft Museum in Tokyo (with an introduction from Tonomura Kichinosuke, head of the Craft Museum in Kurashiki). She met the chef Tsuji Kaichi, who was commissioned to write an article on "kaiseki" (that could not be used because of an inadequate English translation) and Frances Blakemore. She met several times with Bernard Leach and attended his lecture at Bonnier's while he was in New York in March, 1960. (He would later write a "fan letter" for the issue)

As the concept of "the shibui issue" began to take shape, a third trip in the spring of 1960 focused on photography - to produce the shooting script decided on the preceding December. This was executed by the noted photographer Ezra Stoller of Rye, New York, and John DeKoven Hill, House Beautiful's Editorial Director. (Mr. Hill worked with Frank Lloyd Wright except for the ten years that he was a member of the House Beautiful editorial staff)

Miss Gordon was back in Japan in Mid-August 1960 as the "shibui issue" was causing a sensation. Altogether she spent sixteen months in Japan.

As one of the experiences that influenced her strong interest in Japanese costumes and textiles, Miss Gordon remembers a spectacularly thorough exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno on, 1200 Years of Japanese Costume. She saw it on the last day of its exhibition (possibly 1964).

The August 1960 issue sold out quickly. Copies of the magazine, which sold for fifty cents, were sold on the "black market" for ten dollars.

The publication of the August 1960 issue was followed by an unprecedented avalanche of "fan mail". Many department heads in colleges and universities, including the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (where Miss Gordon had worked as an undergraduate) wrote to comment on the issue. Many people in other fields of endeavor wrote: heads of firms concerned with interior design, landscape architecture, and related areas expressed their interest in the concept of "shibui" Other writers include Bernard Leach, Gertrude Natzler, Laura Gilpin, Mainbocher, the architect Yoshimura Junzo, the textile artist Marianne Strengell, Walter Kerr, Craig Claiborne, and Oliver Statler.

The "shibui issue" was followed immediately by the September issue dealing with the use of non-Japanese objects to express the concept of "shibui." (Miss Gordon convinced her advertisers, who had been skeptical about the potential success of the August issue, by promising the September issue dealing with American products.) Four American firms were involved in the production of an integrated line of paints, wallpaper, furniture and carpets expressive of the concept. Products were designed by the firms' designers following the clues offered by objects and fabrics purchased by Miss Gordon in Japan in December 1959 and spring 1960. Miss Gordon has expressed her dissatisfaction with the September issue, although public opinion was positive. She feels that some of the firms failed in the "shibui" project, though some "caught" the message: namely the paint company and the fabric/wallpaper company.

In response to strong public interest, the House Beautiful staff prepared a travelling exhibition to introduce the concept of "shibui" through a series of vignettes, mixing fabrics and objects, colors and textures. The museum installation was designed by John Hill of House Beautiful. Japan Air Lines underwrote shipping costs.

The exhibition began in Philadelphia in late 1961. Ezra Stoller was sent to photograph the installation in considerable detail at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in January, 1962, so that his photographs cold serve as guidelines for installations at the other museums, which included the San Francisco Museum of Art (April 1962), the Newark Pubic Library, and the Honolulu Academy of Art. Miss Gordon presented a lecture on "shibui" at each of the museum installations.

In appreciation of her work to introduce Americans to the concept of "shibui", the city of Kyoto presented a bolt of especially "shibui" kimono fabric executed by a Living National Treasure textile artist. Miss Gordon eventually tailored the fabric into a dress and jacket. She received the 1961 Trail Blazer Award from the New York Chapter of the National Home Fashions League, Inc. In June, 1987, Miss Gordon was named an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects, with her introduction of the concept of "shibui" and her promotion of an understanding of other culture cited as her major contributions to American architecture.

Provenance:

Elizabeth Gordon donated her papers to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives in 1988.

Elizabeth Gordon donated her papers to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives in 1988.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

No restrictions on use.

Topic:

Interior decoration -- Periodicals  Search this

Landscape gardening  Search this

Art, Japanese  Search this

Aesthetics, Japanese  Search this

House funishings  Search this

Interior decoration  Search this

Museum exhibits  Search this

Interior decorators  Search this

Gardens -- Japan  Search this

Genre/Form:

Periodicals -- 1940-1970

Photographs

Correspondence

Personal papers -- 1950-2000

Citation:

The Elizabeth Gordon Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Elizabeth Gordon, 1988

Identifier:

FSA.A1988.03

See more items in:

Elizabeth Gordon Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1988-03

Creator:

March, Benjamin, 1899-1934  Search this

Names:

March, Benjamin, 1899-1934  Search this

Rowe, Dorothy, 1898-  Search this

Extent:

15 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Lecture notes

Letters

Place:

China

Japan

China -- Description and Travel

Michigan

Date:

1923-1934

Summary:

Writer, curator, and professor Benjamin Franklin March Jr. (1899-1934) studied, lectured, and wrote in the United States and in China, and through his works gained respect as one of the foremost authorities on Chinese art during the 1920s and 1930s. His papers, dating from 1923 to 1934, document his professional and personal life in the United States and in China and include lecture notes and outlines; research notes; diaries; scrapbooks; and photographs.

