The California Art Club guest register and scrapbooks measure 1.5 linear feet and date from 1916 to 1961. Included are guest registers spanning 1927 to 1931; a Year Book 1916 of the California Art Club containing images of member artwork and essays; and eleven scrapbooks with clippings, exhibition materials, club bulletins, and place settings.
Scope and Contents:
The California Art Club guest register and scrapbooks measure 1.5 linear feet and date from 1916 to 1961. Included are guest registers spanning 1927 to 1931; a Year Book 1916 of the California Art Club containing images of member artwork and essays; and eleven scrapbooks with clippings, exhibition materials, club bulletins, and place settings.
The scrapbooks contain local Los Angeles area newspaper clippings and magazine articles on social events, elections, art forums, club bulletins, and club activities in Los Angeles. Also included is art criticism by critics such as Arthur Millier, Alma May Cook, and Elaine St. Maur, as well as artist obituaries; exhibition announcements and invitations; press releases; and cartoons, sketches, and drawings. These scrapbooks record the events around the club and the Los Angeles art scene, as well as the people and artists involved including Aline Barnsdall, Antony Anderson, Evelyna Nunn Miller, Charles Reiffel, Edouard Vysekal, Theodore B. Modra, Boris Deutsch, Millard Sheets, Mabel Alvarez, Carl Oscar Borg, and Emil J. Kosa.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection, the materials are arranged as one series.
Series 1: California Art Club Guest Register and Scrapbooks, 1916-1961 (Boxes 1-5; 1.5 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
The largest and most influential Los Angeles art organization during the early 20th century, the California Art Club was organized in 1909 from the Painters' Club. The group holds exhibitions, member talks, and other programs.
Provenance:
The California Art Club guest register and scrapbooks were donated to the Archives of American Art by Henry Ketting Olivier, a past president of the California Art Club, in 1981.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Occupation:
Art critics -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
This collection consists of three scrapbooks dating from 1903 to 1955 containing mostly newspaper clippings which document the career of California artist Carl Oscar Borg, particularly his work as art director for Hollywood films.
Scope and Content Note:
The collection consists of three scrapbooks compiled by Borg, and after his death by his widow, Lily Borg Elmberg. These contain newspaper clippings from the U.S. and Sweden, documenting Borg's lifelong career as a painter and printmaker since his arrival in Los Angeles in 1903. One scrapbook, 1925-1938, highlights his role as supervising art director for the1926 silent film, The Black Pirate starring actor Douglas Fairbanks. Also included are articles about his years working in the silent movie industry (1925-1928) as the art director of films, Black Pirate, The Gaucho, The Night of Love, The Magic Flame, Two Lovers, and The Iron Mask.
Arrangement:
Volumes are divided into three main categories: I. Los Angeles Years (1903-1935), II. Silent movies and trip to Sweden (1925-1938), and III. Sweden and Santa Barbara years (1935-1955). The dates of a number of the newspaper clippings and exhibition catalogs found in the scrapbooks overlap. In addition, Scrapbook I, 1903-1935, is in fragile condition and should be handled with care.
Biographical Note:
Self taught Swedish-American artist Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947) began his career as a sign painter in New York. He emigrated to the United States from Stockholm, Sweden in 1901, settling in Los Angeles in 1903 where he became active in the emerging Los Angeles art community. He became the protogé of Phoebe Apperson Hearst (mother of William Randolph Hearst) whose support and endorsement enabled him to study in Europe. He established himself as a serious artist after World War II working in the fields of print, film and painting, enabling him to secure a place among the Los Angeles artistic elite. Borg specialized in painting the Southwestern Hopi and Navajo Indians. He also painted mariners and the seal hunting scenes which took place in Channel Island near Santa Barbara. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, the National Academy of Arts, the Sociéte Internationale des Beaux Arts (Paris) and the prestigious Salmagundi Club. He traveled to Sweden in 1939, remaining there until the end of World War II. Upon his return to California, he settled in Santa Barbara where he remained until his death in 1947.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1998 by Helen Laird, who received the papers from Borg's widow, Lily Borg Elmberg in preparation for a biography on Carl Oscar Borg.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Rights:
The Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Collection Rights:
The Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks, 1903-1955. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Collection Rights:
The Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks, 1903-1955. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Collection Rights:
The Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks, 1903-1955. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Collection Rights:
The Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Carl Oscar Borg scrapbooks, 1903-1955. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Correspondence of Los Angeles County Museum directors William A. Bryan and Frank S. Daggett, and their assistants Louise Upton, Mary Marsh, and Helen Wood, with artists Andrew Dasburg, Robert Henri, Dana Bartlett, Guy Rose, Carl Oscar Borg and others. The letters relate to exhibitions, artists' visits, thank you and congratulatory notes, and specific paintings loaned or sold to the museum.
Provenance:
Donated in 1986 by Joseph Moure, and art historian and collector, who purchased the letters from a bookseller.
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.
Letters from Phoebe A. Hearst to Borg, written from her California residences in McCloud, Pleasanton, and the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The letters reflect Heart's interest in Borg's career, her financial support of his European travels, and the closeness of their relationship.
Biographical / Historical:
Hearst was an art collector and patron; Pleasanton and San Francisco, Calif. She was the mother of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Among the artists to whom she provided financial support was the Swedish born painter and etcher Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947). Borg, who settled in Los Angeles in 1903, specialized in depicting Native Americans and landscapes of California and the Southwest.
Provenance:
Donated 1997 by Helen Laird.
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.
Occupation:
Art patrons -- California -- San Francisco Search this
