Search Results

Creator:

Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this

Names:

American Artists' Congress  Search this

Artists League of America  Search this

Artists' Union (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Citizens' Committee for Government Arts Projects  Search this

Farmers Union of the New York Milk Shed  Search this

Federal Art Project  Search this

Federal Writers' Project  Search this

International Workers Order  Search this

Macbeth Gallery  Search this

National Farmers' Union (U.S.)  Search this

National Maritime Union of America  Search this

United American Artists  Search this

United Office and Professional Workers of America  Search this

United Scenic Artists  Search this

Boyesen, Bayard  Search this

Chamberlain, J. E.  Search this

Chase, William Merritt, 1849-1916  Search this

Cleland, T. M. (Thomas Maitland), 1880-1964  Search this

Daniel, Charles, 1878-1971  Search this

Davies, Arthur B. (Arthur Bowen), 1862-1928  Search this

DuBois, W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963  Search this

Fitzgerald, James, 1899-1971  Search this

Freuchen, Peter, 1886-1957  Search this

Gellert, Hugo, 1892-1985  Search this

Gottlieb, Harry, 1895-  Search this

Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this

Hays, Lee, 1914-1981  Search this

Henri, Robert, 1865-1929  Search this

Jones, Dan Burne  Search this

Keller, Charles, 1914-2006  Search this

Miller, Kenneth Hayes, 1876-1952  Search this

Nearing, Helen  Search this

Nearing, Scott, 1883-1983  Search this

Pach, Walter, 1883-1958  Search this

Phillips, Duncan, 1886-1966  Search this

Rasmussen, Knud, 1879-1933  Search this

Reeves, Ruth, 1892-1966  Search this

Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976  Search this

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945  Search this

Ruggles, Carl, 1876-1971  Search this

Seeger, Pete, 1919-2014  Search this

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962  Search this

Untermeyer, Louis, 1885-1977  Search this

Wildenstein, Felix, 1883-1952  Search this

Zigrosser, Carl, 1891-  Search this

Extent:

88 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Poems

Sketches

Business records

Photographs

Drawings

Date:

circa 1840-1993

bulk 1935-1961

Summary:

The Rockwell Kent papers measure 88.0 linear feet and date from circa 1840 to 1993 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1935 to 1961. The collection provides comprehensive coverage of Kent's career as a painter, illustrator, designer, writer, lecturer, traveler, political activist, and dairy farmer.

Scope and Content Note:

The Rockwell Kent papers measure 88 linear feet and date from circa 1840 to 1993 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1935 to 1961. The collection provides comprehensive coverage of Kent's career as a painter, illustrator, designer, writer, lecturer, traveler, political activist, and dairy farmer.

Circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the papers are highlighted in an article by Garnett McCoy ("The Rockwell Kent Papers," in the Archives of American Art Journal, 12, no. 1 [January 1972]: 1-9), recommended reading for researchers interested in the collection. The collection is remarkably complete, for in the mid 1920s Kent began keeping carbon copies of all outgoing letters, eventually employing a secretary (who became his third wife and continued her office duties for the remainder of Kent's life).

Series 1: Alphabetical Files contain Kent's personal and professional correspondence, along with business records of the dairy farm and associated enterprises; also included are printed matter on a wide variety of topics and promotional literature relating to organizations and causes of interest to him. Voluminous correspondence with his three wives, five children, and other relatives, as well as with literally hundreds of friends, both lifelong and of brief duration, illuminates Kent's private life and contributes to understanding of his complex character. Among the many correspondents of note are: his art teachers William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, and Kenneth Hayes Miller; fellow artists Tom Cleland, Arthur B. Davies, James Fitzgerald, Hugo Gellert, Harry Gottleib, Marsden Hartley, Charles Keller, and Ruth Reeves; collectors Duncan Phillips and Dan Burne Jones; critics J. E. Chamberlain and Walter Pach; and dealers Charles Daniel, Felix Wildenstein, and Macbeth Galleries. Kent corresponded with such diverse people as Arctic explorers Peter Freuchen, Knud Rasmussen, and Vilhjalmar Steffanson; composer Carl Ruggles and songwriters Lee Hays and Pete Seeger; civil rights pioneers Paul Robeson and Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois; writers Bayard Boyesen, Scott and Helen Nearing, and Louis Untermeyer; and art historian and print curator Carl Zigrosser.

Kent's interest and involvement in the labor movement are reflected in correspondence with officials and members of a wide variety and large number of unions and related organizations, among them: the Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union of America, Farmers' Union of the New York Milk Shed, International Workers Order, National Maritime Union, and United Office and Professional Workers of America. Of special interest is his participation, often in leadership roles, in various attempts to organize artists. Files on the American Artists' Congress, Artists League of America, The Artists Union, United American Artists, and United Scenic Artists contain particularly valuable material on the movement.

A supporter of New Deal efforts to aid artists, Kent was actively interested in the various programs and often was critical of their limitations; he advocated continuing federal aid to artists after the Depression abated. The Kent papers include correspondence with the Federal Arts Project, Federal Fine Arts Project, Federal Writers Project, and the War Department, as well as correspondence with the Citizens' Committee for Government Art Projects and President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the subject.

Kent's professional correspondence documents exhibitions, sales, consignments, and reproduction of prints and paintings. He kept meticulous records of his advertising commissions and illustration work. Detailed correspondence with publishers and printers indicates Kent's involvement in the technical aspects of production and provides a good overview of the publishing industry during the mid-twentieth century.

Business records of Asgaard Farm include records of the dairy and transfer of ownership to its employees, tax and employee information, and documents concerning several related business ventures such as distributor ships for grain, feed, and farm implements.

Series 2: Writings consists of notes, drafts, and completed manuscripts by Rockwell Kent, mainly articles, statements, speeches, poems, introductions, and reviews. The Kent Collection given to Friendship House, Moscow, in 1960, was augmented later by a set of his publications and the illustrated manuscripts of many of his monographs. Also included are a small number of manuscripts by other authors.

Series 3: Artwork consists mainly of drawings and sketches by Kent; also included are works on paper by other artists, many of whom are unidentified, and by children.

Series 4: Printed Matter consists of clippings, exhibition catalogs and announcements, brochures, broadsides, programs, and newsletters. These include items by and about Kent and his family, as well as articles written and/or illustrated by him, and reviews of his books. There is also material on a variety of subjects and causes of interest to him. Additional printed matter is included among the alphabetical files, mainly as attachments to correspondence.

Series 5: Miscellaneous includes biographical material, legal documents, and memorabilia. Artifacts received with papers include textile samples, a silk scarf, dinnerware, ice bucket, and rubber stamp, all featuring designs by Rockwell Kent. Also with this series are a variety of documents including a phrenological analysis of an ancestor, lists of supplies for expeditions, a hand-drawn map of an unidentified place, and technical notes regarding art materials and techniques.

Series 6: Photographs includes photographs of Kent, his family and friends, travel, and art number that over one thousand. Also included here are several albums of family and travel photographs.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into six series. Series 1 is arranged alphabetically. The arrangement of the remaining series is explained in each series description. Note that sealed materials that became available in 2000 were microfilmed separately on reels 5740-5741, but have integrated into this finding aid.

Missing Title

Series 1: Alphabetical Files, circa 1900-1971, undated (Reels 5153-5249, 5256, 5740-5741)

Series 2: Writings, 1906-1978, undated (Reels 5249-5252, 5741)

Series 3: Art Work, 1910-1972, undated (Reels 5252, 5741)

Series 4: Printed Matter, 1905-1993, undated (Reels 5252-5254)

Series 5: Miscellaneous, 1859-1969, undated (Reels 5254, 5741)

Series 6: Photographs, circa 1840-1970, undated (Reels 5254-5255, 5741)

Biographical Note:

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), an energetic and multitalented man, pursued many interests and careers during his very long and active life. At various times he was an architect, draftsman, carpenter, unskilled laborer, painter, illustrator, printmaker, commercial artist, designer, traveler/explorer, writer, professional lecturer, dairy farmer, and political activist.

While studying architecture at Columbia University, Kent enrolled in William Merritt Chase's summer school at Shinnecock Hills, Long Island. He then redirected his career ambitions toward painting and continued to study with Chase in New York. Kent spent a summer working and living with Abbott H. Thayer in Dublin, New Hampshire, and attended the New York School of Art, where Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller were his teachers.

Critically and financially, Kent was a successful artist. He was very well known for his illustration work--particularly limited editions of the classics, bookplates, and Christmas cards. He was a prolific printmaker, and his prints and paintings were acquired by many major museums and private collectors. During the post-World War II era, Kent's political sympathies resulted in the loss of commissions, and his adherence to artistic conservatism and outspoken opposition to modern art led to disfavor within art circles. After many years of declining reputation in this country and unsuccessful attempts to find a home for the Kent Collection, Kent gave his unsold paintings--the majority of his oeuvre--to the Soviet Union, where he continued to be immensely popular.

An avid traveler, Kent was especially fascinated by remote, Arctic lands and often stayed for extended periods of time to paint, write, and become acquainted with the local inhabitants. Between 1918 and 1935, he wrote and illustrated several popular books about his experiences in Alaska, Tierra del Fuego, and Greenland. In the 1930s and 1940s, Kent was much in demand as a lecturer, making several nationwide tours under the management of a professional lecture bureau; he spoke mainly about his travels, but among his standard lectures were some on "art for the people."

In 1927, Kent purchased Asgaard Farm at AuSable Forks, New York, in the Adirondacks, where he lived for the remainder of his life, operating a modern dairy farm on a modest scale for many years.

As a young man, Kent met Rufus Weeks, became committed to social justice, and joined the Socialist Party. Throughout his life, he supported left-wing causes and was a member or officer of many organizations promoting world peace and harmonious relations with the Soviet Union, civil rights, civil liberties, antifascism, and organized labor. Kent was frequently featured as a celebrity sponsor or speaker at fund-raising events for these causes. In 1948, he ran unsuccessfully as the American Labor Party's candidate for Congress. Kent's unpopular political views eventually led to the dissolution of his dairy business, resulted in a summons to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and prompted the U.S. State Department to deny him a passport, an action that subsequently was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kent wrote two autobiographies, This Is My Own (1940) and It's Me, O Lord (1955). In 1969, he was the subject of an oral history interview conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art.

Provenance:

In 1969, Rockwell Kent donated his papers to the Archives of American Art; textile samples were received in 1979, and his widow gave additional papers in 1971 and 1996. Letters to Rockwell Kent from wives Frances and Sally, sealed during Sally Kent Gorton's lifetime, became available for research after her death in 2000, and further material was donated to the Archives of American Art in 2001 by the Estate of Sally Kent [Shirley Johnstone] Gorton.

Restrictions:

The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not microfilmed or digitized 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:

Painters -- New York (State)  Search this

Topic:

Designers -- New York (State)  Search this

Mural painting and decoration  Search this

Politics and culture  Search this

Authors -- New York  Search this

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

Dairy farms  Search this

Federal aid to the arts  Search this

Illustrators -- New York (State)  Search this

Illustration of books  Search this

Works of art  Search this

Art and war  Search this

Commercial art  Search this

World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war  Search this

Function:

Labor unions

Genre/Form:

Poems

Sketches

Business records

Photographs

Drawings

Citation:

Rockwell Kent papers, circa 1840-1993, bulk 1935-1961. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.kentrock

See more items in:

Rockwell Kent papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw97edd9940-eb61-4562-9583-def2da778b6a

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-kentrock

Collection Creator:

Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this

Container:

Reel 5255, Frame 754-789

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

early 20th century-1960s

Collection Restrictions:

The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not microfilmed or digitized requires an appointment.