Scope and Content Note:

The Benjamin March Papers span the years 1923 to 1934 and measure 15 linear feet. The collection includes: biographical data included in passports, obituaries, and fifty-seven condolence letters; lecture and course outlines; research notes; four diaries; one scrapbook; four illustrations including sketches for the March bookplate; fourteen photograph albums; printed matter; and 100 personal and artistic photographs.

Arrangement note:

The collection is divided into the following series:

Series 1: Biographical Information, 1927-1935

Series 2: Diaries, 1925-1934

Series 3: Writings and Research Materials, 1927-1934, undated

— Subseries 3.1: Lecture Materials

— Subseries 3.2: Research

— Subseries 3.3: Printed Matter

Series 4: Scrapbooks, 1924-1934

Series 5: Graphic Materials, 1925, 1933, undated

— Subseries 5.1: Illustrations

— Subseries 5.2: Photo Albums

— Subseries 5.3: Photographs

Biographical Information:

Biographical Sketch

1899 -- Born, Chicago, IL. Son of Benjamin Franklin and Isabel (née McNeal)

[1917?] -- Attended Lewis Institute and the YMCA College before transferring to the University of Chicago

1918-1919 -- Military service, Sergeant, Field Remount Squadron, No. 305, Army Service Corps

1922 -- Graduated from the University of Chicago (Ph.B)

1922-1923 -- Attended the Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY

1923-1925 -- Teacher of English, Latin, and Bible Studies at Hopei University; the Second Normal School; and the YMCA in Paotingfu, China

1925 June 25 -- Married Dorothy Rowe in Nanking, China

1925-1927 -- English instructor; Librarian; and Lecturer in Chinese Art, Yenching University Peiping, China

1927, summer -- Lecturer on Chinese art Columbia University

1927-1931 -- Curator of Asiatic Art Detroit Institute of Arts

1928 -- Honorary Curator of Oriental Aesthetic Art at the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1928 -- Appointed honorary curator at the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

[1929?] -- Daughter (Judith) born

1929 -- China and Japan in Our Museums, published by the American Council, Institute of Pacific Relations

1931 -- Spent six months in China under a special grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to study 13th century painter, Ch'ien Hsuan

1932 -- Curator, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

1932 -- Appointed honorary curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts

1933 -- Awarded a Freer Fellowship

1934 -- Standards of Pottery Description, published by the University of Michigan Press

1934, summer -- Organized, directed, and lectured at a summer session of the Institute of Asiatic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley

1934 December -- Died at home in Ann Arbor, Michigan after a five-week illness (heart ailment)

Far Eastern art writer, curator, and lecturer, Benjamin Franklin March Jr., was born in Chicago on July 4, 1899 to Benjamin and Isabel March. He studied, lectured, and wrote in the United States and China and through his works gained respect as one of the foremost authorities on Chinese art during the 1920s and 1930s. Although he lived only thirty-five years, Benjamin March was a respected and influential scholar of Asian art.

After high school, March attended the Lewis Institute and the YMCA College before transferring to the University of Chicago from which he graduated in 1922 (Ph.B). With thoughts of becoming a Methodist minister, March enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. At the same time, March enrolled in art classes at the Metropolitan Museum. After one year at the seminary, March was presented with and accepted the opportunity to work in China. From 1923 to 1927, March resided in China where he taught and lectured at colleges. Initially, March taught English, Latin, and Bible Studies at Hopei University, the Second Normal School, and the YMCA. From 1925 to 1927, he worked at Yenching University in Peiping (now Peking) as an instructor in English, a librarian, and lecturer in Chinese art.

While in China, March met Dorothy Rowe, the daughter of a Methodist missionary stationed in Nanking. On June 25, 1925 the two were married. Ms. Rowe, whom March sometimes called Doré, had lived in China since infancy. The author of the children's story, "The Begging Dear," Rowe wrote children's stories with Chinese settings.

During the summer of 1927, the March's moved to the United States when Columbia University offered March an appointment as lecturer of Chinese Art. Later that year March was appointed curator of Asiatic art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He remained at the Detroit Institute of Arts in this capacity until 1931. In 1928, March was appointed Honorary Curator of Oriental Aesthetic Art by the University of Michigan's Museum of Anthropology. The next year, Dorothy March gave birth to the couple's only child, Judith.

