An interview of Christine Jeannette Abel conducted 1965 June 5, by Betty Hoag McGlynn, for the Archives of American Art. Abel discusses her educational background and studies with Frank Tolles Chamberlin, Armin Carl Hansen and David Alfaro Siqueiros; her teaching experience and impressions of Fletcher Martin as a student; and her experience assisting Helen Katherine Thorps on a Federal Art Project mural for the Marobia, California post office.
Biographical / Historical:
Christine Jeannette Abel (1890-1970) was a painter, mural painter, sculptor, and educator from California.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 23 min.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Muralists -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Educators -- California -- San Francisco Search this
An interview with Millard Sheets conducted 1986 October-1988 July, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art.
Sheets speaks of his childhood and early education; attending Chouinard Art Institute and being influenced by instructor F. Tolles Chamberlin; teaching at Scripps College Foundation of Art from 1931 to 1955; the beginnings of the California Watercolor Society; his painting career; his thoughts on Southern California Modernism; the growth and development of California art; artists including Lorser Feitelson and Rico Lebrun; designing forty buildings for Howard Ahmanson from the 1950s through the 1970s; his relationships with art critics; his involvement with architecture and design; and his philosophy as an art teacher. He recalls Theodore Modra and Dalzell Hatfield.
Biographical / Historical:
Millard Sheets (1907-1989) was a painter, educator, designer, and mural painter from California.
General:
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 16 digital wav files. Duration is 8 hr., 13 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- California Search this
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- California Search this
Correspondence, 1867-1972, of Peabody Institute officials regarding gallery exhibitions, including artists' and museums' requests for exhibition space and gifts, loans, and purchases of works of art. Correspondents include Robert Aitken, Gaetano Cecere, F. Tolles Chamberlin, Isidore Konti, Albert Laessle, Paul Manship, Walter Pach, Leonce Rabillon, Saul Raskin, Hans Schuler, Charles Watson, Mahonri M. Young, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Charcoal Club, the Maryland Academy of Design, and the School Art League of Baltimore.
Also included is a 22 page letter from Frank Blackwell Mayer to George W. Dobbin, 1872, in which he enumerates the requisites for the establishment of an art school. Also includes Provost's reports, reports to the Trustees, submitted by Executive Secretary Louis H. Dielman, annual reports and Gallery of Art committee reports concerning gallery expenditures, acquisitions, and renovations; acquisition records and lists of works of art in the Institute; lists of works deposited at the Baltimore Museum of Art, undated & 1964; records concerning the Art Loan exhibition, 1879; ca. 100 exhibition catalogs and announcements, ca. 1879-1924; printed materials; photographs of the gallery and of works of art; and miscellany.
Biographical / Historical:
Established 1866, Baltimore, Md. Founded by George Peabody to improve "the moral and intellectual culture of the inhabitants of Baltimore and ...the State." The institute was to include a research library, lecture series, academy of music and gallery of art. Served as Baltimore's art school and museum until the opening of the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1914 and the Walters Gallery in 1934. To enlarge the space available to the expanding conservatory of music, much of the Peabody collection was transferred to these institutions. Works of art belonging to the Peabody are still exhibited regularly including occasional exhibitions at the Institute.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1984 by the Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Topic:
Art patronage -- Maryland -- Baltimore Search this
Function:
Art museums, University and college -- Maryland -- Baltimore
Stetson, Katharine Beecher, 1885-1979 or 81 Search this
Extent:
1.8 Linear feet ((on 4 microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sketchbooks
Date:
1879-1974
Scope and Contents:
Letters; sketchbooks; photographs and cyanotypes; scrapbook; writings, novelettes, and poetry by Stetson; biographical information; and printed material.
REELS 3211-3213: 9 letters, 1912, written by Stetson's widow to Edward B. Knight containing transcribed entries from Stetson's journal; a notebook, 1881-1908, "Opera," containing Stetson's notes on his paintings; novelettes and poetry by Stetson and his first wife, Charlotte Perkins Gilman; an autobiography by his daughter, Katharine Stetson Chamberlin; an unpublished manuscript by David Goodale on Stetson; 15 sketchbooks; a scrapbook containing etchings; three sketches by Frank Tolles Chamberlin and a brief biography of him; photographs of Stetson, his daughter, Katharine, and his paintings.
Also included are 734 photographs, including some cyanotypes, of Stetson, his family and friends, works of art, models, animals, buildings, children, landscapes, ships, and many other subjects; and clippings.
REEL 3646: 5 photographs, ca. 1880-1899, of Stetson, his second wife, Grace, his daughter, and interior and exterior views of his studio. [Also filmed on reels 3590 and 3612.]
Biographical / Historical:
Painter; California and Rome, Italy. Born in Rhode Island. His daughter, Katharine Beecher Stetson, a painter and sculptor also, married Frank Tolles Chamberlin.
Provenance:
Material on reels 3211 and portions of 3212 originally lent for microfilming 1983 by David Goodale, an art historian who studied Stetson. These papers were subsequently donated 1986 by Goodale's daughter, Shelley Luckenbach upon her father's death. Remaining material on reel 3212 and all material on reel 3213 donated 1983 by Doroth Stetson Chamberlin and Walter Chamberlin, grandchildren of Stetson. Photographs on reel 3646 transfered to AAA by National Museum of American Art via director, Charles Eldredge, 1985.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
