The papers of weaver, textile designer, and consultant Dorothy Liebes date from circa 1850-1973 (bulk 1922-1970) and comprise 24.9 linear feet. Through biographical material including a sound recording of an interview, family and general correspondence, writings including a draft of Liebes's autobiography, subject files providing detailed records of her influential consulting work, financial and legal files, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, textile samples, and photographic material picturing a wide variety of career and personal activities, the collection provides rich and extensive documentation of Liebes's career and personal life.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of weaver, textile designer, and consultant Dorothy Liebes date from circa 1850-1973 (bulk 1922-1970) and comprise 24.9 linear feet. Through biographical material including a sound recording of an interview, family and general correspondence, writings including a draft of Liebes's autobiography, subject files providing detailed records of her influential consulting work, financial and legal files, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, textile samples, and photographic material picturing a wide variety of career and personal activities, the collection provides rich and extensive documentation of Liebes's career and personal life.
Biographical material consists of awards, biographical notes, membership and identification cards, passports, a will, and a sound recording of a 1945 interview with Liebes.
Correspondence is personal with family and friends, and general with friends and colleagues including artists, and fellow weavers and designers. Notable correspondents include Dorr Bothwell, Daren Pierce, Beatrice Wood, and Frank and Olgivanna Lloyd Wright.
Diaries and calendars record Liebes's busy professional and personal life, with notations on daily activities and, beginning in 1952, detailed notes by staff recording activities at the studio on days when Liebes was absent.
Writings by Dorothy Liebes include notes, drafts, and manuscripts of published and unpublished writings, including an autobiography, speeches, and drafts for an unpublished book on weaving.
Subject files contain correspondence, printed material, photographs, and miscellaneous items in varying combinations, and focus heavily on Liebes's consulting work for businesses in the textile industry, including her work with DuPont, Bigelow-Sanford, Goodall, Dow, and others. The files document the importance of her work as a colorist and show how she successfully adapted craft weaving to machine methods. Furthermore, they record how Liebes used her marketing instincts and broad media appeal to rebrand the image of companies such as DuPont from one of chemistry and utility, to one that represented high style and glamor in durable and practical fabrics that were affordable and desirable in home furnishings. Other subject files document organizations, individuals, and topics of interest to Liebes, including files recording her involvement with arts and crafts organizations, her role as director for the Decorative Arts Display at the Golden Gate Exposition in 1939, her work as director of the Red Cross's Arts and Skills workshop, scattered exhibition records, and files on weavers and weaving. Files on Liebes's extensive promotional work for multiple clients are also included here, as are files documenting Liebes's relationship with Relman Morin, such as correspondence and scattered records of Morin's career as a Pullitzer Prize winning journalist.
Financial and legal records are comprised of accounting records from the 1930s-1940s, financial summaries, investment statements, personal and business inventories, personal and business tax returns, and some legal records.
Printed material includes advertisements, articles, and exhibition announcements and catalogs, recording Liebes's career. This material is supplemented by thirty-three bound scrapbooks of printed publicity material, photographs, and documents recording Liebes's career in substantial depth.
Artwork by Dorothy Liebes consists of designs, feather weavings, a small hooked composition, and tapestry samples. Artwork by others includes prints by Dorr Bothwell, designs by Lawrence J. Colwell, and painted sketches of clothing designs by Daren Pierce. Two linear feet of samples consist primarily of textile swatches primarily designed by Dorothy Liebes Studio, Inc.
Photographic material includes professional portraits of Liebes and others, photos of Liebes at events and parties, with staff and other weavers, at work in her studio, and traveling. Of note are a series of pictures taken at Taliesin West with Frank and Olgivanna Wright, Relman Morin, and others. Photographic material also provides examples of Liebes's design work in homes, hotels, offices, and elsewhere, and shows her work pictured in exhibitions and showrooms. Photographs of other subjects include portraits of unidentified women by Man Ray and Consuela Canaga.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1934-circa 1970 (Box 1, OV 23; 0.28 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1922-1973 (Boxes 1-2; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Diaries and Calendars, 1948-1971 (Boxes 2-4; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Writings, 1920-circa 1971 (Boxes 4-5; 1.05 linear feet)
Series 5: Subject Files, circa 1933-1971 (Boxes 5-13, 20, 43, OVs 23, 59; 8.43 linear feet)
Series 6: Financial and Legal Records, circa 1935-1972 (Box 13, 20; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1897-1971 (Boxes 14, 20-21, OV 38; 1.1 linear feet)
Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1933-1972 (Box 21-22, 24-36; 5 linear feet)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1920s-circa 1960s (Boxes 14, 22, OVs 23, 39, 42, RD 37; 1.24 linear feet)
Series 10: Samples, circa 1850-1855, circa 1930s-circa 1970 (Boxes 15-16; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 11: Photographic Material, circa 1875, circa 1897-circa 1970 (Boxes 17-19, 36, 43, OVs 38, 40-41; 2.2 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
California and New York weaver, textile designer, and consultant Dorothy Wright Liebes (1899-1972) was known for distinctive textiles featuring bold color combinations and unusual textures achieved through the use of materials such as glass rods, sequins, bamboo, grass, leather, ribbon, wire, and ticker tape. Her work with companies in the synthetic fiber industry to make craft weaving compatible with man-made fabrics and machine looms, produced an innovative and exciting new aesthetic in interior design that was both functional and affordable, and made Liebes a mid-century household name.
Born Dorothy Wright in Santa Rosa, California, Liebes was the daughter of chemistry professor Frederick L. Wright and teacher Bessie Calderwood Wright. She studied art, education, and anthropology at San Jose State Teachers College and the University of California, Berkeley. During her college years, a teacher encouraged her to experiment with weaving and textile design since many of her paintings resembled textiles.
Liebes was a teacher for several years before deciding to pursue a career in textile design. She then studied weaving at Hull House in Chicago and traveled to France, Italy, Guatemala, and Mexico to learn the traditional weaving forms of those cultures. Upon her return to the United States, Liebes opened her first professional studio for weaving and textile design on Powell Street in San Francisco; Dorothy Liebes Design, Inc. was established in 1934, and eventually employed a staff of weavers. Liebes moved her studio to 545 Sutter Street in 1942.
Her first client in the industry was Goodall-Sanford Mills, with whom Liebes worked as a consultant for more than a decade. As her client base expanded, she decided to open a New York studio and maintained both studios until 1948 when she closed her San Francisco operation and relocated to New York City.
Liebes became a color and design consultant to corporations such as DuPont, Dow, and Bigelow-Sanford and tested and promoted newly developed synthetic fibers. She advised textile chemists in the development of fibers that were versatile enough to produce many different textures and worked with engineers and technicians to develop new machines that could reproduce the irregularities of hand-loomed fabrics. Liebes became a sought-after speaker by textile industry and consumer groups, and sometimes taught workshops on color and design.
Liebes's commissions included the United Nations Delegates Dining Room, the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel and the King of Saudi Arabia's traveling royal throne room. Between 1937 and 1970, Liebes participated in more than thirty solo and group exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, de Young Museum, Cranbrook Museum, Detroit Institute of Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, and other venues. She received prizes and awards from institutions and corporations such as Lord and Taylor, Neiman-Marcus, the Paris Exposition, the American Institute of Decorators, the American Institute of Architects and the Architectural League. She was also awarded the Elsie de Wolfe Award and an honorary degree from Mills College in 1948.
Liebes's other notable activities included her work a director of the Decorative Arts Display for the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair, which she credited with establishing her as an authority in the field, and her work as organizer and director of "Arts and Skills," a Red Cross occupational therapy project that included training in weaving for soldiers injured in World War II. In the 1950s, she worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, journeying though the southwest to study Indian schools and weaving techniques.
Liebes was married to businessman Leon Liebes from 1928 until their divorce in 1940 and continued to use the name Liebes for the remainder of her life. In 1948, she married Pulitzer prize winning Associated Press special correspondent Relman "Pat" Morin.
During the last year of her life, Dorothy Liebes was semi-retired due to a heart ailment. She died in New York City on 10 September 1972.
Provenance:
Gift of the Estate of Dorothy Liebes through Relman Morin, 1972, and Ralph Higbee, 1973-1974.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
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:
Textile designers -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Textile designers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Weavers -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Weavers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art consultants -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Dorothy Liebes papers, circa 1850-1973. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of the Dorothy Liebes papers was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Funding for the digitization of the collection was provided by the Coby Foundation.
The collection documents the relations between health care policy and practices and the lived experiences of older Black women living and aging with HIV in the Washington, DC region. It contains twelve oral history interviews, associated transcripts, portraits of the interviewees, and measures 1.36 GB. The interviews were conducted between 2018-2019 by Thurka Sangaramoorthy, PhD, MPH, as part of her Afterlives of AIDS oral history project. Portraits were taken by Aamir Khuller.
Biographical:
Thurka Sangaramoorthy is a cultural and medical anthropologist and public health researcher with 22 years of experience in conducting community-engaged ethnographic research, including rapid assessments, among vulnerable populations in the United States, Africa, and Latin America/Caribbean. Her work is broadly concerned with power and subjectivity in global economies of care. She has worked at this intersection on diverse topics, including global health and migration, HIV/STD, and environmental disparities. She is the author of two books: Rapid Ethnographic Assessments: A Practical Approach and Toolkit for Collaborative Community Research (Routledge, 2020) and Treating AIDS: Politics of Difference, Paradox of Prevention (Rutgers, 2014). Dr. Sangaramoorthy is Co-Chair of the American Anthropological Association's Members Programmatic Advisory and Advocacy Committee and a Board member of the Society for Medical Anthropology; she serves as Associate Editor of Public Health Reports and Editorial Board Member of American Anthropologist. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco in 2008, her MPH from Columbia University in 2002, and is currently Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maryland.
Historical:
The interviews and portraits in this collection are part of an ongoing project to document how HIV has shaped Black women's lives and how it has impacted their historical and contemporary roles within Black familial systems and broader communities. Furthermore, the life histories provide a window into the childhood, family, friendship, school, and work experiences of an overlooked group from the local and national discourse on the impact of HIV in American society.
The long-term aim of the project is to present holistic and complex stories of African American women who have long been ignored in the history of HIV and to elevate racial justice in HIV advocacy by educating the public on racial health disparities.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
Rights:
Afterlives of AIDS collection are the physical property of the Anacostia Community Museum. Literary and copyright belong to the author/creator or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, and to obtain permission to publish or reproduce, contact the Museum Archives.
The papers of sculptor, painter, jewelry designer, and teacher Claire Falkenstein measure 42.8 linear feet and date from 1917 to her death in 1997. There is extensive correspondence with fellow artists, collectors, critics, friends, museums, and galleries. The collection also contains biographical materials, much of it collected and organized by Falkenstein, personal and business records, writings, diaries, exhibition files, commission files, teaching files, photographs, original artwork, scrapbooks, and printed materials. There is a short motion picture film of an interview with Falkenstein featuring the windows she designed for St. Basil's Church in Los Angeles.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of sculptor, painter, jewelry designer, and teacher Claire Falkenstein measure 42.8 linear feet and date from 1917 to her death in 1997. There is extensive correspondence with fellow artists, collectors, critics, friends, museums, and galleries. The collection also contains biographical materials, much of it collected and organized by Falkenstein, personal and business records, writings, diaries, exhibition files, commission files, teaching files, photographs, original artwork, scrapbooks, and printed materials. There is a short motion picture film of an interview with Falkenstein featuring the windows she designed for St. Basil's Church in Los Angeles.
Biographical material includes appointment calendars, awards and honorary degrees, interview transcripts, passports, resumes, wills, and scrapbooks. Scrapbooks were compiled by Falkenstein and focus primarily on her exhibitions at the Galerie Stadler and Gallery Meyer in 1959 and 1960. Also of interest are the "biography files" created and arranged by Falkenstein. These files contain material that she personally felt was the most important in documenting her activities each year. They include correspondence, exhibition catalogs, printed material, and invitations.