Collection 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.

Collection Citation:

Rockwell Kent papers, circa 1840-1993, bulk 1935-1961. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Rockwell Kent papers

Rockwell Kent papers / Series 6: Photographs / 6.3: Places, A - Z

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw911975fbf-3392-4e25-8a3e-ad80055f691e

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-kentrock-ref4644

Creator:

Ponce de Leon, Michael, b. 1922  Search this

Names:

Canaday, John, 1907-1985  Search this

Davis, Elmer Holmes, 1890-1958  Search this

Quirarte, Jacinto, 1931-2012  Search this

Extent:

0.3 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sketchbooks

Date:

1952-1979

Summary:

The papers of Michael Ponce de Leon measure 0.3 linear feet and date from 1952 to 1979. The papers document his career as an artist through two letters, one being a congratulatory letter from David Goddard upon receiving a Guggenheim award, 1967; photos and slides of Ponce de Leon's work, a slide of him in a workshop, and photos showing his metal collage intaglio printing technique; exhibition catalogs and announcements, reprints, clippings, miscellaneous notes, three cartoon drawings, and an intaglio, "There's a Time."

Scope and Contents:

The papers of Michael Ponce de Leon measure 0.3 linear feet and date from 1952 to 1979. The papers document his career as an artist through two letters, one being a congratulatory letter from David Goddard upon receiving a Guggenheim award, 1967; photos and slides of Ponce de Leon's work, a slide of him in a workshop, and photos showing his metal collage intaglio printing technique; exhibition catalogs and announcements, reprints, clippings, miscellaneous notes, three cartoon drawings, and an intaglio, "There's a Time."

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into one series.

Series 1: Michael Ponce de Leon papers 1952-1979 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1, OV 2)

Biographical / Historical:

Michael Ponce de Leon (1922-2006) was a an artist, printmaker, and cartoonist based in New York, N.Y. Ponce de Leon was born in Miami, but he grew up and attended school in Mexico City. He served in the United States military during World War II, and he settled in New York after the war where he studied at the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy of Design, and the School of the Brooklyn Museum. Between 1953 and 1980 Ponce de Leon taught at various colleges and universities including the Art Students League, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Hunter College, New York University, Pratt Institute, the Pratt Graphic Art Center, and Vassar College. Ponce de Leon died in Mexico in 2006.

Provenance:

Material on reels N69-127 & N70-14 lent for microfilming 1969 and unmicrofilmed material donated 1977-1979 by Michael Ponce de Leon.

Restrictions:

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.

Occupation:

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

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

Topic:

Prints -- Technique -- 20th century  Search this

War in art  Search this

Latino and Latin American artists  Search this

World War, 1939-1945  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sketchbooks

Citation:

Michael Ponce de Leon papers, 1952-1979. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Insitution.

Identifier:

AAA.poncmich

See more items in:

Michael Ponce de Leon papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw958671413-da2a-4537-8d3f-90e9f46ecffe

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-poncmich

Creator:

Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974  Search this

Names:

Duke Ellington Orchestra  Search this

Washingtonians, The.  Search this

Ellington, Mercer Kennedy, 1919-1996 (musician)  Search this

Strayhorn, Billy (William Thomas), 1915-1967  Search this

Collector:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Musical History  Search this

Extent:

400 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Phonograph records

Papers

Photographic prints

Posters

Sound recordings

Scrapbooks

Music

Clippings

Awards

Audiotapes

Place:

New York (N.Y.) -- 20th century

Harlem (New York, N.Y.) -- 20th century

Washington (D.C.) -- 20th century

Date:

1903 - 1989

Summary:

The collection documents Duke Ellington's career primarily through orchestrations (scores and parts), music manuscripts, lead sheets, transcriptions, and sheet music. It also includes concert posters, concert programs, television, radio, motion picture and musical theater scripts, business records, correspondence, awards, as well as audiotapes, audiodiscs, photographs, tour itineraries, newspaper clippings, magazines, caricatures, paintings, and scrapbooks.

Scope and Contents:

Dating approximately from the time Duke Ellington permanently moved to New York City in 1923 to the time the material was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1988, the bulk of the material in the Duke Ellington Collection is dated from 1934-1974 and comprises sound recordings, original music manuscripts and published sheet music, hand-written notes, correspondence, business records, photographs, scrapbooks, news clippings, concert programs, posters, pamphlets, books and other ephemera. These materials document Ellington's contributions as composer, musician, orchestra leader, and an ambassador of American music and culture abroad. In addition, the materials paint a picture of the life of a big band maintained for fifty years and open a unique window through which to view an evolving American society.

The approximate four hundred cubic feet of archival materials have been processed and organized into sixteen series arranged by type of material. Several of the series have been divided into subseries allowing additional organization to describe the content of the material. For example, Series 6, Sound Recordings, is divided into four subseries: Radio and Television Interviews, Concert Performances, Studio Dates and Non-Ellington Recordings. Each series has its own scope and content note describing the material and arrangement (for example; Series 10, Magazines and Newspaper Articles, is organized into two groups, foreign and domestic, and arranged chronologically within each group). A container list provides folder titles and box numbers.

The bulk of the material is located in Series 1, Music Manuscripts, and consists of compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and other composers. Series 6, Sound Recordings also provides a record of the performance of many of these compositions. The materials in Series 2, Performances and Programs, Series 3, Business Records, Series 8, Scrapbooks, Series 9, Newspaper Clippings, Series 11, Publicity and Series 12, Posters provide documentation of specific performances by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. Ellington was a spontaneous and prolific composer as evidenced by music, lyrical thoughts, and themes for extended works and plays captured on letterhead stationery in Series 3, Business Records, in the margin notes of individual books and pamphlets in Series 14, Religious Materials and Series 15, Books, and in the hand-written notes in Series 5, Personal Correspondence and Notes.

During its fifty-year lifespan, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra were billed under various names including The Washingtonians, The Harlem Footwarmers and The Jungle Band. The soloists were informally called "the band", and Series 3 includes salary statements, IOU's, receipts and ephemera relating to individual band members. Series 1, Music Manuscripts contains the soloists' parts and includes "band books" of several soloists (for example; Harry Carney and Johnny Hodges) and numerous music manuscripts of Billy Strayhorn. The changing role of Strayhorn from arranger hired in 1938 to Ellington's main collaborator and composer of many well-known titles for Duke Ellington and His Orchestra including "Take The A' Train" and "Satin Doll" can be traced in these music manuscripts. Series 7, Photographs and Series 2, Performances and Programs contain many images of the band members and Strayhorn. This Collection also documents the business history of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. Series 3, Business Records contains correspondence on letterhead stationery and Series 11, Publicity contains promotional material from the various booking agencies, professional companies, and public relations firms that managed the Orchestra.

The materials in the Duke Ellington Collection provide insight into public and institutional attitudes towards African Americans in mid-twentieth-century America. The business records in Series 3 beginning in 1938 and published sheet music in Series 1 depict Duke Ellington's progression from an African-American musician who needed "legitimization" by a white publisher, Irving Mills, to a businessmen who established his own companies including Tempo Music and Duke Ellington, Incorporated to control his copyright and financial affairs. Programs from the segregated Cotton Club in Series 2, Performances And Programs and contracts with no-segregation clauses in Series 3: Business Records further illustrate racial policies and practices in this time period. The public shift in perception of Duke Ellington from a leader of an exotic "Jungle Band" in the 1930s to a recipient of the Congressional Medal Of Freedom in 1970 is evidenced in Series 2, Performances And Programs, Series 12, Posters, Series 7, Photographs and Series 13, Awards. Reviews and articles reflecting Ellington's evolving status are also documented in Series 8, Newspaper Clippings, Series 9, Scrapbooks, Series 10, Newspaper and Magazine Articles.

The materials in the Duke Ellington Collection reflect rapid technological changes in American society from 1923-1982. Sound recordings in Series 6 range from 78 phonograph records of three minutes duration manufactured for play on Victrolas in monaural sound to long-playing (LP) phonograph records produced for stereo record players. Television scripts in Series 4, programs in Series 2 and music manuscripts (for example, Drum Is A Woman) in Series 1 demonstrate how the development of television as a means of mass communication spread the Orchestra's sound to a wider audience. The availability of commercial air travel enabled the Ellington Orchestra to extend their international performances from Europe to other continents including tours to Asia, Africa, South America and Australia and archival material from these tours is included in every series.

Series 4, Scripts and Transcripts and Series 6, Audio Recordings contain scripts and radio performances promoting the sale of United States War bonds during World War II, and Series 7, Photographs includes many images of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra's performances for military personnel revealing the impact of historic events on Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. Series 2: Programs and Performances, Series 9, Newspaper clippings and Series 8, Scrapbooks document the 1963 Far East tour aborted as a result of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

The Duke Ellington Collection contains works by numerous twentieth-century music, literature, and art luminaries. Series 1, Music Manuscripts contains original music manuscripts of William Grant Still, Eubie Blake, Mary Lou Williams, and others. Series 4, Scripts and Transcripts contains a play by Langston Hughes, and Series 12, Posters contains many original artworks.

Arrangement:

Series 1: Music Manuscripts, circa 1930-1981, undated

Series 2: Performances and Programs, 1933-1973, undated

Series 3: Business Records, 1938-1988

Series 4: Scripts and Transcripts, 1937-1970

Series 5: Personal Correspondence and Notes, 1941-1974, undated

Series 6: Sound Recordings, 1927-1974

Series 7: Photographs, 1924-1972, undated

Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1931-1973

Series 9: Newspaper Clippings, 1939-1973, undated

Series 10: Magazine Articles and Newspaper Clippings, 1940-1974

Series 11: Publicity, 1935-1988

Series 12: Posters and Oversize Graphics, 1933-1989, undated

Series 13: Awards, 1939-1982

Series 14: Religious Material, 1928-1974

Series 15: Books, 1903-1980

Series 16: Miscellaneous, 1940-1974

Biographical / Historical:

A native of Washington, DC, Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899. Edward was raised in a middle-class home in the Northwest section of Washington described by his sister Ruth--younger by sixteen years--as a "house full of love." Ellington himself wrote that his father J.E. (James Edward) raised his family "as though he were a millionaire" but Edward was especially devoted to his mother, Daisy Kennedy Ellington. In 1969, thirty-four years after his mother's death, Ellington accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom with these words, "There is nowhere else I would rather be tonight but in my mother's arms." Both his parents played the piano and Ellington began piano lessons at the age of seven, but like many boys he was easily distracted by baseball.

In his early teens, Ellington sneaked into Washington clubs and performance halls where he was exposed to ragtime musicians, including James P. Johnson, and where he met people from all walks of life. He returned in earnest to his piano studies, and at age fourteen wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag" also known as "Poodle Dog Rag." Ellington was earning income from playing music at seventeen years of age, and around this time he earned the sobriquet "Duke" for his sartorial splendor and regal air. On July 2, 1918, he married a high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson; their only child, Mercer Kennedy Ellington, was born on March 11, 1919. Duke Ellington spent the first twenty-four years of his life in Washington's culturally thriving Negro community. In this vibrant atmosphere he was inspired to be a composer and learned to take pride in his African-American heritage.

