An interview of Boris Gilbertson conducted 1964 June 25 by Sylvia Loomis for the Archives of American Art.
Gilbertson speaks of his background; his education at the Art Institute of Chicago; starting out as a sculptor; his early involvement with the Treasury Relief Art Project; his work in Wisconsin for the project; how the Project functioned and how his work was supervised; the TRAP's effect on the politics of the time; his views of abstract art; the uses of humor in sculpture and in art; animal subject matter in his work.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor; Santa Fe, N.M.
General:
An unrelated interview of Gene Kloss conducted by S. Loomis is also on this tape.
Provenance:
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
The papers of Una Hanbury measure 5.3 linear feet and date from 1910 to 1994, with the bulk of the material from 1966 to 1990. The collection documents the sculptor's career and the dispersal of her estate through business records, project files, subject files, printed material, and photographs. There is also a small amount of material relating to her personal life including correspondence with friends and family and photographs from various stages of her life.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Una Hanbury measure 5.3 linear feet and date from 1910 to 1994, with the bulk of the material from 1966 to 1990. The collection documents the sculptor's career and the dispersal of her estate through business records, project files, subject files, printed material, and photographs. There is also a small amount of material relating to her personal life including correspondence with friends and family and photographs from various stages of her life.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into seven series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Personal Papers, 1926-1983 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 2: Business Records, 1965-1991 (Boxes 1-2; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Project Files, 1961-1992 (Boxes 2-3; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 4: Subject Files, circa 1924-1985 (Box 4, OV 7; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 5: Estate of Una Hanbury, 1990-1994 (Boxes 4-5; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1926-1990 (Box 5; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographs, 1910-1991 (Boxes 5-6, 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Una Hanbury (1904-1990) was a sculptor in Washington, D.C. and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hanbury was born in Middlesex, England, in 1904; the incorrect birth date of 1909 that she submitted to Who's Who and other biographical reference sources is cited in numerous published articles. Hanbury [née Rawnsley] exhibited artistic talent as a young child and received instruction from animal artist Frank Calderon. After graduation from London's Polytechnic School of Art, she studied for three years at the Royal Academy. Jacob Epstein was her most influential teacher.
Soon after completing her formal education, Una Rawnsley became Una Hanbury and devoted herself full-time to being a wife and mother. During World War II she left England for Bermuda and brought her family to the United States once the war was over. Hanbury settled in Washington, D.C., where she resumed her sculpting career, completing many large scale commissions for public buildings such as the Medical Examiners Building, Baltimore, and St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Springfield, Virginia, among others. She developed a fine reputation as a portrait sculptor, and commissions included busts of Rachel Carson, Enrico Fermi, Buckminster Fuller, Laura Gilpin, Richard Neutra, Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert Oppenheimer, S. Dillon Ripley, and Andrés Segovia. In addition, animals--particularly horses--were a favorite subject since childhood; sculptures were commissioned by several zoos, and horse portraits often were commissioned by owners.
In 1970, Una Hanbury relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she continued working well into old age and became a significant force in the art life of that region.
Provenance:
The Una Hanbury papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by the artist's daughter, Jillian Poole, in 1999 and 2006.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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.