Measuring nine linear feet, correspondence is extensive and comprehensively documents Falkenstein's work, social life, relationships, and other business and personal activities. Correspondence dates from 1941 to 1997 and includes business letters and correspondence with friends and family. Her communications with friends, family, clients, gallery owners, collectors, museums, publishers, foundations, and grant agencies reveal many of her ideas and techniques. Individual correspondents include Ray Green, Peggy Guggenheim, Katharine Kuh, May O'Donnell, Ken Sawyer, Clyfford and Pat Still, Michel Tapie, Allan Temko, Mark Tobey, and Frans Wildenhain. Gallery and museum correspondence is with the San Francisco Museum of Art, Coos Art Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Galerie Stadler (Paris), Gallery Mayer (Paris), Malvina Miller (New York), Martha Jackson Gallery (New York), Jack Rutberg Fine Arts (Los Angeles), Galerie Anderson-Mayer (Paris), and Bolles Gallery. Correspondence is also found in the Commission Files and Exhibition Files.
Personal and business records contain a wide variety of material documenting Falkenstein's business, financial, legal, professional, and personal transactions. Files are found for sales and prices, art inventories, smaller jewelry commissions, her work as a juror, her business with galleries, legal affairs and contracts, expenses, records of arts organizations to which she belonged, conferences, grants and fellowships, studio and house renovations, her Paris studio and Paris expenses, travel, donations, loans and consignments, conservation, art shipping, insurance, and taxes. Oversized visitor's logs contain comments from visitors to Falkenstein's studio in Venice, California.
Falkenstein maintained comprehensive documentation of her exhibitions from her first exhibition in the 1930s to the last one at the Merging One Gallery in 1996. Files include both a chronological record and individual record for nearly all of her exhibitions. Found with the files are correspondence, photographs, loan and shipping records, catalogs, announcements, clippings, articles, and other records. Most of the photographs related to exhibitions are found in the Photographs Series. The files for exhibitions at the Fresno Art Museum, Martha Jackson Gallery and Jack Rutberg Fine Art Gallery are particularly rich.
Commission files document nearly all of Falkenstein's public and private large-scale projects and often contain a visual record of the work, as well as correspondence, design notes, contracts, and expense reports. There is documentation of the St. Basils Church windows in Los Angeles; the Peggy Guggenheim gate in Venice, Italy; and the fountain at the California Savings and Loan, in Los Angeles; and many others. There is also a chronological record of her commissions. The bulk of the photographs of commissions are found in the Photograph series. Also, most of Falkenstein's jewelry design commissions are found in the Personal and Business Records series.
Falkenstein's work as a prolific writer, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, is well-documented here through her numerous published articles in Arts and Architecture magazine, and the New York Herald-Tribune. Her work for Arts and Architecture was primarily written for the "Art Comments from San Francisco" section. She was living in Paris when she contributed an art news column to the New York Herald-Tribune. Also found here are five diaries and one journal dating from circa 1929-1978. The entries are inconsistent and concern mostly travel. The diaries from 1929 and 1934 are more personal. Falkenstein also maintained extensive notes and notebooks about artwork ideas, observations about art, research, and even drafts of letters. There are also many notes about various topics, including art and class notes. Additional writings are eclectic and cover a wide range of topics, including music, poetry, the script for Falkestein's film entitled Touching the Quick, and drafts of her unpublished book on murals. A handful of writings by others are found, most with annotations by Falkenstein.
Teaching files include Falkenstein's numerous lectures given while teaching at Mills College, Pond Farm Workshops, and California School of Fine Arts, and various symposiums and conferences. Also found are lesson plans, contracts, scattered correspondence, and notes. The files on her tenure at the Pond Farm Workshops are particularly interesting, with notes about her fellow teacher Frans Wildenhain and correspondence with workshop owners, Jane and Gordon Herr.
There are extensive photographs of Falkenstein, her family and friends, colleagues, commissions, exhibitions, and works of art. Included are many images of Falkenstein, of Falkenstien with her art, of Falkentstien working, and of Falkenstein's studio. There are numerous photographs of Falkenstein with friends, family, and colleagues in social or work settings. Also found are photographs of exhibition openings, installation views, and works of art exhibited. Additional photographs document Falkenstein's commissions, including images of her at work. Additional images of commissions may also be found in the Commission Series, but the bulk are filed here. There are numerous photographs of Falkenstein's works of art, including drawings, sculpture, jewelry, murals, lamps, and ceramics.
Falkenstein's papers include a large amount of sketches, sketchbooks, and drawings. Many of the sketches and drawings relate to her ideas about commissions and large sculpture, jewelry designs, and general sketches. Sketches are also found in the Commission Files. Also included are drawings by Mark Tobey and Michel Tapie, and others.
Finally, printed materials include general exhibition catalogs, newspapers clippings, and clippings of articles by and about Falkenstein. Also included are books that have been inscribed and signed by the author.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 9 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1934-1997 (Box 1-4, 41; 4.3 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1931-1997 (Box 5-13; 9 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal and Business Records, 1936-1997 (Box 14-17, 41, 46-49; 4.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Exhibitions, 1930-1996 (Box 18-21, 42, OV 50; 3.3 linear feet)
Series 5. Commissions, 1930-1992 (Box 21-22, OV 50-54 ; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 6: Writings, circa 1929-1993 (Box 22-26, 42, 55; 4.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Teaching Files, 1929-1995 (Box 26; .8 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1917-1997 (Box 27-35, 43, 55-56; 9.5 linear feet)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1937-1995 (Box 36-37, 44, 57; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 10: Printed Materials, circa 1914-1990 (Box 37-40, 45, 58; 3.9 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997) spent the majority of her life working as an artist, sculptor, jewelry designer, teacher, and writer in California.
Claire Falkenstein was born in 1908 and grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon. In 1920, Falkenstein and her family moved to Berkeley, California, where she attended high school and then college at the University of California at Berkeley, studying philosophy, anthropology, and art. She graduated in 1930. Falkenstein had her first solo show at the East-West Gallery in San Francisco in 1930, the only member of her class to have an exhibition before graduation.
During the early 1930s, Falkenstein studied at Mills College with modernist sculptor Alexander Archipenko. There she also met Bauhaus artists Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes. Falkenstein married her high school sweetheart, Richard McCarthy in 1936.
In 1944, Falkenstein had her first New York exhibition at the Bonestall Gallery. At that time, Falkenstein's primary mediums were stone and wood. However, she became increasingly experimental with new materials that included sheet aluminum, Cor-Ten steel, glass, plastics, and welded wire rods while maintaining a connection to organic and natural forms. Her work in jewelry design was an outlet for exploring these new materials, forms, and techniques on a small scale. As her work grew physically larger, so did her recognition and it was her work in sculpture that won her a faculty appointment at the California School of Fine Arts from 1947-1949. It was here that she met Patricia and Clyfford Still, Hassel Smith, and Richard Diebenkorn.
In 1948, Falkenstein was invited to exhibit at the Salon des Realites Nouvelle in Paris, her first European show. She eventually moved to Europe in 1950 and had studios in Paris, Venice, and Rome. While in Europe, Falkenstein executed a number of large scale commissions, including the stair screen for Galerie Stadler (1955), grotto gates for Princess Pignatelli's villa in Rome (1957), and the bronze, steel, and the glass gate at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice (1961). While in Paris, she became acquainted with noted art critic Michel Tapie, with whom she maintained a life-long friendship.
During the 1940s and 1950s Falkenstein was a regular contributor to Arts and Architecture magazine, most often writing the "Art Comments from San Francisco" section. While in Paris, she also wrote a column on art news for the New York Herald Tribune.
Falkenstein returned to the United States in 1962, eventually renovating a studio space in Venice, California. It was here that she conceived her largest commissions. In 1965, Falkenstein received a commission from the California Savings and Loan to create a sculpture for a large fountain at the front of the bank in downtown Los Angeles. The copper tube fountain, entitled "Structure and Flow #2," was the first of many large scale public art commissions that Falkenstein completed during her years in California. Her most important commission in the United States, completed in 1969, was for the doors, rectory gates and grills and stained-glass windows for St. Basil's Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The eight doors and fifteen rectory screens, including 80 foot high windows in the nave, were an expansion of the "never ending screen" concept that Falkenstein executed with the Pignatelli commission in Rome. She continued to use this motif in her work throughout her career.
Claire Falkenstein worked as an arts instructor, visiting artist, and guest lecturer at many colleges, workshops, and schools in California. Her first position was at Mills College from 1946-1947. Shortly thereafter, she was appointed to the faculty at the California School of Fine Arts and later taught in the Extension Divisions of the University of California, Berkeley. She taught classes at California State Polytechnic University, California State University at Davis, and the Anna Head School. Falkenstein also taught art at the Pond Farm Workshops in California, and lectured at numerous colleges and museums. She served on many juried art shows in Southern California.
Falkenstein was acquainted with many artists, writers, instructors, collectors, gallery owners, and critics. Close friends included Esther and Bob Robles, Clyfford and Patricia Still, Michel Tapie, Allan Temko, Mark Tobey, Frans Wildenhain, and other notable figures in the art world.
Falkenstein continued to complete large scale private and public commissioned sculptures during the 1960s through the 1980s, including work for the University of Southern California, Hyland Biological Laboratory, California State University at Dominquez Hills and the California State Department of Motor Vehicles. Throughout her career, Falkenstein's work was featured in numerous exhibitions across the country. Her sculpture and other artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Coos Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museum, University of Southern California Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Tate Gallery.
Falkenstein died in 1997 at the age of 89.
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds two oral history interviews with Claire Falkenstein. The interview on April 13, 1965 was conducted by Betty Hoag and the one on March 2 and 21, 1995 was conducted by Paul Karlstrom.
Provenance:
The Claire Falkenstein papers were donated in 1997 by Steffan Wacholtz and Nancy Kendall, trustees for the Claire Falkenstein Trust.
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.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Lia Cook, 2006 August 22-29. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Cornwall (England : County) -- Description and travel
Europe -- description and travel
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Moira Roth, 2011 April 22-24. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and nine scrapbooks.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and scrapbooks.
Correspondence is with colleagues, artists, museums, and galleries concerning a wide variety of topics, including exhibitions and publications. The bulk of the correspondence consists of alphabetical files (two linear feet) that includes correspondence with artists. Notable correspondents include Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Gordon Onslow Ford, Alberto Giacometti, Morris Graves, Philip Guston, Dimitri Hadzi, Jacques Lipchitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Jean Tinguely, and others. Eight additional files of chronological correspondence is with curators, arts organizations, and publishers. Additional correspondence is found in the professional files, project files, membership files, artists' research files, and exhibition files.
The bulk of the writings series is comprised of files related to Selz's books and includes typescript drafts and galleys, printed and digital material, correspondence, and publishing contracts. Files are found for Art in Our Times, Art of Engagement, Beyond the Mainstream, and Theories of Modern Art. Other writings consist of drafts of articles, essays, notes, and lectures by Selz. Also included are writings by others, including materials related to Paul Karlstrom's biography of Selz.
Professional files document curatorial and teaching positions at the Chicago Institute of Design, Pomona College, University of California, Berkeley, and the Museum of Modern Art. The series includes contracts, recommendations, syllabi, and correspondence.
Project files document Selz's professional work on specific art projects, panels, and symposiums. There is extensive documentation of Selz's work as project director of Christo's Running Fence, as well as other environmental art work projects by Christo, the Berkeley Art Project, Disney Art Project, "Funk Art" symposium, and the "Art and Politics in the 20th Century" symposium. Project files contain a wide variety of materials, such as correspondence, printed material, financial records, reports, photographs, and other documents. There are 2 tape reels, 1 VHS, and 1 sound cassette.
Membership and association records document Selz's involvement with or membership in various art councils, trustee boards, such as the College Art Association, Art in Chicago Advisory Committee, Bay Area Rapid Transit (B.A.R.T.) Art Council, and the San Francisco Crafts and Folk Art Museum Advisory Board, among others. Materials include meeting minutes, bulletins, correspondence, and memoranda.
Artists' Research Files consist of a wide variety of research materials Selz compiled about artists for lectures, writings, projects, exhibitions, etc. Files vary and may include original and photocopied correspondence, photographic material, resumes, printed and digital material, and writings. There is also 1 sound cassette. Files are found for Bedri Baykam, Max Beckmann, Fletcher Benton, Ciel Bergman, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Bruce Conner, Jean Dubuffet, Lyonel Feininger, Leon Golub, Dimitri Hadzi, Rico Lebrun, Harold Paris, Irving Petlin, among many others.