During this period March published extensively, including two publications, China and Japan in Our Museums, in 1929 and, Standards of Pottery Description, in 1934. In the latter, March developed a new technique for the scientific study of the materials and methods of manufacture of ancient Chinese pottery. ( Ann Arbor Daily News. -- "Death Takes Noted Curator". -- December 14, 1934)

In 1931, March received a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. This grant allowed March the opportunity to travel to China and Europe to study the 13th century painter, Ch'ien Hsuan. In 1932, March was named a curator at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. The following year he was named a Freer Fellow. The summer of 1934 found March in Berkeley, California, organizing and directing the Institute of Asiatic Studies at the University of California. During the fall of 1934, March fell ill with a heart ailment. He was ill for five weeks before he died, at the age of 35, in December of 1934. At the time of his death, Benjamin March was survived by his wife Dorothy and their daughter, Judith.

Related Collections:

The Detroit Institute of Arts maintains administrative correspondence and files generated by Benjamin March during his tenure as curator.

The Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan houses the Benjamin Franklin March drawings collection, This is a collection of drawings by March for his daughter; includes illustrated poems of Pentwater Beach, Michigan.

Provenance:

Judith March Davis, the daughter of Benjamin March, donated her father's papers to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives in 1995.

Benjamin March's daughter, Judith March Davis, donated her father's papers to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives in 1995.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

No restrictions on use.

Topic:

Art, Japanese  Search this

Art, Chinese  Search this

Architecture -- China  Search this

Architecture, Japanese  Search this

Painting, Chinese  Search this

Art, Korean  Search this

Art, Asian  Search this

Painting, Japanese  Search this

Art, Asian -- Research  Search this

Chinese language -- Terms and phrases  Search this

Art -- Terminology  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Lecture notes

Letters

Citation:

Benjamin March Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Judith March Davis, 1995

Identifier:

FSA.A1995.10

See more items in:

Benjamin March Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1995-10

Creator:

Geissbuhler, Arnold, 1897-1993  Search this

Names:

Bourdelle, Emile Antoine, 1861-1929  Search this

Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme, 1896-1986  Search this

Browne, Margaret Fitzhugh, 1884-1972  Search this

Bänninger, Otto Charles, 1897-  Search this

Forbes, Edward Waldo, 1873-1969  Search this

Geissbuhler, Elisabeth Chase  Search this

Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966  Search this

Giacometti, Giovanni, 1868-1933  Search this

Goodyear, A. Conger (Anson Conger), 1877-1964  Search this

Grafly, Charles, 1862-1929  Search this

Richier, Germaine, 1904-1959  Search this

Extent:

0.3 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 6 reels))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Drawings

Sketchbooks

Date:

1915-1977

Scope and Contents:

Biographical material, correspondence (1920-1977), diaries, notes and writings, art works, subject files (1939-1968), printed material (1919-1971), and photographs (1919-1929) document Geissbuhler's artistic activities in Paris and New England.

Reels 1267-1268: Many letters (1920-1971), written by Geissbuhler to his wife Elisabeth Chase Geissbuhler, are illustrated. Other correspondents include Adelyn Breeskin, Margaret Browne, Edward W. Forbes, and A. Conger Goodyear. Art works consist of 26 sketchbooks (1915-1962), annotated in French and English, and over 600 figure studies (1922-1970). Printed material includes a Sculptors' Guild brochure, art course announcements (1958), and clippings (1924-1971). Other materials consist of 2 autobiographical accounts, an award from the Cambridge Centennial Exhibition (1946), an address book and calling cards.

Reel 1271: Printed material includes reproductions of Geissbuhler's work, an advertisement for the Academie Julian (1919), an exhibition announcement (1921), and a clipping (1925). Photographs (1919-1922) and a photograph album (1921-1929) contain images of Geissbuhler in his studio, his works, his family, and friends including Otto Banninger, Antoine Bourdelle, Alberto Giacometti, his father Giovanni Giacometti, and Germaine Richier. Sixteen photographs show art classes, primarily Bourdelle's classes (1919-1922), and Charles Graffley's studio (1921). Other materials consist of biographical notes, an award certificate and 4 sketches (1918).

Reel 1331: Correspondence consists of letters received from Antoine and Rhoda Bourdelle (1921-1977) and general correspondence concerning art business matters (1927-1971). A diary in 8 volumes (1921-1922) contains some illustrated entries. Printed material (1934-1971) consists of 40 exhibition catalogs, 8 clippings, and a school brochure. Four loose sketches are undated. Seven subject files concerning Geissbuhler's sculpture projects contain letters, business records, notes, and clippings.

