Search Results

Creator:

Coffin, William A. (William Anderson), 1855-1925  Search this

Subject:

Stella, Joseph  Search this

Warren, Whitney  Search this

Mauer, Alfred  Search this

Benson, Frank Weston  Search this

Blashfield, Edwin Howland  Search this

Zorach, William  Search this

Gay, Walter  Search this

Gussow, Bernard  Search this

Bouché, Louis  Search this

Cortissoz, Royal  Search this

Pan-American Exposition (1901: Buffalo, N.Y.)  Search this

Société des artistes français  Search this

Exposition d'artistes de l'école Américaine (1919 : Paris, France)  Search this

American Rights Committee  Search this

American Artists' Committee of One Hundred  Search this

Lotos Club (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Musée d'histoire et d'art (Luxembourg)  Search this

Committee for the Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture (Paris, France)  Search this

Type:

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Citation:

William Anderson Coffin papers, 1886-1924. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Harper's Weekly  Search this

New York Post  Search this

Art Exhibitions France Paris  Search this

Landscape painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art, American  Search this

World War, 1914-1918  Search this

Theme:

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7476

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209634

AAA_collcode_coffwill

Theme:

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_209634

Creator:

Smithsonian American Art Museum  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2020-04-20T13:59:25.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

See more by:

americanartmuseum

Data Source:

Smithsonian American Art Museum

YouTube Channel:

americanartmuseum

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_D-p96np-Pw4

Interviewee:

Blanch, Arnold, 1896-1968  Search this

Interviewer:

Seckler, Dorothy Gees, 1910-1994  Search this

Names:

American Artists' Congress  Search this

Bellows, George, 1882-1925  Search this

Force, Juliana, 1876-1948  Search this

Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948  Search this

Hague, Raoul, 1905-1993  Search this

Henri, Robert, 1865-1929  Search this

Miller, Kenneth Hayes, 1876-1952  Search this

Orozco, José Clemente, 1883-1949  Search this

Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957  Search this

Robinson, Boardman, 1876-1952  Search this

Siqueiros, David Alfaro  Search this

Sloan, John, 1871-1951  Search this

Extent:

37 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

1963 June 13-August 3

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Arnold Blanch conducted by Dorothy Seckler (31 pages) on 1963 June 13 for the Archives of American Art, and a lecture by Blanch recorded by Seckler (6 pages), August 1, 1963.

In the interview, Blanch speaks of his childhood in Minnesota; his hostility toward formal education; his art education; moving to New York; the influence of Cezanne and Renoir on his work; the Woodstock art circle; travels in Paris; his association with New York galleries; his involvement with WPA projects; the American Artists Congress; the American art scene in the 1930s; his opinions of government aid to the arts; changes in his style; and his opinions on the contemporary art scene. He recalls Boardman Robinson, Juliana Force, George Bellows, Robert Henri, John Sloan, Kenneth Hayes Miller, Arshile Gorky, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Siqueiros, and Raoul Hague. The lecture,"Art Tradition," was delivered by Blanch to the Woodstock Art Association, Woodstock, New York, August 1, 1963.

Biographical / Historical:

Arnold Blanch (1896-1968) was a mural painter in Woodstock, New York.

General:

Originally recorded 5 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 12 min.

Provenance:

This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Muralists -- New York -- Woodstock -- Interviews  Search this

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

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Identifier:

AAA.blanch63

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw90ce9ffe3-ba4d-4131-b160-99f0588088aa

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-blanch63

Interviewee:

Burlin, Paul, 1886-1969  Search this

Interviewer:

Seckler, Dorothy Gees, 1910-1994  Search this

Names:

American Artists' Congress  Search this

Downtown Gallery (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

National Academy of Design (U.S.) -- Students  Search this

United States. Works Progress Administration  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Boas, Franz, 1858-1942  Search this

Gleizes, Albert, 1881-1953  Search this

Halpert, Edith Gregor, 1900-1970  Search this

Huneker, James, 1857-1921  Search this

Matisse, Henri, 1869-1954  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this

Extent:

5 Items (Sound recording: 5 sound files (2 hr., 39 min.), digital, wav)

65 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Sound recordings

Place:

Europe -- description and travel

Southwestern States -- Description and Travel

Date:

1962

Scope and Contents:

Interview of Paul Burlin, conducted on December 5-6, 1962, by Dorothy Gees Seckler, for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Burlin speaks of his childhood education in England; working for the magazine Delineator; his education at the National Academy of Design; his travels in the American Southwest; his early exhibitions in New York; his first wife's writings on folk music; visiting Europe before the first World War; discovering Cubism and Fauvism; working on the WPA under the Whitney Museum; joining and then leaving the American Artists' Congress in protest; his thoughts on overtly political art; exhibiting at the Downtown Gallery; his image-making process; and his critique of Pop art. Burlin also recalls James Huneker, Franz Boas, Albert Gleizes, Henri Matisse, Edith Halpert, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others.

Biographical / Historical:

Paul Burlin (1886-1969) was a painter in New York, New York.

General:

Originally recorded on 5 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 39 min.

Provenance:

This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Art -- Political aspects  Search this

Cubism  Search this

Fauvism  Search this

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

Pop art  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Sponsor:

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Identifier:

AAA.burlin62

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9eb9c540b-b1e1-4898-9d25-193966292e9b

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-burlin62

Interviewee:

Kraushaar, Antoinette M., 1902-1992  Search this

Interviewer:

Berman, Avis  Search this

Extent:

90 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

1982 Feb. 21-Sept. 18

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Antoinette Kraushaar conducted 1982 Feb. 21-Sept. 18, by Avis Berman for the Archives of American Art.

Biographical / Historical:

Antoinette M. Kraushaar (1902-1992) was an art dealer in New York, N.Y.

General:

Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hrs., 18 min.

Provenance:

These interviews are 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 others.

Restrictions:

Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

Occupation:

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

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Identifier:

AAA.kraush82

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9e2a019e5-1357-40d0-b728-95c1effebaa1

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-kraush82

Creator:

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Names:

Whitney Studio Club  Search this

Whitney Studio Galleries  Search this

Baziotes, William, 1912-1963  Search this

Bellows, George, 1882-1925  Search this

Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975  Search this

Bloom, Hyman, 1913-  Search this

Burchfield, Charles Ephraim, 1893-1967  Search this

Burlin, Paul, 1886-1969  Search this

Cadmus, Paul, 1904-1999  Search this

Cassatt, Mary, 1844-1926  Search this

Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946  Search this

Davis, Stuart, 1892-1964  Search this

De Creeft, José, 1884-1982  Search this

Dickinson, Edwin Walter, 1891-1978  Search this

Eilshemius, Louis M. (Louis Michel), 1864-1941  Search this

Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this

Feininger, Lyonel, 1871-1956  Search this

Gatch, Lee, 1902-1968  Search this

Glackens, William J., 1870-1938  Search this

Gorky, Arshile, 1904-1948  Search this

Graves, Morris, 1910-  Search this

Gross, Chaim, 1904-1991  Search this

Grosz, George, 1893-1959  Search this

Harnett, William Michael, 1848-1892  Search this

Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this

Henri, Robert, 1865-1929  Search this

Hofmann, Hans, 1880-1966  Search this

Hopper, Edward, 1882-1967  Search this

Inness, George, 1825-1894  Search this

Karfiol, Bernard, 1886-1952  Search this

Kuhn, Walt, 1877-1949  Search this

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this

Lachaise, Gaston, 1882-1935  Search this

Lawson, Ernest, 1873-1939  Search this

MacIver, Loren, 1909-1998  Search this

Marin, John, 1870-1953  Search this

Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this

Motherwell, Robert  Search this

Mount, William Sidney, 1807-1868  Search this

Nevelson, Louise, 1899-1988  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this

Pereira, I. Rice (Irene Rice), 1902-1971  Search this

Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956  Search this

Prendergast, Maurice Brazil, 1858-1924  Search this

Pène Du Bois, Guy, 1884-1958  Search this

Reder, Bernard, 1897-1963  Search this

Rimmer, William, 1816-1879  Search this

Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002  Search this

Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970  Search this

Ryder, Albert Pinkham, 1847-1917  Search this

Schnakenberg, H. E. (Henry Ernest), 1892-1970  Search this

Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965  Search this

Sloan, John, 1871-1951  Search this

Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this

Stella, Joseph, 1877-1946  Search this

Tobey, Mark  Search this

Twachtman, John Henry, 1853-1902  Search this

Tworkov, Jack  Search this

Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965  Search this

Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this

Wyant, A. H. (Alexander Helwig), 1836-1892  Search this

Young, Mahonri Mackintosh, 1877-1957  Search this

Zorach, William, 1887-1966  Search this

Extent:

78 Microfilm reels

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Microfilm reels

Date:

1914-1966

Scope and Contents:

REELS N591-N597: Photographs of the Museum, Juliana Force, Herman Moore; scrapbooks on the Whitney Studio Club, Whitney Studio Galleries and the Museum, 1927-1965.

REELS N599-N604: Notebooks of Edwin W. Dickinson; photographs and provenance information for works by Philip Evergood; a catalog of information and some photographs of Chinese ink drawings and other works by Reginald Marsh; and photographs and information on Bernard Reder, Jack Tworkov, Max Weber (portions also microfilmed on reel NY59-8 (fr. 497-658), reel NY59-9 (fr. 1-51), and William Zorach.

REELS N604-N609: Exhibition catalogs, 1946-1966, for artists and groups shows at the Museum, including Robert Feke, William Rimmer, Ralph Blakelock, Albert Maurer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Thomas Cole, Max Weber, Arshile Gorky, Mark Tobey, John Sloan, Loren MacIver, I. Rice Pereira, George Grosz, Reginald Marsh, Charles Burchfield, Morris Graves, Theodore Roszak, John Marin, Hans Hofmann, Bradley Tomlin, Stuart Davis, Milton Avery, Lee Gatch, Jose De Creeft, Maurice Prendergast, Edward Hopper, Hyman Bloom, Robert E. Jones, Balcomb Greene, Karl Zerbe, Arthur G. Dove, William Zorach, Philip Evergood, Bernard Reder, Herbert Feber, Oliver O'Connor Barrett,Arthur B. Davies, Jose De Rivera, Paul Burlin, Joseph Stella, Jack Tworkov, Ivan Albright, Stuart Davis, Edwin Dickinson, John Quidor, and Niles Spencer.

REELS N646-N694: Artists' files on: Oliver O'Connor Barrett,William Baziotes, George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benton, Peter Blume, James Brooks, Patrick Henry Bruce, Charles Burchfield, Paul Burlin, David Burliuk, Paul Cadmus, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Cole, Glenn Coleman, Jon Corbino, John Steuart Curry, Jo Davidson, Arthur B. Davies, Jose DeCreeft, Charles Demuth, Jose De Rivera, Arthur Dove, Guy Pène du Bois, Stuart Davis, Frank Duveneck, Ralph Earl, Eastman Johnson, The Eight, Philip Evergood, Robert Feke, Lyonel Feininger, Ernest Fiene, George Fuller, Lee Gatch, William Glackens, Arshile Gorky, Balcomb Greene, Chaim Gross, George Grosz, William Harnett, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, John Heliker, Robert Henri, Hans Hofmann, George Inness, Leon Kelly, Franz Kline, Karl Knaths, Leon Kroll, Walt Kuhn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Gaston Lachaise, Robert Laurent, Ernest Lawson, Jack Levine, Seymour Lipton, George B. Luks,

Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Loren MacIver, John Marin, Reginald Marsh, Alfred Maurer, K. H. Miller, Robert Motherwell, William Mount, Jerome Myers, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O'Keeffe (portions also microfilmed on reels NY59-13 (fr. 98-115, 406-424, 586-685), reel NY59-14 (entire), and reel NY59-15 (fr. 1-140, 145-153), I. Rice Pereira, Bernard Perlin, Joseph Pollett, Jackson Pollock, Reginald Pollack, Henry V. Poor, Richard Pousette-Dart, Maurice Prendergast, Abraham Rattner, Bernard Reder, Ad Reinhardt, William Rimmer, Larry Rivers, Hugo Robus, Theodore Roszak, Mark Rothko, Concetta Scarvaglione, Henry Schnakenberg, Ben Shahn, John Sloan, David Smith, Eugene Speicher, Theodoros Stamos, Joseph Stella, Maurice Sterne, Mark Tobey, Bradley Tomlin,Trajan, Allen Tucker, John Twachtman, Jack Tworkov, Abraham Walkowitz (also on reel NY/59-15) , Max Weber, James M. Whistler, Gertrude Whitney, Grant Wood, Alexander Wyant, Mahonri Young, and William Zorach.

