Access to original images by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by the Archives of American Gardens.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, W. Atlee Burpee & Company Records
Access to original images by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by the Archives of American Gardens.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, W. Atlee Burpee & Company Records
The papers of Cambridge sculptor and illustrator, Lilian Swann Saarinen, measure nine linear feet and date from circa 1909 to 1977. The collection documents Saarinen's career through correspondence with artists, architects, publishers, and gallery owners; writings and notes, including manuscripts and illustrations for children's books and publications; project and teaching files; financial records; artwork, including numerous project sketches; and photos of Saarinen and her artwork. Saarinen's personal life is also documented through diaries and correspondence with friends and family members, including Eero Saarinen, to whom she was married from 1939-1953.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Cambridge sculptor and illustrator, Lilian Swann Saarinen, measure nine linear feet and date from circa 1909 to 1977. The collection documents Saarinen's career through correspondence with artists, architects, publishers, and gallery owners; writings and notes, including manuscripts and illustrations for children's books and publications; project and teaching files; financial records; artwork, including numerous project sketches; and photos of Saarinen and her artwork. Saarinen's personal life is also documented through diaries and correspondence with friends and family members, including Eero Saarinen, to whom she was married from 1939-1953.
Biographical material consists of resumes and biographical sketches, as well as a 1951 blueprint for the Eero Saarinen and Associates Office Building in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Correspondence documents Saarinen's personal and professional life through letters to and from Eero Saarinen and other family members, including six letters from Loja Saarinen; correspondence with artists and architects, including Merle Armitage, Charles and Ray Eames, Carl Koch, Henry Kreis, Carl Milles, Laszlo and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Robert Venturi, and Harry Weese; and friends and colleagues at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Knoll Associates. Also documented is Saarinen's business relationship with Midtown Galleries and Caresse Crosby, and publishers and publications including Child Life, Interiors, Otava Publishing Company, and Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc.
Writings and Notes document Saarinen's work on several children's publications, including Picture Book Zoo (1935) and Who Am I? (1946), through correspondence, notes, manuscript drafts, and extensive sketches. This series also includes Saarinen's ideas for other publications and incorporates some early writings and notes, as well as typescripts of her reminiscences about Eliel Saarinen, the Saarinen family, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Diaries consist of bound diary volumes, loose-leaf journal entries, and heavily annotated engagement calendars, documenting Saarinen's personal life, artistic aspirations, and career development from the 1930s-1970s. This material provides a deeply personal view of the emotional landscape of Saarinen's life, her struggles to balance her identity as a working artist with the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker, and the complex, and often competing, relationships within the renowned architectural family into which she married.
Project files document Saarinen's work on book cover designs, federal and post office commissions in Bloomfield, Indiana, Carlisle, Kentucky, and Evanston, Illinois, reliefs for the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois, and other important commissions including the Harbor National Bank Clock in Boston, Massachusetts, the KLM Airlines installation at JFK Airport, the Fountain of Noah sculpture at the Northland Center in Detroit, Michigan, and the interior of Toffenetti's restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. Also documented is her role in designs for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, with Eero Saarinen.
Teaching files document Saarinen's "Language of Clay Course" which she taught at Cambridge Art Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Financial records document exhibition and sales expenses for two exhibitions, including her show at G Place Gallery in 1944.
Printed material consists of clippings about Saarinen and her family, exhibition announcements and catalogs for herself and others, and reference files from the 1930s-1940s, primarily comprising clippings of animals.
Additional printed material documenting Saarinen's career can be found in one of two scrapbooks found in the collection. An additional scrapbook consists of clippings relating primarily to Saarinen's parents.
Artwork comprises extensive sketches, particularly animal and figure sketches, in graphite, crayon, ink, pastel, and watercolor. The sketches demonstrate in particular Saarinen's developing interest in and skill with animal portraiture from her childhood to the 1960s.
Photographs are primarily of artwork and Saarinen's 1944 exhibition at G Place Gallery. Also found are one negative of Saarinen, probably with Eero Saarinen, and a group photo including Lilian, Eero, and Eliel Saarinen with the model for the Detroit Civic Center, circa 1940s.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1930s-1960s (3 folders; Box 1, OV 12)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1920-1974 (1.9 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 8, OV 12)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1920s-1973 (1.3 linear feet, Boxes 2-3, 8, OVs 13-16)
Series 4: Diaries, 1930-1973 (1.4 linear feet, Boxes 3-5, 8)
Series 5: Project Files, 1931-1966 (1.7 linear feet, Boxes 5-6, 8, OVs 17-19)
Series 6: Teaching Files, 1966-1970 (3 folders, Box 6)
Series 7: Financial Records, 1940s-1970s (2 folders, Box 6)
Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1930s-1970s (0.2 linear feet, Box 6)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, circa 1909-1974 (2 folders; Boxes 6, 9)
Series 10: Artwork, circa 1920s-circa 1960s (1.7 linear feet, Boxes 6-7, 9-10, OVs 20-27)
Series 11: Photographs, circa 1940s, 1977 (0.5 linear feet, Boxes 7, 11, OV 27)
Biographical / Historical:
Cambridge artist and sculptor, Lilian Swann Saarinen (1912-1995), studied at the Art Students League with Alexander Archipenko in 1928, and later with Albert Stewart and Heninz Warneke from 1934-1936, before moving to Michigan where she studied with Carl Milles at the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1936-1940. Saarinen was an accomplished skier and a member of the 1936 US Olympic ski team.