Reel 1813: Photographs of Geissbuhler's work and one of his house, ca. 1924-1933.

Unfilmed: Letters (1937-1941) concern Geissbuhler's work for the WPA, Treasury Department, and the Federal Works Agency, primarily the Medford project and the Foxboro, Massachusetts, post office project. Other material consists of 3 forms, 2 exhibition catalogs, a press release concerning government projects, 2 rolled charcoal drawings and 2 photographs of the sculptural relief "Straw Cutting and Weaving" from the Foxboro, Massachusetts post office project, and notes.

Biographical / Historical:

Sculptor; Dennis, Mass. Born in Delemont, Switzerland. In 1914, Geissbuhler traveled to Zurich to become a sculptor's apprentice in the studio of Otto Munch. He attended the Kunst Gewerbe School and worked as Munch's assistant until 1919. In that year, Geissbuhler went to Paris to study with Antoine Bourdelle at the Academie Julian. He maintained a studio in Paris until 1927, when he travelled to the United States and married Elisabeth Chase, a Boston sculptor whom he met in Bourdelle's class. They moved to New England in 1933, and in 1937 he became an art instructor at Wellesley College.

Provenance:

Material on reels 1267-1268, 1271, 1331 and 1813 lent for microfilming 1977-1978; unmicrofilmed material donated 1984 all by Arnold Geissbuhler.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Occupation:

Sculptors -- Massachusetts  Search this

Sculptors -- Switzerland  Search this

Topic:

Expatriate artists -- Massachusetts  Search this

Federal aid to the arts -- Massachusetts  Search this

Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Genre/Form:

Drawings

Sketchbooks

Identifier:

AAA.geisarno

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-geisarno

Creator:

Singer, Paul, 1904-  Search this

Extent:

23 Linear feet (Boxes 1-28, 30-40, OV29)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Correspondence

Financial records

Place:

Vienna (Austria)

New York (N.Y.)

Date:

circa 1880s-1997

Summary:

The Paul Singer papers measure 23 linear feet and date from circa 1880s to 1997. Materials include biographical documents, correspondence, writings and notes, exhibition and symposium files, travel files, personal art collection records, personal business records, printed material, artwork, artifacts, and photographs.

Scope and Contents:

The Paul Singer papers measure 23 linear feet and date from circa 1880s to 1997. Materials include biographical documents, correspondence, writings and notes, exhibition and symposium files, travel files, personal art collection records, personal business records, printed material, artwork, artifacts, and photographs.

Biographical materials document Paul Singer's life in Vienna, Austria and in the United States. Scattered biographical documentation concerning Singer's wife, Eva Geyer, is also included. Correspondence files show the many relationships Singer maintained with art auctions and art dealers, Asian art colleagues, and various museums and universities in an effort to continuously expand and exhibit his collection. Topics also include requests for loans and viewings of Singer's art collection; consultations about other art objects; auction and sales offers; and his unpublished collection catalog project. Writings and notes include drafts of articles, essays, Singer's memoirs, and Singer's unpublished collection catalog drafts. As reflected within exhibition and symposium files, items from Singer's collection were included in several exhibitions over the years, many at the Asia House Gallery and China Institute of America, and a symposium held in his honor at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 1990, "New Perspectives on Chu Culture during the Eastern Zhou Period." The papers also include various materials documenting Singer's international travels, especially to China from 1979 onward.

Personal art collection records document various Singer collection purchases and sales and include invoices, receipts, shipping documents, appraisal and laboratory testing results, scattered loan agreements, and Arthur M. Sackler Foundation and Purchase Fund documentation. Personal business records include Singer's personal financial files, legal files, and estate papers. Also found within the papers are printed materials, a sketchbook and sketches by others, two picture frames, and a bronze bust of Paul Singer by David Cregeen. Personal photographs depict Paul Singer and his friends and family through snapshots, portraits, vintage photographs, and one album, and primarily document Singer's life in Austria. Also included are images of Singer's apartment showing his collection as a whole, as well as various social events. Photographs of works of art, both within Singer's collection and from other sources, constitute the bulk of the photographs found within the papers and include four photograph albums. However, researchers should note that prints, slides, and negatives of works of art are as yet largely unsorted.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 11 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1911-1996, undated [0.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 28, OV29]

Series 2: Correspondence, 1906-1996 [2.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-8]

Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1950s-circa 1990s [2.0 linear feet; Boxes 8-13]

Series 4: Exhibition and Symposium Files, 1957-1990 [0.7 linear feet; Boxes 13-15]

Series 5: Travel Files, circa 1960s-circa 1991 [0.2 linear feet; Box 15]