Ellington moved to New York City in 1923 to join and eventually lead a small group of transplanted Washington musicians called "The Washingtonians," which included future Ellington band members, Sonny Greer, Otto Hardwicke and "Bubber" Miley. Between 1923 and 1927, the group played at the Club Kentucky on Broadway and the ensemble increased from a quintet to a ten-piece orchestra. With stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith as his unofficial guide, Ellington soon became part of New York's music scene; Smith proved to be a long-lasting influence on Duke's composing and arranging direction. At the Club Kentucky, Ellington came under the tutelage of another legendary stride pianist, "Fats" Waller. Waller, a protege of Johnson and Smith, played solos during the band's breaks and also tutored Ellington who began to show progress in his compositions. In November 1924, Duke made his publishing and recording debut with "Choo Choo (I Got To Hurry Home)" released on the Blu-Disc label. In 1925, he contributed two songs to Chocolate Kiddies, an all-black revue which introduced European audiences to black American styles and performers. By this time Ellington's family, Edna and Mercer, had joined him in New York City. The couple separated in the late 1920's, but they never divorced or reconciled.

Ellington's achievements as a composer and bandleader began to attract national attention while he worked at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, from 1927 to 1932. The orchestra developed a distinctive sound that displayed the non-traditional voicings of Ellington's arrangements and featured the unique talents of the individual soloists. Ellington integrated his soloists' exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, their high-squealed trumpets, their sultry saxophone blues licks and Harlem's street rhythms into his arrangements. In the promotional material of the Cotton Club, the band was often billed as "Duke Ellington and His Jungle Band." With the success of compositions like "Mood Indigo," and an increasing number of recordings and national radio broadcasts from the Cotton Club, the band's reputation soared.

The ten years from 1932 to 1942 are considered by some major critics to represent the "golden age" for the Ellington Orchestra, but it represents just one of their creative peaks. These years did bring an influx of extraordinary new talent to the band including Jimmy Blanton on double bass, Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, and Ray Nance on trumpet, violin and vocals. During this ten year span Ellington composed several of his best known short works, including "Concerto For Cootie," "Ko-Ko," "Cotton Tail," "In A Sentimental Mood," and Jump For Joy, his first full-length musical stage revue.

Most notably, 1938 marked the arrival of Billy Strayhorn. While a teenager in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Strayhorn had already written "Lush Life," "Something To Live For" and a musical, Fantastic Rhythm. Ellington was initially impressed with Strayhorn's lyrics but realized long before Billy's composition "Take the A' Train" became the band's theme song in 1942 that Strayhorn's talents were not limited to penning clever lyrics. By 1942, "Swee' Pea" had become arranger, composer, second pianist, collaborator, and as Duke described him, "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine." Many Ellington/Strayhorn songs have entered the jazz canon, and their extended works are still being discovered and studied today. Strayhorn remained with the Ellington Organization until his death on May 30, 1967.

Ellington had often hinted of a work in progress depicting the struggle of blacks in America. The original script, Boola, debuted in Carnegie Hall in November of 1943, retitled Black, Brown and Beige. The performance met with mixed reviews, and although Ellington often returned to Carnegie Hall the piece was never recorded in a studio, and after 1944 was never performed in entirety again by the Ellington Orchestra. Nonetheless, it is now considered a milestone in jazz composition.

After World War II the mood and musical tastes of the country shifted and hard times befell big bands, but Ellington kept his band together. The band was not always financially self-sufficient and during the lean times Ellington used his songwriting royalties to meet the soloists' salaries. One could assign to Ellington the altruistic motive of loyalty to his sidemen, but another motivation may have been his compositional style which was rooted in hearing his music in the formative stage come alive in rehearsal. "The band was his instrument," Billy Strayhorn said, and no Ellington composition was complete until he heard the orchestra play it. Then he could fine tune his compositions, omit and augment passages, or weave a soloist's contribution into the structure of the tune.

In 1956, the American public rediscovered Duke and the band at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. The searing performances of tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves on "Diminuendo and Crescendo In Blue," his premiere soloist, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges on "Jeep's Blues", and the crowd's ecstatic reaction have become jazz legend. Later that year Duke landed on the cover of Time magazine. Although Ellington had previously written music for film and television (including the short film, Black and Tan Fantasy in 1929) it wasn't until 1959 that Otto Preminger asked him to score music for his mainstream film, Anatomy of a Murder, starring Jimmy Stewart. Paris Blues in 1961, featuring box-office stars Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier in roles as American jazz musicians in Paris, followed.

Ellington's first performance overseas was in England in 1933, but the 1960s brought extensive overseas tours including diplomatic tours sponsored by the State Department. Ellington and Strayhorn composed exquisite extended works reflecting the sights and sounds of their travels, including the Far East Suite, 1966. They wrote homages to their classical influences; in 1963, they adapted Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and celebrated Shakespeare's works with the suite Such Sweet Thunder in 1957. With Ella Fitzgerald, they continued the Norman Granz Songbook Series. Ellington also began to flex his considerable pianist skills and recorded albums with John Coltrane (1963), Coleman Hawkins (1963), Frank Sinatra, and Money Jungle (1963) with Charles Mingus and Max Roach. The First Sacred Concert debuted in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral in 1965. In his final years, Ellington's thoughts turned to spiritual themes and he added a Second (1968) and Third (1973) Concert of Sacred Music to his compositions.

In his lifetime, Duke received numerous awards and honors including the highest honor bestowed on an American civilian, the Congressional Medal Of Freedom. In 1965, Ellington was recommended for a Pulitzer Prize to honor his forty years of contribution to music but the recommendation was rejected by the board. Most likely he was disappointed, but his response at the age of sixty-six was, "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young."

Ellington never rested on his laurels or stopped composing. Whenever he was asked to name his favorite compositions his characteristic reply was "the next five coming up," but to please his loyal fans Ellington always featured some of his standards in every performance. Even on his deathbed, he was composing the opera buffo called Queenie Pie.

Duke Ellington died on May 24, 1974 at seventy-five years of age. His funeral was held in New York's Cathedral of St. John The Divine; he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. His long-time companion Beatrice "Evie" Ellis was buried beside him after her death in 1976. He was survived by his only child, Mercer Kennedy Ellington, who not only took up the baton to lead the Duke Ellington Orchestra but assumed the task of caring for his father's papers and his legacy to the nation. Mercer Ellington died in Copenhagan, Denmark on February 8, 1996, at the age of seventy-six. Ruth Ellington Boatwright died in New York on March 6, 2004, at the age of eighty-eight. Both Mercer and Ruth were responsible for shepherding the documents and artifacts that celebrate Duke Ellington's genius and creative life to their current home in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

William H. Quealy Collection of Duke Ellington Recordings (AC0296)

Rutgers University Collection of Radio Interviews about Duke Ellington (AC0328)

Duke Ellington Oral History Project (AC0368)

Duke Ellington Collection of Ephemera and realated Audiovisual Materials (AC0386)

Annual International Conference of the Duke Ellington Study Group Proceedings (AC0385)

Robert Udkoff Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera (AC0388)

Frank Driggs Collection of Duke Ellington Photographic Prints (AC0389)

New York Chapter of the Duke Ellington Society Collection (AC390)

Earl Okin Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera (AC0391)

William Russo Transcription and Arrangement of Duke Ellington's First Concert of Sacred Music (AC0406)

Ruth Ellington Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC0415)

Music manuscripts in the Ruth Ellington Collection complement the music manuscripts found in the Duke Ellington Collection.

Carter Harman Collection of Interviews with Duke Ellington (AC0422)

Betty McGettigan Collection of Duke Ellington Memorabilia (AC0494)

Dr. Theodore Shell Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera (AC0502)

Edward and Gaye Ellington Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC0704)

Andrew Homzy Collection of Duke Ellington Stock Music Arrangements (AC0740)

John Gensel Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC0763)

Al Celley Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC1240)

Materials at Other Organizations

Institute of Jazz Studies

Separated Materials:

Artifacts related to this collection are in the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) and include trophies, plaques, and medals. See accessions: 1989.0369; 1991.0808; 1993.0032; and 1999.0148.

"

Provenance:

The collection was purchased through an appropriation of Congress in 1988.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the original and master audiovisual materials are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Copyright restrictions. Consult the Archives Center at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Paul Ellington, executor, is represented by:

Richard J.J. Scarola, Scarola Ellis LLP, 888 Seventh Avenue, 45th Floor, New York, New York 10106. Telephone (212) 757-0007 x 235; Fax (212) 757-0469; email: rjjs@selaw.com; www.selaw.com; www.ourlawfirm.com.

Occupation:

Composers -- 20th century  Search this

Topic:

Big bands  Search this

Pianists  Search this

Bandsmen -- 20th century  Search this

Jazz -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Musicians -- 20th century  Search this

Music -- Performance  Search this

African American entertainers -- 20th century  Search this

African Americans -- History  Search this

Popular music -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Music -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

African American musicians  Search this

Genre/Form:

Phonograph records

Papers

Photographic prints

Posters

Sound recordings

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Music -- Manuscripts

Clippings

Awards

Audiotapes

Citation:

Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Sponsor:

Processing and encoding partially funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0301

See more items in:

Duke Ellington Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep850a376a1-6b6d-48bc-9076-cffef76fea2c

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0301

Former owner:

Featherstone family  Search this

Ash, G. Baron  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Packwood House (Lapworth, Warwickshire, England)

United Kingdom -- England -- Warwickshire -- Lapworth

Scope and Contents:

The folder includes worksheets, photocopied book excerpts, and additional information about the house and garden.

General:

Packwood House is a timber-framed Tudor manor house initially constructed between 1556 and 1560, which has undergone considerable restoration and modification, especially by former 20th century owner G. Baron Ash. Donated to the National Trust (Great Britain) in 1941, the property is noted especially for its Yew Garden, containing over 100 trees. Originally laid out in the mid-17th century by John Fetherston (the Fetherston/Fetherstone family occupied the house from its construction until 1876), the clipped yews are supposed to represent the Biblical "Sermon on the Mount." Twelve large specimens are known as "The Apostles," while four others are "The Evangelists." A hummock called "The Mount" is topped by a single yew known as "The Master." Smaller yews called "The Multitude" were planted in the 19th century to replace an orchard.

Packwood House was visited during the Garden Club of America's June 1929 tour to England. A complete copy of the GCA tour itinerary was printed in the Bulletin of the Garden Club of America (Fourth Series, No. 5), September 1929, pp. 6-25.

Persons associated with the property include the Fetherstone family (former owners, 1556-1876) and G. Baron Ash (former owner, 1925-1941).

Related Materials:

Packwood House related holdings consist of 1 folder (6 lantern slides)

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials 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 Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- England -- Warwickshire -- Lapworth  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File ENG032

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 2: International Garden Images / United Kingdom -- England

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb63d082a92-7245-4a03-a7d1-b07493dbc8f9

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref4472

Architect:

Barry, Charles Sir, 1795-1860  Search this

Landscape architect:

Barry, Charles Sir, 1795-1860  Search this

Former owner:

Sutherland, George Granville Leveson-Gower Duke of, 1786-1861  Search this

Astor, Waldorf Astor Viscount, 1879-1952  Search this

Astor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor Viscountess, 1879-1964  Search this

Gardener:

Fleming, John  Search this

Bridgeman, Charles  Search this

Garden designer:

Jellicoe, Geoffrey Sir, 1900-1996  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Cliveden (Taplow, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England)

United Kingdom -- England -- Berkshire -- Maidenhead -- Taplow

Scope and Contents:

The folder includes worksheets, photocopied book excerpts, and additional information about the house and garden.