REELS NWH 1-NWH 7: Artist files on Charles Sheeler, Bernard Karfiol, Louis Eilshemius; scatterred records of the Whitney Studio Club and Museum, 1914-1945, including minutes, Oct. 15, 1930, and Whitney Studio ledgers, 1928-1931; catalogs of one-man shows, 1932-1945; catalogs of annual painting exhibitions, 1932-1940, sculpture, watercolor and drawing exhibitions, 1933-1945, and group exhibitions, 1932-1945; and clippings, Oct. 1935-1936.

REELS NY59/8 (fr. 256-end)-NY59/10: Files on Max Weber, including biographical material, lists of work, and miscellany. Also found (NY59/8 frames 354-383) are ca.20 letters from Weber to Abraham Walkowitz, 1907-1924.

Biographical / Historical:

Whitney Museum of American Art is an American art museum in New York, New York. Founded by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and formally opened in 1931. Previous to its opening as a museum it was known as the Whitney Studio Club (1914-28) and Whitney Studio Galleries (1928-30).

Provenance:

The Weber files on reels NY59/8-10 were lent for microfilming 1959 by the Whitney Museum of American Art; the remainder was lent 1964-1967; additional material from the Museum was lent at the same time, and subsequently donated, including the papers of Lloyd Goodrich, Juliana Force, Thomas B. Clarke, the American Art Research Council, and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney; these have each been cataloged separately. Portions of Weber, and O'Keeffe material that was microfilmed in 1959 were refilmed in 1967.

Restrictions:

The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.

Topic:

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

Artists -- Exhibitions -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Function:

Art museums -- New York (State)

Identifier:

AAA.whitmuse

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw990da7b91-a3b8-4ace-b8ba-b5c08cfe3284

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-whitmuse

Creator:

Goodrich, Lloyd, 1897-1987  Search this

Names:

American Art Research Council  Search this

American Federation of Arts  Search this

Artist Tenants Association (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Artists Equity Association  Search this

Association of Art Museum Directors  Search this

National Council on the Arts and Government  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Dows, Olin, 1904-1981  Search this

Eakins, Thomas, 1844-1916  Search this

Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this

Homer, Winslow, 1836-1910  Search this

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo, 1889-1953  Search this

Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954  Search this

Miller, Kenneth Hayes, 1876-1952  Search this

Newman, Elias, 1903-  Search this

Rich, Daniel Catton, 1904-1976  Search this

Ryder, Albert Pinkham, 1847-1917  Search this

Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987  Search this

Extent:

35.7 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Transcripts

Interviews

Scrapbooks

Date:

1884-1987

bulk 1927-1987

Summary:

The papers of art historian, writer, and museum administrator Lloyd Goodrich measure 35.7 linear feet and date from 1884 to 1987 with the bulk of the material dating from 1927 to 1987. Materials include biographical material, extensive correspondence, writings and research files, organization and committee files, exhibition files, printed material, a scrapbook, and photographic material. The collection is particularly rich in research files on Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Albert Pinkham Ryder, and Reginald Marsh, as well as correspondence with additional notable artists and art figures.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of art historian, writer, and museum administrator Lloyd Goodrich measure 35.7 linear feet and date from 1884 to 1987 with the bulk of the material dating from 1927 to 1987. Materials include biographical material, extensive correspondence, writings and research files, organization and committee files, exhibition files, printed material, a scrapbook, and photographic material. The collection is particularly rich in research files on Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Albert Pinkham Ryder, and Reginald Marsh, as well as correspondence with additional notable artists and art figures.

Scattered biographical materials include biographical sketches, an interview transcript, personal business records, documents relating to Goodrich's service on art juries, and awards and honors.

Correspondence is with friends, family, artists, museums, collectors, galleries, and arts organizations. Correspondents include The Arts Magazine, Whitney Museum of Art, Olin Dows, Philip Evergood, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, Kenneth Hayes Miller, Elias Newman, Daniel Catton Rich, and Raphael Soyer among many others. Research related correspondence arranged here concerns work on a catalogue raisonné of Winslow Homer. This material was originally arranged in the correspondence files by Goodrich prior to the later donation that included additional research files on Homer found in Series 3. There are also condolence letters from notable figures in American art.

Writings and research files include major writings, such as books and articles, and book reviews, essays, exhibition text, catalog entries, and lectures. In addition to the writings, Goodrich's research files for the writings are arranged here and include research, notes, correspondence, photographs, illustrations, printed materials, and bibliographies. There are also book agreements. There are extensive files for Goodrich's books on Winslow Homer (see also correspondence in Series 2) and Reginald Marsh; articles, catalog entries, and other writings on Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, and American art in general; lectures and talks; research files on other artists, and notes and notebooks.

Organization and committee files document Goodrich's service on boards, commissions, committees, organizations, and associations, such as the American Federation of Arts, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Carnegie Study in American Art, the National Council on the Arts and Government, American Art Research Council, Artists Equity Association, Artist Tenants Association, the selection committee of the American National Exhibition (1959), and others are found within organization and committee files. Agendas, correspondence, meeting minutes, and printed material are found within the files.

Exhibition files are found only for several Winslow Homer shows. Printed materials include clippings, publicity materials, and printed copies of his writings. Photographic material includes scattered photographs of Goodrich and others, and extensive negatives of works of art, likely by Homer. Also found are x-rays of paintings by Ralph Blakelock.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 8 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1946-1984 (Boxes 1; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1920-1987 (Boxes 1-3; 1.8 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings and Research Files, 1884-1987 (Boxes 3-17, 38; 14.5 linear feet)

Series 4: Organization and Committee files, 1933-1982 (Boxes 17-31, 37; 14.5 linear feet)

Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1944-1986 (Boxes 31-32; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 6: Printed Material, circa 1920s-1979 (Boxes 32-33; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 7: Scrapbook, 1952-1959 (Box 33; 2 folders)

Series 8: Photographic Materials, circa 1910-1987 (Boxes 33-37; 3.1 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

Lloyd Goodrich (1897-1987) was a prominent and influential art historian, writer, and director of the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City, New York, from 1958-1968.

Lloyd Goodrich was born in Nutley, New Jersey in 1897. He studied under Kenneth Hayes Miller at the Art Students League from 1913-1915 and also took courses at the National Academy of Design. Rather than pursue a career as an artist, however, he decided that his real talent was writing about art. He began his long and prolific writing career in 1923-24 and married Edith Havens in 1924. Inspired by the work and writings of European art scholars and a desire to address the need for a body of scholarship on American Art, Goodrich began to research and write about American artists Kenneth Hayes Miller, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Eakins.

Goodrich's first article on Winslow Homer was published in 1924 by The Arts, a magazine financed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and edited by Forbes Watson, who soon hired Goodrich as associate editor. By 1929, Goodrich was also working as assistant art critic for the New York Times while continuing work at The Arts as contributing editor. One year later, The Arts commissioned Goodrich to write a book on Kenneth Hayes Miller. And, around the same time Goodrich became interested in Thomas Eakins, and with the encouragement and financial support from his boyhood friend, artist Reginald Marsh, he began work on a monograph about Eakins.

In 1930, Goodrich joined the staff of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's new American art museum in New York City, the Whitney Museum of American Art. The museum provided him with the funds he needed to research and complete his book on Thomas Eakins, which he achieved in 1933. In 1935, he became curator of the museum, and associate director in 1948. He served as director from 1958-1968. The bequest of the Edward Hopper collection to the Whitney was the result of Goodrich's reputation as a scholar of Edward Hopper. After retiring, Goodrich continued his association with the Whitney as advisory director and director emeritus.

Goodrich was instrumental in starting the American Art Research Council in 1942, a group of museums devoted to collecting scholarly records about American art. He sat on the advisory panels for the New York State Council on the Arts and the Fine Arts Advisory Committee to the White House. In 1933, he was in charge of the New York regional office of the Public Works of Art Project. He also served as chairman of the National Council on the Arts and Government from 1948 to 1954 and was a major force in the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities. He was a member of the Artists Equity Association, Artist Tenants Association, and numerous other arts organizations and a strong advocate for the promotion and support of American art and artists.

Throughout his long and distinguished career as a writer and museum administrator, Lloyd Goodrich worked to build a body of scholarship related to the history of American art and artists. He published several important monographs, including works on Thomas Eakins, Edward Hopper, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Winslow Homer, and Reginald Marsh, and organized major exhibitions about these and many other artists during his 57-year association with the Whitney Museum of American Art. At the time of his death, Goodrich was considered a preeminent figure in the American art world, and one of the foremost authorities on Eakins, Ryder, and Homer, artists on which he kept extensive research files throughout his life.

Lloyd Goodrich died March 27, 1987.

Related Materials:

Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Lloyd Goodrich, 1962-1963 by Harlan Phillips for the Archives of American Art.

Additional Lloyd Goodrich papers are located at the Whitney Museum of American Art Archives, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives.

Separated Materials:

The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 4468) including a photocopy of the manuscript "Albert Pinkham Ryder: The Man and His Art," Goodrich's contribution to the book "Albert Pinkham Ryder: Painter of Dreams" co-authored with William I. Homer. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.

Provenance:

The Lloyd Goodrich papers were given to the Archives of American Art in several different acquisitions. Lloyd Goodrich first donated material in 1983. David Goodrich, Lloyd Goodrich's son, gave more material between 1988 and 2007 while additional papers were lent for microfilming by William I. Homer in 1990. Finally, the Whitney Museum of American Art donated papers in 1996, and Polly Thistlethwaite gave further material in 2015.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Occupation:

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

Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Museum administrators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Museum directors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Function:

Art museums -- New York (State)

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Transcripts

Interviews

Scrapbooks

Citation:

Lloyd Goodrich papers, 1884-1987, bulk 1927-1987. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund

Identifier:

AAA.goodlloy

See more items in:

Lloyd Goodrich papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9ada7dc76-ac75-437a-b234-9f02adf2d57c

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-goodlloy

Creator:

Warner, Keith, 1895-1959  Search this

Names:

"291" (Gallery)  Search this

American Place (Gallery)  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this

Dorcely, Roland  Search this

Macdonald-Wright, Stanton, 1890-1973  Search this

Marin, John, 1870-1953  Search this

Mondrian, Piet, 1872-1944  Search this

O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this

Rosenburg, Paul  Search this

Russell, Morgan, 1886-1953  Search this

Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946  Search this

Weber, Max, 1881-1961  Search this

Extent:

0.7 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Illustrated letters

Sketches

Date:

1935-1975

Summary:

The papers of American art collector Keith Warner measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1975. Correspondence, collecting files, and artwork detail Warner's role as a collector of art in the mid-twentieth century. Present in the collection are materials related to Alexander Calder, Roland Dorcely, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Piet Mondrian, Alfred Stieglitz, and Max Weber.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of American art collector Keith Warner measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1975. Correspondence, collecting files, and artwork detail Warner's role as a collector of art in the mid-twentieth century. Present in the collection are materials related to Alexander Calder, Roland Dorcely, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Piet Mondrian, Alfred Stieglitz, and Max Weber.

Warner's relationships with artists are documented in extensive letters which make up the bulk of the collection. Subjects range from exhibitions, the art market, artists' methods and works, art criticism, and collecting to personal subjects. Letters from Roland Dorcely and Alexander Calder include illustrated letters and postcards. Letters from Calder discuss a mix of business and personal matters, including a discussion of the design of jewelry commissioned for Warner's wife, Edna. Letters from Dorcely document Warner's cultivation, criticism, and collection of Dorcely's work, as well as the hardships of Haitian artists and Dorcely's views on art. The letters are in French with some English translations.

Correspondence with Alfred Stieglitz documents his common endeavor with Warner in collecting the paintings of John Marin, and Stieglitz's gallery, An American Place. Letters associated with An American Place continue after Stieglitz's death in 1946. Found with Alfred Stieglitz's letters are two letters from Georgia O'Keeffe. Max Weber letters include comments on his painting and sculpting, his retrospective show at the Whitney, the art press, national politics, and also refer to Stieglitz and Marin. An extensive group of correspondence with Stanton MacDonald-Wright is mostly undated; MacDonald-Wright writes freely about Stieglitz, the "291" group of artists, and his partner in Synchromism, Morgan Russell. Also included are letters from Piet Mondrian related to collecting, as well as letters from unidentified correspondents.

Warner's collecting files consist of diverse materials concerning his research, writing, and relationships with artists whose paintings he collected, particularly Roland Dorcely and Stanton MacDonald-Wright. Included are biographical sketches; writings about and by the artists, including manuscripts and published materials; newspaper and magazine clippings; exhibition announcements and catalogs; and photographs of works of art. Writings by Roland Dorcely, on the subject of his artistic process and perspective, include handwritten essays in French as well as typed English translations. Published articles from Script magazine (1945-1946) by Stanton MacDonald-Wright document his career as an art critic. Writings on Alexander Calder and Paul Rosenburg, taken from Warner's journal on Calder, and on the early relationship of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, documented on a visit with Stieglitz on May 3, 1944, are also present.