Series 6: Personal Art Collection Records, 1951-circa 1996 [1.9 linear feet; Boxes 16-20]

Series 7: Personal Business Records, 1948-1997 [0.9 linear feet; Boxes 20-23]

Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1900-1996 [0.9 linear feet; Boxes 23-24, 28]

Series 9: Artwork, circa 1950s [0.1 linear feet; Boxes 24, 28]

Series 10: Artifacts, circa 1970s-circa 1980s, undated [1.1 linear feet; Box 24, Bust]

Series 11: Photographs, circa 1880s-circa 1990s [12 linear feet; Boxes 24-27, 30-40]

Biographical / Historical:

Paul Singer (1904-1997) was a collector of Chinese art and neuropsychiatrist active in New York.

Born in Pressburg, Hungary in 1904, Singer grew up in Vienna, Austria where he studied medicine and developed his lifelong interest in Chinese art. He began his studies in 1921 at the Realgymnasium in Vienna, becoming a neuropsychiatrist in 1929 at the University of Vienna. He and his wife, actress Eva Geyer (1907-1975), fled Austria in 1938. After staying briefly in London, they arrived in New York in 1939 where Singer frequented art dealer shops, such as C. T. Loo and Ralph Chait, auction houses, and thrift stores. Singer met Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) at a Sotheby's auction in 1957. After Singer's wife's death in 1975, Sackler and Singer entered an agreement whereby Sackler would pay to support Singer's collecting and Singer's collection would go to Sackler upon his death.

Galleries and museums around the country displayed works from Singer's collection, and in 1965, Singer and Max Loehr (1903-1988) co-curated Relics of Ancient China (1965) at Asia House Gallery in New York. The Chinese Institute in New York held several exhibitions showing pieces from his collection, two of which included: Early Chinese Gold and Silver (1971) and Early Chinese Miniatures (1977), for which he wrote the catalogs. In honor of Singer's eighty-fifth birthday in April 1990, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery held a symposium, "New Perspectives on Chu Culture during the Eastern Zhou Period," displaying a select number of objects from his collection and dedicating the published volume of presented papers to Paul Singer. In addition to curating and collecting, Singer also published scholarly articles on Chinese art in journals such as Archives of Asian Art and Oriental Art, and was senior consultant to the Far Eastern Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Max Loehr (1903-1988) began constructing a comprehensive catalog of Paul Singer's collection in 1965, sending entries to Singer as he and his colleagues completed them. After Loehr's death, Thomas Lawton (1931- ) took over much of the Singer collection catalog project, hoping for completion in time for the Symposium in 1990, but the catalog was never published.

Paul Singer died in New Providence, New Jersey in 1997.

Provenance:

Donations received in part from Dr. Paul Singer in 1991 and after his death in 1997, and from the executrix of his estate, Ms. Margit Elsohn, in 2000.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Topic:

Archaeology -- China -- Antiquities  Search this

Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art, Chinese -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Correspondence

Financial records

Citation:

The Paul Singer Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

Identifier:

FSA.A1991.01

See more items in:

Paul Singer Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1991-01

Creator:

Bishop, Carl Whiting, 1881-1942  Search this

Names:

Bishop, Carl Whiting, 1881-1942  Search this

Tung, Kuang-zung.  Search this

Warner, Langdon (1881-1955)  Search this

Wenley, A. G. (Archibald Gibson), 1898-1962  Search this

Extent:

20 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Negatives

Photographic prints

Manuscript

Place:

China

Date:

1923-1934

Summary:

An associate curator and associate in archaeology at the Freer Gallery of Art from 1922 to 1942, the collection of Carl Whiting Bishop (1881-1942) document his Gallery-sponsored travels to China from 1923 to 1934 and include an unpublished manuscript describing his archaeological research in China; line drawings; rubbings; maps; note cards; and nearly 4,000 glass and film negatives with corresponding original silver prints. These document his expeditions in northern and central China, illustrating archaeological sites in Henan, Shanxi, and Hebei provinces. Specific digs include the large neolithic site at Wanquan, Shanxi, and sixth century C.E. tombs near Fenyin. Additional images show Chinese cityscapes, daily life and customs, topography, temples, pagodas, caves, and sculpture.

Scope and Contents:

The professional papers and official records of Carl Whiting Bishop include his unpublished two-volume manuscript, [not before 1940]; and photographs, nearly 4,000 images, 1915-1934; and undated. These materials document over a twenty-five year period in the course of Bishop's research and archaeological activities. They were retained at the Freer Gallery of Art after Bishop's death in 1942, and were supplemented with an addition received in 1956 from his widow Daisy Furscott Bishop.