Exhibition files include catalogs, reviews, clippings, writings, correspondence, and other material documenting exhibitions organized by Selz. Limited materials are found for the MOMA Art Nouveau exhibition. More extensive documentation is found for Seven Decades of Modern Art, 1895-1965, The Joint Show (1967), The American Presidency in Political Cartoons (1976), American Modern Art Between the Two World Wars (1979), German Realism in the Twenties: Artist As Social Critic (1980), Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (1989), a Richard Lindner Retrospective (1996), Spaces of Nature (1999), Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000 (2000), and a Nathan Oliviera Retrospective (2002), among others. Some of the materials are in digital format.
Personal business records are related to the Mark Rothko estate and Kate Rothko's legal case against Marlborough Gallery, Inc. Also included in this series are Peter Selz's school transcripts, bequests, royalty statements, house designs, and other material.
Printed materials include clippings, prints of articles written by Peter Selz, exhibition announcements and invitations, and photocopies of artwork images.
There are nine disbound scrapbooks dating from the 1940s up through 2012 containing clippings, exhibition announcements, and photographs of art events, Selz, and artists. This series also includes materials from the 2018 addition that may have previously been compiled in binders.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 10 series. When possible the original order of Peter Selz was maintained. However, multiple accessions were merged and integrated.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1942-2013 (2.3 linear feet; Box 1-3, Box 37)
Series 2: Writings, 1942- circa 2014 (8.3 linear feet; Box 3-10, OV 32, Box 37, 0.035 GB; ER01, ER12)
Series 3: Professional Files, 1949-2012 (1 linear feet; Box 11, Box 37)
Series 4: Project Files, 1962-2015 (2.8 linear feet; Box 12-14, OV 33, Box 37)
Series 5: Membership and Association Records, 1958-2014 (1.1 linear feet; Box 14-15, Box 37)
Series 6: Artists' Research Files, 1955-2014 (7.9 linear feet; Box 15-22, OV 34-35, 0.520 GB; ER02-ER08)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1959-2014 (5.2 linear feet; Box 23-27, Box 38, 0.093 GB; ER09-ER11)
Series 8: Personal Business Records, 1929-2014 (1.2 linear feet; Box 28-29, OV 36, Box 38)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1957-2014 (0.3 linear feet; Box 29, Box 38)
Series 10: Scrapbooks, 1947-2018 (1.4 linear feet, Box 29-31, Box 38)
Biographical / Historical:
Peter Howard Selz (1919-2019) was a pioneering historian of modern art, professor, and writer who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-1988 and founded and directed the Berkeley Art Museum from 1965-1973.
Selz was born in 1919 in Munich, Germany to Eugene Selz and Edith Drey Selz. In 1936, the family fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States. Selz attended Columbia University from 1937 to 1938 and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. During World War II, Selz served in the U.S. Army in the Office of Strategic Services. He married writer Thalia Cheronis in 1948 but they later divorced in 1965; he married several times afterwards.
After the war, Selz attended and taught at the University of Chicago where he received a Ph. D. in German Expressionism. He spent a year in Paris, 1949-1950, at the Sorbonne and École du Louvre on a Fulbright grant. He received a second Fulbright grant in 1953 to study at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Belgium. From 1953-1955, Selz also taught at the Chicago Institute of Design.
In 1955 Peter Selz accepted a position to chair the art history department at Pomona College in Claremont and relocated to California for a few years. He also became director of the college's art gallery.
In 1958 Selz moved to New York City to become curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and was there through the transformative mid-1960s. While at MOMA, he organized several significant exhibitions of modern art, including the 1960 Jean Tinguely "Homage to New York," a sculpture that destroyed itself (and started a fire) in the sculpture garden of the museum; New Images of Man (1959), the Art Nouveau show (1960), and the Art of Assemblage (1961). He also launched important retrospectives, including the first Rodin retrospective in the United States and a comprehensive exhibition of Alberto Giacometti's work in 1965.
In 1965, Peter Selz returned to California to become the founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he held until 1973. He organized exhibitions of Funk, film, and ceramicists like Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson. Peter Selz later became project director for Christo's "Running Fence", the 24.5-mile long fabric fence over the Marin County hills in 1976. He also served concurrently as a professor of art history at UC until retiring in 1988.
Peter Selz was a member of the College Art Association's board of directors for two terms, 1958-1964 and 1966-1971. Selz is a prolific writer, and the author or co-author of numerous books, exhibition catalogs, and articles. Notable books include German Expressionist Painting (1957), Art in a Turbulent Era (1965), Art in Our Times (1981), and Sam Francis (1975).
In 1988 Peter Selz was named emeritus professor at University of California, Berkeley. In 1993 he was on the acquisitions committee of the Museums of Fine Arts, San Francisco. In 2012, Selz curated The Painted Word exhibition. Selz died in 2019 in Albany, California.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds oral history interviews of Peter Selz conducted by Paul J. Karlstrom on July 28, 1982, October 12, 1982, and November 3, 1999.
Provenance:
The Peter Howard Selz papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Peter Selz in multiple installments from 1976 through 2014. Additional papers were donated in 2018 by Gabrielle Selz, Peter Selz's daughter.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Peter Howard Selz papers, 1929-2018, bulk 1950-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the 2014 processing of this collection was provided by the Frederick Hammersley Foundation. Funding for the processing of the 2018 addition was provided by Gerald and Bente Buck.
Terence "Terry" Sheldon Turner (1935-2015) was best known for his ethnographic work among the Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) people of the Amazon rainforest and his work as an activist for the Mebêngôkre and other communities. This collection documents his interest in the Mebêngôkre and his work as a human rights activist. It includes field notes, censuses, papers, notes, correspondence, news clippings, sound recordings, films, photographs, charts and diagrams, genealogy and kinship information, and computer discs.
Scope and Contents:
The Terence Turner papers contain materials related to his work as an anthropologist and human rights activist. Turner's primary focus of research was the Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) people of the Amazon rainforest. The collection contains field notes, censuses, papers and draft manuscripts, correspondence, notes, news clippings, sound recordings, films, photographs, charts and diagrams, genealogy and kinship information, and computer discs relating to that interest. His work in human rights is also well documented; the collection contains notes, papers, correspondence, and news clippings. A significant amount of the human rights material relates to the Yanomami controversy which arose when Turner and Leslie Sponsel sent the American Anthropological Association a memo warning of the furor that was likely to result from the publication of the book Darkness in El Dorado by Patrick Tierney. The human rights materials in the collection also include materials relating to the Mebêngôkre and their environmental protection protests and demonstrations. The film and video primarily relate to the Granada Television films for which he consulted and the films produced by the Kayapo with the help of the Kayapo Video Project. There are some materials relating to courses which he taught or took.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 7 series: (1) Research, 1952-2015; (2) Human rights, ethics, and activism, circa 1964-2015; (3) Papers, conferences, and courses, 1959-2013; (4) Correspondence and contacts, 1966-2008; (5) Computer files, 1983-2010; (6) Photographs, 1938-1942, 1952, 1962-2014; (7) Sound recordings, 1962, 1976-2003; and (8) Film and video, 1975-2008
Biographical Note:
Terence "Terry" Sheldon Turner (1935-2015) was best known for his ethnographic work with the Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) people of the Amazon rainforest and his work as an activist for the Mebêngôkre and other communities. He was born in Philadelphia and raised outside of Washington, DC. He earned his A.B. from Harvard University (1957) and M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley (1959), in Modern European History. His interest in how society functions brought him to the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University for his Ph.D. (1965), where his studies turned to Social Anthropology. His interests were still in Europe, but his advisor, David Maybury-Lewis, persuaded him to study the Mebêngôkre in Brazil (Moberg). Despite his initial intentions, Turner developed a lasting relationship with the Mebêngôkre, who gave him the name Wakampu. He worked with the community for more than 50 years, visiting them over 20 times.
Turner and his then wife, Joan Bamberger, lived with the Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) from 1962 to 1964 while conducting research for their dissertations. His initial studies were on socio-cultural change, social organization, political systems, dual organization, a comparison to other Gê tribes, and mythology. Joan studied Mebêngôkre material culture, as it related to both function and significance. Turner's interest in mythology and the ties between the structure and motifs of myths to social structure led him to spend a year (1966-1967) at the University of Paris where Claude Lévi-Strauss was working on a project involving comparisons of mythology and social structure of different Central Brazilian indigenous groups.
Turner taught at Cornell University from 1966 to 1968, at the University of Chicago from 1968 to 1999, and then returned to Cornell from 1999 to 2015 where his wife, Jane Fajans, was also a professor. While teaching at the University of Chicago, Turner developed an interest in Karl Marx and the applications of his theories to anthropology (Moberg). He stated in a Guggenheim grant application that "Another main line of theoretical effort has been my attempt to generalize Marx's concept of value to account for the forms of social value generated in such forms of 'social production', in particular those of the Kayapo and other primitive, classless societies" (Terence Turner papers). In an interview for an article in the Chicago Reader, he said that "The Kayapo didn't have an economic sphere. They didn't have commodity production. Production for them in an immediate sense is production of their lives, and of course then you realize–wow!–this is a society for which the complete human being through all stages of life, right up to death, is the supreme product. It's the most complex and demanding product, and the social order is the whole process of producing that product" (Moberg). His interest in Marx led him to study Piaget, Vygotsky, Leont'ev, and Zinchenko, who "provided analytically principled ways of connecting material activity with forms of consciousness" (Terence Turner papers).
Turner was interested in visual anthropology. He assisted in the production of three British documentaries on the Mebêngôkre people: the BBC's Face Values in 1976 and Granada Television's Disappearing World series episodes "The Kayapo" and "The Kayapo: Out of the Forest" in 1987 and 1989. He also assisted the Mebêngôkre in documenting their own culture. The Mebêngôkre had obtained video cameras in 1985 and Turner encouraged them to obtain more cameras from the Granada crew in return for access to the community in 1987 (Harms). In 1990, he created the Kayapo Video Project, which funded the purchase of cameras, education for the Mebêngôkre filmmakers in filming and editing, and preserving the original footage at the Kayapo Video Archive/Arquivo de Video Kaiapo at the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista. Turner stated in a 1996 request for funding that the purpose of the project was "to generate an extensive archive of videos about all aspects of Kayapo culture and ecological knowledge, and simultaneously build up a cadre of well-trained video camerapersons and video-editors capable of continuing video-making and using activities into the future. The videos will be produced (both shot and edited) by the Kayapo themselves. They will form the backbone of a larger project of Kayapo cultural preservation, provide visual tests for use in a projected Kayapo educational program, and also generate a unique audio-visual record of the ecological knowledge and technology of a major Amazonian culture" (Terence Turner papers).
Turner was also very involved in human rights work and activism for indigenous communities. He felt it was the responsibility of anthropologists to defend the rights of the people whom they studied. He was involved in "anthropological activism," assisting the Mebêngôkre and others in their fight to protect their rights and environment. This interest began when Turner investigated the movement of miners, loggers, and poachers onto Mebêngôkre lands for FUNAI (the Fundação Nacional do Índio) (Harms). There were widespread protests against these incursions by the Mebêngôkre beginning in the early 1970s, which resulted in the Mebêngôkre gaining land rights. Despite this success, conflicts between the Mebêngôkre and Brazilian nationals, as well as within the Mebêngôkre community, continued. Turner both observed and participated in many of these protests and documented the ways in which these actions affected Mebêngôkre society and culture. Two of the most important protests concerned the planned construction of a series of hydroelectric dams on the Xingú River. The first protest, at Altamira in 1989, successfully derailed the project. The success of this protest brought international attention to the Mebêngôkre, who sent representatives to Canada in 1992 to support the Cree, who were protesting the construction of a hydroelectric dam there. The Brazilian government redesigned their original plans for the series of dams on the Xingú River; when these plans were leaked in 2008, another protest ensued. Turner and his daughter, Vanessa, documented this protest.
Turner's commitment to human rights led to him becoming a founding member of the American Anthropological Association's Ethics Committee (1969-1972) and Committee for Human Rights (1992-1997), serving as president of Survival International, U.S.A., heading the Special Commission of the American Anthropological Association to Investigate the Situation of the Brazilian Yanomami (1990-1991), and receiving the Solon T. Kimball Award from the American Anthropological Association in 1998.