General:

Cliveden is an historically significant estate set on 130-foot high banks above the River Thames, with its grounds sloping down to the river. Comprising about 375 acres, the estate's current mansion was built in 1851 by architect Charles Barry for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. Notable owners in the early 20th century included Waldorf and Nancy Astor. The estate's gardens include about 180 acres, while the rest of the property is woodland and paddocks. Highlights of the gardens include a formal four-acre parterre, topiary, a water garden, an herbaceous plant "Secret" garden (replacing an earlier rose garden designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe), a lime tree avenue, and a maze. Temples, pavilions, follies, and sculpture complement the plant material. The property is currently owned by the National Trust (Great Britain), which leases the mansion as a hotel. Cliveden was visited during the Garden Club of America's June 1929 tour to England. A complete copy of the GCA tour itinerary was printed in the Bulletin of the Garden Club of America (Fourth Series, No. 5), September 1929, pp. 6-25.

Persons associated with the property include Sir Charles Barry (architect and landscape architect, 1851); George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland (former owner, 1850-1861); John Fleming (gardener, ca. 1851); Charles Bridgeman (gardener, ca. 1720); Waldorf and Nancy Astor, Viscount and Viscountess Astor (former owners, 1906-1942); and Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe (garden designer, 1959).

Related Materials:

Cliveden related holdings consist of 1 folder (6 lantern slides)

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials 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 Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- England -- Berkshire -- Maidenhead -- Taplow  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File ENG006

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 2: International Garden Images / United Kingdom -- England

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb66a91a432-2cf1-4cd8-92c2-00c88bdc5a48

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref4476

Garden designer:

Lindsay, Norah Bourke, 1873-1948  Search this

Former owner:

Lindsay, Norah Bourke, 1873-1948  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Sutton Courtenay Manor House (Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England)

United Kingdom -- England -- Oxfordshire -- Sutton Courtenay

General:

Although various parts of the Sutton Courtenay Manor House were built between the 13th through 17th centuries, development of its gardens did not occur until the early 20th century. Norah Bourke Lindsay, who became an influential garden designer in England after World War I, lived in the house and created its gardens, which demonstrate the influence of Gertrude Jekyll and William Robinson. The property was visited by the Garden Club of America on June 11, 1929, during its English garden tour. At that time the property was in Berkshire, but in 1974 county boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. Two of the six lantern slides in the Archives of American Gardens collection were produced from images taken during the tour by Mrs. P. H. Williams, while the others may have been made from images taken by other tour participants or may have been produced commercially. A complete copy of the GCA tour itinerary was printed in the Bulletin of the Garden Club of America (Fourth Series, No. 5), September 1929, pp. 6-25.

Persons associated with the garden include Norah Bourke Lindsay (former owner and garden designer, 1895-1948).

Related Materials:

Sutton Courtenay Manor House related holdings consist of 1 folder (6 lantern slides)

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials 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 Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- England -- Oxfordshire -- Sutton Courtenay  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File ENG014

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 2: International Garden Images / United Kingdom -- England

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb6b7f93582-024b-40ad-96ad-73a61a800bed

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref4485

Creator:

United Telegraph Workers.  Search this

Western Union Telegraph Company  Search this

Extent:

452 Cubic feet (871 boxes and 23 map folders)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Administrative records

Articles

Books

Clippings

Contracts

Drawings

Photographs

Patents

Newsletters

Photograph albums

Scrapbooks

Specifications

Technical documents

Date:

circa 1820-1995

Summary:

The collection documents in photographs, scrapbooks, notebooks, correspondence, stock ledgers, annual reports, and financial records, the evolution of the telegraph, the development of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the beginning of the communications revolution. The collection materials describe both the history of the company and of the telegraph industry in general, particularly its importance to the development of the technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection is useful for researchers interested in the development of technology, economic history, and the impact of technology on American social and cultural life.

Scope and Contents:

The collection is divided into twenty-six (26) series and consists of approximately 400 cubic feet. The collection documents in photographs, scrapbooks, notebooks, correspondence, stock ledgers, annual reports, and financial records, the evolution of the telegraph, the development of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the beginning of the communications revolution. The collection materials describe both the history of the company and of the telegraph industry in general, particularly its importance to the development of the technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection is useful for researchers interested in the development of technology, economic history, and the impact of technology on American social and cultural life.

Arrangement:

The collection is divided into twenty-seven series.

Series 1: Historical and Background Information, 1851-1994

Series 2: Subsidiaries of Western Union, 1844-1986

Series 3: Executive Records, 1848-1987

Series 4: Presidential Letterbooks and Writings, 1865-1911

Series 5: Correspondence, 1837-1985

Series 6: Cyrus W. Field Papers, 1840-1892

Series 7: Secretary's Files, 1844-1987

Series 8: Financial Records, 1859-1995

Series 9: Legal Records, 1867-1968

Series 10: Railroad Records, 1854-1945

Series 11: Law Department Records, 1868-1979

Series 12: Patent Materials, 1840-1970

Series 13: Operating Records, 1868-1970s

Series 14: Westar VI-S, 1974, 1983-1986

Series 15: Engineering Department Records, 1874-1970

Series 16: Plant Department Records, 1867-1937, 1963

Series 17: Superintendent of Supplies Records, 1888-1948

Series 18: Employee/Personnel Records 1852-1985

Series 19: Public Relations Department Records, 1858-1980

Series 20: Western Union Museum, 1913-1971

Series 21: Maps, 1820-1964

Series 22: Telegrams, 1852-1960s

Series 23: Photographs, circa 1870-1980

Series 24: Scrapbooks, 1835-1956

Series 25: Notebooks, 1880-1942

Series 26: Audio Visual Materials, 1925-1994

Series 27: Addenda

Biographical / Historical:

In 1832 Samuel F. B. Morse, assisted by Alfred Vail, conceived of the idea for an electromechanical telegraph, which he called the "Recording Telegraph." This commercial application of electricity was made tangible by their construction of a crude working model in 1835-36. This instrument probably was never used outside of Professor Morse's rooms where it was, however, operated in a number of demonstrations. This original telegraph instrument was in the hands of the Western Union Telegraph Company and had been kept carefully over the years in a glass case. It was moved several times in New York as the Western Union headquarters building changed location over the years. The company presented it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1950.

The telegraph was further refined by Morse, Vail, and a colleague, Leonard Gale, into working mechanical form in 1837. In this year Morse filed a caveat for it at the U.S. Patent Office. Electricity, provided by Joseph Henry's 1836 "intensity batteries", was sent over a wire. The flow of electricity through the wire was interrupted for shorter or longer periods by holding down the key of the device. The resulting dots or dashes were recorded on a printer or could be interpreted orally. In 1838 Morse perfected his sending and receiving code and organized a corporation, making Vail and Gale his partners.

In 1843 Morse received funds from Congress to set-up a demonstration line between Washington and Baltimore. Unfortunately, Morse was not an astute businessman and had no practical plan for constructing a line. After an unsuccessful attempt at laying underground cables with Ezra Cornell, the inventor of a trench digger, Morse switched to the erection of telegraph poles and was more successful. On May 24, 1844, Morse, in the U.S. Supreme Court Chambers in Washington, sent by telegraph the oft-quoted message to his colleague Vail in Baltimore, "What hath God wrought!"

In 1845 Morse hired Andrew Jackson's former postmaster general, Amos Kendall, as his agent in locating potential buyers of the telegraph. Kendall realized the value of the device, and had little trouble convincing others of its potential for profit. By the spring he had attracted a small group of investors. They subscribed $15,000 and formed the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Many new telegraph companies were formed as Morse sold licenses wherever he could.

The first commercial telegraph line was completed between Washington, D.C., and New York City in the spring of 1846 by the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Shortly thereafter, F. O. J. Smith, one of the patent owners, built a line between New York City and Boston. Most of these early companies were licensed by owners of Samuel Morse patents. The Morse messages were sent and received in a code of dots and dashes.

At this time other telegraph systems based on rival technologies were being built. Some companies used the printing telegraph, a device invented by a Vermonter, Royal E. House, whose messages were printed on paper or tape in Roman letters. In 1848 a Scotch scientist, Alexander Bain, received his patents on a telegraph. These were but two of many competing and incompatible technologies that had developed. The result was confusion, inefficiency, and a rash of suits and counter suits.

By 1851 there were over fifty separate telegraph companies operating in the United States. This corporate cornucopia developed because the owners of the telegraph patents had been unsuccessful in convincing the United States and other governments of the invention's potential usefulness. In the private sector, the owners had difficulty convincing capitalists of the commercial value of the invention. This led to the owners' willingness to sell licenses to many purchasers who organized separate companies and then built independent telegraph lines in various sections of the country.

Hiram Sibley moved to Rochester, New York, in 1838 to pursue banking and real estate. Later he was elected sheriff of Monroe County. In Rochester he was introduced to Judge Samuel L. Selden who held the House Telegraph patent rights. In 1849 Selden and Sibley organized the New York State Printing Telegraph Company, but they found it hard to compete with the existing New York, Albany, and Buffalo Telegraph Company.

After this experience Selden suggested that instead of creating a new line, the two should try to acquire all the companies west of Buffalo and unite them into a single unified system. Selden secured an agency for the extension throughout the United States of the House system. In an effort to expand this line west, Judge Selden called on friends and the people in Rochester. This led, in April 1851, to the organization of a company and the filing in Albany of the Articles of Association for the "New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company" (NYMVPTC), a company which later evolved into the Western Union Telegraph Company.

In 1854 there were two rival systems of the NYMVPTC in the West. These two systems consisted of thirteen separate companies. All the companies were using Morse patents in the five states north of the Ohio River. This created a struggle between three separate entities, leading to an unreliable and inefficient telegraph service. The owners of these rival companies eventually decided to invest their money elsewhere and arrangements were made for the NYMVPTC to purchase their interests.

Hiram Sibley recapitalized the company in 1854 under the same name and began a program of construction and acquisition. The most important takeover was carried out by Sibley when he negotiated the purchase of the Morse patent rights for the Midwest for $50,000 from Jeptha H. Wade and John J. Speed, without the knowledge of Ezra Cornell, their partner in the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company (EMTC). With this acquisition Sibley proceeded to switch to the superior Morse system. He also hired Wade, a very capable manager, who became his protege and later his successor. After a bitter struggle Morse and Wade obtained the EMTC from Cornell in 1855, thus assuring dominance by the NYMVPTC in the Midwest. In 1856 the company name was changed to the "Western Union Telegraph Company," indicating the union of the Western lines into one compact system. In December, 1857, the Company paid stockholders their first dividend.

Between 1857 and 1861 similar consolidations of telegraph companies took place in other areas of the country so that most of the telegraph interests of the United States had merged into six systems. These were the American Telegraph Company (covering the Atlantic and some Gulf states), The Western Union Telegraph Company (covering states North of the Ohio River and parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Minnesota), the New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company (covering New York State), the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Company (covering Pennsylvania), the Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company (covering sections of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois), and the New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company (covering the southern Mississippi Valley and the Southwest). All these companies worked together in a mutually friendly alliance, and other small companies cooperated with the six systems, particularly some on the West Coast.