The manuscript was prepared in a typescript format, over 421 pages of text, with photographic illustrations, and completed by Bishop sometime after 1939. Properly titled Archaeological Research in China 1923-1934, this unpublished manuscript constituted a field report that chronicled Bishop's Gallery-sponsored expeditions in northern and central China during the period 1923 to 1934. The reader is provided with a record of the day-to-day operations completed, of obstacles and opposition encountered, and the results obtained from their work. Key diplomatic and scientific representatives from the West and China are recorded who aided and contributed to the investigations. Moreover, there are descriptions of the academic, social and political climate in China during a period of civil war and economic strife. Against this background, Bishop also discussed their efforts in view of the history of China, with commentary on the country's geography, topography, climate, flora and fauna, mineral products, and ancient customs and legends.

The earliest still photographic prints in the Bishop Papers date from his employ at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where he conducted archaeological reconnaissance from 1915 to 1918 in China, Korea, and Japan. All subsequent images were created or collected by Bishop and his assistant Kuang-zung Tung during the Freer Gallery-sponsored expeditions of 1923-1934. Further descriptions of these materials may be found under Series 2 and Series 3 in this finding aid.

In the transliteration into English of the names of Chinese characters, Bishop followed the Wade-Giles system, with a few exceptions to those rules for certain well known and commonly used place-names, especially those of cities, towns, territorial divisions, and bodies of water. We have retained Bishop's romanization except in certain areas where clarification was needed. The Chinese personal and place-names have been kept as they appeared in his captions.

Arrangement:

Series 1: Manuscript/Writings 1915-1934 and undated

Series 2: Photography Prints

Series 3: Negatives

Series 4: Drawings, Rubbings, and Maps

Biographical / Historical:

Carl Whiting Bishop (1881-1942) was an archaeologist, anthropologist, and specialist in the field of East Asian studies. Born in Tokyo, Japan, on July 12, 1881, he was the son of a Methodist missionary, the Reverend Charles Bishop. Except for a twelve-month residence in the United States during 1889-90, Bishop spent the first sixteen years of his life in Japan, before returning to this country in 1898 for college preparatory work at Northwestern Academy, Evanston, Illinois. He studied at Hampden-Sydney College and in 1912 received an A.B. degree from DePauw University. In 1913 he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts by the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, where he studied with the noted German anthropologist, Franz Boas (1858-1942). That same year he received his first scientific appointment as a member of the Peabody Museum Expedition to Central America.

From 1914-18 Bishop served as Assistant Curator in Oriental Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where on an expedition for that museum he made his first trip to China. Under the auspices of the university, he conducted archaeological reconnaissance during 1915 and 1916 in China, Korea, and Japan, and again conducted archaeological surveys in 1917 and 1918, although no systematic excavations were carried out at that time. When the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, Bishop enlisted in the United States Navy and was made assistant naval attaché, serving in China in the years 1918-20, with the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. He returned to Columbia University in 1921 to assume the position of Assistant in Anthropology, a post he held until the end of the academic season in 1922.

Effective 10 April 1922, Bishop was appointed as Associate Curator of the Freer Gallery of Art by then director John Ellerton Lodge (1878-1942). Asked to undertake important archaeological work, Bishop headed the gallery's first expedition to China, sponsored jointly by the FGA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, lasting from 20 February 1923 to 6 August 1927. From 16 November 1929 to 11 April 1934, he headed another expedition, sent out this time by the Freer Gallery alone. When conditions in China made further efforts impractical, Bishop returned to Washington in 1934, where he remained at the gallery as Associate in Archaeology until the time of his death on 16 June 1942.

Carl Whiting Bishop was a member of a number of learned societies: the American Oriental Society, the American Archaeological Society, the Anthropological Society, the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the American Geographical Society, and he served on the advisory board of the American Council of Learned Societies until his death.

1881, July 12 -- Born in Tokyo, Japan

1898 -- Attends Northwestern Academy in Evanston, Illinois for college preparatory work Attends Hampden-Sydney College

1912 -- Receives A.B. degree from DePauw University

1913 -- Receives Master of Arts from Department of Anthropology from Columbia University, where he studied with Franz Boas

1914 -- Begins serving as Assistant Curator in Oriental Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum

1915-1918 -- Makes several archaeological survey trips to China, Korea and Japan

1918-1920 -- Enlists in the U.S. Navy, serving as assistant naval attaché in China

1921 -- Serves as Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Columbia University

1922, April 10 -- Becomes Associate Curator of the Freer Gallery of Art

1923-1927 -- Heads the Freer Gallery's first expedition to China, co-sponsored by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

1929-1934 -- Heads the second Freer-sponsored expedition to China

1934 -- Returns to US and serves as Associate in Archaeology at the Freer Gallery of Art

1942, June 16 -- Dies.