Sources Cited
American Anthropological Association. "AAA Mourns the Loss of Dr. Terence Turner." Accessed June 22, 2022. https://www.americananthro.org/StayInformed/NewsDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=13188
Glaser, Linda B. "Anthropologist Terence Turner dies at 79." Cornell Chronicle, November 11, 2015.
Harms, William. "Terence Turner, anthropologist and human rights advocate for indigenous people, 1935-2015." UChicago News, November 17, 2015.
Moberg, David. "When Worlds Collide: Encounters with Anthropologist Terence Turner and other agents of modernity left the Kayapo of Brazil with something they'd never had before: power." Chicago Reader, October 2, 1997.
Survival International. "Terry Turner." Accessed June 22, 2022. https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10992
Terence Turner papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
1935 December 30 -- Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1957 -- A.B. from Harvard College in Modern European History, graduating cum Laude
1959 -- M.A. from the University of California, Berkley, in Modern European History
1961 -- Married Joan Bamberger on August 25
1962 -- Began work with Mebêngôkre (Kayapó)
1965 -- Ph.D. from Harvard University's Department of Social Relations in Social Anthropology Research associate at the Museo Nacional do Brasil
1966-1968 -- Visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Cornell University
1968-1982 -- Assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago
1969-1972 -- Member of the American Anthropological Association's Ethics Committee
1976 -- Advisor for the filming of Face Values with the BBC
1980 -- Married Jane Fajans on July 25
1981 -- Daughter Vanessa Fajans-Turner born on September 26
1982-1999 -- Professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago.
1984 -- Daughter Allison Fajans-Turner born on June 15
1987 -- Advisor for the filming of Disappearing World: The Kayapo with Granada Films
1989 -- Advisor for the filming of Disappearing World: The Kayapo: Out of the Forest with Granada Films
1990-1991 -- Chair of the American Anthropological Association's Special Commission to Investigate the Situation of the Brazilian Yanomami
1992-1997 -- Member of the American Anthropological Association's Committee for Human Rights
1998 -- Received Solon T. Kimball Award from the American Anthropological Association
1999-2004 -- Adjunct professor of anthropology at Cornell University.
2004-2015 -- Visiting professor of anthropology at Cornell University.
2015 November 7 -- Died in Ithaca, New York.
Orthography:
The archivist uses Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) or Mebêngôkre to refer to the Mebêngôkre people. However, Turner and other anthropologists whose work is included in the collection used other spelling variations (Mẽbêngôkre, Mebengokre, Megengokré, Kayapó, Kayapo, Kaiapó, Kaiapo, Cayapó, Cayapo, and Caiapo) which have not be altered in folder titles or descriptions.
The archivist uses Yanomami to refer to the Yanomami (Yanoama) people. Some folder titles or contents may use the Yanomamö spelling.
Related Materials:
Materials related to the Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) in the National Anthropological Archives (NAA) can also be found in the William Lipkind papers and Photo Lot 79-1. Materials related to the Yanomami in the NAA can also be found in the Timothy Asch papers, the American Anthropological Association records, and Photo Lot 94-28. Materials related to the Yanomami in the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) can be found in the Timothy Asch and Napoleon Chagnon films of the Yanomamo.
Provenance:
The Terence Turner papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Turner's wife, Jane Fajans, in 2020.
Restrictions:
Audiovisual and digital materials are restricted. Please contact the archives for information on the availability of access copies.
Graded papers are restricted for 80 years from the date of their creation and grant applications are restricted for 30 years from the date of their creation. These restrictions are noted on the folder level.
Access to the Terence Turner papers requires and appointment.
The papers of art historian, collector, educator, and museum administrator John Davis Hatch measure 24.9 linear feet and date from 1790-1995. Within the papers are biographical materials; correspondence; personal business and legal documents; diaries; research, organization, and teaching files; writings; printed materials; photographs; and works of art (mostly sketches) by American artists. Research files regarding artists and specific subjects comprise the bulk of this collection.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of art historian, collector, educator, and museum administrator John Davis Hatch measure 24.9 linear feet and date from 1790-1995. Within the papers are biographical materials; correspondence; personal business and legal documents; diaries; research, organization and teaching files; writings; printed materials; photographs; and works of art (mostly sketches) by American artists. Research files regarding artists and specific subjects comprise the bulk of this collection.
Scattered biographical materials include an invitation to the Hatch's anniversary party in 1964, short biographical sketches and resumes, certificates, report cards, a silhouette of the Hatch Family circa 1904, and a typecript of a diary written by Olivia Hatch as a child.
Correspondence includes professional correspondence between Hatch and colleagues; letters from family and friends; and some materials regarding exhibitions from the Hatch Collection. The bulk of correspondence spans Hatch's professional career although there are scattered letters from 1915-1943 from Hatch to his parents. Also found are letters addressed to an unidentified "Henry." Correspondence is also found in the research files.
Personal business and financial records consist of inventories, bills, receipts, and other records for artworks purchased, loaned, or donated by Hatch. Also found are records from the J. D. Hatch Associates Cultural Consultants, a draft of Hatch's will, stock and tax materials, and travel papers and passports.
Scattered diaries and journal fragments and a transcript date from 1925-1965. Thirteen "Daily Reflection Journals" date from 1975-1987.
Research files on artists and subjects are extensive, comprising one-half of the collection. Files are varied and may include primary research materials, correspondence, printed materials, notes, and writings. Some of the artists' letters and other materials dated from 1790-early 1800s may have been purchased by Hatch. Among many other items, there is an illustrated letter written by Oscar Bluemner and photographs of Bluemner; primary research materials dating from the early 1800s on John Vanderlyn including a will, receipts, and correspondence; a letter from Rembrandt Peale dated 1830, and an autograph letter from John Trumbull dated 1790. Also found is an index card file.
Organization files contain files and records related to Hatch's affiliations with many cultural organizations. A small amount of teaching and education files consist of Hatch's notes and lectures from the University of Oregon and the University of Massachusetts, and from his continuing education courses he took at St. John's College. Writings and notes include short essays by Hatch, mostly concerning art, exhibitions and museum administration; book reviews; general notes, lists, and reports.
Printed Materials are comprised of exhibition catalogs and announcements, including those from the American Drawing Annual in the 1940s-1950s; printed articles annotated by Hatch; clippings; pricelists; and published works.
A small number of photographs are of Hatch, some by Dorothy Frazer; of his family and friends; and of artists. The bulk of the photographs are of works of art including those owned by Hatch.
Artwork includes two sketchbooks - one by Kenneth Callahan and another by Lloyd McNeill; and additional drawings and sketches by Julian Scott, Henry Kirke Browne, Kenneth Callahan, Ezra Clark, John Cranch, Jasper Francis Crospey, F. O. C. Darley, C. H. Granger, Seymour J. Guy, George Harvey, Edward Lamson Henry, Henry Inman, as well as unsigned or illegible names.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Information, circa 1900-1980s (Box 1; 8 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1903-1990s (Box 1-3; 2 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Business and Legal Records, Date (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Diaries and Journals, 1925-1987 (Box 3, 23; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Research Files, 1790-1992 (Box 3-13, 20-21, 24; 12.7 linear feet)
Series 6: Organization Files, 1930s-1990s (Box 13-14; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 7: Teaching and Education Files, 1930s-1993 (Box 14-15; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 8: Writings and Notes, 1936-1990s (Box 15; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1870s-1990s (Box 15-19, 22, 25-26, OV1; 5.9 linear feet)
Series 10: Photographs, circa 1900-1990s (Box 22; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 11: Artwork, 1851-1973 (Box 22; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Art historian, collector, educator, and museum administrator John Davis Hatch (1907-1996) worked in the Boston and New England area, as well as the Pacific Northwest, and New York state. Hatch served as director of the Art Institute of Seattle, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Albany Institute of Art and History, and the Norfolk Museum of Art and Sciences.
John Davis Hatch was born in San Francisco, California in 1907. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were architects and Hatch studied landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as an apprentice to Lockwood de Forest. After abandoning landscape architecture, he accepted a position as director of the Seattle Fine Arts Society (1928-1931) at the age of twenty-one and taught art history courses at the University of Washington.
In 1932, Hatch accepted the position of assistant director of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. He also directed the federal Public Works of Art Project in New England. Additionally, Hatch served from 1940-1948 as director of the Albany Institute of Art and History and from 1950-1959 of the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. Hatch worked as an art advisor for exhibitions at five historically African-American colleges in Atlanta and in San Simeon in California. He founded the American Drawing Annual exhibition.
Hatch conducted extensive research on artists Oscar Bluemner and John Vanderlyn, American silverwork, and American drawing. In addition, Hatch collected American drawings and later donated many of works of art from his personal collection to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Aside from his early teaching in Washington state, Hatch taught at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Oregon. He was a member of numerous professional arts-related organizations.
In 1939, Hatch married Olivia Stokes with whom he had four children: Sarah, John, Daniel and James. He died in 1996.
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art holds two oral history interviews with John Davis Hatch: June 8, 1964 conducted by H. Wade White and 1979-1980 conducted by Robert F. Brown. Also found is a separately cataloged photograph of Hatch and Henry Francis Taylor from 1933.
Additional research materials complied by Hatch are located in the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the library of the National Gallery of Art, and the Senate House, Kingston, New York.
Hatch donated two hundred and seventy American drawings to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Separated Material:
Four books annotated by Bluemner, a letter from Bluemner, a letter from A. Stieglitz to Bluemner, photographs of works of art, and exhibition materials were removed from the papers and merged with the Oscar Bluemner papers at the Archives of American Art.
Provenance:
John Davis Hatch and the John Davis Hatch estate donated his papers to the Archives of American Art in several installments between 1960-1996. Many of the primary materials relating to John Vanderlyn were acquired by Hatch from a photographer in Kingston, New York, who received them from a niece of Vanderlyn. Robert Graham of James Graham and Sons gave Vanderlyn's will to Hatch.
Restrictions:
Use of originals 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.
51 Linear feet (115 document boxes, 2 card file boxes, 1 5x6x2.5" box, and 1 record storage box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1893-1994
bulk 1930-1993
Scope and Contents:
While these papers primarily consist of Waldo's archeological work in the field and his many publications, the collection also contains Mildred's correspondence and manuscripts, most of which concern her ethnohistorical and archeological work, conferences in which she participated, and her publications, particularly those on La Harpe. Most of the material dates between 1930 and 1990.
A useful way to consider these materials is to conceptualize them as a continuum from project proposals to funding, into fieldwork materials, and ultimately toward manuscripts and publications. These texts generate reputations in academic and museum circles, in this case, drawing Waldo into various organizations and conferences throughout his career. As he rose through the ranks of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian, his responsibilities and visibility within the museum also increased. This gradual transformation is reflected in the correspondence, organizational and administrative, and research and field work series. Because these and other facets of Waldo's career both constantly and consistently interfaced, the boundaries between the various series and types of materials contained in this collection are highly permeable. This should be kept in mind when reviewing them.
Among Waldo's correspondence are letters from A.T. Hill, F.M. Setzler, and W.D. Strong. The Organizational and Administrative Material contains material from the Department of Anthropology, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the River Basin Survey, and Tulumniu research. Also included is material from the 5th through the 44th Plains conferences, as well as material from Society for American Archaeology meetings and seminars. Writings include both published and unpublished works. The published works are mainly those by Waldo, however, there are several publications from Mildred. Many of the publications are articles from journals, such as the American Anthropologist and American Antiquity. Drafts and writing notes of both Waldo and Mildred make up the bulk of the writings series. The Research and Fieldwork Materials contains papers relating to Waldo's fieldwork on the River Basin Surveys, as well as his work in Kansas, Missouri and Michigan. In addition, there is material relating to his expert testimony in claims cases brought by the Missouri and Oto, Pawnee, and Kansa Indians (which also involved Mildred) during the 1940s and 1950s. The series of Photographs consists of lantern slides, prints, and negatives. There are extensive photographs of Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, including field sites, artifacts, bones and landscape. The Personal series contains a miscellany of Waldo's materials, such as his business card and materials from his days as a study at UC Berkeley. Finally, there are several drawers of site maps, topographic maps, aeronautical maps and county maps of Kansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Missouri.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The papers of Waldo Wedel and Mildred Wedel are organized into the following series: Correspondence; Organizational and Administrative Material; Writings; Research and Fieldwork Materials; Personal; Photographs; Printing Blocks; and Maps.