At Cranbrook, Swann met architect Eero Saarinen, whom she married in 1939. She subsequently worked with Saarinen's design group on a variety of projects, including the Westward Expansion Memorial, which later became known as the "Gateway Arch" in St. Louis. Lilian and Eero had a son, Eric, and a daughter, Susie, before divorcing in 1953.
Saarinen, who had developed an affinity for drawing animals in childhood, specialized in animal portraits in a variety of sculptural media. In 1939, she exhibited her sculpture Night, which depicted Bagheera the panther from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, at the World's Fair. The sculpture was placed in the Boston Public Garden in 1986. In the 1930s and 1940s Saarinen was commissioned to work on a variety of architectural projects, including reliefs for post offices in Bloomfield, Indiana, Carlisle, Kentucky, and Evanston, Illinois, and the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois. She also executed commissions for the Harbor National Bank in Boston, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) at JFK Airport, the Northland shopping Center in Detroit Michigan, and Toffenetti's Restaurant in Chicago.
Saarinen was a contributing author and illustrator for a variety of publications, including Child Life, Interiors and Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly. In 1935 she illustrated Picture Book Zoo for the Bronx Zoo and in 1946 Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc. published Who Am I?, a children's book which Saarinen wrote and illustrated.
Saarinen taught ceramic sculpture to soldiers for the Red Cross Arts and Skills Unit rehabilitation program in 1945, served on the Visiting Committee to the Museum School at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1959-1964, where she taught ceramics, and later taught a course entitled "The Language of Clay" at the Cambridge Art Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of Saarinen's private students at Cambridge was her cousin, Edie Sedgwick.
Saarinen died in Cohasset, Massachusetts, in 1995 at the age of 83.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reels 1152 and 1192) including a scrapbook containing clippings, copies of letters and telegrams received, and reproductions of Saarinen's work. There is a copy of Saarinen's book, "Who Am I?", and three albums containing photographs of Saarinen, photographs and reproductions of her work, a list of exhibitions, quotes about her, and writings by her about sculpture. Lent material was returned to the lender and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Lilian Swann Saarinen donated the collection in 1975. She lent additional materials for microfilming in 1976.
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.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge Search this
Lilian Swann Saarinen papers, circa 1909-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation; and John R. & Barbara Robinson and Deborah Schmidt Robinson & Dr. R. Perry Robinson, The Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation.
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Collection Citation:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Collection Citation:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Drawings are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes or in flat file folders by size, and stored in the map case drawers.
Local Numbers:
D-771a
FSA A.06 05.0771a
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Drawings are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes or in flat file folders by size, and stored in the map case drawers.
Local Numbers:
D-771
FSA A.06 05.0771
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Taq-i Bustan (Iran): Sasanian Rock Reliefs, Large Vault, Relief Panel Picturing the Stag Hunt: Hunting Scenes [drawing]
Arrangement:
Drawings are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes or in flat file folders by size, and stored in the map case drawers.
Local Numbers:
D-994
FSA A.06 05.0994
General:
- Title is provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Ernst Herzfeld original drawings'caption and Joseph Upton's Catalogue of the Herzfeld Archive.
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Ernst Herzfeld first visited the site of Taq-i Bustan (Iran) in early August 1913 while on an expedition from Samarra (Iraq) to Asadabad (Hamadan, Iran). The drawing may be related primarly to this expedition as well as to additional visits to Taq-i Bustan (Iran) carried out by Ernst Herzfeld in 1917 and 1923 (end of June).
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Additional information reads, "In July 1911, Herzfeld moved his camp to the eastern bank of the Tigris to the site of Manqūr. The name al-Manqūr designated a vast field of ruins that extended from the southern end of the former built-up areas of Samarra almost to the northern bank of the Qāʼin canal's inlet. Herzfeld had been attracted to Manqūr during his earlier visit by a wide arch that stuck out of the ruin, a landmark called 'al-Jamal,' the camel, by the locals. Excavations in a few places within Manqūr and a simultaneous mapping of the site soon made it clear to Herzfeld that he was dealing with a palace of immense dimensions. Soon after the work has started, Herzfeld identified it as a place with the classical name of Balkuwārā or Barkuwārā, a palace from the time of al-Mutawakkil frequently mentioned in the Arabic historical and geographical literature." [Leisten, Thomas, 2003: "Excavation of Samarra, v. I. Architecture : Final report of the first campaign 1910-1912. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, 2003. p.81."]