Related Materials:

Additional Bishop material may be found in the following collections also found in the the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery:

Li Chi Reports, 1926-1929, regarding Li's reconnaissance work at Shi-yin Ts'un, Shansi Province, and the excavation at Anyang.

Archibald Gibson Wenley Papers, 1924-1926, including field diaries, notes, and photographs documenting his participation in the FGA expedition work in China.

Charles Lang Freer Papers, including 1915 correspondence between Freer and Bishop; newspaper clippings related to Bishop, and documents dated 1912-1913, relating to Freer's support for a proposed American School of Archeology in China.

A number of objects from the FGA expeditions, including bronzes, ceramics, and stone sculpture, have been accessioned into the permanent art collection of the Freer Gallery of Art. Additionally, remnants of antiquities, potteries, and metalwork accumulated during the field work, have been placed in the Freer Gallery Study Collection. Records for these items are retained with the Galleries' Registrar's Office.

Additional Bishop material may be found in the Smithsonian Institutional Archives:

Expedition Records, including correspondence of Carl Whiting Bishop, 1914; 1923-1942, nearly 3,000 letters arranged alphabetically by correspondent name; a manuscript catalogue of expedition acquisitions, Peking, 1923-1925; financial records, 1923-1934, including expedition fund ledgers, account statements, and receipts; and newspaper clippings, 1924-1932, documenting the gallery's field work and general archaeological work being conducted around the world at that time.

Smithsonian Institutional Archives, Central Files, Bishop folders, 1923-1942, including expedition letters, field reports, and photographs sent to John E. Lodge.

Personnel and Special Events Photograph Collection, containing portrait photographs of Bishop.

Additional Bishop matieral may be found in the University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives, Philadelphia:

Documentation of University of Pennsylvania Museum-sponsored field work in East Asia may be found there that includes records of C.W. Bishop, dated 1914-1927 (measuring about .5 linear foot), much of it created during his tenure as the Museum's Assistant Curator of Oriental Art from 1914-1918. Included are Bishop's journals consisting of daily entries for two trips to China for the University of Pennsylvania Museum; letters to and from G.B. Gordon, C.W. Harrison, and Jane McHugh, written during Bishop's travel in China and subsequent to his return; and detailed financial accounts of expenditures during the China travels. Additionally, the repository houses a group of Bishop's negatives taken in China to visually record the expedition work.

Provenance:

Gift of Carl Whiting Bishop.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.

Topic:

Archaeology  Search this

Archaeological expeditions  Search this

Archaeology -- China  Search this

Photography -- China  Search this

Genre/Form:

Negatives

Photographic prints

Manuscript

Citation:

The Carl Whiting Bishop Collection. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Identifier:

FSA.A.02

See more items in:

Carl Whiting Bishop Collection

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-02

Former owner:

Deering, James, 1859-1925)  Search this

Architect:

Hoffman, Francis Burrell, 1882-1980)  Search this

Landscape architect:

Suarez, Diego, 1888-1974  Search this

Sculptor:

Calder, Alexander Stirling, 1870-1945  Search this

Collection Collector:

Marchand, Richard  Search this

Extent:

5 slides (photographs)

Type:

Archival materials

Slides (photographs)

Postcards

Place:

Vizcaya estate (Florida)

United States of America -- Florida -- Miami-Dade County -- Miami

Date:

circa 1930-1950

General:

The Vizcaya gardens span over ten acres surrounding the former winter home of the wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts, James Deering (1859-1925). The Vizcaya estate, located in the Coconut Grove area of Miami, was conceived of by Deering and artist and designer Paul Chalfin (1874-1959). Together they traveled extensively through Europe, particularly Italy, to inspire the design for Deering's South Florida retreat. Vizcaya which means "an elevated place" in Basque, was built in the years 1914 to 1916, and transformed a jungle tract of land into one of the most celebrated houses on the Eastern Seaboard. Diego Suarez (1888-1974), a Columbia-born landscape architect trained in Florence, Italy, was commissioned to create a modern, subtropical interpretation of classical, European Renaissance and Baroque landscape design suited to Miami's climate and terrain. Suarez' extensive knowledge of Italian gardens was combined with a consciousness of architectural design to create a setting for the house.