Artwork consists of work by Alexander Calder and Roland Dorcely. Calder's work includes sketches proposing mobiles with notations as to material, scale, and cost. Dorcely's work includes sketches in graphite and ink of abstract figures and objects.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 3 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Correspondence, 1940-1963 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1-2)

Series 2: Collecting Files, circa 1940-1975 (12 folders; Box 2, OV 3)

Series 3: Artwork, circa 1945-circa 1965 (2 folders; Box 2)

Biographical / Historical:

Keith Warner (1895-1959) was an American art collector. Warner was born and lived in Gloversville, New York, and maintained a manufacturing business that took him to New York City intermittently. Warner began collecting Chinese porcelains after World War I, and a few years later his interest shifted to American abstract painting. Warner retired from business in 1944. His collection was sold gradually after his death, mostly to private collectors, though some works are in museums in the United States and Japan.

Provenance:

The Keith Warner papers were donated in 1992 by Edna K. Allen, wife of Keith Warner.

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.

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.

Topic:

Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State)  Search this

Artists -- United States  Search this

Art -- Haiti  Search this

Art, Abstract -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art criticism  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Synchromism (Art)  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Illustrated letters

Sketches

Citation:

Keith Warner papers, 1935-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

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

Identifier:

AAA.warnkeit

See more items in:

Keith Warner papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw97cf79e0a-b1cc-4c06-bf03-80608f90eb97

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-warnkeit

Creator:

Brown, Milton Wolf (Milton Wolf), 1911-1998  Search this

Names:

Armory Show 50th anniversary exhibition (1963 : New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Brooklyn College -- Faculty  Search this

Century Association (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

City University of New York -- Faculty  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Brown, Blanche  Search this

Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000  Search this

Lozowick, Louis, 1892-1973  Search this

Lynes, Russell, 1910-1991  Search this

Meltzoff, Stanley  Search this

Panofsky, Erwin, 1892-1968  Search this

Prendergast, Charles, 1863-1948  Search this

Prendergast, Maurice Brazil, 1858-1924  Search this

Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph), 1878-1965  Search this

Extent:

26 Linear feet

0.225 Gigabytes

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Gigabytes

Travel diaries

Articles

Interviews

Essays

Drafts (documents)

Transcripts

Photographs

Notebooks

Lectures

Scripts (documents)

Date:

1908-1998

Summary:

The papers of art historian and educator Milton Wolf Brown date from 1908 to 1998 and measure 26.0 linear feet and 0.225 GB. The collection documents Brown's career through scattered biographical material, correspondence with friends, publishers, colleagues, artists, museums, and art organizations, travel journals, files for the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, exhibition, research, teaching, and organization files, printed and digital material, and scattered photographs. A large portion of this collection consists of writings by Brown including notebooks, draft writings for books and other publications, lectures, and his writings as a student.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of art historian and educator Milton Wolf Brown date from 1908 to 1998 and measure 25.8 linear feet and 0.225 GB. The collection documents Brown's career through scattered biographical material, correspondence with friends, publishers, colleagues, artists, museums, and art organizations, travel journals, files for the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, exhibition, research, teaching, and organization files, printed and digital material, and scattered photographs. A large portion of this collection consists of writings by Brown including notebooks, draft writings for books and other publications, lectures, and his writings as a student.

Biographical material includes academic records, travel documents, financial documents, Brown's military records, and a transcript of a 1997 interview. Correspondence is with students, museums, universities, publishers, art organizations, and others. The bulk of these letters document Brown's professional activities, but also found are scattered letters from friends, artists, and colleagues such as Russell Lynes, Stanley Meltzoff, Louis Lozowick, Erwin Panofsky, and Paul Sachs.

This collection also contains 33 detailed travel journals written primarily by Milton Brown's wife, Blanche, documenting their travels in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world. Within the writings series are notebooks from the period that Brown was a student and while traveling in Europe in 1959 and 1960; book project files, which include draft writings as well as related correspondence, research material, notes, photographs and other material. Files are found for American Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Decorative Arts, Photography (1979), American Painting, From the Armory Show to the Depression (1955), The Story of the Armory Show (1963, 1988 2nd ed.), and other books. Among the writings are files for lectures written by Brown; essays, articles, and scripts written for various publications; general research notes and student writings; and writings by others sent to Brown for review and feedback.

Brown maintained a set of files documenting his work on the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, which consist of correspondence, drafts, reports, and research materials, including notes on twenty meetings with Mrs. Prendergast. Exhibition files document Brown's work as curator on several major exhibitions, including a Jacob Lawrence exhibition at the Whitney Museum, and his contributions to others. Also found here are three interviews of Milton Brown and Marcel Duchamp concerning the 50th Anniversary of the Armory Show and anniversary exhibition. Research files include notes, research material, and printed material on various art-related subjects that were maintained by Milton and Blanche Brown for regular use for lectures, teaching, and writing projects. Brown's teaching files contain scattered lecture notes, syllabi, correspondence, faculty records, and other materials from his time at CUNY, Brooklyn College, and other visiting professorships. Organization Files contain correspondence, reports, planning documents, and event materials. These records document his membership or advisory role in various organizations such as the Archives of American Art and Century Association.

This collection also contains printed material, such as exhibition announcements, newsletters, brochures, journals, event programs, and magazine and newspapers clippings compiled by Brown. Scattered photographs include nine photographs of Milton Brown, a few photographs of friends, and photographs of artwork.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 11 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1932-1998 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1908, 1934-1998 (Boxes 1-3; 1.8 linear feet)

Series 3: Travel Journals, 1941-1996 (Boxes 3-4; 1.6 linear feet)

Series 4: Writings, circa 1929-1990s (Boxes 4-13, 25; 8.7 linear feet)

Series 5: Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, circa 1952-1990 (Boxes 13-14, 25; 1.8 linear feet)

Series 6: Exhibition Files, 1962-circa 1997 (Boxes 14-16, 28; 2.0 linear feet, ER01; 0.225 GB)

Series 7: Research Files, circa 1930s-1986 (Boxes 16-19; 3.0 linear feet)

Series 8: Teaching Files, circa 1946-1993 (Boxes 19-21; 2.0 linear feet)

Series 9: Organization Files, 1959-1995 (Boxes 21-22; 1.3 linear feet)

Series 10: Printed Material, 1925-1990s (Boxes 22-24, 26, 27; 3.2 linear feet)

Series 11: Photographs, circa 1956-1990s (Boxes 25, 27; 0.2 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Milton Wolf Brown (1911-1998) was an art historian and educator in New York City.

Known to his friends as "Mainey," Brown was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1911. At a young age he intended to be a painter and studied with Louis Lozowick. However, instead of attending art school, he entered New York University to study education and eventually received his master's and doctorate in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts. While there he took courses with Walter Friedlander, Erwin Panofsky, and Mayer Schapiro. He also received fellowships to the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1934 and Brussels in 1937, and studied from 1938-1939 at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. In 1938 he married fellow student Blanche Levine. After serving in World War II, he began teaching in the art department at Brooklyn College in 1946. There he developed a specialization in American art history and his doctoral dissertation, American Painting from the Armory Show to the Depression, was published in 1955. In 1963 he participated in the fiftieth anniversary exhibition of the 1913 Armory Show. The publication of his book Story of the Armory Show coincided with this event.

In 1971 Brown established the graduate program in Art History at the City University of New York, which became preeminent in the areas of modern art and American art history. During the 1980s he remained a resident professor at CUNY, though he retired in 1979, and he held visiting professorships at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. From 1983 to 1987 he had a senior fellowship at Williams College for the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project.

Over the course of his career Brown curated exhibitions, including an exhibition on the works of Jacob Lawrence and The Modern Spirit: American Painting and Photography, 1908-1935, and wrote for numerous publications. He also served as an active member of several professional societies. Brown was close friends with art scholars and artists, such as Jack Levine, Moses and Raphael Soyer, Ad Reinhardt, and Paul Strand. In 1991 he returned to painting landscape watercolors, and had the opportunity to exhibit his work before his death in 1998.

Related Material:

Also at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Milton Wolf Brown, conducted in 1976 by Paul Cummings.

Provenance:

The Milton Wolf Brown papers were donated in 2000 and 2001 by Blanche R. Brown, Brown's widow. Three reel-to reel sound recordings were lent for duplication to cassette and transcript in 1986 by Milton Brown. A cassette copy of the Martha Deane interview was donated in 2006 by Milton Brown's estate, via Naomi Rosenblum. Additional material was donated in 2002 and 2004 by Naomi Rosenblum, executor for the estate of Blanche R. Brown, who died in 2002.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Occupation:

Art museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

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

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

Topic:

Art, American History Sources  Search this

Genre/Form:

Travel diaries

Articles

Interviews

Essays

Drafts (documents)

Transcripts

Photographs

Notebooks

Lectures

Scripts (documents)

Citation:

Milton Wolf Brown papers, 1908-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

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

Identifier:

AAA.browmilt

See more items in:

Milton Wolf Brown papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9c2f1a099-bc53-4b03-a5fd-61e0feca9db8

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-browmilt

Creator:

Vicente, Esteban, 1903-2001  Search this

Interviewer:

Sandler, Irving, 1925-  Search this

Names:

Avery, Milton, 1885-1965  Search this

Dalí, Salvador, 1904-1989  Search this

De Kooning, Elaine  Search this

De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this

Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011  Search this

Kline, Franz, 1910-1962  Search this

Marca-Relli, Conrad, 1913-2000  Search this

Mitchell, Joan, 1926-1992  Search this

Pach, Walter, 1883-1958  Search this

Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956  Search this

Resnick, Milton, 1917-2004  Search this

Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970  Search this

Extent:

86 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Interviews

Place:

Spain -- History -- Civil War, 1936-1939

Date:

1968 August 26

Scope and Contents:

Interview of Esteban Vicente conducted 1968 August 26, by Irving Sandler, for the Archives of American Art. Vicente speaks of the gallery activity of the 1940s and 1950s; The Club and the exhibition on 9th Street arranged by many of those artists; remembering Mark Rothko as a casual acquaintance and the society of artists living in the Hamptons; coming to the United States, acting as vice-consul in Philadelphia for the Loyalist camp during the Spanish Civil War; and his own work and his feelings about the work of his contemporaries. He recalls Bill de Kooning, Franz Kline, John Ferrin, Marca-Relli, Milton Resnick, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Walter Pach, Elaine de Kooning, Milton Avery, Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, and many others.

Biographical / Historical:

Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) was a painter in New York, New York. and Bridgehampton, New York.

Provenance:

This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

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

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sponsor:

Funding for the interview was provided by the Mark Rothko Foundation.

Identifier:

AAA.vicent68

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw952b2e3c6-c451-4016-946d-a24f43883c09

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-vicent68

Interviewee:

Richenburg, Robert  Search this

Interviewer:

Seckler, Dorothy Gees, 1910-1994  Search this

Names:

Cornell University -- Faculty  Search this

Extent:

11 Pages (Transcript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

1968 August 27

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Robert Richenburg conducted 1968 August 27, by Dorothy Seckler, for the Archives of American Art.

Richenburg speaks of the evolution of his work through experimentation with different materials and processes; his time teaching at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.; his views on young artists and the arts scene in New York City at the time, including Funk art, Pop art and Minimalism; his use of temporal materials and replaceable parts in his work to express his idea that "Living itself has to do with participating in the rhythms of growth and the rhythms of change." He also speaks of his work criticizing the Vietnam War.

Biographical / Historical:

Robert Richenburg (1917-2006) was a painter and sculptor from Ithaca, N.Y.

General:

Sound quality is poor; worsens mid-interview.

Originally recorded on 1 sound tape. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 59 min.

Provenance:

These interviews are 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 others.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Art -- Political aspects  Search this

Art -- Technique  Search this

Minimal art  Search this

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

Pop art  Search this

Sculptors -- New York (State) -- Ithaca -- Interviews  Search this

Vietnam War, 1961-1975  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Identifier:

AAA.richen68

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw920a3c6f1-fbb5-4d5d-9a40-c278363bbe2b

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-richen68

Creator:

Terry Dintenfass, Inc.  Search this

Names:

Art Dealers Association of America  Search this

Grace Borgenicht Gallery  Search this

Bloom, Hyman, 1913-  Search this

Cober, Alan E.  Search this

Dintenfass, Terry, 1920-  Search this

Dove, Arthur Garfield, 1880-1946  Search this

Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this

Fleischner, Richard, 1944-  Search this

Frasconi, Antonio  Search this

Goodman, Sidney  Search this

King, William, 1925-2015  Search this

Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000  Search this

Merkin, Richard  Search this

Pippin, Horace, 1888-1946  Search this

Suttman, Paul, 1933-1993  Search this

Tovish, Harold, 1921-2008  Search this

Extent:

22.1 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Visitors' books

Date:

1947-1987

bulk 1961-1983

Summary:

The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records are comprised of administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.