Biographical Note:
Waldo R. Wedel was born in Newton, Kansas in 1908. He grew up in and around Newton with Emil Haury. He graduated from Bethel Academy in 1928 and earned his B.A. at the University of Arizona in 1930. It was at Arizona that Waldo began his development as a field archeologist, working under Dean Cummings and Haury. He continued his education at University of Nebraska, where he was a student of William Duncan Strong, who trained him in Plains archeology and introduced him to the direct historical approach. Through an apprenticeship under Strong, Waldo conducted fieldwork in Signal Butte, Loup River Valley, and in eastern Nebraska during 1930-1933. After earning his M.A. in 1931, he enrolled in the doctoral program at University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D., 1936). During his education at Berkeley, although his chief mentor was Alfred Kroeber, he was strongly influenced by the ecological ideas of geographer Carl Sauer. In the late 1930's, Wedel began to concentrate on a survey of his native Kansas, a region little known archeologically. The Kansas survey began during the field seasons of 1937 and 1938. 1n 1938, he also excavated at a Hopewell site in Platte County, Missouri. In the summer of 1946, Wedel was detailed to establish and direct the Missouri Basin Project (MBP) of the Bureau of American Ethnology's River Basin Surveys (RBS). He continued as the MBP director until 1950 and was detailed each summer to the MBP headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also worked at sites in South Dakota, Colorado, and the Texas Panhandle from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Except for early work for the Nebraska Historical Society and Gila Pueblo Foundation, Waldo's institutional affiliation was with the Smithsonian Institution. In 1936, he was appointed assistant curator under Neil M. Judd in the Division of Archeology, Department of Anthropology of the United States National Museum (USNM). He was made associate curator in 1942. During World War II, he was detailed for a brief period to the Military Planning Division of the Quartermaster Corps, charged with analysis of captured foreign material. In 1950, he was named curator of archeology at the USNM. In 1962, he became head curator of the Department of Anthropology, and in 1964-1965, he was acting head of the newly organized Smithsonian Office of Anthropology. He became Senior Archeologist in 1965. In 1977, he retired from what had become the Department of Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History and became curator emeritus. He continued activity with the department until 1990 when he moved to Boulder, Colorado. He died in 1996.
Mildred Mott was born in Marengo, Iowa on September 7, 1912. She was trained in history at the University of Iowa (A.B. 1934) and in anthropology with an emphasis on archeology at the University of Chicago (M.A., 1938). She also attended University of New Mexico Jemez Field School in the summer of 1933. She conducted fieldwork under Ellison Orr at Hill Mound Group (13AM105) and Brazell's Island Bear Effigy Mound (13AM81) in Allamakee County in 1936. In the following year, she worked at the Kincaid site in Illinois. She also assisted Florence Hawley in the University of Chicago Dendrochronology Laboratory (1937-38). In 1938, she served as field director for Charles Keyes' archaeological excavation near Webster City, Iowa.
In 1939, Mildred married Waldo Wedel and afterwards accompanied him on many trips to the field. In addition, she pursued an interest in ethnohistory that she developed in school. In particular, she worked on the ethnohistory of regions where her husband was working, often taking advantage of field seasons to retrace routes of early European explorers. Thus, she carried out intensive work on French explorations in the Plains areas (particularly Jean-Baptiste Bénard, Sieur de la Harpe; Pierre-Charles Le Sueur; Claude-Charles Dutisne; and Jean-Baptiste Teuteau). She also published on Plains Caddoan origins and on the Iowa and the Wichita. In 1978-1979, under contract with the Corps of Engineers, she studied the ethnohistory of a Wichita village and French post at the Deer Creek site, Kay County, Oklahoma.
In 1974, Mildred was appointed a Smithsonian Institution research associate in anthropology. In 1985, she was one of several women honored by the American Anthropological Association for their long-time involvement in anthropology. She died in 1995.
Waldo R. Wedel (see also Appendix A: Fieldwork of Waldo R. Wedel)
1908 -- Born in Newton, Kansas
1930 -- B.A. from University of Arizona
1930-1933 -- Apprenticeship under William Duncan Strong at Signal Butte, Loup River Valley, Nebraska
1931 -- M. A. from University of Nebraska
1936 -- Assistant Curator under Neil M. Judd, Division of Archeology, Department of Anthropology, United States National Museum (USNM) Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley
1937-1938 -- Field work in Kansas
1938 -- Excavation at a Hopewell site in Platte County, Missouri
1939 -- Married Mildred Mott Wedel
1942 -- Associate Curator, Division of Archeology, Department of Anthropology, United States National Museum (USNM)
1946 -- Established Missouri Basin Project (MBP) of the Bureau of American Ethnology's River Basin Surveys (RBS), serves as Director
1946-1950 -- Served with Military Planning Division of the Quartermaster Corps
1950 -- Curator of Archeology, United States National Museum (USNM)
1962 -- Head Curator of the Department of Anthropology
1964-1965 -- Acting Head of newly organized Smithsonian Office of Anthropology
1965 -- Senior Archeologist, Smithsonian Office of Anthropology
1977 -- Curator Emeritus, retired from Department of Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History
1977-1990 -- Continued involvement with Department of Anthropology
1990 -- Moved to Boulder, Colorado
1996 -- Died
Mildred Mott Wedel
1912 -- Born in Marengo, Iowa
1933 -- Attended University of New Mexico Jemez Field School during the summer
1934 -- A.B. from University of Iowa
1936 -- Fieldwork under Ellison Orr at Hill Mound Group (13AM105) and Brazell's Island Bear Effigy Mound (13AM81) in Allamakee County
1937 -- Fieldwork at Kincaid Site in Illinois Assisted Florence Hawley in the University of Chicago Dendrochronology Laboratory
1938 -- M.A. from University of Chicago Field director for Charles Keyes' archaeological excavation near Webster City, Iowa
1939 -- Married Waldo R. Wedel
1974 -- Research associate, Department of Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History
1978-1979 -- Studied the ethnohistory of a Wichita village and French post at the Deer Creek site, Kay County, Oklahoma
1990 -- Moved to Boulder, Colorado
1995 -- Died
Appendix A: Fieldwork of Waldo R. Wedel:
This timeline was created by Waldo R. Wedel in the 1990s.
1929 -- Place: Arizona (Turkey Hill Pueblo, near Flagstaff)Organizational Affiliation: University of Arizona field party (BC)
1930 -- Place: Nebraska, eastern and southern (Rock Bluffs, Gates, Dooley, Hill sites)Organizational Affiliation: University of Nebraska field party (WDS)Reported in: Strong, W. D. 1935. An Introduction to Nebraska Archeology. SMC 93:10.
1931 -- Place: Nebraska, Loup valley (Burkett, Gray‑Wolfe, Sweetwater sites)Organizational Affiliation: University of Nebraska field party leaderReported in: Dunlevy, M. L. 1936. A Comparison of the Cultural Manifestations of the Burkett (Nance County) and Gray‑Wolfe (Colfax County) sites.Reported in: Chapters in Nebraska Archeology, pp. 147‑247.Reported in: Champe, J. L. 1936. The Sweetwater Culture Complex. Chapters in Nebraska Archeology, pp. 249‑299.
1932 -- Place: Nebraska (Signal Butte) and South Dakota (Leavenworth)Organizational Affiliation: Bureau of American Ethnology (WDS)Reported in: Strong, W. D. 1935. An Introduction to Nebraska Archeology. SMC 93:10.Reported in: Strong, W. D. 1933. Studying the Arikara and their Neighbors on the Upper Missouri. Explor. and Field Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1932.
1933 -- Place: Nebraska (Medicine Creek)Organizational Affiliation: Nebraska State Historical Society (ATH)Reported in: Wedel, W. R. 1934. Preliminary Notes on the Archeology of Medicine Valley in Southwestern Nebraska. Nebraska History Magazine, 14:3:144-166. Place: Oklahoma (Comanche ethnography near Layton)Organizational Affiliation: Laboratory of Anthropology Fellow (R Linton)
1933-1934 -- Place: California (Buena Vista Lake)Organizational Affiliation: CWA relief expedition (WDS)Reported in: Wedel, W. R. 1941. Archeological Investigations at Buena Vista Lake, BAE Bulletin 130.
1934 -- Place: Nebraska and Kansas (Republican Valley; Minneapolis, Paint Creek)Organizational Affiliation: Nebraska State Historical Society (ATH)Reported in: Wedel, W. R. 1935. Reports on Field Work by the Archeological Survey of the Nebraska State Historical Society, May 1 to July 23, 1934. Nebraska History Magazine, 15:3:130-256.
1935 -- Place: California (Sacramento Valley: Howells Point, Redding; San Francisco Bay shellmounds)Organizational Affiliation: University of California field party leader
1936 -- Place: Nebraska (survey in Loup River drainage)Organizational Affiliation: Nebraska Historical Society and Gila Pueblo
1937 -- Place: Missouri and Kansas (Renner, Doniphan, Manhattan)Organizational Affiliation: U. S. National Museum field party leaderReported in: Wedel, W. R. 1943. Archeological Investigations in Platte and Clay Counties, Missouri. U.S.N.M., Bulletin 183.Reported in: Wedel, W. R. 1959. An IntroductionReported in: To Kansas Archeology. Bur. Amer. Ethnology, Bulletin 174.
1938 -- Place: Missouri, Colorado (Steed-Kisker, vault mounds; Purgatoire survey)Organizational Affiliation: U. S. National Museum field party leaderReported in: Wedel, W. R. 1943. Archeological Investigations in Platte and Clay Counties, Missouri. U.S.N.M., Bulletin 183.
1939 -- Place: Kansas (Scott and Lane Counties)Organizational Affiliation: U. S. National Museum field party leaderReported in: Wedel, W. R. 1959. An Introduction To Kansas Archeology. Bur. Amer. Ethnology, Bulletin 174.
1940 -- Place: Kansas (Rice and Cowley Counties)Organizational Affiliation: U. S. National Museum field party leaderReported in: Wedel, W. R. 1959. An Introduction To Kansas Archeology. Bur. Amer. Ethnology, Bulletin 174.
1943 -- Place: Mexico (La Venta)Organizational Affiliation: Smithsonian‑National Geographic Society expedition under MWSReported in: Wedel, W. R. 1952. Structural Investigations in 1943. In: La Venta, Tabasco, a Study of Olmec Ceramics and Art, by P. Drucker, BAE ‑ Bull. 153, pp. 34-79.
1946-1949 -- Place: Missouri River BasinOrganizational Affiliation: Field director Missouri Basin Project, River Basin Surveys, Smithsonian InstitutionReported in: Wedel, W. R., 1947. Prehistory and the Missouri Valley Development Program: Summary Report on the Missouri River Basin Archeological Survey in 1946. SMC. 107:6:1‑17.Reported in: Wedel, W. R. 1948. SMC 111:2.Reported in: Wedel, W. R. 1953. River Basin Surveys Papers, No. 1; BAE ‑ Bull. 154, pp. 1‑59.Reported in: Wedel, W. R. 1953. River Basin Surveys Papers, No. 2; BAE ‑ Bull. 154, pp. 61‑101.
1951 -- Place: South Dakota (39ST1)Organizational Affiliation: River Basin Surveys party chief
1952 -- Place: Wyoming (Horner site)Organizational Affiliation: Archeologist on Smithsonian-Princeton expedition.Reported in: Frison, Geo. C. and L. C. Todd, eds. I987 The Horner Site: Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex. Ch. 2 History of the Princeton and Smithsonian Investigations. Academic Press, Orlando, Fla.
1955 -- Place: South Dakota (39ST1)Organizational Affiliation: River Basin Surveys party chief
1956 -- Place: South Dakota (39ST1)Organizational Affiliation: River Basin Surveys party chief
1957 -- Place: South Dakota (39ST203)Organizational Affiliation: River Basin Surveys party chief
1964 -- Place: Archeological investigations in Southwestern KansasOrganizational Affiliation: NSF grant GS-556
1965 -- Place: Archeological investigations in Central Kansas (Rice Co)Organizational Affiliation: NSF grant GS-556
1966-1967 -- Place: Archeological investigations in Central Kansas (Rice Co)Organizational Affiliation: NSF grant 05-556; Smithsonian Res. Award. 3301
1971 -- Place: Archeological investigations in Central Kansas (Rice Co.)