Excavation of Samarra (Iraq): Balkuwara: General Plan of the Complex with Outer Enclosure and Palace [drawing]
Arrangement:
Drawings are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes or in flat file folders by size, and stored in the map case drawers.
Local Numbers:
D-1017
FSA A.06 05.1017
General:
- Title is provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Thomas Leisten's publication, "Excavation of Samarra, vol 1."
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Drawings related primarly to the first campaign of excavation at Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq), carried out by Ernst Herzfeld on behalf of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin in 1911.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Taq-i Bustan (Iran): Sassanid Rock Reliefs, Right Side of the Interior of the Large Vault with Investiture Relief of Khusro II: Close View of Relief Panel Picturing the Stag Hunt
Handwritten notes accompanying related print in photo file 8, vol. 1 reads, "Ṭāq i Bustān, right side, left upper corner."
Additional information from Finding Aid reads, "Subseries 4.8: Photo File 8 (2 vols.), "Sasanian Monuments," Subseries 4.8.1: vol. 1; Image No. 258 (Negative Number: 1882). Taq-i Bustan, large grotto, right side, deer hunt. Camels. IAE, p1.CXXVIII, top."
Additional information from Finding Aid reads, "Paper squeezes applied on Wall Reliefs. The paper squeeze, FSA A.6 06.A043, is preserved in the Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 6: Paper Squeezes of Inscriptions."
Arrangement:
- Glass Negatives, chronogically numbered from 1 to 5,075, originally stored in 80 wooden boxes of approximately 50 photographs each, are housed in document boxes and stored on shelves.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.6 04.GN.1882
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Ernst Herzfeld first visited the site of Taq-i Bustan (Iran) in early August 1913 while on an expedition from Samarra (Iraq) to Asadabad (Hamadan, Iran). The drawing may be related primarly to this expedition as well as to additional visits to Taq-i Bustan (Iran) carried out by Ernst Herzfeld in 1917 and 1923 (end of June).
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Handwritten notes accompanying related print in photo file 8, vol. 1 reads, "Bīshāpūr, Bahrām II."
Additional information from Finding Aid reads, "Subseries 4.8: Photo File 8 (2 vols.), "Sasanian Monuments," Subseries 4.8.1: vol. 1; Image No. 117 (Negative Number: 1811). Bishapur. Close-up of Arabs."
Additional information from staff reads, "FSA A.6 04.GN.1812 (left), FSA A.6 04.GN.1811 (right) compose a single panoramic view."
Additional information from Staff reads, "Like two other monuments on the north bank of the Tang-e Chowgan Gorge, the fifth relief is also damaged by an aqueduct of stone."
Arrangement:
- Glass Negatives, chronogically numbered from 1 to 5,075, originally stored in 80 wooden boxes of approximately 50 photographs each, are housed in document boxes and stored on shelves.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.6 04.GN.1811
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Handwritten notes accompanying related print in photo file 10, vol. 2 reads, "Sardasht. Houses destroyed by Russian troops."
Additional information from Finding Aid reads, "Subseries 4.10: Photo File 10 (2 vols.), "Persian Architecture and Landscapes," Subseries 4.10.2: vol. 2; Image No. 285 (Negative Number: 1272). Unidentified camel caravan."
Arrangement:
- Glass Negatives, chronogically numbered from 1 to 5,075, originally stored in 80 wooden boxes of approximately 50 photographs each, are housed in document boxes and stored on shelves.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.6 04.GN.1272
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Genre/Form:
Glass negatives
Collection Citation:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Collection Citation:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Collection Citation:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Collection Citation:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Excavation of Persepolis (Iran): Apadana, North Side, West Wing of Ceremonial Stairway with Reliefs Depicting Tribute Procession: Detail View before Excavation
Additional information from Finding Aid reads, "Subseries 4.5: Photo File 5 (3vols.). 'Persepolis.' Subseries 4.5.1: Vol.1, Image No. 108 (Negative Number: 992). Stairway to Apadāna, camel."
Arrangement:
- Glass Negatives, chronogically numbered from 1 to 5,075, originally stored in 80 wooden boxes of approximately 50 photographs each, are housed in document boxes and stored on shelves.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.6 04.GN.0992
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
Letter written by Charles Lang Freer to his friend and business associate Frank Hecker (1846-1927) while Freer was traveling in Europe and Asia between September 1894 and August 1895. This was Freer's first travel in Asia, and while he was not purchasing works of fine art in large numbers, the cultural encounters he made during this trip deepened his interest in Asia's artistic heritage. Freer's stops included Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, China and Japan. Freer also stayed in Italy and France, spending time with James McNeill Whistler in Paris.
Arrangement:
Organized chronologically.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 02.1Hecker.travel2
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Charles Lang Freer Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.