Scope and Contents:

The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records include administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.

Administrative files include advertising and membership records, insurance documents, a guest book, resumes, and agreements with other corporations. Correspondence is with artists, galleries, museums, and arts organizations. There is a significant amount of correspondence regarding the Art Dealers Association of America. Exhibition files are found for numerous exhibitions to which Dintenfass either loaned art or helped to organize. There is extensive documentation of the 20 Galleries/20 Years exhibition held at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery and the Terry Dintenfass Gallery in 1982 and the "Machine Themed Shows" in 1974-1975.

Artists' files comprise the largest group of materials within the collection. Files for Hyman Bloom, Alan Cober, Arthur Dove, Philip Evergood, Richard Fleischner, Antonio Frasconi, Sidney Goodman, William King, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Merkin, Horace Pippin, Paul Suttman, and Harold Tovish bulk the largest.

Financial records contain artist expense and sales ledgers, consignment papers, invoices and receipts, as well as records for D Contemporary Paintings.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 5 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Administrative Files, 1961-1983 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1961-1981 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)

Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1962-1983 (4.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-7, OV 23)

Series 4: Artists' Files, 1947-1987 (8.5 linear feet; Boxes 7-15, OV 23)

Series 5: Financial Records, 1959-1981 (7.0 linear feet; Boxes 16-22, OV 23)

Biographical / Historical:

Terry Dintenfass, Inc. is a New York City art gallery founded in 1959 by Terry Dintenfass (1920-2004).

In 1954, Theresa "Terry" Dintenfass opened D Contemporary Paintings in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With financial backing from Armand Erpf, she moved the gallery to New York City in 1959 and changed the name to Terry Dintenfass Gallery. There, she became a protégé of Downtown Gallery owner Edith Halpert. Dintenfass was one of several notable female art dealers in the city during the 1940s-1980s among Edith Halpert, Betty Parsons, Grace Borgenicht, Antoinette Kraushaar, and others. She showed work on consignment from other dealers, and when Edith Halpert retired, Terry Dintenfass, Inc. began to represent the estate of Arthur Dove. Other notable artists represented by the gallery included social realists Philip Evergood and Robert Gwathmey, and African American painters Horace Pippin and Jacob Lawrence, whom she represented for 25 years. The gallery's stable also included William King, Sidney Goodman, Hyman Bloom, Antonio Frasconi, and others.

After Dintenfass retired in 1999, her son Andrew took over the business and continues to run the gallery today. Terry Dintenfass died in 2004 in Manhattan.

Related Materials:

Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Terry Dintenfass conducted by Paul Cummings on December 2, 1974-January 13, 1975 for the Archives of American Art.

Provenance:

The collection was donated in 1995 by Terry Dintenfass.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center.

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.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Function:

Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)

Genre/Form:

Visitors' books

Citation:

Terry Dintenfass, Inc. records, 1947-1987, bulk 1961-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

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

Identifier:

AAA.terrdint

See more items in:

Terry Dintenfass, Inc. records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9e485640b-ef7f-49bb-8964-fed4c50e6438

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-terrdint

Creator:

Richard York Gallery  Search this

Names:

Art Dealers Association of America  Search this

De Forest, Lockwood, 1850-1932  Search this

Goldyne, Joseph R.  Search this

Hale, Ellen Day, 1855-1940  Search this

Hill, J. W. (John William), 1812-1879  Search this

Hill, John Henry, 1839-1922  Search this

Hornby, Lester George, 1882-1956  Search this

Lozowick, Louis, 1892-1973  Search this

Lucioni, Luigi, 1900-1988  Search this

MacRae, Emma Fordyce, 1887-1974  Search this

Mapplethorpe, Robert  Search this

Marin, John, 1870-1953  Search this

Marin, John, Jr., 1915?-1988  Search this

Smith, Houghton Cranford, 1887-1983  Search this

Stella, Joseph, 1877-1946  Search this

Stevens, Will Henry, 1881-1949  Search this

Wheeler, Steve, 1912-1992  Search this

York, Richard  Search this

Extent:

87.5 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Date:

circa 1865-2008

bulk 1981-2004

Summary:

The records of the Richard York Gallery, a New York gallery specializing in American art from early 1800s to 1950, measure 87.5 linear feet and date from circa 1865-2005, with the bulk of the material dating from 1981 to 2004. The collection contains artists' artwork files, documenting the sale and consignment of nearly 6,500 works of art. The gallery's activities are also recorded through correspondence, artists' files, client files, gallery invoices, inventories, business and financial records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographic materials of artwork, and estate records for the John Marin estate and Sergio Stella estate (Joseph Stella).

Scope and Content Note:

The records of the Richard York Gallery, a New York gallery specializing in American art from early 1800s to 1950, measure 87.5 linear feet and date from circa 1865-2005, with the bulk of the material dating from 1981 to 2004. The bulk of the records are artists' artwork files, documenting the sale and consignment of nearly 6,500 works of art. The gallery's activities are also recorded through correspondence, artists' files, client files, gallery invoices, inventories, business and financial records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographic materials of artwork, and estate records for the John Marin estate and Sergio Stella estate (Joseph Stella).

Correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence with collectors, clients, galleries and museums, primarily regarding appraisals, consignments, exhibitions, general inquiries, loans, and sales. Also found are scattered transactional records, information sheets for artwork, and photographic materials. Correspondence from the mid-late 1980s is poorly represented.

The sale and consignment of nearly 6,500 pieces of artwork at the Richard York Gallery are documented through transactional records, photographic materials, correspondence, and scattered printed materials found in the Artists' Artwork Files. Artists for which there are significant quantities of materials (over 50 folders) include Joseph Goldyne, Ellen Day Hale, John Henry Hill, John William Hill, Lester George Hornby, Louis Lozowick, Luigi Lucioni, Emma Fordyce MacRae, John Marin, Joseph Stella, William Henry Stevens, and Steve Wheeler. Also included are the files of the Richard York photography collection, which contained works by Robert Mapplethorpe.

Similar to the Artists' Artwork Files, Client Files document the sale and consignment of artwork, but are arranged by artist's and client's name. Materials found are primarily from the early 1990s and include correspondence, notes, photographic materials, photocopied client information cards, and printed materials.

The Richard York Gallery represented the John Marin estate and the Sergio Stella estate (Joseph Stella). The records of the John Marin estate are primarily artwork in-take sheets from 1998 and inventory lists from 2001. The Sergio Stella Estate records include correspondence, inventories of artwork by Joseph Stella, and some photographic materials.

Sales and inventory records contain a nearly complete set of gallery invoices from 1995-2000, and 2004. Inventories includes gallery inventory lists, and inventory cards of sold artwork from 1981-1997 (bulk 1981-1991).

The business and financial records include accounting records, bank deposit records, corporate records, index cards for contacts, invoices for gallery expenses, materials related to Richard York's involvement in the ADAA, mailing lists, records of payments to consignors, receipts, shipping records, and tax records. The gallery migrated from paper records to Artbase, an artwork management system, around 2000-2002. Included are two CDs of database data and digital images from Artbase, as well as inventories of the digital file names.

Printed materials contain advertising tear sheets from 1998-2002, exhibition catalogs, magazine and newspaper clippings of reviews and announcements, and other miscellaneous printed materials. Printed materials are also found in eight scrapbooks which document the activities of the Richard York Gallery, Richard York, and the gallery's exhibitions from 1981-2002. Materials in the scrapbooks include clippings, correspondence, photographs, exhibition catalogs, announcements, and invitations.

Photographic materials includes color photographs, transparencies, digital prints, and scattered printed materials, as well as over 600 slides of artwork, primarily works of art which were sold or consigned by the gallery. Artists for which there is significant volume of transparencies include Houghton Cranford Smith and Lockwood de Forest, Sr.

Artists' files consist mostly of photocopied newspaper and magazine clippings, writings about the artist, and exhibition catalogs. Some original copies of printed material, correspondence with collectors, curators, and gallerists, photographic materials, artwork records, and some exhibition records are also present.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 10 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Correspondence, 1975-2005 (Boxes 1-7, 81; 6.4 linear feet)

Series 2: Artists' Artwork Files, circa 1865-2004 (Boxes 7-64; 56.85 linear feet)

Series 3: Client Files, 1965, circa 1981-circa 2004 (Box 64; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 4: Estate Records, 1983-circa 2004 (Boxes 64-65; 1.0 linear feet)

Series 5: Sales and Inventory Records, 1977-2004 (Boxes 65-70; 5.0 linear feet)

Series 6: Business and Financial Records, 1974-2005 (Boxes 70-77, 81; 6.25 linear feet)

Series 7: Printed Materials, 1980-2004 (Boxes 77-78; 1.1 linear feet)

Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1981-2002 (Boxes 78, 80; 1.0 linear feet)

Series 9: Photographic Materials, 1977-2004 (Boxes 78-79; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 10: Artists' Files, 1922-2008 (Boxes 81-89; 8 linear feet)

Historical Note:

Richard T. York (circa 1950-2003) opened his eponymous gallery in the spring of 1981 on East 65th Street in New York City. Specializing in American painting and sculpture from early 1800s to 1950, the Richard York Gallery dealt in the artwork of hundreds of artists including Albert Bierstadt, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Lockwood de Forest, John Graham, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, Charles Sheeler, and Steve Wheeler. It also represented the estates of artists John Marin and Joseph Stella.

Richard York passed away in April 2003, and the gallery closed in May 2004.

Provenance:

The Richard York Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art in 2006 by Kevin Scott, the executor of Richard York's estate; and in 2015 by Lisa Bush Hankin, former gallery director.

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.

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.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Art -- Economic aspects  Search this

Function:

Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks

Photographs

Citation:

Richard York Gallery records, circa 1865-2005, bulk 1981-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care Fund

Identifier:

AAA.richyorg

See more items in:

Richard York Gallery records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9840d344b-113b-4019-9b6b-8327b4395bb0

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-richyorg

Creator:

Hills, Patricia  Search this

Names:

Women's Caucus for Art  Search this

Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000  Search this

Neel, Alice, 1900-1984  Search this

Sargent, John Singer, 1856-1925  Search this

Stevens, May  Search this

Extent:

47.5 Linear feet

0.113 Gigabytes

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Gigabytes

Date:

circa 1900-2022

bulk 1968-2009

Summary:

The papers of art historian, curator, and educator Patricia Hills measure 47.5 linear feet and 0.113 GB and date from circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Central to this collection are project files documenting professional work that resulted in lectures, publications, exhibitions, art history courses on numerous artists including Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, May Stevens, Rudolf Baranik, and John Singer Sargent. These files and files documenting Hills's tenure at the Whitney Museum of American Art include planning documents, research files, correspondence, manuscripts and accompanying publications, as well as other printed materials. Some of this material is in digital format. The collection also contains correspondence with art historians, artists, curators, and others, notably Lawrence Alloway, Lowery Stokes Sims, Lucy R. Lippard, T.J. Clark, Leon Golub, and Donald Kuspit; professional files documenting grants and residencies awarded and consulting work; artist and subject files; other writings; and printed and digital material. Membership and affiliation records document Hills' service to the profession, including Women's Caucus for Art and the Visual Culture/Art History Caucus of the American Studies Association.

There is an 8.4 linear foot unprocssed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes Patricia Hills' research material regarding Eastman Johnson, consisting of biographical information; professional correspondence; printed material; institutional, exhibition, subject and genre files for Eastman Johnson's works of art; photographs of works of art; writings and lectures; catalog cards; and files regarding works not by Johnson.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of art historian, curator, and educator Patricia Hills measure 47.5 linear feet and 0.113 GB and date from circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Central to this collection are project files documenting professional work that resulted in lectures, publications, exhibitions, art history courses on numerous artists including Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, May Stevens, Rudolf Baranik, and John Singer Sargent. These files and files documenting Hills's tenure at the Whitney Museum of American Art include planning documents, research files, correspondence, manuscripts and accompanying publications, as well as other printed materials. Some material is in digital format. The collection also contains correspondence with art historians, artists, curators, and others, notably Lawrence Alloway, Lowery Stokes Sims, Lucy R. Lippard, T.J. Clark, Leon Golub, and Donald Kuspit; professional files documenting grants and residencies awarded and consulting work; artist and subject files; other writings; and printed and digital material. Membership and affiliation records document Hills' service to the profession, including Women's Caucus for Art and the Visual Culture/Art History Caucus of the American Studies Association.