By the time of the Civil War, there was a strong commercial incentive to construct a telegraph line across the western plains to link the two coasts of America. Many companies, however, believed the line would be impossible to build and maintain.

In 1860 Congress passed, and President James Buchanan signed, the Pacific Telegraph Act, which authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to seek bids for a project to construct a transcontinental line. When two bidders dropped out, Hiram Sibley, representing Western Union, was the only bidder left. By default Sibley won the contract. The Pacific Telegraph Company was organized for the purpose of building the eastern section of the line. Sibley sent Wade to California, where he consolidated the small local companies into the California State Telegraph Company. This entity then organized the Overland Telegraph Company, which handled construction eastward from Carson City, Nevada, joining the existing California lines, to Salt Lake City, Utah. Sibley's Pacific Telegraph Company built westward from Omaha, Nebraska. Sibley put most of his resources into the venture. The line was completed in October, 1861. Both companies were soon merged into Western Union. This accomplishment made Hiram Sibley leader of the telegraph industry.

Further consolidations took place over the next several years. Many companies merged into the American Telegraph Company. With the expiration of the Morse patents, several organizations were combined in 1864 under the name of "The U.S. Telegraph Company." In 1866 the final consolidation took place, with Western Union exchanging stock for the stock of the other two organizations. The general office of Western Union moved at this time from Rochester to 145 Broadway, New York City. In 1875 the main office moved to 195 Broadway, where it remained until 1930 when it relocated to 60 Hudson Street.

In 1873 Western Union purchased a majority of shares in the International Ocean Telegraph Company. This was an important move because it marked Western Union's entry into the foreign telegraph market. Having previously worked with foreign companies, Western Union now began competing for overseas business.

In the late 1870s Western Union, led by William H. Vanderbilt, attempted to wrest control of the major telephone patents, and the new telephone industry, away from the Bell Telephone Company. But due to new Bell leadership and a subsequent hostile takeover attempt of Western Union by Jay Gould, Western Union discontinued its fight and Bell Telephone prevailed.

Despite these corporate calisthenics, Western Union remained in the public eye. The sight of a uniformed Western Union messenger boy was familiar in small towns and big cities all over the country for many years. Some of Western Union's top officials in fact began their careers as messenger boys.

Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century the telegraph became one of the most important factors in the development of social and commercial life of America. In spite of improvements to the telegraph, however, two new inventions--the telephone (nineteenth century) and the radio (twentieth century)--eventually replaced the telegraph as the leaders of the communication revolution for most Americans.

At the turn of the century, Bell abandoned its struggles to maintain a monopoly through patent suits, and entered into direct competition with the many independent telephone companies. Around this time, the company adopted its new name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).

In 1908 AT&T gained control of Western Union. This proved beneficial to Western Union, because the companies were able to share lines when needed, and it became possible to order telegrams by telephone. However, it was only possible to order Western Union telegrams, and this hurt the business of Western Union's main competitor, the Postal Telegraph Company. In 1913, however, as part of a move to prevent the government from invoking antitrust laws, AT&T completely separated itself from Western Union.

Western Union continued to prosper and it received commendations from the U.S. armed forces for service during both world wars. In 1945 Western Union finally merged with its longtime rival, the Postal Telegraph Company. As part of that merger, Western Union agreed to separate domestic and foreign business. In 1963 Western Union International Incorporated, a private company completely separate from the Western Union Telegraph Company, was formed and an agreement with the Postal Telegraph Company was completed. In 1994, Western Union Financial Services, Inc. was acquired by First Financial Management Corporation. In 1995, First Financial Management Corporation merged with First Data Corporation making Western Union a First Data subsidiary.

Many technological advancements followed the telegraph's development. The following are among the more important:

The first advancement of the telegraph occurred around 1850 when operators realized that the clicks of the recording instrument portrayed a sound pattern, understandable by the operators as dots and dashes. This allowed the operator to hear the message by ear and simultaneously write it down. This ability transformed the telegraph into a versatile and speedy system.

Duplex Telegraphy, 1871-72, was invented by the president of the Franklin Telegraph Company. Unable to sell his invention to his own company, he found a willing buyer in Western Union. Utilizing this invention, two messages were sent over the wire simultaneously, one in each direction.

As business blossomed and demand surged, new devices appeared. Thomas Edison's Quadruplex allowed four messages to be sent over the same wire simultaneously, two in one direction and two in the other.

An English automatic signaling arrangement, Wheatstone's Automatic Telegraph, 1883, allowed larger numbers of words to be transmitted over a wire at once. It could only be used advantageously, however, on circuits where there was a heavy volume of business.

Buckingham's Machine Telegraph was an improvement on the House system. It printed received messages in plain Roman letters quickly and legibly on a message blank, ready for delivery.

Vibroplex, c. 1890, a semi-automatic key sometimes called a "bug key," made the dots automatically. This relieved the operator of much physical strain.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Additional moving image about Western Union Telegraph Company can be found in the Industry on Parade Collection (AC0507). This includes Cable to Cuba! by Bell Laboratory, AT & T, featuring the cable ship, the C.S. Lord Kelvin, and Communications Centennial! by the Western Union Company.

Materials at Other Organizations

Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware.

Western Union International Records form part of the MCI International, Inc. Records at the First Data Corporation, Greenwood Village, Colorado.

Records of First Data Corporation and its predecessors, including Western Union, First Financial Management Corporation (Atlanta) and First Data Resources (Omaha). Western Union collection supports research of telegraphy and related technologies, and includes company records, annual reports, photographs, print and broadcast advertising, telegraph equipment, and messenger uniforms.

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Western Union Telegraph Expedition, 1865-1867

This collection includes correspondence, mostly to Spencer F. Baird, from members of the Scientific Corps of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition, including Kennicott, Dall, Bannister, and Elliott; copies of reports submitted to divisional chiefs from expedition staff members; newspaper clippings concerning the expedition; copies of notes on natural history taken by Robert Kennicott; and a journal containing meteorological data recorded by Henry M. Bannister from March to August, 1866.

Separated Materials:

Artifacts (apparatus and equipment) were donated to the Division of Information Technology and Society, now known as the Division of Work & Industry, National Museum of American History.

Provenance:

The collection was donated by Western Union in September of 1971.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but Series 11 and films are stored off-site. Special arrangements must be made to view some of the audiovisual materials. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Communications equipment  Search this

Communication -- International cooperation  Search this

Electric engineering  Search this

Electric engineers  Search this

Electrical equipment  Search this

Electrical science and technology  Search this

Telegraphers  Search this

Telegraph  Search this

Genre/Form:

Administrative records

Articles

Books

Clippings

Contracts

Drawings

Photographs -- 19th century

Patents

Photographs -- 20th century

Newsletters

Photograph albums

Scrapbooks -- 19th century

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Specifications

Technical documents

Citation:

Western Union Telegraph Company Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0205

See more items in:

Western Union Telegraph Company Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b72e8493-288c-4bd0-84d5-011155da30a7

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0205

Creator:

Licht, Ira Richard, 1938-  Search this

Names:

Lowe Art Museum  Search this

Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, Ill.)  Search this

National Endowment for the Arts  Search this

Extent:

0.8 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

1963-1991

Summary:

The Ira Licht papers measure 0.8 linear feet and date from 1963-1991. The papers document Licht's career as an art historian and museum professional. Included is professional and personal correspondence with artists during his career as curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, coordinator of Art in Public Places, National Endowment for the Arts, and tenure as director of the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum. The letters are from many notable artists at early stages in their careers, which provides insight into how they built success from an early point. There are also artist and exhibition files which document working relationships with and about artists and exhibitions Licht curated, as well as printed materials such as exhibition invitations and posters.

Scope and Contents:

The Ira Licht papers measure 0.8 linear feet and date from 1963-1991. The papers document Licht's career as an art historian and museum professional. Included is professional and personal correspondence with artists during his career as curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, coordinator of the Art in Public Places Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, and director of the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum and relate to projects and funding. The letters are from many notable artists at early stages in their careers, which provides insight into how they built success from an early point. Some letters have photographs and printed material enclosed. Artist files are arranged alphabetically by name and include writings on and by artists, resumes and project descriptions, photographic prints, slides of artists' artwork, press clippings, correspondence and exhibition catalogs. Exhibition files consist of planning documents, exhibition catalogs, correspondence related to and press releases for exhibitions Licht curated. Of note is an catalog for Bodyworks a 1975 group exhibition Licht curated for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. The papers also include printed material which consists of exhibition announcements, invitations, and posters.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 4 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1969-1991 (0.3 Linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Artist and Exhibition Files, 1963-1991 (0.3 Linear feet; Box 1-2)

Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1972-1984 (0.1 Linear feet; Box 2)

Series 4: Printed Material, 1967-1978 (0.1 Linear feet; Box 2)

Biographical / Historical:

Ira Licht (1938- ) is a museum director, curator and art historian in Miami, Florida. During his career he served as the curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974-1976); coordinator of the Art in Public Places Program of the National Endowment for the Arts (1976-1978); and director of the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum (1978-1989). Licht was closely connected with artists associated with 20th century minimalism, conceptualism, and land art. Artists who are represented by at least one piece of correspondence (postcards and/or letters) in the papers include: Duane Hanson, Pat Steir, Carl Andre, Ana Mendieta, Jackie Ferrara, Romare Bearden, Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Adrian Piper, Lawrence Wiener, Dan Flavin, Laurie Anderson, Dan Graham, Robert Graham, Lynda Benglis, Dennis Oppenheim, Red Grooms and Christo.

Ira Licht is married to Jennifer Licht who was an associate curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Provenance:

The collection was donated in 2019 by Ira Licht.

Restrictions:

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.

Occupation:

Art museum directors -- Florida -- Miami  Search this

Art historians -- Florida -- Miami  Search this

Art museum curators  Search this

Citation:

Ira Licht papers, 1963-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

AAA.lichtira

See more items in:

Ira Licht papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw95b7a4a97-f941-40d9-b9c1-c2dc1e77bf81

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-lichtira

Creator:

Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)  Search this

Scurlock, Robert S. (Saunders), 1917-1994  Search this

Custom Craft  Search this

Scurlock, Addison N., 1883-1964  Search this

Scurlock, George H. (Hardison), 1919-2005  Search this

Names:

Howard University -- 20th century  Search this

DuBois, W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963  Search this

Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915  Search this

Extent:

320 Boxes

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Matrices, color separation

Dye transfer process

Studio portraits

Color separation negatives

Place:

Washington (D.C.) -- Small business -- 20th century

Washington (D.C.) -- African Americans

Shaw (Washington, D.C.)

Date:

undated

Summary:

The Scurlock photographic studio was a fixture in the Shaw area of Washington, DC from 1911 to 1994, and encompassed two generations of photographers, Addison N. Scurlock (1883-1964) and his sons George H. (1920- 2005) and Robert S. (1916-1994). Subseries 4.1 includes black and white silver gelatin negatives. An overview to the entire Scurlock collection is available here: Scurlock Studio Records

Scope and Contents:

Subseries 4.1 includes black and white silver gelatin negatives. The majority of the negatives, not all, have been scanned.

Arrangement note:

The negatives are not arranged in a clear order, and the negatives document clients and subjects. Researchers will need to look in two different box sizes for negatives of different sizes that were originally housed together in freezer boxes but are now housed separately according to size. A number of freezer boxes are missing, this is the reason for box number gaps, and contain varying numbers of negatives. The physical number of boxes was condensed during rehousing but the original freezer box numbers were retained in combination on the new boxes. The beginning and end of a freezer box are indicated inside the new box by blue dividers.

