Files related to Washington, D.C. art activities; photographs; scrapbook; and guestbook.
REELS 2424-2425: Scrapbook on Comès' sitters Leonie Adams, Elizabeth Bishop, Katherine Garrison Chapin, Martin D' Arcy, Walter de la Mare, Denis Devlin, Richard Eberhart, Robert Frost, Caroline Gordon, Ralph Hodgson, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Robert Lowell, Katherine Anne Porter, Ezra Pound, St. John Perse, Sir John Rothenstein, Karl Shapiro, Allen Tate, Mark Van Doren, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, Cornelius Weygandt and Anne Goodwin Winslow, containing letters, clippings, book reviews, photos of sitters and Comès' portraits. Also included are photos of Comès and printed material relating to her.
REEL 2424, frames 3-243: A guest book, containing signatures, comments, sketches, photographs, clippings, and letters from artists, poets, writers, and other guests of Comès, including Walter de la Mare, Robert Frost, Leon Masson, Katherine Anne Porter, Sir John Rothenstein and Sir William Rothenstein, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, and others. Also included are photographs of Comès and her family.
UNMICROFILMED: Artist, dealer, institution, and subject files containing letters, exhibition catalogs and announcements, clippings, photographs, and other printed materials relating to Washington, D.C. art activities. Included are: files on artists Caroline Van Hook Bean, Ruby Grady, Jacob Kainen, Frank Wright, and others; files on the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Foundry, the Studio Gallery, and other galleries; subject files on the Art Barn, the D.C. chapter of the Artists Equity Association including membership lists and address labels, 1970-1972, the Art in the Embassies Program, the Conference on Artists and Taxes, 1977, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Society of Arts and Letters, the Federal Government and the art, including material on bills and hearings, 1973-1977, the Washington art community, women and the arts, art materials hazards, includes published works by Joy Luke Turner, and crafts.
Also included are a paper "Government Sponsorship of the Arts under the WPA and Ceta," by Martha Malles, 1978; clippings, with reviews by John Canady and others; photographs, undated and 1971-1973, of Marcella Comès, Art Barn happenings, including 45 slides, 1974, and Artists Equity Association, Washington chapter, exhibitions; a published reference directory of Washington art, WASHINGTON TODAY, 1967; and one 16mm amateur film circa 1974.
Biographical / Historical:
Portrait painter, photographer; Washington, D.C. b. 1905. d. July 6, 2000. Married name Mrs. Randolph Winslow. Trained at the Carnegie School of Fine Arts and privately in Europe. Comès played an active part in the local D.C. art community; as a member of the Women's Commission of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, president of the D.C. chapter of Artists Equity Association, 1969-1971, and as the national vice-president, 1971-1973. Comès was the ex-officio portraitist to the Poetry Chair at the Library of Congress.
Provenance:
Lent and donated 1982 by Marcella Comes.
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.
Wright, Louis T. (Louis Tompkins), 1891-1952 Search this
Extent:
0.9 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
1924-1980
Summary:
The scattered papers of African American and Harlem Renaissance painter, muralist, illustrator, sculptor, and educator Charles Henry Alston measure 0.9 linear feet and date from 1924-1980. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, commission and teaching files, writings and notes, printed materials, and photographs. Notable correspondents include Romare Bearden, Byron Browne, Jacob Lawrence, and Hale Woodruff.
Scope and Content Note:
The scattered papers of African American and Harlem Renaissance painter, muralist, illustrator, sculptor, and educator Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) measure 0.9 linear feet and date from 1924-1980. The bulk of the collection documents his personal and professional relationships with figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Researchers should note that this collection contains very little documentation on Alston's actual federal WPA work with the Harlem Art Workshop, the Harlem Artists Guild, or his Harlem Hospital murals completed in 1940. A photograph of Alston in 1937 is likely the only reference to the actual WPA murals in this collection.
Scattered correspondence includes general correspondence; letters concerning Alston's artistic endeavors; and personal letters from friends and family. Found is a copy of a thank you note from Eudora Welty to John Woodburn for a jacket design presumably by Alston; letters from Harlem Renaissance figures and personal friends Romare Bearden, Byron Brown, Jacob Lawrence, and Hale Woodruff.