There is an 8.4 linear foot unprocssed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes Patricia Hills' research material regarding Eastman Johnson, consisting of biographical information; professional correspondence; printed material; institutional, exhibition, subject and genre files for Eastman Johnson's works of art; photographs of works of art; writings and lectures; catalog cards; and files regarding works not by Johnson.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 13 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1958-2019 (2.6 Linear Feet; Boxes 1-2, 25)

Series 2: Project Files, circa 1900-2011 (15.2 Linear Feet; Boxes 3-13, 25-30, OV24, 0.041 GB; ER01-ER02)

Series 3: Whitney Museum Files, circa 1900-2015, bulk 1973-1987 (4.1 Linear Feet; Boxes 13-16, 30)

Series 4: Boston University Files, circa 1974-2015 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 30-31)

Series 5: Professional Files, circa 1959-2019 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 17-18, 32)

Series 6: Membership and Affiliation Records, circa 1969-2013 (2 linear feet; Boxes 18-20, 32)

Series 7: Museum of Fine Arts Restructuring Files, circa 1997-2005 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 32-33)

Series 8: Writings, circa 1962-2019 (5.4 linear feet; Boxes 20-21, 34-38, 0.068 GB; ER03, ER05)

Series 9: Teaching Files, circa 1974-2019 (0.9 linear feet; Box 39)

Series 10: Artist Files, circa 1958-2014 (0.9 Linear Feet; Box 21)

Series 11: Subject Files, circa 1961-2007 (1.0 linear Feet; Box 22, 0.004 GB; ER04)

Series 12: Printed Material, circa 1970-2010 (1.0 linear Feet; Box 23)

Series 13: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1970-2022 (8.4 linear feet; Boxes 40-49)

Biographical / Historical:

Patricia Hills (1936-) is an art historian, curator, and Professor Emerita of American Art and African American Art at Boston University. Hills obtained a B.A. from Stanford University in Modern European Literature, an M.A. from Hunter College in 1968, where she was advised by Leo Steinberg, and her PhD. from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Hills worked as Associate and later Adjunct Curator of 18th and 19th Century American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1972 until 1987. During that time she organized exhibitions including John Singer Sargent (1986) while progressively becoming more invested as an educator, with teaching positions at Hunter College and the Institute of Fine Arts. In February 2011 she received the Distinguished Teaching of Art History award from the College Art Association.

Hills served as the Director of the Boston University Art Gallery from 1980-1989, and began her tenure in the art history department as Associate Professor in 1978. She was co-founder of the Boston Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art and was highly active in the College Art Association and American Studies Association. She has held fellowships at numerous institutions including the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

As a principal author she is responsible for organizing a number of monograph and exhibition catalog publishing efforts including Painting Harlem Modern: The Art of Jacob Lawrence (2010), May Stevens (2005), Eastman Johnson: Painting America (co-authored, 1999), John Singer Sargent (1986), Alice Neel (1983), Social Concern and Urban Realism: American Painting of the 1930s (1983), Turn-of-the-Century America: Paintings, Graphics, Photographs, 1890-1910 (1977), The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910 (1974), and The American Frontier: Images and Myths (1973). In addition, Patricia Hills has authored numerous articles for art publications, served as reviewer for College Art Association's CAA Reviews, and has contributed greatly as a peer reviewer and editor. From 1990 to 1999, she served as series editor for six books in the Cambridge Studies in American Visual Culture series, published by Cambridge University Press.

Provenance:

Donated in 2006, 2018, 2019 and 2022 by Patricia Hills.

Restrictions:

This collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing. 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.

Writings by Patricia Hills: The donor has retained all intellectual rights, including copyright, that she may own.

Occupation:

Educators -- Massachusetts -- Boston  Search this

Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Boston  Search this

Museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

African American artists  Search this

Art, American -- 19th century  Search this

Art -- Political aspects  Search this

Women artists  Search this

Women educators  Search this

Women art historians  Search this

Women museum curators  Search this

Citation:

Patricia Hills Papers, circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.hillspat

See more items in:

Patricia Hills papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw94c3f79a5-92b6-4d74-8ddb-d1957923a415

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-hillspat

Creator:

National Academy of Design (U.S.)  Search this

Names:

American Federation of Arts  Search this

Abbey, Edwin Austin, 1852-1911  Search this

Durand, Asher Brown, 1796-1886  Search this

Lanyon, Ellen  Search this

Ranger, Henry Ward, 1858-1916  Search this

Extent:

92.7 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Drawings

Scrapbooks

Interviews

Date:

1817-2012

Summary:

The records of New York City's National Academy of Design measure 92.7 linear feet and date from 1817-2012. The records pertain to all three constituents of the tripartite organization consisting of the Academy, a membership body of artists founded in 1825; the school, founded at the same time to promote arts education; and the exhibition program, inaugurated in 1826. Extensive administrative records include minutes, committee files, director files, annual reports, constitutions, and correspondence and subject files of council officers. Exhibition records, also substantive, date to the Academy's first annual exhibition and include gallery and special exhibitions, as well as exhibitions at the Academy's museum, established in 1979. The collection also includes gifts and funding files, especially relating to endowments and prizes; membership records; National Academy Association records; Ranger Fund assignments; extensive files pertaining to the school's administration, courses of instruction, registrations, and attendance; twenty scrapbooks containing clippings and ephemera; Society of American Artists records; correspondence and ephemera from other organizations; transcripts from oral histories with Academy members; extensive photographic material documenting artists, members, the school, exhibitions, buildings, and artwork created by Academy members; artist files containing correspondence, writings, and sketches from those associated with the Academy; and assorted printed material and ephemera.

Scope and Contents:

The records of New York City's National Academy of Design measure 92.7 linear feet and date from 1817-2012. The records pertain to all three constituents of the tripartite organization consisting of the Academy, a membership body of artists founded in 1825; the school, founded at the same time to promote arts education; and the exhibition program, inaugurated in 1826. Extensive administrative records include minutes, committee files, director files, annual reports, constitutions, and correspondence and subject files of council officers. Exhibition records, also substantive, date to the Academy's first annual exhibition and include gallery and special exhibitions, as well as exhibitions at the Academy's museum, established in 1979. The collection also includes gifts and funding files, especially relating to endowments and prizes; membership records; National Academy Association records; Ranger Fund assignments; extensive files pertaining to the school's administration, courses of instruction, registrations, and attendance; twenty scrapbooks containing clippings and ephemera; Society of American Artists records; correspondence and ephemera from other organizations; transcripts from oral histories with Academy members; extensive photographic material documenting artists, members, the school, exhibitions, buildings, and artwork created by Academy members; artist files containing correspondence, writings, and sketches from those associated with the Academy; and assorted printed material and ephemera.

The Academy minutes and committee files consist of official, original, and transcribed proceedings for the council, annual, business, and some committee meetings, as well as related correspondence, reports, financial documents, notes, drafts, and ballots pertaining to the Academy's administration and activities from its 1825 founding until 2006. As an organization actively engaged in the development of art and art education in the United States, the Academy minutes and committee files are a valuable resource on subjects and topics in the Academy's history; in particular, its founding, administration, school, and exhibition program.

Director files date from 1942-1990 and document the activities of four of the Academy's chief administrators, including Vernon Porter (1950-1966), Earl Tyler (1966-1967), Alice Melrose (1967-1977), and John H. Dobkin (1978-1990). Items include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, and printed material.

Annual reports, dating from 1828-2003, summarize the activities of the Academy over the course of a year, and may include presidents' reports, treasurers' reports, audits of financial operations by public accountants, and printed annual reports containing summaries from multiple council officers. Information pertains to the year's activities including finances, exhibitions, membership, the school, committee activities, awards, and other business.

Academy constitutions date from 1826-2012 and include the printed constitutions and by-laws as well as constitutional proposals. Constitutions and by-laws name the current council officials, professors, academicians, associates, and honorary members, and state the mission and guidelines for operation in regards to membership, officers, annual meetings, elections, school, exhibitions, and how the constitution can be amended or altered. Constitutional proposals contain amendment drafts, alterations, and related correspondence.

Council officer files, dating from 1848-1980, contain the correspondence and subjects files of Academy officers—presidents, vice presidents, corresponding secretaries, and treasurers—concerning all matters of Academy business and operations including membership, gifts and funds, the federal charter, exhibitions, juries, the school, scholarships, committee affairs, anniversaries, publicity, administrative matters, resignations, and relationships with other organizations.

General administrative files date from 1825-1982 and include ledgers, certificates, correspondence, and legal documents pertaining to the Academy's founding, building, financial accounts, art collection, and other administrative matters.

Exhibition files, dating from 1826-2003, document the Academy's long exhibition history and includes annual, gallery, special, and museum exhibitions. Files may include exhibition catalogs, photographs, press clippings, sales records, and correspondence related to jury selection, awards and prizes, and logistical planning. Files pertaining to the Academy's annual exhibitions comprise a bulk of the series. Held since 1826, the Annuals were organized and curated by Academy members, and considered to be an important and sweeping survey of contemporary American art.

Gifts and funding files date from 1860-2009 and include financial documents, ledgers, legal material, and correspondence concerning the bequests, endowments, donations, and other gifts that financed the operations of the Academy and school. A significant number of records pertain to the Abbey Trust Fund and the Archer M. Hunting Fund.

Membership files, 1826-2012, document Academy members, honorary members, fellows, and the nominations and elections whereby members were voted into the Academy. Materials include registers, certificates, nomination ledgers and proposals, candidate biographies, and ballots.

The National Academy Association files date from 1911-1959 and contain a constitution, plan, and agreement, as well as correspondence, meeting minutes, and reports for the Association, incorporated in 1912 with the aim to erect a building shared by several New York art societies. At the time of incorporation, the Association consisted of members from the National Academy of Design, American Water Color Society, American Institute of Architects, Architectural League of New York, New York Water Color Club, National Sculpture Society, Municipal Art Society, Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, Mural Painters, Society of Illustrators, and a number of city representatives and citizens.

The Ranger Fund assignment files, 1919-2008, document the distribution of artworks by living American artists to institutions throughout the United States, in accordance with the will of Henry Ward Ranger. The Ranger Fund was initiated to stimulate public interest in the work of contemporary American painters in 1919, when the Academy received a bequest from Henry Ward Ranger, totaling $400,000. Ranger stated in his will that the capital should be invested and the income used as a purchase fund to facilitate gifts of paintings by living American artists to arts institutions throughout the United States. Files document the assignment of particular works of art to institutions through the official agreement, related correspondence, and in some instances, photographs of the artwork.

Extensive school records, dating from 1826-2008, contain administrative files, enrollment records, course files, student affairs files, and printed material documenting all aspects of the school's activities aligned with the Academy's mission to educate aspiring professional artists. A bulk of this series consists of student course registrations, documented in registers, then on index cards beginning in the 1930s. While information collected varied over the decades, registrations document student names and the year, and may additionally include course name, instructor, and cost.

Twenty Academy scrapbooks document the organization's activities from 1828-1939 and include clippings and ephemera. Three of the scrapbooks are devoted to specific topics, including one for the Society of American Artists, one for both the Society of American Artists and the Society of American Fakirs, and one for the Academy's centennial exhibition.

The Society of American Artists files, 1878-1906, document the formation of the Society as a departure from the Academy in 1877, its independent operations and activities, and its eventual consolidation with the Academy in 1906. The Society's members have included Edwin Abbey, James Carroll Beckwith, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Eakins, George Inness Jr., John La Farge, Albert Pinkham Ryder, among many others.

Files from other organizations date from 1817-1997 and may include correspondence, ledgers, and printed material. Many of these organizations had business with the Academy, and records pertain to events, meetings, and exhibitions. Notable organizations include the American Academy of Fine Arts, American Federation of Arts, American Watercolor Society, Art Students League, Fine Arts Federation of New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Etching Club, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Salmagundi Club.

Oral history transcripts date from 2002-2007. Eight comprehensive interviews, conducted by Avis Berman for the Academy, are with Academy members and cover all aspects of the artists' lives, including family, early life, beginning career, mentors, contemporaries, influences, patrons, awards, residencies, as well as the artists' relationship with the Academy. The interview transcripts provide first-hand accounts of the organization, particularly from circa 1940 up to the time of the interview. Artists interviewed include Will Barnet, Hyman Bloom, Richard Haas, Ellen Lanyon, Jules Olitski, Bernard Olshan, Paul Resika, and Dorothea Rockburne.

Photographic material, dating from 1845-2010, includes a wide variety of formats and processes including 19th and 20th photographic prints, glass plate negatives, copy prints, contact sheets, slides, and 35mm negatives. Subjects include artists and others associated with the Academy, the school, exhibitions and events, Academy buildings, artwork, and reference photographs. Many 19th century photographs contain descriptive annotations. Supplementary inventories and guides prepared by Academy archivists are scattered throughout the series.