Biographical/Historical note:

The Scurlock photographic studio was a fixture in the Shaw area of Washington, DC. from 1911 to 1994, and encompassed two generations of photographers, Addison N. Scurlock (1883-1964) and his sons George H. (1920- 2005) and Robert S. (1916-1994). More...

Forms Part Of:

Subseries 4.1 forms part of Series 4, within the Scurlock Studio Records group.

Scurlock Studio Records

Series 1: Black and White Photographs

Series 2: Color Photographs

Series 3: Framed Prints

Series 4: Black-and-White Silver Gelatin Negatives

Series 5: Color Negatives

Series 6: Color Transparencies, Slides, and Other Formats

Series 7: Black-and-White Color Separation Negatives and Matrices

Series 8: Scurlock Studio Business Records

Series 9: Custom Craft Business Records

Series 10: Capitol School of Photography

Series 11: Washington Stock

Series 12: Background Materials and Publications

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives. Special arrangements required to view negatives due to cold storage. Using negatives requires a three hour waiting period. Contact the Archives Center at 202-633-3270.

Rights:

When the Museum purchased the collection from the Estate of Robert S. Scurlock, it obtained all rights, including copyright. The earliest photographs in the collection are in the public domain because their term of copyright has expired. The Archives Center will control copyright and the use of the collection for reproduction purposes, which will be handled in accordance with its standard reproduction policy guidelines. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

African Americans -- History -- 20th century  Search this

Commercial photography -- 20th century -- Washington (D.C)  Search this

Segregation  Search this

Photography -- 20th century -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Portraits -- 20th century  Search this

Politicians -- 20th century  Search this

African American photographers  Search this

African American entertainers -- 20th century  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs -- 20th century

Matrices, color separation

Dye transfer process

Studio portraits

Color separation negatives

Citation:

Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Smithsonian Institution

Sponsor:

The collection was acquired with assistance from the Eugene Meyer Foundation. Elihu and Susan Rose and the Save America's Treasures program, provided funds to stabilize, organize, store, and create digital surrogates of some of the negatives. Processing and encoding funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0618.S04.01

See more items in:

Scurlock Studio Records, Subseries 4.1: Black-and-White Silver Gelatin Negatives

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8ec458f4e-274d-4d12-859d-aaea7f7fc0ed

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0618-s04-01

Creator:

Brook, Alexander, 1898-1980  Search this

Subject:

Bacon, Peggy  Search this

Biddle, George  Search this

Brett, Catherine  Search this

Covarrubias, Miguel  Search this

Pollock, Jackson  Search this

Spencer, Niles  Search this

Knee, Gina  Search this

Bouché, Louis  Search this

Type:

Photographs

Watercolors

Sketches

Transcriptions

Scrapbooks

Sketchbooks

Interviews

Etchings

Illustrations

Citation:

Alexander Brook papers, 1900-1982. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Post-impressionism (Art)  Search this

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

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

Theme:

Diaries  Search this

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)6833

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)208960

AAA_collcode_brooalex

Theme:

Diaries

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_208960

Creator:

Gray, Cleve, 1918-2004  Search this

Subject:

Richter, Hans  Search this

Marin, John  Search this

Lipchitz, Jacques  Search this

Pollock, Jackson  Search this

Grace, Louise N.  Search this

Gray, Francine du Plessix  Search this

Duchamp, Marcel  Search this

Dillenberger, Jane  Search this

Gabo, Naum  Search this

Ernst, Jimmy  Search this

Davis, Jim  Search this

Calder, Alexander  Search this

Barzun, Jacques  Search this

Weber, Nicholas Fox  Search this

Smith, David  Search this

Villon, Jacques  Search this

Pratt Institute  Search this

Rhode Island School of Design  Search this

Neuberger Museum of Art  Search this

Jacques Seligmann & Co  Search this

Betty Parsons Gallery  Search this

Connecticut. Commission on Arts, Tourism, Culture, History and Film  Search this

Princeton University  Search this

Berry-Hill Galleries  Search this

Type:

Poems

Articles

Photographs

Reviews (documents)

Notes

Illustrations

Notebooks

Sketches

Drafts (documents)

Video recordings

Sound recordings

Interviews

Manuscripts

Paintings

Prints

Watercolors

Drawings

Lectures

Citation:

Cleve Gray papers, 1933-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

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

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Protest movements -- United States  Search this

Designers  Search this

Women artists  Search this

Women painters  Search this

Women sculptors  Search this

Theme:

Lives of artists  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)9567

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211768

AAA_collcode_grayclev

Theme:

Lives of artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211768

Creator:

W. Atlee Burpee Company  Search this

Burpee, W. Atlee (Washington Atlee), 1858-1915  Search this

Burpee, David, 1893-1980  Search this

Wm. Henry Maule (Firm)  Search this

James Vick's Sons (Rochester, N.Y.).  Search this

Extent:

200 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Trade catalogs

Business records

Commercial correspondence

Instructional materials

Ledgers (account books)

Date:

circa 1873-1980

Summary:

The W. Atlee Burpee & Company records, dated circa 1873-1986, document the firm's business activities developing plant varieties, working with contract seedsmen, and marketing and selling seeds. They include seed trial records, seed contracts, sales and acccounting records, inventories, office correspondence, seed catalogs, promotional and instructional materials, advertisements and advertising reports, contest letters, daybooks, photographs, reference materials, and other items relating to the company and some of its competitors. The collection also includes Burpee family papers.

Content Description:

This collection documents W. Atlee Burpee & Co., a mail-order seed company based in Philadelphia, from its early beginnings in 1876 when its founder, W. Atlee Burpee, started in the agricultural business, to the 1970s when his son, David Burpee, sold the firm. The collection also includes personal papers of the Burpee family dating back to the mid-nineteenth century.

Business-related content in the collection consists of crop propagation and management records; company correspondence; administrative and personnel records; advertising files; legal papers; property records and plans; reports, studies, and technical data; notes and drafts; files on professional outreach activities and events; trade literature (published by both the Burpee company and a number of its competitors); and awards and certificates received by the company. Significant topics documented in these files include the development of notable flower and vegetable varieties introduced by the company; the impact of World Wars I and II on gardening and the global seed trade; advertising strategies, technology, and innovation; and David Burpee's advocacy of the marigold as the national floral emblem of the United States.

The Burpee family papers consist of personal files unrelated to the company's business operations. These include records generated by W. Atlee's father (David Burpee, 1827-1882) and grandfather (Washington L. Atlee, 1808-1878), as well as W. Atlee's wife, Blanche (1863-1948); David Burpee (1893-1980) and his wife, Lois (1912-1984); and W. Atlee Burpee II (1894-1966). There are genealogical surveys conducted on both the Atlee and Burpee families as well as clippings about family members. W. Atlee and David Burpee's series are the most extensive, and cover their involvement with numerous social and philanthropic clubs and organizations. The series include personal correspondence; financial, accounting, and tax records; travel-related files; reference material; and will and estate papers.

The Burpee collection also has a large number of images related to the Burpee business and family in a variety of formats including photographs, film and glass plate negatives, and advertisement mock-ups. Other formats include architectural and site plans, original artwork for advertisements, films, cassettes, audio tapes, and ephemera.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged into six series:

Series 1: Plant/Farm Related Material Series 2: Business Records Series 3: Material Published About the Burpee Company Series 4: Awards and Certificates Series 5: Photographic and A/V Materials Series 6: Burpee Family Papers

The collection's original order was maintained wherever possible, though many records were found scattered throughout the collection and artificial files were necessarily created for them.

Most files are arranged chronologically or alphabetically by person or topic.

Various photographs interspersed in correspondence files were kept where they were originally found. All other photographic and audio/visual materials found on their own were grouped in Series 5 Photographic and A/V Material which documents aspects of both the Burpee company and Burpee family.

Biographical / Historical:

Washington Atlee Burpee (1858-1915) began a mail-order poultry and livestock business in 1876 in Philadelphia, which he soon expanded to include corn seed for chicken feed. In 1878, he founded W. Atlee Burpee & Co. to sell livestock and vegetable, fruit, and flower seeds through the mail. His company went on to become one of the most notable seed distributors in the world.

In 1888, W. Atlee bought a tract of land named Fordhook Farms in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It was initially established as an experimental farm to test and evaluate new varieties of vegetables and flowers and to produce seeds for the mail-order market. Burpee spent many summers traveling throughout the United States and Europe visiting farms and searching for the best flowers and vegetables. Certain plants he found were shipped back to the firm for testing and propagation; other seeds were obtained through contracts with growers throughout the U.S., a practice common in the seed industry at that time. Promising varieties were bred with healthier specimens to produce hardier hybrids that were more resistant to disease. Other Burpee trial grounds were later established at Sunnybrook Farm near Swedesboro, New Jersey, and at Floradale Farms in Lompoc, California (1909/1910). The company went on to purchase more land for farming in California, and established sales branch headquarters in Sanford, Florida (circa 1930s), Clinton, Iowa (1942), and Riverside, California (1949).

W. Atlee Burpee married Blanche Simons (1863-1948) in 1892. They had three sons: David (1893-1980); W. Atlee Jr. ("Junior") (1894-1966); and Stuart Alexander (1901-1934). Both David and Junior attended the Blight School in Philadelphia for elementary school and Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana for preparatory school. While they both attended Cornell University as undergraduates, they left before graduating due to W. Atlee's poor health. Junior married Jeanetta Lee (1893-1981) in November, 1916, and they had two children: W. Atlee III (1917-1971) and Jeanette (1919-2002). David married Lois Torrance (1912-1984) in 1938, and they had two children: Johnathan (b. 1941) and Blanche (b. 1943). Stuart Alexander was apparently born with a disability; according to census records he worked on farms during his lifetime.

David Burpee took over the family business upon his father's death in 1915; W. Atlee Burpee, Jr. served as treasurer of the firm once he returned from serving in the military. At that time, the Burpee company had 300 employees and was the largest mail-order seed company in the world. It distributed over one million catalogs a year and received on average 10,000 orders a day. Under David's tutelage, the company adapted to contemporaneous shifts in business and advertising methods, advancements in plant science, ever-changing consumer demands, and two World Wars. In response to food shortages experienced during World War I, the Burpee company helped promote a "war gardens" campaign that evolved into a "victory gardens" campaign during World War II.

Both W. Atlee and David used their position as head of a major seed house to lobby congressional debates in regard to two topics: postage rates (W. Atlee) and the designation of a national floral emblem for the United States (David). Both men belonged to The Union League of Philadelphia and The Canadian Society of Philadelphia (which W. Atlee helped found), and served on the boards of directors for hospitals and other charitable organizations. Both father and son were politically aligned with the Republican Party.

The firm reorganized its governing structure in 1917 at which time it changed its name from W. Atlee Burpee & Co. to W. Atlee Burpee Co. Burpee's acquired three seed companies between 1878 and 1970: Luther Burbank Seed Company, James Vick's Seeds, Inc., and the William Henry Maule Company. David Burpee sold the company to the General Foods Corporation in 1970 and served as a consultant for the business until 1973. The Burpee brand was bought by its current owner, George J. Ball, Inc., in 1991.