1972-1973 -- Place: Archeological investigations at Chalk Hollow, Palo Duro Canyon, TexasOrganizational Affiliation: Smithsonian Research AwardReported in: Wedel, W. R. 1975. Chalk Hollow: Culture sequence and chronology in the Texas panhandle. Proceedings, XLI International Congress of Americanists, Mexico, Sept. 2-7, 1974, pp270-278.
Related Materials:
Additional correspondence from Waldo Wedel can be found in various collections at the National Anthropological Archives, including the William Duncan Strong papers, Albert Clanton Spaulding papers, Donald Lehmer papers, Frederick Johnson papers, Manuscript 4846, Manuscript 4192, Department of Anthropology records, River Basin Surveys records, Society for American Archaeology records, Central States Anthropological Society records, and Anthropological Society of Washington records. Photographs of Waldo can be found in Photo lot 33, Photo 83-13, Photo 58, Photo Lot 85-12, Manuscript 4261(1), Negative MHT 65124, Negative 728413, and the Source Print Collection. Manuscript 7450 is a recording of Waldo and others giving a talk on the history of anthropology at the Smithsonian. See Manuscript 2011-29 for an oral history interview with Waldo, conducted by Larry Banks.
Correspondence from Mildred can be found in the Robert King Harris papers and the William Duncan Strong papers. Manuscript 7293 is a recording of the Ewers-Wedel symposium, at which Mildred was a speaker.
At the Smithsonian Institution Archives, photos of Waldo can be found in the Kjell Bloch Sandved Photographic Files and the Smithsonian Institution Office of Public Information, Productions records.
Separated Materials:
The following films were separated from the collection and transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives:
6 reels of 16MM kodachrome film-original reversal 5 reels of Medicine Creek...1947-48 (includes Boysen Camp (1947) and Brule Flat site) 1 reel of Bison Kill (Powder River) Ghost Cave near Billings, MT., 1947
The following artifacts were separated from the collection and transferred to the ethnology and archaeology collections of the Department of Anthropology:
Sherds from Peppiatt-Lyons Metal ice shoe cleats Glass beads
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Waldo R. Wedel and Mildred Mott Wedel in 1990. Additional materials were donated by their son, Waldo M. Wedel in 2011.
Restrictions:
The Waldo R. Wedel and Mildred Mott Wedel papers are open for research. Personnel files and grant proposals sent to Waldo Wedel to review are restricted. Waldo and Mildred Wedel's monographs are stored at an off-site facility.
Access to the Waldo R. Wedel and Mildred Mott Wedel papers requires an appointment.
The papers of woodturner Bob Stocksdale and fiber artist Kay Sekimachi measure 19.5 linear feet and 0.125 GB and date from circa 1900 to 2015. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, writings, professional files, exhibition files, project files, personal business records, printed and digital material, scrapbooks, photographic material, and artwork. Of note are records from Sekimachi's forced internment during World War II at Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942 to 1944.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of woodturner Bob Stocksdale and fiber artist Kay Sekimachi measure 19.5 linear feet and 0.125 GB and date from circa 1900 to 2015. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, writings, professional files, exhibition files, project files, personal business records, printed and digital material, scrapbooks, photographic material, and artwork. Of note are records from Sekimachi's forced internment during World War II at Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942 to 1944.
The bulk of biographical materials are from Kay Sekimachi with some originating from her time spent in forced internment at Topaz and Tanforan camps. These records include identification cards, War Relocation Authority printed materials, and school records. Also found are awards, resumes, and blank stationery. Some materials are from Stocksdale's 85th birthday and memorial service.
Letters and extensive greeting cards are from friends, family, and professional acquaintances. Correspondents include Norman Anderson, Peter Collingwood, Jack Lenor Larsen, Sam and Alfreda Maloof, Forrest L. Merrill, Miné Okubo, Barbara Shawcroft, and others.
Writings and notes are scattered and include two interviews with Kay Sekimachi, hanging instructions, and notes. Writings by others are by Jack Lenor Larsen, Tran Turner, and Yoshiko Uchida.
Sekimachi's and Stocksdale's professional activities are documented through files relating to their participation at conferences, awards ceremonies, and lectures. Also found are fiber samples, order forms for materials and equipment, and notes on techniques and design by Kay Sekimachi. Exhibition records include extensive documentation on Marriage in Form, In the Realm of Nature, and Loom and Lathe as well as files for various solo and group exhibitions for both Sekimachi and Stocksdale. Gallery and institution files include material on multiple or unnamed exhibitions. Exhibiton documentation may include correspondence, writings, proposals, printed material, financial and loan records, condition reports, and photographs. Project files contain material for proposed book projects, a retrospective, and portfolio, by and about Sekimachi and Stocksdale. Also found are three commissions files for works by Sekimachi. A proposed retrospective on the work of Bob Stocksdale by Kay Sekimachi includes a digital sound recording of recollections.
Personal business records include sales books, purchase records for works of art by others, appraisals, contracts, consignment receipts, and insurance records.
Published books, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, magazines, and newsletters are found within printed materials. Of note is a publication by the San Francisco Chronicle entitled "This World" which features illustrations by Miné Okubo.
Four scrapbooks compiled by Kay Sekimachi date from 1937 to 1944. Most of the scrapbooks contain printed material from magazines and other sources with images such as children, valentines, food, birds, clothing, and may include scattered sketches and notes by Sekimachi. One scrapbook dates from the end of Sekimachi's internment at Topaz and relocation to Cincinnati, Ohio. This scrapbook includes sketches and printed materials concerning local and global events. Loose material found in this series was likely meant to be pasted into a new or the forth scrapbook. These materials include relocation information, Japanese-American publications, maps, clippings, sketches, and printed programs.
The bulk of photographic materials consist of slides of various vacation locations and homes and date from the 1960s to the 1980s. Also found are scattered portraits of Kay Sekimachi and Bob Stocksdale, as well as a photo of Miné Okubo with Roy Leeper and Cecil Thompson. Artworks are largely by Kay Sekimachi and include watercolor and pencil sketches as well as designs for fabrics and a weaving portfolio. Watercolor and pencil sketches are of Tanforan Assembly Center and date from circa 1942.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1920-2003 (1.5 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1943-2014 (7.6 linear feet; Box 2-10)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1960s-2008 (0.2 linear feet; Box 10)
Series 4: Professional Files, 1950s-2011 (1.1 linear feet; Box 10-11, 22)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1951-2015 (2.9 linear feet; Box 11-14, ER01; 0.125 GB)
Series 6: Project Files, circa 1900-2004 (0.3 linear feet; Box 14)
Series 7: Personal Business Records, 1970s-2010 (0.7 linear feet; Box 14-15)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1943-2011 (2.3 linear feet; Box 15-17, 22)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1937-1946 (0.9 linear feet; Box 17, 21)
Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1950-2001 (0.9 linear feet; Box 18)
Series 11: Artwork, 1942-circa 1970 (1.1 linear feet; Box 18-20, 22-23)
Biographical / Historical:
Bob Stocksdale (1913-2003) was a woodturner active in California. He was known for bowls he formed from rare types of wood. Kay Sekimachi (1926- ) is a Japanese-American fiber artist and educator also active in California. She began her career in weaving on and off the loom and was part of the New Basketry movement.
Born in Indiana, Bob Stocksdale began his interest in carving by whittling with a pocket knife. Later, he created his own lathe with a washing machine motor and turned items such as baseball bats. During World War II, he was a conscientious objector and worked at various camps performing forestry work. It was in one of the camps that he turned his first bowl on a lathe.
After the war, Stocksdale settled in the Bay Area of California where he established his own woodturning shop in his basement. He concentrated on making bowls out of rare woods. His work has been recognized throughout the world and in 1998, he received the American Association of Woodturners Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, he received the James Renwick Alliance Masters of the Medium Award.
Kay Sekimachi was born in San Francisco, California in 1926. As a high school student, she was forcibly interned through Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which incarcerated approximately 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-American citizens during World War II. Along with her mother and siblings, Kay lived at Tanforan Assembly Center and later moved to Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. She continued her schooling at Topaz and after 1944, was resettled in Cincinnati, Ohio.
After graduating from high school, Kay Sekimachi enrolled at the California College of Arts and Crafts and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts where she learned the craft of weaving under Trude Guermonprez and Jack Lenor Larsen. Her early works were tapestries and garments. She later used her weaving techniques as part of the New Basketry movement to create baskets and boxes out of fibers. Also an educator, Kay taught weaving at San Francisco Community College. She received the American Craft Council Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship in 2002.
After the dissolution of his first marriage through which he had two children, son Kim and daughter Joy Stocksdale, Bob married Kay Sekimachi in 1972. The two had been acquainted for many years as they were both craft artists living in the Bay Area. Although they married later in life, Kay and Bob travelled the world and exhibited their art together in many exhibitions including Marriage in Form and Loom and Lathe.
Bob Stocksdale died in Oakland, California in 2003. Kay Sekimachi continues to exhibit her work and lives in Berkeley, California.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are an oral history interview of Bob Stocksdale conducted February 16-March 21, 2001, by Signe Mayfield and an oral history interview of Kay Sekimachi [Stocksdale] conducted July 26-August 6, 2001, by Suzanne Baizerman. Both interviews were conducted in Berkeley, California, during the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Provenance:
The Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi papers were donated in 2003, 2004, and 2015 by Kay Sekimachi Stocksdale as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of original audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The records of Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, based in Southern California, measure 18.9 linear feet and 2.52 GB and date from 1960 to circa 2014, with the bulk of the items dating from 1987 to 1996. The Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, operated from 1986-1996 and featured the work of prominent contemporary artists, such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, John Altoon, Fletcher Benton, Howard Ben Tre, Ciel Bergman, Squeak Carnwatch, Dale Chihuly, Duck-Hyun Cho, Roy De Forest, Heidi Fasnacht, Robert Hudson, Terence La Noue, Donald Lipski, Nam June Paik, Ed Paschke, Alan Rath, Zizi Raymond, Pablo Reinoso, among many others. The collection includes correspondence, scattered administration records, exhibition files, extensive artists' files that also include many video recordings, financial and legal records, printed and digital materials, and photographic materials.
Scope and Contents:
The records of Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, based in Southern California, measure 18.9 linear feet and 2.52 GB and date from 1960 to circa 2014, with the bulk of the items dating from 1987 to 1996. The Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, operated from 1986-1996 and featured the work of prominent contemporary artists, such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, John Altoon, Fletcher Benton, Howard Ben Tre, Ciel Bergman, Squeak Carnwatch, Dale Chihuly, Duck-Hyun Cho, Roy De Forest, Heidi Fasnacht, Robert Hudson, Terence La Noue, Donald Lipski, Nam June Paik, Ed Paschke, Alan Rath, Zizi Raymond, Pablo Reinoso, among many others. The collection includes correspondence, scattered administration records, exhibition files, extensive artists' files that also include many video recordings, financial and legal records, printed and digital materials, and photographic materials.
Correspondence is with artists, museums, galleries, and collectors regarding exhibitions, sales, and acquisitions of artwork. Administration records include appraisals, mailing lists, materials related to gallery events, a rolodex, and a list of artist contracts. Exhibition files are found for only a few of the gallery's exhibitions, including American Artists in Jewelry (1987), Private Reserve (1988), Fresh Visions 1 (1989), Fresh Visions 2 (1989), and Multiple Parts (1994).
There are extensive artists' files containing correspondence, printed and digital material, resumes, slides, and photographs documenting the gallery's relationship with and exhibitions of many prominent artists. These files also contain numerous audio and video recordings of interviews with artists, exhibitions, documentaries, and video art.
Financial and legal records mostly consist of sales records of artwork by various artists, in addition to materials on a lawsuit, a sublease for exhibition space, and a few invoices.
Printed materials include Dorothy Goldeen Gallery press releases, exhibition announcements, press reviews, newsletters, clippings, and one videocassette of a broadcast news program.
Photographic materials mostly consist of slides and transparencies of artwork by artists represented by the gallery. There are a few images of the gallery building.