Artist files date from 1826-2004 and include the correspondence, writings, manuscripts, diaries, exhibition catalogs, and clippings of many notable artists involved with the Academy, including Asher B. Durand and Rembrandt Peale. Of particular note are two notebooks Durand gifted to the Academy, both containing notes and sketches from anatomy lectures.

While printed material is scattered throughout, the final series collects a small number of additional announcements, brochures, clippings, illustrations, and other ephemera not filed in other series.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as nineteen series.

Series 1: Minutes and Committee Files, 1825-2006 (11.5 linear feet; Boxes 1-11, BV 100-106)

Series 2: Director Files, 1942-1990 (0.5 linear feet; Box 11)

Series 3: Annual Reports, 1828-2003, circa 2010 (2.1 linear feet; Boxes 11-13, OV 139-142)

Series 4: Constitutions, 1826-2012 (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 13-14)

Series 5: Council Officers, 1848-1980 (4 linear feet; Boxes 14-18)

Series 6: General Administration, 1825-1982 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 18, 126)

Series 7: Exhibitions, 1826-2003, 2008 (14.4 linear feet; Boxes 18-33)

Series 8: Gifts and Funding, 1860-2009 (4.1 linear feet; Boxes 33-37)

Series 9: Membership, 1826-2012 (3.4 linear feet; Boxes 37-39, 127-131)

Series 10: National Academy Association, 1911-1959 (0.4 linear feet; Box 39)

Series 11: Ranger Fund Assignments, 1919-2008 (4.3 linear feet; Boxes 39-44)

Series 12: School, 1826-2008 (28.5 linear feet; Boxes 44-56, 68-99)

Series 13: Scrapbooks, 1828-1939 (4 linear feet; Box 56, BV 107-125)

Series 14: Society of American Artists, 1878-1906 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 56-57)

Series 15: Other Organizations, 1817-1997 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 57-59, 131)

Series 16: Oral History Transcripts, 2002-2007 (0.7 linear feet; Box 59)

Series 17: Photographic Material, 1845-2010 (6.1 linear feet; Boxes 60-63, 131-138, OV 143-144)

Series 18: Artist Files, 1826-2004 (3.5 linear feet; Boxes 63-66)

Series 19: Printed Material, 1839-1954 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 67, 131, OV 145)

Biographical / Historical:

The National Academy of Design (1825- ) based in New York City, is a tripartite organization consisting of a membership body of artists, a school, and an exhibition program. The Academy was founded in 1825 by a group of professional artists with the mission to promote the fine arts in America through exhibition and education. Originally named the New York Drawing Association, the Academy was the first organization in the United States established and managed by professional artists. Samuel F.B. Morse, the Academy's first president, was influenced by the organization of the Royal Academy in London, which was comprised of professional artist members and elected government council, an art school, and a venue for exhibitions. After unsuccessful negotiations to unite with the American Academy of Fine Arts, the New York Drawing Association reformed as the National Academy of The Arts of Design on January 19, 1826. Among the founders were mostly young artists who became prominent figures in American art, including Frederick S. Agate, Thomas Cole, Thomas S. Cummings, Asher B. Durand, John Frazee, Charles C. Ingham, Henry Inman, Gerlando Marsiglia, Samuel F. B. Morse, Samuel L. Waldo, and Charles Cushing Wright.

The first Academy members were elected in January 1826, and levels of membership were established shortly thereafter. Originally there were four levels of Academy membership: associates, academicians, artists, and honorary corresponding members. The category of artists was eliminated in 1829, and the honorary member category, established to recognize American artists living outside New York, distinguished foreign artists, and patrons and friends of the Academy, was eliminated in 1862 (the constitution was not amended with this change until 1896). Since 1869, the residency requirement for election to active membership was eliminated and membership was opened to all American artists. In 1920, the classification of honorary corresponding member was re-introduced to recognize representatives of other national academies. With the 1997 constitution, the honorary corresponding member classification was again eliminated, and in 1994 the associate category was eliminated.

Artists are proposed for membership by academicians through the membership committee and are elected for life by a sixty percent majority, based on recognized excellence and significant contributions to the field. Procedures and rules for nominating and choosing new academicians changed over the years, as detailed in the constitutions. Associates were at one time required to present a portrait of themselves upon election and academicians were required to provide an additional representative work upon election. With the elimination of the category of associate in 1994, only one representative work is currently required. These works of art become part of the Academy's permanent collection.

The original classes of professional artists were painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving. These professional classes were modified over the years. In 1936 the engraving class was made more comprehensive, including all of the graphic arts. Watercolor was added as a class in 1943 and was codified in the 1945 constitution. However, the division into five distinct classes started to create difficulties in how specific works of art were to be categorized. In 1981 the council eased the rules regarding separate media classification so that members could submit a work in any medium to the annual exhibitions regardless of the class to which they had been elected. The constitution of 1994 restated four professional classes—painting, sculpture, graphics, and architecture—which were further reduced in the 2011 constitution to two: visual arts and architecture.

Until 2009, the governing body of the Academy was the council. The seven officers of the council were president, vice-president, treasurer, assistant treasurer, corresponding secretary, assistant corresponding secretary and recording secretary, all of whom were required to be academicians. In 2009, a new constitution provided for a board of governors, replacing the council. The five officers of the board of governors are chair, vice-chair, president, vice-president, and treasurer. Only the offices of president and vice-president are required to be held by academicians.

Central to the Academy's mission, the school began with an anatomy lecture for the New York Drawing Association, delivered by Dr. Frederick G. King in November 1825. The first drawing session took place in November 1826 in the Old Alms House at City Hall Park with two academicians and twenty students. In the school's early years, professional artists met with students to draw from plaster casts of antique sculpture in the academic tradition. Both lectures and studio training were central the school's early curricula. Life classes, the practice of drawing from live models, were introduced in 1837, but only to advanced male students. A life class for women was not instituted until 1857, even though women were allowed membership to the Academy since its beginning. Due to financial difficulties at the Academy, the school was forced to move locations and shut down its operations for extended periods. Mounting dissatisfaction and frustration led several students and Lemuel E. Wilmarth, one of the school's leaders and first full-time professional instructor, to leave the Academy in 1875 and form a new school, the Art Students League. While charging tuition was unpopular, the Academy realized that it was necessary to ensure the school's sustainability, and implemented fee structures with varying success over the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th. Eventually, tuition was established by 1951, when the school was reopened at a new location, 5th Avenue and 89th Street.

Exhibitions have always been an important activity for the Academy, even prior to the opening of the National Academy Museum in 1979. Since 1826, the Academy has held annual exhibitions intended to reflect contemporary art currents in America. Any American artist was eligible to submit work to be reviewed by a jury of selection, comprised of academicians. Throughout the 19th century, the annual exhibitions at the Academy were one of the most significant and influential in the country. The selection process for these exhibitions was a critical topic, at times actively discussed in the press, and continually undergoing modification and change. In addition to the Annuals, the galleries of the Academy were often rented or loaned to outside organizations such as the American Watercolor Society, Audubon Artists, and the National Association of Women Artists. The galleries also mounted special exhibitions curated by its members and hosted a certain number of travelling exhibitions organized by other museums or art organizations. The museum, opened in 1979, hosted and presented major exhibitions, many focusing on historic European subjects.

Official Names of the Academy 1825-2017

1825 -- The New York Drawing Association

1826 -- The National Academy of The Arts of Design

1828 -- The National Academy of Design

1997 -- The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art

2017 -- The National Academy of Design

National Academy of Design Meeting, Exhibition, and School Locations

1826 -- Old Alms House at City Hall Park in lower Manhattan

1827-1830 -- Chambers Street over the Arcade Baths

1831-1840 -- Corner of Nassau and Beckman Streets, the Mercantile Library on the third floor of Clinton Hall

1841 to 1849 -- 346 Broadway (at Leonard Street), the third and fourth floors of the New York Society Library

1850-1854 -- 663 Broadway, where the Academy erected a suite of six galleries

1855-1856 -- 548 Broadway (over Dr. Chapin's Church)

1857 -- 663 Broadway

1858-1861 -- 10th Street and 4th Avenue, the upper floor of a building

1861-1863 -- 625 Broadway, the Institute of Art

1865-1899 -- 23rd Street and Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South)

1899-1940 -- 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue; exhibition galleries at 215 West 57th Street

1940-2017 -- 1083 Fifth Avenue at East 89th Street

Provenance:

The bulk of the collection was donated by the National Academy of Design in 2018. The trustees' ledger book in series 6 was donated in 1979 by Warder Cadbury of the Adirondack Museum; it is unclear how Cadbury acquired the ledger. Microfilm reels 798-799 containing transcriptions of minutes were given to the Archives by Lois Fink in 1974.

Restrictions:

This bulk of this collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.

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.

Function:

Arts organizations -- New York (State)

Art Schools -- New York (State)

Genre/Form:

Drawings

Scrapbooks

Interviews

Citation:

National Academy of Design records, 1817-2012. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.natiacad

See more items in:

National Academy of Design records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9790a36d2-0f17-4470-b1e2-0292dba3dd20

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-natiacad

Creator:

Macbeth Gallery  Search this

Names:

Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this

Homer, Winslow, 1836-1910  Search this

Macbeth, Robert W. (Robert Walker), 1884-1940  Search this

Macbeth, William, 1851-1917  Search this

McIntyre, Robert G. (Robert George), b. 1885  Search this

Stuart, Gilbert, 1755-1828  Search this

Weir, Robert Walter, 1803-1889  Search this

Extent:

131.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Daguerreotypes

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Date:

1947-1948

1838-1968

bulk 1892-1953

Summary:

The Macbeth Gallery records provide almost complete coverage of the gallery's operations from its inception in 1892 to its closing in 1953. Through extensive correspondence files, financial and inventory records, printed material, scrapbooks, reference and research material, and photographs of artists and works of art, the records document all aspects of the gallery's activities, charting William Macbeth's initial intention to lease his store "for the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures" through over sixty years of success as a major New York firm devoted to American art. The collection measures 131.6 linear feet and dates from 1838 to 1968 with the bulk of the material dating from 1892 to 1953.

Scope and Content Note:

The Macbeth Gallery records provide almost complete coverage of the gallery's operations from its inception in 1892 to its closing in 1953. The records document all aspects of the gallery's activities, charting William Macbeth's initial intention to lease his store "for the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures" through over sixty years of success as a major New York firm devoted to American art. The collection measures 131.6 linear feet and dates from 1838 to 1968 with the bulk of the material dating from 1892 to 1953.

The gallery's correspondence files form the core of the collection and illuminate most aspects of American art history: the creation and sale of works of art, the development of reputations, the rise of museums and art societies, change and resistance to change in the art market, and the evolution of taste. Ninety-five feet of correspondence house substantial and informative letters from dozens of important American painters and sculptors, including older artists and younger contemporaries of the gallery in its later years. There are also letters from collectors, curators, other galleries, and critics.

The financial files found in the collection offer insight into the changing economic climate in which the gallery operated. They include information ranging from the details of individual sales and the market for individual artists, to consignment activities and artist commissions, to overviews of annual sales. This information is augmented by the firm's inventory records and the photographs of artwork with their accompanying records of paintings sold. The inventory records provide details of all works of art handled by the gallery, both sold and unsold, and the buyers who purchased them; the photographs of artwork include images of artwork sold with accompanying sales information.

The highlight of the gallery's printed material is the publication Art Notes. Although published only until 1930, Art Notes provides an excellent and detailed view of the gallery's exhibition schedule and the relationship of the gallery owners with many of the artists whose work they handled. It was a house organ that also provided a running commentary on events in the art world. The gallery's 19 fragile scrapbooks, maintained throughout the firm's history, provide further coverage of activities through exhibition catalogs and related news clippings. Printed material from other sources provides a frame of reference for activities in the art world from the mid-19th to the mid-20th-centuries and includes an almost complete run of the rare and important pre-Civil War art publication The Crayon.

Reference files record the interest which the gallery owners took in the work of early portrait painters and in later artists such as George Inness and Winslow Homer. Together with the immense volume of correspondence with buyers and sellers of paintings by the great portraitists and the Hudson River School found in the gallery's correspondence files, these records are still useful sources of information today and underscore the deep interest that the Macbeths and Robert McIntyre took in 18th and 19th-century American art.

The photographs of artists found here are a treasure trove of images of some of the major figures of the 19th and 20th-centuries. There are photographs of artists such as Chester Beach, Emil Carlsen, Charles Melville Dewey, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, George Inness, Maurice Prendergast, and Julian Alden Weir, many of them original prints and the majority of them autographed.