General:

The project to process the W. Atlee Burpee & Co. Records received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.

Related Materials:

Burpee seed catalogs donated to the Smithsonian in 1982 by the W. Atlee Burpee Co. can be found in the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives' Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History.

The Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division includes a series of images of Burpee company operations taken in 1943.

The Black Gold Cooperative Library System's Asian/Pacific - Americans on the Central Coast Collection includes images dated 1933-1939 of Japanese employees of the Burpee Co. working at Floradale Farms in Lompoc, California.

Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials 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.

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 Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Seed industry and trade  Search this

Mail-order business -- Catalogs  Search this

Gardens -- United States  Search this

Horticulture  Search this

Vegetables  Search this

Trial gardens  Search this

Victory gardens  Search this

Prize contests in advertising  Search this

Advertising, Newspaper -- 20th century  Search this

Advertising, magazine -- 20th century  Search this

Flower shows  Search this

Genre/Form:

Trade catalogs

Business records

Commercial correspondence

Instructional materials

Ledgers (account books)

Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, W. Atlee Burpee & Company Records

Identifier:

AAG.BUR2

See more items in:

W. Atlee Burpee & Company Records - Accretion 2

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb697bb6243-1e96-416d-b552-0925a2866fbc

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aag-bur2

Creator:

Leo Castelli Gallery  Search this

Subject:

Nauman, Bruce  Search this

Namuth, Hans  Search this

Johns, Jasper  Search this

Power, Alan  Search this

Parker, Raymond  Search this

Panza, Giuseppe  Search this

Paik, Nam June  Search this

Landsman, Stanley  Search this

Koons, Jeff  Search this

Klapheck, Konrad  Search this

Kiesler, Frederick  Search this

Morris, Robert  Search this

Marisol  Search this

Gorgoni, Gianfranco  Search this

Heller, Ben  Search this

Flavin, Dan  Search this

Judd, Donald  Search this

Daphnis, Nassos  Search this

Epstein, Ethel Steuer  Search this

Darboven, Hanne  Search this

Barry, Robert  Search this

Artschwager, Richard  Search this

Castelli, Leo  Search this

Bloom, Barbara  Search this

Chryssa  Search this

Christo  Search this

Lichtenstein, Roy  Search this

Tworkov, Jack  Search this

Warhol, Andy  Search this

Weiner, Lawrence  Search this

Stella, Frank  Search this

Tremaine, Burton  Search this

Tremaine, Emily Hall  Search this

Twombly, Cy  Search this

Rowan, Carolyn  Search this

Ruscha, Edward  Search this

Rowan, Robert  Search this

Powers, Kimiko  Search this

Powers, John  Search this

Rosenquist, James  Search this

Rauschenberg, Robert  Search this

Starn, Doug  Search this

Starn, Mike  Search this

Scull, Ethel  Search this

Scarpitta, Salvatore  Search this

Serra, Richard  Search this

Scull, Robert C.  Search this

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Multiples, Inc.  Search this

Ferus Gallery (Los Angeles, Calif.)  Search this

Ileana Sonnabend (Gallery)  Search this

Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Castelli-Sonnabend Tapes and Films, Inc.  Search this

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

Dwan Gallery (Los Angeles, Calif.)  Search this

Castelli Graphics (Firm)  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Sidney Janis Gallery  Search this

Amsterdam (Netherlands). Stedelijk Museum  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Video recordings

Sketches

Transcripts

Sound recordings

Notes

Visitors' books

Photographs

Notebooks

Awards

Citation:

Leo Castelli Gallery records, circa 1880-2000, bulk 1957-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

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

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

Theme:

Art Gallery Records  Search this

Art Market  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7351

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209504

AAA_collcode_leocast

Theme:

Art Gallery Records

Art Market

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_209504

Creator:

Halper, Nathan, 1907-1983  Search this

Subject:

Stankiewicz, Richard  Search this

Smith, David  Search this

Avery, Milton  Search this

Brodie, Gandy  Search this

Botkin, Henry  Search this

Caro, Anthony  Search this

Motherwell, Robert  Search this

Cuddihy, John Murray  Search this

Gottlieb, Adolph  Search this

Hartley, Marsden  Search this

Hofmann, Hans  Search this

Kootz, Samuel Melvin  Search this

National Association of Women Artists (U.S.)  Search this

Sun Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)  Search this

H.C. Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)  Search this

H.C.E. Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)  Search this

Kootz Gallery (N.Y.)  Search this

Type:

Photographs

Gallery records

Visitors' books

Citation:

Nathan Halper business records, 1952-1979. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Art -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown  Search this

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

Theme:

Art Market  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)9671

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211879

AAA_collcode_halpnath

Theme:

Art Market

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_211879

Creator:

Jaffe, Irma B.  Search this

Subject:

Baskin, Leonard  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Citation:

Irma Jaffe interviews, 1965-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Theme:

African American  Search this

Research and writing about art  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)10692

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)214293

AAA_collcode_jaffirma

Theme:

African American

Research and writing about art

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_214293

Creator:

Jaffe, Irma B.  Search this

Names:

Baskin, Leonard, 1922-2000  Search this

Extent:

1 Linear foot

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Interviews

Sound recordings

Date:

1965-1977

Summary:

The records of art historian Irma Jaffe date from 1965-1977, measure 1 linear foot, and contain interviews, some transcripts, and a letter. The recordings include interviews conducted by Jaffe for her book The Sculpture of Leonard Baskin (1980), and recordings made for the radio program "Art News and Interviews," WFMU radio, Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey.

Scope and Contents:

The records of art historian Irma Jaffe date from 1965-1977, measure 1 linear foot, and contain interviews, some transcripts, and a letter. The recordings include interviews conducted by Jaffe for her book The Sculpture of Leonard Baskin (1980), and recordings made for the radio program "Art News and Interviews," WFMU radio, Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 2 series.

Series 1: Interviews, 1965-1977 (Box 1, 0.9 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1977 (Box 1, 0.1 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

Irma Jaffe (1917-2018) was an art historian in New York, New York, who wrote about European Renaissance, Baroque, and 19th and 20th century American art. She received her PhD from Columbia University, and then served as a research curator for the Whitney Museum. She later became a professor at Fordham University, and was founder and first chair of the university's Music and Art History Department.

Provenance:

The Irma Jaffe interviews were donated in two separate installments. The Hans Hofmann, Max Kozloff, and "Alienation and Commitment" panel discussion recordings and transcripts were donated in 1967 by Sam Jaffe, Irma Jaffe's husband. The remainder of the collection was donated by Irma Jaffe in 1985.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment, and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References 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:

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

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Sound recordings

Citation:

Irma Jaffe interviews, 1965-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.

Identifier:

AAA.jaffirma

See more items in:

Irma Jaffe interviews

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9b162ff8a-de09-4620-a0f8-ed799800649e

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-jaffirma

Creator:

Halper, Nathan  Search this

Names:

H.C. Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)  Search this

H.C.E. Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)  Search this

Kootz Gallery (N.Y.)  Search this

National Association of Women Artists (U.S.)  Search this

Sun Gallery (Provincetown, Mass.)  Search this

Avery, Milton, 1885-1965  Search this

Botkin, Henry, 1896-1983  Search this

Brodie, Gandy, 1925-1975  Search this

Caro, Anthony, 1924-  Search this

Cuddihy, John Murray  Search this

Gottlieb, Adolph, 1903-1974  Search this

Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this

Hofmann, Hans, 1880-1966  Search this

Kootz, Samuel Melvin, 1898-1982  Search this

Motherwell, Robert  Search this

Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this

Stankiewicz, Richard, 1922-1983  Search this

Extent:

4.2 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Gallery records

Visitors' books

Date:

1952-1979

Summary:

Records of four of Nathan Halper's Provincetown galleries measure 4.2 linear feet and date from 1952-1979. The records relate to Kootz Gallery, H-C Gallery, HCE Gallery, and Sun Gallery - all based in Provincetown. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with artists, estate executors, collectors, galleries, and museums. There are also scattered business and financial records documenting operations and sales, photographs and slides, printed materials, and one poem. Correspondents include Milton Avery, Anthony Caro, John Murray Cuddihy, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hofmann, Samuel Kootz, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Richard Stankeiwicz, and many others.

Scope and Contents note:

Records of four of Nathan Halper's Provincetown galleries measure 4.2 linear feet and date from 1952-1979. The records relate to Kootz Gallery, H-C Gallery, HCE Gallery, and Sun Gallery - all based in Provincetown. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with artists, estate executors, collectors, galleries, and museums. There are also scattered business and financial records documenting operations and sales, photographs and slides, printed materials, and one poem. Correspondents include Milton Avery, Anthony Caro, John Murray Cuddihy, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hofmann, Samuel Kootz, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, Richard Stankeiwicz, and many others.

Biographical material consists of one literary poem.

The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with many artists, estate executors, gallery partners, collectors, galleries, and museums regarding works of art, sales, account balances, requests for information, and general updates.

Scattered business records are found for all four galleries and include a Kootz Gallery guest register, address books, corporation and partnership agreements for the Kootz, H-C, HCE, and Sun galleries, insurance policies, and a Kootz Gallery employee file. Both the guest register and address books were also used as general business related notebooks.

Financial material consists of inventory stock books, price lists and sales, checkbook registers, and general expense invoices/receipts for the four galleries. The undated stock books list artists' names, general artwork identification information, and prices. Additional sales information is found in price lists, correspondence, sales notebooks, and checkbook registers. Invoices and receipts also document general operating expenses.

Printed material includes newspaper clippings on the Provincetown art scene and major artists represented by Halper, three exhibition catalogs, and an event calendar from the National Association of Women Artists.

Photographic material consists of prints and slides of the Kootz, H-C, and HCE galleries; black and white and color prints of exhibitions by Harry Botkin, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, and Hans Hofmann; and black and white prints, color slides, and transparencies of select works of art shown at the galleries.

Arrangement note:

The collection is arranged as 6 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1953-1970 (Box 1; 1 folder)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1952-1979 (Boxes 1-2; 1.3 linear feet)

Series 3: Business Records, 1953-1970 (Box 2; .7 linear feet)

Series 4: Financial Material, 1953-1970 (Boxes 3-4; 2 linear feet)

Series 5: Printed Material, 1952-1976 (Box 5; 3 folders)

Series 6: Photographic Material, 1953-1969 (Box 5; 11 folders)

Biographical/Historical note:

Nathan Halper (1907-1983) worked in Provincetown, Massachusetts as a contemporary American art dealer, writer, and James Joyce scholar.

Nathan Halper first moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1936 where he met and eventually married his wife, Helen Marjorie Windust Halper. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, their circle of friends included artists, writers, and academics drawn to the Provincetown art colony. Through friendships with Adolph Gottlieb and Fritz Bultman, Halper was introduced to Hans Hofmann, his students, and other abstract expressionist artists.

In 1949, Halper was invited to give a talk on James Joyce at Forum 49, a Provincetown summer lecture series on the future of art organized by Weldon Kees and held in a gallery at 200 Commercial Street. Speakers ranged from Jackson Pollock to poet laureate Howard Nemerov, and the series also presented one of the first major exhibitions of abstract expressionism in America. In 1952, Halper became the treasurer of the Provincetown Art Association (est. 1914), an influential social nexus that connected artists, galleries, patrons, and the public through memberships and annual events.