The garden scheme was divided into various terraces and areas, including a completely walled secret garden, a maze garden, theater garden, pergola garden, and the fountain garden, which features a fountain from the town square of Sutri, Italy. Plants were chosen for their ability to withstand south Florida's climate and pests and combined with native soil and plant materials in designs inspired by gardens seen by Deering and Chalfin on their tours of Italy and France. Varieties of bougainvillea, roses, water lilies, and jasmine were among the flowers found throughout the gardens, along with potted pines and podocarpus, some carefully trimmed in the art of topiary. The gardens were trimmed with hedges and trees and feature decorative walls, balustrades, urns, and sculpture. The areas were supplied with water through designed elements meant to compliment the garden such as pools, cascades, a frescoed grotto pool, fountains, and a system of canals, which invokes scenes on the waterways of Venice.

Unique among country estates, the gardens of Vizcaya integrated statues, busts, vases and urns that ranged from antiquity to the Renaissance and Baroque periods, as well as modern art from Deering's time into the lush vegetation. As the artistic advisor of the property, Paul Chalfin, acquired artifacts as decoration rather than to create a collection. Garden artworks ranged from antique elements to new sculptural decorations by contemporary artists. The gardens also featured several structures including a Baroque casino (garden house), decorative bridges, a large boathouse with a rooftop garden, and a domed garden house called the Casba. The most celebrated outdoor feature was the Barge by artist Alexander Stirling Calder (1870–1945), located in the water in front of the house. In addition to the house and gardens, the grounds also housed a swimming pool and tennis courts. Over two-thirds of the estate, originally 180 acres of subtropical forest along the shores of Biscayne Bay, remains in its natural state. The untouched hammock, shoreline, and pineland serves as a background for the more formal main gardens and along the drive up to the house. The Vizcaya property was surrounded by a wall with decorative paintings on stone and wrought-iron grills.

The house was designed to take advantage of its location on west shore of Biscayne Bay and each side of the house had a unique relationship with the surrounding grounds with loggias, terraces, arcades, and a partially enclosed swimming pool and, from some rooms, views of the gardens and bay. Architect F. Burrell Hoffman Jr. (1884-1980) was commissioned to design the house in the manner of an Italian Renaissance-style villa. Hoffman adapted traditional Mediterranean architectural elements to the subtropical climate in the palatial 70-room mansion. The beautifully planned interior was designed around an airy garden courtyard with a peripheral gallery, originally open to the sky, that was the heart and primary living space of the home. The house embraced modern conveniences and employed the latest technology of the period with an automated telephone switch board, a central vacuum-cleaning system, central heating, several elevators, generators and a water filtration system. The house also included a billiard room, bowling alley, and smoking room. The interiors were designed by the artistic advisor Paul Chalfin around objects acquired on Deering's travels in period rooms ranging in style from the Renaissance through the Neoclassical. The villa housed entire ceilings, mural paintings, chimney pieces, carved paneling, and doorways removed from foreign palaces along with rare rugs, tapestries, and antique furnishings. A working farm called the "Village" with eleven outbuildings was also located on the estate. These buildings were designed to look like an Italian village by Hoffman to compliment the architecture of the house. The Village included barns, stables, chicken houses, mechanical shops, housing for the staff, and the gate lodge making it nearly self-sufficient. A pumphouse provided water for the flower and vegetable gardens, groves for citrus, pineapple, and other fruits, greenhouses, and a large shade house for delicate plants grown at the Village to supply the mansion.

The estate, mansion, and its interiors were celebrated in magazines of the time. Deering occupied the house for four months each winter season beginning at Christmas in 1916.The whole complex was created for entertaining and recreation and Deering frequently invited family, visitors, and houseguests to the enjoy his estate. After Deering's death in 1925, the estate passed to his brother's children. Some of the acreage was sold off, and in 1952 Dade County purchased the remaining land and house. With donations of art and furniture from the family, the Vizcaya estate, became a decorative arts museum operated by Dade County Park and Recreation Department. The property, including the house, gardens, hammock forest, and Vizcaya Village, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994.

Other notable artists who contributed to the house and grounds were: Alexander Stirling Calder (1870-1945), Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), Robert Chanler (1872-1930), Charles Gary Rumsey (1879-1922), Ettore Pellagatta (1881-1966), Paul Thevenez (1891-1921), and Samuel Yellin (1885-1940).

Persons associated include: James Deering (former owner), F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr. (architect), Paul Chalfin (architect of interiors), Diego Suarez (landscape architect, and Alexander Stirling Calder (sculptor), and Metro Dade County Park & Recreation Department (owner).

Varying Form:

Also known as Villa Vizcaya, Vizcaya Palace and Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original images by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens.

Topic:

Gardens -- Florida -- Miami  Search this

Genre/Form:

Postcards

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Richard Marchand historical postcard collection.

Identifier:

AAG.MAR, File FL083

See more items in:

Richard Marchand historical postcard collection (35mm slides)

Richard Marchand historical postcard collection (35mm slides) / Florida

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-mar-ref1329