With the exception of the "The Eight" and a few of their contemporaries, an important aspect of art history, the modernist movement, is generally represented in the Macbeth Gallery records only in a negative form as the three successive proprietors of the gallery showed very little interest in this area. Nevertheless, the collection is a highly significant source of information on many of the major and minor figures in American art in the period after 1890.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into eight series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Correspondence, 1838-1968 (Box 1-95, 163-164, OV 165; 96.2 linear feet)

Series 2: Financial and Shipping Records, 1892-1956 (Box 96-110; 11.8 linear feet)

Series 3: Inventory Records, 1892-circa 1957 (Box 111-113; 3.0 linear feet)

Series 4: Printed Material, 1838-1963 (Box 114-119, 162; 5.0 linear feet)

Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1892-1952 (Box 120-130; 3.3 linear feet)

Series 6: Reference Files, 1839-1959 (Box 131-132; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 7: Miscellaneous Files, 1912-1956 (Box 133-134; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 8: Photographs, circa 1880-circa 1968 (Box 135-161; 12.1 linear feet)

Historical Note:

The Macbeth Gallery was established in 1892 by William Macbeth, a Scotch-Irish immigrant who had spent ten years with the print dealer Frederick Keppel before he opened his doors to the art-buying public at 237 Fifth Avenue in New York. Despite the prevailing interest in foreign art at that time, particularly in that of the Barbizon and Dutch schools, Macbeth was determined to dedicate his gallery to "the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures, both in oil and water colors."

Although some of the gallery's earliest exhibitions were of work by European artists, the business soon became the only gallery in continuous operation that kept American art permanently on display. In the January 1917 issue of Art Notes, Macbeth recounts those early days remembering that "The opening of my gallery......was a rash venture under the existing conditions, and disaster was freely predicted." Nevertheless, he struggled through the financial crisis of 1893 and persisted with his devotion to American art; slowly the market for his pictures grew more amenable.

Macbeth moved to more spacious quarters at 450 Fifth Avenue in 1906 and two years later undertook what was to become the major event in the gallery's early history: the 1908 exhibition of "The Eight," featuring work by Arthur B. Davies, Willam J. Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan. "The Eight" were an unlikely combination of social realists, visionaries and impressionists eager to challenge the dominating influence of the National Academy. The exhibition received an immense amount of publicity and instantly entered into art history as a successful assault on tradition.

Despite the splash that the exhibition made and its implications for the future of American art, nothing that the gallery did subsequently indicated that Macbeth intended to capitalize on its significance. It is true that Macbeth supported many artists later considered leaders in American art when the public would pay no attention to them because of their modernist tendencies; Arthur B. Davies, Paul Dougherty, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, and F. Ballard Williams all held their first exhibitions at his gallery. Nevertheless, neither Macbeth nor the gallery's two successive proprietors, Robert G. McIntyre (William's nephew) and Robert Macbeth (William's son), who joined the gallery in 1903 and 1906 respectively, ever developed a true interest in modern art. The November 1930 issue of Art Notes summarizes their collective disdain for modernism, stating: "We believe that, by and large, modern art is amusing. We are heretical enough to believe that much of it was started for the amusement of its creators and that no one was more surprised than they when it was taken seriously by a certain audience to whom the bizarre and the unintelligible always makes an appeal." So while the Macbeths and McIntyre cetainly championed American artists and insisted they deserved as much recognition as the Europeans, their deepest and most abiding interest was undoubtedly the established artists of the 18th and 19th-centuries and those of the early 20th-century who continued in a more conservative style. Artists such as Emil Carlsen, Charles Harold Davis, Frederick C. Frieseke, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, Chauncey F. Ryder, Abbot Handerson Thayer, J. Francis Murphy, A. H. Wyant were the gallery's bread and butter.

When William Macbeth died in 1917 Robert Macbeth took up the reins with the assistance of Robert G. McIntyre . Although they incorporated the business as William Macbeth, Inc., in 1918 the gallery continued to be known, as it always would be, simply as Macbeth Gallery. Macbeth and McIntyre continued to show work in the same vein as the elder Macbeth. They concentrated primarily on oil paintings at this time, having found by the 1920s that "oils are all that our gallery owners will buy," though they also exhibited an occasional group of watercolors and pastels in addition to bronzes and other sculpture by contemporary American artists such as Chester Beach and Janet Scudder.

Of the early American painters the Macbeths and McIntyre were particularly interested in colonial portraits and miniatures, especially those painted by prominent artists in the latter part of the eighteenth century such as John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully and John Trumbull. In its early years the gallery also handled the work of a few prominent American etchers including Frank W. Benson, Emil Fuchs, Daniel Garber, Childe Hassam and Chauncey F. Ryder. The print department was generally discontinued, however, in the late 1930s although the gallery continued to show prints by contemporaries such as Stow Wengenroth.

In 1924 relative prosperity allowed the gallery to move uptown to 15 East Fifty-seventh Street. When the 1930s brought new financial hardship for the gallery Macbeth and McIntyre took a variety of approaches to boosting sales. In 1930 they decided to hold only group exhibitions throughout the season to the exclusion of one-man shows, and also held some special exhibitions of paintings priced at a hundred dollars each in the hope that they could tempt those "willing to take advantage of a rare chance to secure representative examples of good art at a most attractive price." A move to smaller quarters at 15 East Fifty-seventh Street in 1935 was made with the intention of concentrating their efforts on the work of fewer contemporary artists, while continuing to handle the work of the older Americans they had long supported.

When Macbeth died suddenly and unexpectedly in August 1940 following an operation for appendicitis, McIntyre continued to run the gallery with the assistance of Hazel Lewis. During the 1940s McIntyre and Lewis showed primarily contemporary art in a wide range of media including oil, watercolor, pastel, drawing and sculpture, while continuing, as always, to show the occasional group of 19th-century Americans. The great success of the gallery's later years was undeniably Andrew Wyeth whose first exhibition, held at Macbeth Gallery in 1937, resulted in the sale of all twenty-two paintings cataloged.

Although subsequent Wyeth exhibitions were also successful, McIntyre struggled financially throughout the 1940s and periodically considered liquidating the company. Although "vitally interested" in contemporary art by people such as Robert Brackman, Jay Connaway, Carl Gaertner, James Lechay, Herbert Meyer and Ogden M. Pleissner he found that, for the most part, it did not pay. McIntyre continued operations until 1953 when he decided that doing so for profit was not only a financial burden but also ran contrary to his desire to spend more time devoted to his first love, early American art. When the lease expired on 11 East Fifty-seventh Street in April 1953 McIntyre did not renew it. After closing the gallery's doors he sold art from his New York apartment and from his home in Dorset, Vermont. He officially dissolved William Macbeth, Inc., in 1957.

The history of the Macbeth Gallery is a long and distinguished one with each successive proprietor making a significant contribution to art in America. William Macbeth helped establish an audience and a market for American art when few were willing to give it serious consideration. Robert Macbeth continued to cement the gallery's reputation as one of the leading firms in New York and was instrumental in organizing the American Art Dealers Association. Robert G. McIntyre claimed in a letter to Lloyd Goodrich, dated 22 June 1945, that the thing of which he was most proud was "the share I have had in the formation of the collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art, at Andover, Massacusetts." McIntyre was widely respected in the art community as a dealer, as an adviser to curators, and as a scholar whose research and book on Martin Johnson Heade helped "rediscover" an important American artist. One of his most significant and lasting contributions to the history of art in America, however, was undoubtedly his gift of the gallery's historical records to the Archives of American Art.

Related Material:

Among the holdings of the Archives of American are a small collection of scattered Robert McIntyre's papers and 9 items of William Macbeth's papers. Macbeth Gallery exhibition catalogs are also available in the American Art Exhibition Catalog collection and the Brooklyn Museum Records, both loaned and microfilmed collections.

An extensive collection of Macbeth Gallery exhibition catalogs are also held by the Frick Art Reference Library and the Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Provenance:

The bulk of the Macbeth Gallery records were donated and microfilmed in several installments between 1955 and 1966 by Robert G. McIntyre and Estate. Additional Macbeth Gallery printed material was donated by Phoebe C. and William Macbeth II, grandchildren of William Macbeth, in 1974.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.

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.

Topic:

Eight (Group of American artists)  Search this

Artists -- United States  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Function:

Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)

Genre/Form:

Daguerreotypes

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Citation:

Macbeth Gallery records, 1838-1968, bulk 1892 to 1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Grant Program. Digitization of the scrapbooks was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee. Correspondence, financial and shipping records, inventory records, and printed material were digitized with funding provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.

Identifier:

AAA.macbgall

See more items in:

Macbeth Gallery records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9755cec30-3318-4f15-a7b7-031c448a7a46

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-macbgall

Creator:

Poor, Henry Varnum, 1887-1970  Search this

Names:

Montross Gallery  Search this

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture  Search this

Benton, William, 1900-1973  Search this

Biddle, George, 1885-1973  Search this

Billing, Jules  Search this

Burchfield, Charles Ephraim, 1893-1967  Search this

Caniff, Milton Arthur, 1907-1988  Search this

Ciardi, John, 1916-  Search this

Czebotar, Theodore  Search this

Deming, MacDonald  Search this

Dickson, Harold E., 1900-  Search this

Dorn, Marion, 1896-1964  Search this

Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968  Search this

Esherick, Wharton  Search this

Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this

Garrett, Alice Warder  Search this

Houseman, John, 1902-1988  Search this

Marston, Muktuk  Search this

Meredith, Burgess, 1907-1997  Search this

Mumford, Lewis, 1895-1990  Search this

Padro, Isabel  Search this

Poor, Anne, 1918-  Search this

Poor, Bessie Breuer  Search this

Poor, Eva  Search this

Poor, Josephine Graham  Search this

Poor, Josephine Lydia  Search this

Poor, Peter  Search this

Sargent, Elizabeth S.  Search this

Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this

Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968  Search this

Watson, Ernest William, 1884-1969  Search this

Extent:

12.9 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Motion pictures (visual works)

Diaries

Drawings

Sketchbooks

Date:

1873-2001

bulk 1904-1970

Summary:

The papers of Henry Varnum Poor measure 12.9 linear feet and date from 1873-2001, with the bulk from the period 1904-1970. Correspondence, writings, artwork, printed material and photographs document Poor's work as a painter, muralist, ceramic artist and potter, architect, designer, writer, war artist, educator and a co-founder of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Also found is extensive information about the design and construction of Crow House, his home in New City, New York, commissions for other architectural projects, and his personal life.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of Henry Varnum Poor measure 12.9 linear feet and date from 1873-2001, with the bulk from the period 1904-1970. Correspondence, writings, artwork, printed material and photographs document Poor's work as a painter, muralist, ceramic artist and potter, architect, designer, writer, war artist, educator and a co-founder of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Also found is extensive information about the design and construction of Crow House, his home in New City, New York, commissions for other architectural projects, and his personal life.

Henry Varnum Poor's correspondence documents his personal, family, and professional life. Correspondents include family and friends, among them George Biddle, Charles Burchfield, John Ciardi, Marion V. Dorn (who became his second wife), Philip Evergood, Lewis Mumford, John Steinbeck, David Smith, and Mrs. John Work (Alice) Garrett. Among other correspondents are galleries, museums, schools, organizations, fans, former students, and acquaintances from his military service and travels. Family correspondence consists of Henry's letters to his parents, letters to his parents written by his wife, and letters among other family members.

Among the writings by Henry Varnum Poor are manuscripts of his two published books, An Artist Sees Alaska and A Book of Pottery: From Mud to Immortality. as well as the text of "Painting is Being Talked to Death," published in the first issue of Reality: A Journal of Artists' Opinions, April 1953, and manuscripts of other articles. There are also film scripts, two journals, notes and notebooks, lists, speeches, and writings by others, including M. R. ("Muktuk") Marston's account of Poor rescuing an Eskimo, and Bessie Breuer Poor's recollections of The Montross Gallery.

Subject files include those on the Advisory Committee on Art, American Designers' Gallery, Inc., William Benton, Harold Dickson, Reality: A Journal of Artists' Opinions Sales, and War Posters. There are numerous administrative files for the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Artwork by Henry Varnum Poor consists mainly of loose drawings and sketches and 45 sketchbooks of studies for paintings, murals, and pottery. There is work done in France, 1918-1919, and while working as a war correspondent in Alaska in 1943. There are commissioned illustrations and some intended for his monograph, A Book of Pottery: From Mud to Immortality. Also found are a small number of watercolors and prints. Work by other artists consist of Anne Poor's drawings of her father's hands used for the Lincoln figure in The Land Grant Frescoes and interior views of Crow House by Ernest Watson.

Documentation of Poor's architectural projects consists of drawings and prints relating to houses designed and built for Jules Billing, MacDonald Deming, John Houseman, Burgess Meredith, Isabel Padro, and Elizabeth S. Sargent. Also found is similar material for the new studio Poor built in 1957 on the grounds of Crow House.