Dorothy Goldeen papers include travel notebooks, itineraries, receipts, and other ephemera from domestic and international trips taken by Goldeen; lecture notes; personal correspondence with artists, associates, and others; and files for several exhibitions from after the Goldeen Gallery closed. Also present are blog posts and a contact list from the art advisory business Goldeen started after closing her gallery.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 8 series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1979-2012 (1.3 linear feet; Box 1-2, 19)
Series 2: Administration Records, circa 1987-circa 2010 (1.2 linear feet; Box 2, 19)
Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1987-1995 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 4: Artists' Files, 1961-2007 (12.3 linear feet; Boxes 3-14, 19-20, OV 17-18, 2.52 GB; ER01-ER02)
Series 5: Financial and Legal Records, 1987-2005 (0.8 linear feet; Box 15)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1986-2014 (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 15-16, 20, 22)
Series 7: Photographic Material, 1960-2005 (0.8 linear feet; Box 16, 20)
Series 8: Dorothy Goldeen Papers, 1976-2013 (1 linear feet; Box 20-21)
Biographical / Historical:
The Dorothy Goldeen Gallery (1987-1996) was an art gallery in Santa Monica, California, founded by Dorothy Goldeen.
Dorothy Goldeen graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied sculpture and textile design. In 1973, Goldeen began her career in the arts working in San Francisco, California at the Hansen Fuller Gallery which later became Fuller Goldeen Gallery.
In 1987, Goldeen moved to Los Angeles and founded the Dorothy Goldeen Gallery. Historically significant artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz and Nam June Paik were represented by her gallery as well as influential, emerging Los Angeles artists. Other notable artists include Robert Arneson, Paul Kos, Ed Paschke, and Alan Rath.
In 1996, Goldeen closed her gallery and launched the Dorothy Goldeen Art Advisory in Santa Monica. Goldeen often travels internationally as an art consultant for private and institutional clients, advising them on the acquisition and resale of art.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also has an oral history interview with Dorothy Goldeen conducted by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp in 2014.
Provenance:
The Dorothy Goldeen Gallery records were donated by Dorothy Goldeen to the Archives of American Art in 2003, 2014, and 2021.
Restrictions:
Boxes 19-22 are access restricted; written permission is required. Contact Reference Services for more information. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
All correspondence: Permission to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Dorothy Goldeen. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
Function:
Art galleries, Commercial -- California
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Video recordings
Citation:
Dorothy Goldeen Gallery Records, 1960-circa 2014, bulk 1987-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
A portion of the processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Cornwall (England : County) -- Description and Travel
Europe -- description and travel
Date:
2011 April 22-24
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Moira Roth conducted 2011 April 22- 24, by Sue Heinemann, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History Project, at Roth's home, in Berkeley, California.
Roth discusses her childhood and family background; her "unconventional" mother attending the London School of Economics; her "romantic childhood" growing up in Cornwall, England; her family's move to Letchworth for her to attend St. Christopher, a Montessori school; taking in evacuees from London during the Battle of Britain in 1940; childhood colored with European culture, Jewish culture, and music; at 17 moving from England to Washington, D.C., to live with her Irish father who was working for the International Monetary Fund; her early "passion for travelling"; moving to New York City in 1952; meeting John Cage; her autobiographical writings; travels in Europe; studies at the University of Vienna and the London School of Economics; deciding to be a psychiatric social worker; majoring in sociology with a minor in art history; attending graduate school in art history; her interest in Duchamp; doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley; interviewing artists; her marriage to Bill Roth; teaching; early publications; performances at the Woman's Building in the late 1970s; editing the book "The Amazing Decade: Women & Performance Art in America, 1970-1980" (1983); traveling with Faith Ringgold; friendships with Linda Nochlin, May Stevens, Lucy Lippard and others; experimental theater; her interest in Noh theater; the Women's Caucus for Art at CAA; The Poor Farm contemporary art space; living in the Bay Area; "rethinking feminism in terms of Asian-American Women"; globalism; the fictional character she created, Rachel Marker; and other topics. She recalls Joyce Kozloff, Miriam Schapiro, Judy Chicago, Judy Baca, Claudia Bernardi, Eleanor Antin, Margo Machida, Mary Jane Jacob, Annika Marie, Whitney Chadwick, Suzanne Lacy, Allan Kaprow, Peter Selz, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Moira Roth (1933- ) is an art historian and writer in Berkeley, California.
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 historians -- California -- Interviews Search this
50 Film reels (50 completed films and 1 film series; 110,600 feet of original film outtakes (51 hours); 412 hours of audiotape; 31 digital books)
22 Linear feet (Papers and photographs)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Film reels
Place:
Patagonia (Argentina and Chile)
Argentina
Date:
1954-circa 2008
Summary:
Documentary filmmaker Jorge Prelorán was best known for his intimate approach to ethnographic film, a style known as "ethnobiography." The majority of Prelorán's films were shot in rural areas of Argentina, particularly the Andean highlands and the Pampas (plains), often in communities of mixed Indian and Spanish heritage. Prelorán documented a wide range of subjects, including art, folk crafts, agriculture, ranching, markets, religious rituals and festivals, and social and cultural change. This collection contains edited films and videos, film outtakes, audio tapes, photographic prints and transparencies, digital books, correspondence, production files, scripts, project files, and press clippings spanning 1954-2008.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains edited films and videos, film outtakes, audio tapes, photographic prints and transparencies, digital books, correspondence, production files, scripts, project files, and press clippings spanning 1954-2008.
The majority of Prelorán's films were shot in rural areas of Argentina, particularly the Andean highlands and the Pampas (plains), often in communities of mixed Indian and Spanish heritage. Prelorán documented a wide range of subjects, including art, folk crafts, agriculture, ranching, markets, religious rituals and festivals, and social and cultural change. Several films focus on natural history and science. There are also a number of experimental and fiction films.
Prelorán formed close friendships with many of the subjects of his films and corresponded with them long after the films were completed. This is reflected in the paper records, as is Prelorán's wide circle of colleagues and collaborators, including anthropologists, musicians, animators, historians, painters, writers, photographers, current and former students at UCLA, and fellow filmmakers. The extensive collection of press clippings, screening notices, and festival catalogs documents Prelorán's influence in Argentina, Europe, and the United States.
In the series of digital books, Prelorán presents the personal stories of individuals involved in creative work. Some books feature subjects profiled in the films, updating or expanding on their stories.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 11 series: (1) Completed Films and Videos, 1954-circa 2008; (2) Film Outtakes, 1960s-1980s; (3) Audio, 1969-2008; (4) Correspondence, 1954-2005 (bulk 1967-1992); (5) Production Files, 1961-1998; (6) Project Files, 1967-1995; (7) UCLA, 1968-2005 (bulk 1980s); (8) Press Clippings, 1960-2005; (9) Photographs, 1961-2000; (10) Books, 1994-1998, undated; (11) Electronic Files, circa 2000-circa 2006
Biographical Note:
Documentary filmmaker Jorge Prelorán was best known for his intimate approach to ethnographic film, a style known as "ethnobiography." In films such as Hermógenes Cayo (Imaginero) (1970), Los Hijos de Zerda (Zerda's Children) (1974), and Zulay Frente al Siglo XXI (Zulay Facing the 21st Century) (1989), Prelorán's protagonists tell their personal stories, while also revealing the stories of their communities and cultures. Prelorán worked in Latin America and the United States, but primarily in his native country of Argentina. His career spanned from 1954 to 2008, including nearly twenty years as a film professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Prelorán was born May 28, 1933 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father, an engineer, was Argentine and had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he met his wife, an American. Prelorán grew up speaking both Spanish and English. Initially pursuing a career in architecture, he studied at the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. He made his first film, Venganza, with neighborhood friends in Buenos Aires in 1954. The film won the Beginner's Festival of Cine Club Argentina that same year. Prelorán was accepted as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, and studied architecture there for one year. In 1956 he withdrew from UC Berkeley and was drafted into the US Army. Prelorán served in West Germany until 1958. Upon his return he changed educational plans and began formal study of filmmaking, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Motion Pictures from UCLA in 1960.
Shortly before the end of his service in the US Army, Prelorán married Elsa Dondi, a former classmate from Buenos Aires. They lived together in Los Angeles until Elsa returned to Argentina for the birth of their daughter, Adriana, in 1961. The couple separated shortly thereafter.
Prelorán's professional career as a filmmaker began in 1961 with a commission from the Tinker Foundation of New York for a series of films on the Argentine gaucho. In the course of shooting for these films, Prelorán traveled extensively throughout Argentina, visiting many locations in Patagonia and in the northwest where he would later return to make many of his films. From 1963-1969, Prelorán was under contract at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán to produce educational films; he also produced a series of short films on Argentine folklife with support from Fondo Nacional de las Artes and under the mentorship of folklorist Augusto Raúl Cortazar, Ph.D.
In the late 1960s, Prelorán became involved with UCLA's Ethnographic Film Program and in 1970 he returned to UCLA as a lecturer for two semesters. Later that year he was a fellow at Harvard University's Film Study Center, where he produced the English-language version of Imaginero (Hermógenes Cayo). Prelorán was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, in 1971 and 1975, and used those opportunities to produce quite a number of films, including Damacio Caitruz (Araucanians of Ruca Choroy).
Prelorán remarried in 1972. His wife, Mabel Freddi, became a collaborator on his films. She wrote the screenplay for Mi Tia Nora (My Aunt Nora) (1983) and co-directed Zulay Frente al Siglo XXI (Zulay Facing the 21st Century) (1989), among other credited and un-credited roles. After the Argentine military coup of March 1976 and the disappearances of fellow filmmaker Raymundo Gleyzer and Mabel's niece, Haydee, the Preloráns became fearful for their own safety. They fled to the United States, a move that would become permanent. Prelorán accepted a position as associate professor at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. He later joined the faculty as a tenured professor.
During his time at UCLA, Prelorán was twice selected as a Fulbright Scholar, in 1987 and 1994. He continued to produce films, including the Academy Award-nominated documentary short Luther Metke at 94 (1980) and the 7-hour natural history television series Patagonia (1992). After retiring in 1994, Prelorán continued to mentor film students as Professor Emeritus; he also began work in a new medium, creating a series of digital books, "Nos = Otros" ("Sages Amongst Us") (unpublished), featuring individuals engaged in creative and educational pursuits.
Prelorán died at his home in Culver City, CA at the age of 75 on March 28, 2009.
Sources Consulted
UCLA, School of Theater, Film and Television. "Jorge Prelorán 1933 - 2009." Obituary. Last modified March 31, 2009. Accessed April 1, 2009. http://tft.ucla.edu/news/obituary
Jorge Prelorán Collection. Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Rivera, Fermín. Huellas Y Memoria de Jorge Prelorán. Documentary film. 2010.
Woo, Elaine."Jorge Prelorán dies at 75; Argentine filmmaker and former UCLA professor." Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2009. Web. 29 Apr 2009.
1933 -- Born May 28 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
1952-1954 -- Studies at the College of Architecture, Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina
1954 -- Completes first film, Venganza, a fictional short
1955 -- Studies at the College of Architecture, University of California at Berkeley
1956-1958 -- Drafted into United States Army, stationed in Schwetzingen, West Germany
1959-1960 -- Earns Bachelor of Arts in Motion Pictures from UCLA
1961-1963 -- Produces films on the Argentine gaucho for the Tinker Foundation, New York
1963-1969 -- Produces films at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina
1968 -- Attends the First International Colloquium on Ethnographic Film at UCLA
1969 -- Shoots film for The Warao People in Venezuela, under a grant from the Ford Foundation to the Ethnographic Film Program at UCLA
1970 -- Lecturer at UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television Fellow at the Film Study Center, Harvard University
1971 -- Receives first Guggenheim Fellowship; completes several film projects in Argentina
1975 -- Receives second Guggenheim Fellowship; continues filming in Argentina
1976 -- Moves to United States Associate professor at UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television
1978 -- Guest of Honor at the 2nd Margaret Mead Ethnographic Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History, New York
1980 -- Academy Award nominee for Luther Metke at 94
1985 -- Guest at the White House for a State Dinner in honor of Argentine President Raul Alfonsin
1986 -- Naturalized as a United States citizen
1987 -- First selection as Fulbright Scholar; begins production of the series Patagonia, en Busca de su Remoto Pasado
1994 -- Second selection as Fulbright Scholar; completes pre-production for the narrative feature film "Vairoletto: The Last Gaucho Outlaw" Retires from UCLA as professor emeritus
2009 -- Dies on March 28 in Culver City, California
Related Materials:
The Human Studies Film Archives holds a copy of Fermín Rivera's edited biographical documentary film, Huellas y Memoria de Jorge Prelorán (HSFA 2015.1.27), as well as transcripts of interviews conducted with Jorge and Mabel Prelorán for the film (in Spanish).
The Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, holds the original film for four titles Prelorán produced for the Tinker Foundation (New York, NY). These are: The Llanero; The Gaucho of Corrientes; The Gaucho of the Pampas; and The Gaucho of Salta. The Ransom Center has both English and Spanish versions of these titles. These four films were preserved in 2010 and 2011 with funding from the Tinker Foundation. HSFA holds high quality video masters of all four titles. A fifth film produced for the Tinker Foundation, El Gaucho Argentino, Hoy (The Argentine Gaucho, Today), is held at the HSFA in its Spanish version only.
The Arthur Hall Collection at Temple University, Phildadelphia, Pennsylvania and Ile Ife Films in Belfast, Maine hold a copy of The Unvictorious One that differs from the two versions held at the HSFA.
Provenance:
This collection was donated to the Human Studies Film Archives in two accessions. The first accession, 2007-10, contains the edited films, outtakes, audio recordings, papers, and photographs and was donated by Jorge Prelorán. Materials had been stored at Prelorán's home office and home editing suite before they were packed by the processing archivist and sent to the HSFA. The second accession, 2011-07, contains the digital books and some additional photographs. This accession was donated by Mabel Prelorán. These materials had also been stored at Prelorán's home office and were sent to the HSFA by Mabel Prelorán.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Various copyrights and restrictions on commercial use apply to the reproduction or publication of film, video, audio, photographs, and the digital books.
Access to the Jorge Prelorán collection requires an appointment.
The Norma Merrick Sklarek Archival Collection documents the prestigious and groundbreaking career of one of the early women architects who also broke ground for African American architects as well. The collection highlights Sklarek's journey and accomplishments as she paved the way for future women architects and architects of color. The collection is comprised of family records, resumes, business ephemera, photographs, correspondence, publications, clippings, architectural drawings, as well as her many awards and accolades.
Arrangement:
The materials in this collection have been separated into eight series. The materials have been ordered and organized based on the content and chronology. Within each series and subseries, the folders are organized as close to the collection's original order as when it was acquired.
Biographical / Historical:
Norma Merrick Sklarek was a renowned architect and a woman of firsts who broke racial and gender barriers earning her place in the male-dominated world of architecture. She was the first Black woman member and esteemed fellow of the highly respected architectural professional organization, American Institute of Architects (AIA). Norma was distinguished in her career for leading challenging assignments and managing large, complex construction projects.
Norma Merrick was born April 15, 1926 to Dr. Walter Ernest Merrick, and Amelia (Amy) Willoughby in Harlem, New York City, New York. Her parents had emigrated from Trinidad, though her father was born in St. Vincent, West Indies. Norma's parents were a part of the first significant Caribbean immigration waves to the United States in the early 20th century. Arriving just a year before her birth, her parents saw possibility and education there. Her father, Walter attended Howard University and eventually became a physician. While her mother, Amy worked as a seamstress in a factory to make ends meet as Walter "wasn't much of a businessman" as described by Norma in an oral history interview. He practiced medicine in Harlem, New York. Norma stated that her father often served as a physician to African American celebrities such as Hazel Scott, Ethel Waters and Art Tatum. Walter was also a talented musician and carpenter that supported his daughter's love of art and math and encouraged her to pursue a career in architecture.
Around 1940, Norma was enrolled at the prestigious Hunter College High School for the intellectually gifted and "Ivy League-bound" young women. Excelling academically, Norma attended Barnard University, the prestigious women's college formerly administered by Columbia University. She attended Barnard initially in order to gain a year of a liberal arts education so that she could be accepted into then-known Columbia University School of Architecture. In 1947, she met and married, Dumas Flagg Ransom, law student at nearby Wagner University. She subsequently gave birth to her first son, Gregory Merrick Ransom shortly thereafter. She graduated from Columbia in 1950 with a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) degree. She was one of only two women and the only African American in her graduating class.
Despite her Columbia University pedigree, her race and gender made it predictably difficult to obtain employment. Norma easily recalls in an oral history interview later in life that she was turned down by nineteen prospective employers. It was on the twentieth interview with the Department of Public Works (DPW) that she was hired as a junior draftsperson for New York City. She passed her architecture licensing examination in 1954 becoming the first Black woman believed to be licensed to practice architecture in New York. Despite a poor recommendation from her DPW supervisor, she worked briefly at Katz, Waisman, Blumenkranz, Stein and Weber as a junior associate. She felt stifled and unchallenged and left that firm to do some rendering coloring work with notable New York architect, Bob Schwartz. In 1955, she started working at notable architectural firm, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) in New York City where she was given larger-scale projects. At the same time, she taught architecture courses at New York City Community College (presently called the New York City College of Technology) located in Brooklyn, NY. She was the school's first woman faculty member. It was also during her tenure at SOM that Norma joined AIA and inadvertently became the organization's first African American woman member. She was a member of the Council for the Advancement of the Negro in Architecture, a New York-based group. During all this groundbreaking work, Norma was a twice-divorced mother of two sons with the birth of her second son, David Merrick Fairweather from her union with Benjamin Fairweather. Norma depended on the assistance of her family in raising her sons while she worked and advanced her career.
In an effort to advance her career, Norma moved to Los Angeles, California to work with architectural firm, Gruen Associates in 1960. A requisite for an architect in California, Norma became the first Black woman to be a licensed architect in the state. Gruen Associates, founded by visionary Austrian architect Victor Gruen, was notable for their pioneering work with shopping malls and multi-use buildings. At Gruen, in 1965 she earned the director of architecture position where she was responsible for hiring and overseeing multiple staff members as well as serving as project manager on several high-profile projects for the firm.
Her projects included the high-rise multi-use building California Mart (1963), now known as California Market Center; skyscraper Fox Plaza (1966) in San Francisco and some of Norma's most notable work for Gruen, The Pacific Design Center (1975), a multi-use facility utilized by the California's bustling apparel and fashion industry. Norma's contributary design is affectionately known by California's locals as the "Blue Whale." Norma worked on the latter project with Gruen's lead architect at the time, Cesar Pelli, known for some of the world's tallest buildings, most notably World Finance Center (Brookfield Place) in New York City. Pelli also shared his credit with Norma for her exemplary contribution to the renovation and redesign of the San Bernardino City Hall (1972) in California as well as their work on the U.S. Embassy (1976) in Tokyo, Japan. While at Gruen, Norma married Rolf Sklarek, a fellow architect at the firm. She also taught architecture courses at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC). At UCLA, she was the first African American member of the faculty.
In 1980, she was finally recognized for all of her trailblazing and innovative work, when she became the first African American woman elected to the AIA College of Fellows. The highest honor within the architecture profession. This prestigious award gave her assurance that she could take her career to another level. She departed Gruen for Welton Becket & Associates, a prominent California firm renowned for iconic music and cultural centers, including the iconic Capitol Records building in Los Angeles. Norma was appointed as the vice president of the firm and lead project manager on one of her most notable works, Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport. She was recognized for the timely completion of the project as preparation for the influx of travelers to Los Angeles the for the 1984 Olympic Games. Norma also suffered the loss of her husband, Rolf Sklarek, the same year.
It was her work from the Los Angeles Airport project that empowered Norma to break yet another barrier. 1985 proved to be significant year as she became first African American woman to found and co-own a woman-owned architectural firm. Norma collaborated with fellow veteran architects Margot Siegal and Katherine Diamond to create Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond (SSD). SSD was one of the largest woman-owned architecture firms at the time. Their largest project was the Tarzana Promenade, a 90,000 sq. ft. medical and retail center, and the remodel and renovation of the Lawndale Civic Center; both located in California. Norma also designed work for the proposed Marva Collins Preparatory School in Compton, CA. The school was named after seminal educator, Marva Collins that had revolutionized education for low-income students in a crime-ridden area in Chicago, Ill. The hope was the replicate Collins' important work for children in Compton.
Being a new firm amidst the prevalence of racism and sexism within the profession left SSD at a disadvantage. Their projects were mainly residential and smaller commercial projects that didn't bring the income and accompanying challenges like larger scaled projects. Sklarek left SSD in 1989 for Jerde Partnership, an established innovator in the design and construction of shopping malls around the world. Norma was hired as the principal on the project management for the design and construction of the Mall of America. Located in Bloomington, Minnesota, it is considered to be the largest shopping mall in United States.
In 1992, Norma retired from the profession but did not resign herself to stop working. Norma became an active advocate in broadening the profession to include more women and people of color. She focused her work on teaching, lecturing, and mentoring. Over the years, she served as faculty and lecturer at several universities including UCLA, USC, University of Iowa, Kansas State University, California Polytechnic as well as her alma mater Columbia University. In an effort to inspire Black architects, Norma regularly lectured at HBCUs including Howard University, Hampton University, Tuskegee University, and Southern University.
Sklarek's work was recorded and recognized by the black press and publishers, such as her being included in Ebony magazine as early as 1958, in their article on "Successful Young Architects." In 2008, the AIA awarded her with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award that recognizes architects who represented the profession's responsibility to address social issues. She also served on multiple professional boards and committees, such as the California Architects Board, Professional Qualifications Committee, California State Board of Architectural Examiners, the AIA National Ethics Council and many more.
On February 6, 2012, Sklarek died in the Pacific Palisades, California at the age of 85. She was survived by her husband Cornelius Welch, whom she married in 1985; her son, David Merrick Fairweather, stepdaughter Susan Welch as well as three grandchildren. She was predeceased by her son Gregory Merrick Ransom in 2006.
Historical Timeline
1926 -- Norma Merrick was born to Amy Willoughby and Walter Merrick in Harlem, New York.
1944 -- Graduated from Hunter College High School, New York, NY
1944-1945 -- Attended Barnard College, New York, NY
1945-1950 -- Attended Columbia University in New York City earning a bachelor's degree in architecture (B.Arch.).
1947 -- Married Dumas Flagg Ransom and had son, Gregory Merrick Ransom. They later divorced.
1950 -- Married Elwyn (Benjamin) Fairweather and had son, David Merrick Fairweather. They later divorced.
1950-1955 -- Worked at the Department of Public Works, New York, NY
1954 -- Licensed in the state of New York; believed to be the first black woman architect licensed in New York
1959 -- First African American woman member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
1955-1960 -- Worked at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill in New York, NY
1957-1960 -- Architecture faculty member at New York City Community College, Brooklyn, NY
1960 -- Married Francis "Harry" Pena in New York, NY. Moved to California and began working at Gruen Associates and served as the Director of Architecture until 1980.
1962 -- First African American woman architect licensed in California
1963 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction of the California Mart, Los Angeles, CA.
1966 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction Fox Plaza in San Francisco, CA.
1967 -- Sklarek divorced Pena and married Rolf Sklarek, a fellow architect at Gruen Associates.
1970 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction of the Park Center Commercial Complex in San Jose, CA .
1972-1973 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction of the San Bernardino, City Hall in San Bernardino, CA.
1973 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction of Commons-Courthouse Center in Columbus, IN.
1973-1978 -- Served as faculty member in the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Planning
1976 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction of the U. S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.
1978 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction of Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, CA.
1980 -- First African American woman fellow of the AIA
1980-1985 -- Worked as VP and project manager at Welton Becket & Associates in Santa Monica, CA
1984 -- Sklarek working with Welton Becket Associates coordinated the design and construction of Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, CA. Rolf Sklarek died in February.
1985 -- Sklarek along with Margot Siegal and Katherine Diamond formed their own firm, Siegel- Sklarek-Diamond. Sklarek married Dr. Cornelius Welch.
1989 -- Left the Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond and joined The Jerde Partnership, in Venice, CA, as the principal project manager.
1989-1992 -- Sklarek coordinated the design and construction of the Mall of America in Minneapolis, MN.
1992 -- Retired from The Jerde Partnership
2003-2007 -- Served as commissioner on the California State Board of Architectural Examiners
2008 -- Awarded American Institute of Architects' Whitney M. Young Jr. Award
2012 -- Norma Merrick Sklarek died in the Pacific Palisades, California at the age of 85.
Provenance:
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of David Merrick Fairweather and Yvonne Goff
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