Commission files are for Alston's murals including those in the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building in Los Angeles, California (1947); and the addition to the Harlem Hospital (1965); and the Family and Criminal Courts Building in the Bronx, New York (1976). There is one file concerning teaching at City College New York (CUNY).
Writings and notes includes scattered notes and three short stories probably by Alston entitled "Bitsy O'Wire," "Body and Soul," and "Gigi."
Printed materials include illustrations by Alston in the Columbia University literary magazine, The Morningside, and medical illustrations done for Dr. Louis T. Wright. Also found are scattered clippings, exhibition announcements, press releases, and materials from the First Conference on Aesthetic Responsibility.
Photographs are of Alston, Alston with his wife, Myra Logan, his mother Anna Alston Bearden, Romare Bearden, and Hale Woodruff. Photographs of note include one of Alston holding a self-portrait, and one of the artist in 1937 with works that are most likely preliminary sketches of his WPA murals at Harlem Hospital. There are also photographs of Alston's works of art.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Information, 1924-1977 (Box 1; 3 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1931-1977(Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 3: Commission and Teaching Files, 1947-1976 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, circa 1940s-1970s (Box 2-3; 4 folders)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1928, 1946-1980(Box 2-3; 5 folders)
Series 6: Photographs, 1925-1968 (Box 2; 2 folders)
Biographical Note:
Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) worked primarily in New York city as a painter, muralist, illustrator, and educator. He was part of the Harlem Renaissance movement in the 1930s and helped form the Harlem Art Workshop and the Harlem Artists Guild.
Charles Henry "Spinky" Alston was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 28th, 1907. His parents were the Reverend Primus Priss and Anna Miller. After the death of his father, Alston's mother married Henry Pierce Bearden (Romare Bearden's uncle) in 1913 and the family moved to New York City.
At DeWitt Clinton High School in New York, Alston served as art editor of the school's literary magazine. Alston majored in fine arts and history at Columbia University, graduating in 1929. He became active in the Harlem community and accepted a position as director of Utopia House, a boy's camp, where he started an art program. He returned to Columbia and recieved a Masters degree in art education from Columbia's Teachers College. While still a student, he illustrated album covers for jazz musician Duke Ellington and book covers for poet Langston Hughes.
Alston played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance Movement of the period. During the Great Depression, he and sculptor Henry Bannarn directed the Harlem Art Workshop which was funded by the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. There he taught and mentored African American painter Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, among others.
In the 1950s, Alston embarked on a series of portraits of African American figures. He also taught at the Art Students League and later with the City College of New York (CUNY). Along with his wife, Myra Logan, a surgeon at Harlem Hospital, Alston lived in Harlem and remained an active member of the community until the end of his life. Charles Alston died in 1977.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are two oral history interviews with Charles Henry Alston, one conducted by Harlan Phillips on September 28, 1965 and another by Al Murray on October 19, 1968.
Additional Charles Henry Alston papers are located at the University of North Carolina's Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.
Separated Material:
In 1970, Charles Alston loaned materials for microfilming, including correspondence with Henry Epstein, Langston Hughes, Robert Riggs, Harry Sternberg, J. Johnson Sweeney, Hale Woodruff and others. Also loaned for microfilming were sketchbooks, printed materials, and photographs. Subsequently, some of the photographs were later donated by Alston's sisters. The loaned materials are available only on microfilm reel N70-23 at Archives of American Art offices, and through interlibrary loan. These materials are not included in the container listing of this finding aid.
Provenance:
Charles Alston lent portions of the collection for microfilming in 1970. Aida Winters and Rousmaniere Alston Wilson, Charles Alston's sisters, donated additional materials to the Archives of American Art in 1982 and 1984.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Passionate observer : Eudora Welty among artists of the thirties / René Paul Barilleaux, editor ; essays by Suzanne Marrs, Patti Carr Black, Franceis V. O'Connor