Miscellaneous records include family memorabilia and two motion picture films, Painting a True Fresco, and The Land Grant Murals at Pennsylvania State College.

Printed material includes articles about or mentioning Poor, some of his pottery reference books, family history, a catalog of kilns, and the program of a 1949 Pennsylvania State College theater production titled Poor Mr. Varnum. Exhibition catalogs and announcements survive for some of Poor's shows; catalogs of other artists' shows include one for Theodore Czebotar containing an introductory statement by Henry Varnum Poor. Also found is a copy of The Army at War: A Graphic Record by American Artists, for which Poor served as an advisor. There are reproductions of illustrations for An Artist Sees Alaska and Ethan Frome, and two Associated American Artists greeting cards reproducing work by Poor.

Photographs are of Henry Varnum Poor's architectural work, artwork, people, places, and miscellaneous subjects. This series also contains negatives, slides, and transparencies. Images of architectural work include exterior and interior views of many projects; Poor's home, Crow House, predominates. Photographs of artwork by Poor are of drawings, fresco and ceramic tile murals, paintings, pottery and ceramic art. People appearing in photographs include Henry Varnum Poor, family members, friends, clients, juries, students, and various groups. Among the individuals portrayed are Milton Caniff, Marcel Duchamp, Wharton Esherick, M. R. ("Muktuk") Marston, and Burgess Meredith. Among the family members are Bessie Breuer Poor, Marion Dorn Poor, Anne Poor, Eva Poor, Josephine Graham Poor, Josephine Lydia Poor, Peter Poor, and unidentified relatives. Photographs of places include many illustrating village life in Alaska that were taken by Poor during World War II. Other places recorded are French and California landscapes, and family homes in Kansas. Miscellaneous subjects are exhibition installation views, scenes of Kentucky farms, and a photograph of Poor's notes on glazes.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 9 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1919-1987 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, OV 18)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1873-1985 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)

Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1944-1974 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)

Series 4: Subject Files, 1928-1975 (0.8 linear feet; Box 3, OV 23)

Series 5: Artwork, circa 1890s-circa 1961 (3.5 linear feet; Boxes 4-6, 9-10, OV 19-22)

Series 6: Architectural Projects, circa 1940-1966 (0.7 linear feet; Box 6, OV 24-26, RD 14-17)

Series 7: Miscellaneous Records, 1882-1967 (Boxes 6, 11, FC 30-31; 0.5 linear ft.)

Series 8: Printed Material, 1881-2001 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 6-7, 11, OV 27-29)

Series 9: Photographs, 1893-1984 (2.3 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 12-13)

Biographical Note:

Henry Varnum Poor (1888-1970), best known as a potter, ceramic artist, and a co-founder of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, was also an architect, painter, muralist, designer, educator, and writer who lived and worked in New City, New York.

A native of Chapman, Kansas, Henry Varnum Poor moved with his family to Kansas City when his grain merchant father became a member of the Kansas Board of Trade. From a young age he showed artistic talent and spent as much time as possible - including school hours - drawing. When a school supervisor suggested that Henry leave school to study at the Art Institute of Chicago, the family disagreed. Instead, he enrolled in the Kansas City Manual Training High School where he delighted in learning skills such as carpentry, forge work, and mechanical drawing. In 1905, he moved with his older brother and sister to Palo Alto, California and completed high school there. Because Poor was expected to join the family business, he enrolled at Stanford University as an economics major, but much to his father's disappointment and displeasure, soon left the economics department and became an art major.

Immediately after graduation in 1910, Poor and his major professor at Stanford, Arthur B. Clark, took a summer bicycling tour to look at art in London, France, Italy, and Holland. As Poor had saved enough money to remain in London after the summer was over, he enrolled in the Slade School of Art and also studied under Walter Sickert at the London County Council Night School. After seeing an exhibition of Post-Impressionism at the Grafton Galleries in London, Poor was so impressed that he went to Paris and enrolled in the Académie Julian. While in Paris, Poor met Clifford Addams, a former apprentice of Whistler; soon he was working in Addams' studio learning Whistler's palette and techniques.

In the fall of 1911, Poor returned to Stanford University's art department on a one-year teaching assignment. During that academic year, his first one-man show was held at the university's Old Studio gallery. He married Lena Wiltz and moved back to Kansas to manage the family farm and prepare for another exhibition. Their daughter, Josephine Lydia Poor, was born the following year. Poor returned to Stanford in September 1913 as assistant professor of graphic arts, remaining until the department closed three years later. During this period, Poor began to exhibit more frequently in group shows in other areas of the country, and had his first solo exhibition at a commercial gallery (Helgesen Gallery, San Francisco). In 1916, Poor joined the faculty of the San Francisco Art Association. He and his wife separated in 1917 and were divorced the following year. Poor began sharing his San Francisco studio with Marion Dorn.

During World War I, Poor was drafted into the U. S. Army, and in 1918 went to France with the 115th Regiment of Engineers. He spent his spare time drawing; soon officers were commissioning portraits, and Poor was appointed the regimental artist. He also served as an interpreter for his company. Discharged from the Army in early 1919, Poor spent the spring painting in Paris. He then returned to San Francisco and married Marion Dorn.

Once Poor realized that earning a living as a painter would be extremely difficult in California, he and his new wife moved to New York in the autumn of 1919. They were looking for a place to live when influential book and art dealer Mary Mowbray-Clarke of the Sunwise Turn Bookshop in Manhattan suggested New City in Rockland County, New York as good place for artists. In January of 1920, the Poors purchased property on South Mountain Road in New City. The skills he acquired at the Kansas City Manual Training High School were of immediate use as Poor designed and constructed "Crow House" with the assistance of a local teenager. Influenced by the farmhouses he had seen in France, it was made of local sandstone and featured steep gables, rough plaster, chestnut beams and floors, and incorporated many hand-crafted details. Poor designed and built most of their furniture, too. Before the end of the year, he and Marion were able to move into the house, though it remained a work in progress for many years. Additions were constructed. Over time, gardens were designed and planted, and outbuildings - a kiln and pottery, work room, garage, and new studio - appeared on the property.

In 1925, two years after his divorce from Marion Dorn, Poor married Bessie Freedman Breuer (1893-1975), an editor, short story writer, and novelist. Soon after, he adopted her young daughter, Anne (1918-2002), an artist who served as his assistant on many important mural commissions. Their son, Peter (b. 1926) became a television producer. Crow House remained in the family until its sale in 2006. In order to prevent its demolition, Crow House was then purchased by the neighboring town of Ramapo, New York in 2007.

Between 1935 and 1966 Poor designed and oversaw construction of a number of houses, several of them situated not far from Crow House on South Mountain Road. Poor's designs, noted for their simplicity, featured modern materials and incorporated his ceramic tiles. Among his important commissions were houses for Maxwell Anderson, Jules Billig, Milton Caniff, MacDonald Deming, and John Houseman.

Poor's first exhibition of paintings in New York City was at Kevorkian Galleries in 1920, and sales were so disappointing that he turned his attention to ceramics. His first pottery show, held at Bel Maison Gallery in Wanamaker's department store in 1921, was very successful. He quickly developed a wide reputation, participated in shows throughout the country, and won awards. He was a founder of the short-lived American Designers' Gallery, and the tile bathroom he showed at the group's first exposition was critically acclaimed. Poor was represented by Montross Gallery as both a painter and potter. When Montross Gallery closed upon its owner's death in 1932, Poor moved to the Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery.

Even though Poor's pottery and ceramic work was in the forefront, he continued to paint. His work was acquired by a number of museums, and the Limited Editions Club commissioned him to illustrate their republications of Ethan Frome, The Scarlet Letter, and The Call of the Wild.

Poor's first work in true fresco was shown in a 1932 mural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Between 1935 and 1949 he was commissioned to produce several murals in fresco for Section of Fine Arts projects at the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior, The Land Grant Frescoes at Pennsylvania State College, and a mural for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Ceramic tile mural commissions included: the Klingenstein Pavilion, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City; Travelers Insurance Co., Boston; the Fresno Post Office, California; and Hillson Memorial Gallery, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Mass.

As a member of the War Artists' Unit, Poor was a "war correspondent" with the rank of major in World War II, and for several months in 1943 was stationed in Alaska. An Artist Sees Alaska, drawing on Poor's observations and experiences, was published in 1945. A Book of Pottery: From Mud to Immortality, his second book, was published in 1958. It remains a standard text on the subject. While on the faculty of Columbia University in the 1950s, Poor and other artists opposed to the growing influence of Abstract Expressionism formed the Reality Group with Poor the head of its editorial committee. Their magazine, Reality: A Journal of Artists' Opinions, first appeared in 1953 featuring "Painting is Being Talked to Death" by Poor as its lead article. Two more issues were published in 1954 and 1955.

Along with Willard Cummings, Sidney Simon, and Charles Cuttler, in 1946 Henry Varnum Poor helped to establish the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. He served as its first president. Poor and his daughter, Anne, were active members of the Board of Trustees and were instructors for many years. The summer of 1961 was Henry Varnum Poor's last as a full-time teacher, though he continued to spend summers at Skowhegan.

Henry Varnum Poor exhibited widely and received many awards, among them prizes at the Carnegie Institute, Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Architectural League of New York. Poor was appointed to the United States Commission of Fine Arts by President Roosevelt in 1941 and served a five year term. He was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1943. The National Academy of Design named him an Associate Artist in 1954 and an Academician in 1963. He became a trustee of the American Craftsman's Council in 1956. The work of Henry Vernum Poor is represented in the permanent collections of many American museums including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Addison Gallery of American Art, and Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts.

Henry Varnum Poor died at home in New City, New York, December 8, 1970.

Related Material:

An oral history interview with Henry Varnum Poor was conducted by Harlan Phillips for the Archives of American Art in 1964.

Provenance:

Gift of Henry Varnum Poor's son, Peter V. Poor, in 2007. A smaller portion was loaned to the Archives in 1973 by Anne Poor for microfilming and returned to the lender; this material was included in the 2007 gift.

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 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.

Occupation:

War artists  Search this

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

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

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

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

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

Topic:

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

World War, 1914-1918  Search this

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

Genre/Form:

Motion pictures (visual works)

Diaries

Drawings

Sketchbooks

Citation:

Henry Varnum Poor papers, 1873-2001, bulk 1904-1970. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

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

Identifier:

AAA.poorhenr

See more items in:

Henry Varnum Poor papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw96265d653-098f-4ccc-abed-0bc649c50516

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-poorhenr

Creator:

Nathan, Emily S., 1907-1999  Search this

De Creeft, José, 1884-1982  Search this

Subject:

Goldberg, Rube, 1883-1970  Search this

Lerner, Abram  Search this

Spyropoulous, Jannis  Search this

Johns, Jasper  Search this

Rothko, Mark  Search this

Smith, Tony  Search this

Namuth, Hans  Search this

McLanathan, Richard B. K.  Search this

Woolfenden, William E. (William Edward)  Search this

De Creeft, José  Search this

Hirshhorn, Joseph H.  Search this

Towle Mfg. Company  Search this

Smithsonian Institution  Search this

Archives of American Art  Search this

Type:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Citation:

Emily Nathan papers, circa 1943-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Roosters -- Pictorial works  Search this

Roosters -- Anecdotes  Search this

Caricatures and cartoons  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Inventors -- Interviews  Search this

Archives -- Public relations  Search this

Museums -- Public relations  Search this

Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this

Art and industry  Search this

Theme:

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)8071

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)210242

AAA_collcode_nathemil2

Theme:

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_210242

Creator:

National Academy of Design (U.S.)  Search this

Wilmerding, John, 1938-  Search this

Subject:

Baur, John I. H. (John Ireland Howe), 1909-1987  Search this

Ferber, Linda S.  Search this

Novak, Barbara  Search this

Type:

Sound recordings

Citation:

Panel discussion, 1980 Nov. 18. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Theme:

Art instruction and services  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)12665

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)214332

AAA_collcode_nation80

Theme:

Art instruction and services

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_214332

Interviewee:

Simpson, Merton D. (Merton Daniel), 1928-2013  Search this

Interviewer:

Murray, Albert  Search this

Extent:

62 Pages (Transript)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Sound recordings

Interviews

Date:

1968 November

Scope and Contents:

An interview of Merton D. Simpson conducted 1968 November, by Al Murray, for the Archives of American Art.

Biographical / Historical:

Merton D. Simpson (1928-2013) was a painter and art dealer from New York, N.Y.

General:

Originally recorded 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 4 min.

Provenance:

This interview is part of the Archives' 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 others. Funding for this interview provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.

Restrictions:

Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.

Occupation:

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

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

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

African American artists  Search this

African American art -- African influences  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Interviews

Sponsor:

Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.

Identifier:

AAA.simpso68

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9be7f5608-8613-405b-aaba-0c20d174b710

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-simpso68