In 1953, he entered into a partnership with New York art dealer Sam Kootz and helped establish the Kootz Gallery in Provincetown. Their stable initially consisted of abstract expressionists Kootz represented in New York: Robert Motherwell, Hans Hofmann, Adolph Gottlieb, Fritz Bultman, and William Baziotes. Halper and Kootz mutually agreed to dissolve their partnership in 1954 and Halper opened the H-C Gallery with John Murray Cuddihy in 1955. After Cuddihy's departure at the end of the 1956 season, Halper opened the HCE Gallery (1957-1967), a name inspired by Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. In 1962, Halper entered into a one year partnership with Noah Goldowsky to help finance and run the Sun Gallery.

After the dissolution of the Kootz Gallery, Halper continued to represent Motherwell and, for a short time, Gottlieb in the Provincetown area, but quickly added other artists to the HCE stable. Through its relationship with New York dealers, such as Martha Jackson Gallery, Andre Emmerich Gallery, and Waddington Galleries, HCE was able to exhibit and sell works by Milton Avery, Gandy Brodie, Anthony Caro, Edwin Dickinson, Marsden Hartley, Hans Hoffman, Wolf Kahn, William King, Jan Muller, Elie Nadelman, David Smith, Richard Stankiewicz, Tal Streeter, and Anthony Vevers, among others.

Related Archival Materials note:

Also found in the Archives of American Art are the Kootz Gallery records and oral history interviews with Nathan Halper conducted by Dorothy Seckler, July 17, 1963 and by Robert Brown, July 8-August 14, 1980. Columbia University also holds Nathan Halper's papers concerning his literary scholarly work.

Provenance:

The Nathan Halper business records were donated by Nathan Halper in 1979. Additional materials were donated in 1983 and 1984 by his wife Helen Marjorie Windust Halper.

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:

Art dealers  Search this

Gallery directors -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown  Search this

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

Function:

Art galleries, Commercial -- Massachusetts

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Gallery records

Visitors' books

Citation:

Nathan Halper business records, 1952-1979. 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.halpnath

See more items in:

Nathan Halper business records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw95a6a9a4b-cbbf-47a1-9f4e-54b3415e3840

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-halpnath

Creator:

Hess, Thomas B.  Search this

Names:

Mark Rothko Foundation  Search this

Bess, Forrest, 1911-1977  Search this

Campbell, Lawrence  Search this

De Kooning, Elaine  Search this

De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this

Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011  Search this

Gottlieb, Adolph, 1903-1974  Search this

Guston, Philip, 1913-1980  Search this

Kline, Franz, 1910-1962  Search this

Milles, Carl, 1875-1955  Search this

Newman, Barnett, 1905-1970  Search this

Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988  Search this

Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967  Search this

Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002  Search this

Rosenberg, Harold, 1906-1978  Search this

Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970  Search this

Schapiro, Meyer, 1904-  Search this

Schuyler, James  Search this

Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this

Still, Clyfford, 1904-1980  Search this

Extent:

10.01 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Drawings

Greeting cards

Illustrated letters

Paintings

Cartoons (humorous images)

Photographs

Collages

Date:

1939-1978

Summary:

The papers of New York editor and art critic Thomas Hess measure 10.01 linear feet and date from 1939 to 1978. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, extensive writings and notes, artists and subject files that also include recorded conversations with artists and others, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork.

There is a .01 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes a six page typed manuscript, "Think, American Painting," undated, by Thomas Hess and the book American Realists and Magic Realists, The Museum of Modern Art, 1943, signed by Hess.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of New York editor and art critic Thomas Hess measure 10.01 linear feet and date from 1939 to 1978. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, extensive writings and notes, artists and subject files that also include recorded conversations with artists and others, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork.

Biographical material includes a certificate, architectural plans, investment information, invoices, publisher and loan agreements, will for Paul Stamm, and resumes. Correspondence is with members of Hess' family including his wife and children, Philip Guston, Meyer Schapiro, David Smith, James Schuyler, Forrest Bess, Elaine de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Larry Rivers, Clyfford Still, Ad Reinhardt, and others.

Writings and notes consist of manuscripts and drafts by Hess for Art News, Le Monde, Vogue, New York magazine, and other publications; Hess' senior essay and class notes; notes on Ingres, Italian artists, and travels abroad; notebooks on art and literature; and scattered writings by others.

Artists and subject files contain primarily photographs of artwork, artists, and colleaguesare mostly photographs of artwork, artists, and colleagues. Some of the files also contain printed materials, writings, notes, and other documentation. The file on Willem de Kooning includes a sound recording of a conversation between Hess, de Kooning, and Harold Rosenberg. There are also significant files on Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, Carl Milles, Barnett Newman, Isamu Noguchi, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko and the Mark Rothko Foundation Inc.

Printed materials include brochures and flyers, clippings, magazines and newspapers, press releases, travel memorabilia, and a printed scarf. Photographs are of of Hess, his wife Audrey, other family members, works of art, travel, Larry Rivers and Ad Reinhardt, and other artists and colleagues. Artwork includes drawings, paintings, collages, cartoons, and holiday cards made by Hess and his children, along with artwork by others including Audrey and Lawrence Campbell, Ad Reinhardt, and unidentified artists.

There is a .01 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes a six page typed manuscript, "Think, American Painting," undated, by Thomas Hess and the book American Realists and Magic Realists, The Museum of Modern Art, 1943, signed by Hess.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 8 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1945-1977 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1, OV 15)

Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1945-1978 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1-2, OV 11)

Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1940-1978 (2.5 linear feet; Box 2-5, OV 12)

Series 4: Artists and Subject Files, circa 1946-1978 (4.5 linear feet; Box 5-9, OVs 13, 15-16)

Series 5: Printed Materials, 1943-1978 (0.5 linear feet; Box 9, OV 11)

Series 6: Photographic Materials, 1949-circa 1960s (0.8 linear feet; Box 9-10, OV14)

Series 7: Artwork, 1939-1978 (0.4 linear feet; Box 10, OV 11)

Series 8: Unprocessed Addition, 1943 and undated (0.01 linear feet; Folder 17)

Biographical / Historical:

Thomas B. Hess (1920-1978) was an editor, art critic, and curator who worked in New York City. He was on the staff at Art News for 26 years (1946-72). Starting as an editorial associate, he was named managing editor in 1948, then executive editor in 1954; he assumed the top editorial post in 1965 upon the death of long-time editor Alfred Frankfurter. In his critical writing from the late 1940s on, he was an influential supporter of the Abstract Expressionists. He wrote widely on other topics as well. In 1972 he left Art News after an ownership change. He then became the art critic for New York magazine (1972-78), a large-circulation weekly reaching a much larger public. (He was also, in the late '60s, a correspondent for the French daily newspaper Le Monde.)

Over the years he undertook several major curatorial projects including traveling retrospectives for Willem de Kooning (1968-69) and Barnett Newman (1971), which he organized for the Museum of Modern Art. His "New York School Painting and Sculpture" appeared at the New York State Museum in Albany in 1977. Both MoMA exhibitions were accompanied by comprehensive monograph/catalogues: Willem de Kooning (1968) and Barnett Newman (1971). Hess's other books include Abstract Painting: Background and American Phase (1951, Viking); Willem de Kooning (1959, Braziller); De Kooning, Recent Paintings (1967, Walker & Co.); Barnett Newman (1969, Walker & Co.); De Kooning: Drawings (1972, New York Graphic); and The Art Comics and Satires of Ad Reinhardt (1975, De Luca Editore, Rome).

Hess became consultative chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of 20th-Century Art a few months before his death from a heart attack in July 1978, age 57. Already under way were a Clyfford Still retrospective and a smaller show of recent paintings and sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly. Both exhibitions, completed by Philippe de Montebello (the Met's then new director) and Lowery S. Sims (the Met's then acting 20th-century curator) respectively, took place the year after Hess's death.

Thomas Hess was born in Rye, New York, to Gabriel Lorie Hess, a lawyer, and Helen Baer. He attended school in the United States and Switzerland. He continued his education at Yale University majoring in French 17th-century art history and literature. After graduating in 1942, Hess worked for a short period at the Museum of Modern Art under Alfred H. Barr and Dorothy Miller, before entering World War II as a pilot. In 1944 he married Audrey Stern with whom he had three children, William, Philip, and Anne Helen.

Separated Materials:

Materials on legacy microfilm reel 5028 related to Barnett Newman are photocopies. The originals are located at the Barnett New Foundation in New York City.

Provenance:

The Thomas Hess papers were donated in multiple increments from 1985 to 1987 by Hess' children, Anne Helen, William, and Philip Hess, except for a file on Barnett Newman donated by Newman's widow, who presumably had borrowed it from Hess. In 2014, additional correspondence, writings, photographs, printed material, and cartoons, including some by Ad Reinhardt, were donated by Elizabeth Wolff, Hess' sister. A small addition was donated in 2022 by Anne Hess, Thomas Hess' daughter.

Restrictions:

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.

Occupation:

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

Artists -- Italy  Search this

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

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Drawings

Greeting cards

Illustrated letters

Paintings

Cartoons (humorous images)

Photographs

Collages

Citation:

Thomas Hess papers, 1939-1978. 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.hessthom

See more items in:

Thomas Hess papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9cfd2536a-b35e-4030-9768-bfa094d6db9e

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-hessthom

Creator:

Zabriskie Gallery  Search this

Names:

Galerie Zabriskie  Search this

Zabriskie, Virginia M., 1927-1991  Search this

Extent:

110.5 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

1905-2011

Summary:

The Zabriskie Gallery records measure 110.5 linear feet and date from 1905 to 2011. The records document the history of the Zabriskie Gallery through leases, permits, floor plans, and other administrative files; guestbooks; appointment books, notebooks, and other desk diaries; correspondence from New York and Paris galleries, museums, clients, and other correspondence; appraisals, inventories, consigments, and other registrar files; artist files consisting of resumes, correspondence, exhibition material, and photographs of artwork; institution files consisting of correspondence, consignments,and artwork inquiries with museums, galleries, and corporations; exhibition files consisting of loan agreements, press releases, and correspondence related to exhibitions shown at the gallery; invoices, price lists, and other financial records; clippings, press packets, newsletters, and other printed material; photographs, slides, and transparencies of exhibitions and artists works; and correspondence, photographs, awards, and other personal records of Virginia Zabriskie.

Scope and Contents:

The Zabriskie Gallery records measure 110.5 linear feet and date from 1905 to 2011. The records document the history of the Zabriskie Gallery through leases, permits, floor plans, and other administrative files; guestbooks; appointment books, notebooks, and other desk diaries; correspondence from New York and Paris galleries, museums, clients, and other correspondence; appraisals, inventories, consigments, and other registrar files; artist files consisting of resumes, correspondence, exhibition material, and photographs of artwork; institution files consisting of correspondence, consignments,and artwork inquiries with museums, galleries, and corporations; exhibition files consisting of loan agreements, press releases, and correspondence related to exhibitions shown at the gallery; invoices, price lists, and other financial records; clippings, press packets, newsletters, and other printed material; photographs, slides, and transparencies of exhibitions and artists works; and correspondence, photographs, awards, and other personal records of Virginia Zabriskie.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into twelve series.

Series 1: Administrative Files, 1969-2010 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)

Series 2: Guestbooks, 1954-1995 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)

Series 3: Desk Diaries, 1968-1997 (3.4 linear feet; Boxes 3-7)

Series 4: Correspondence, 1958-2010 (7.3 linear feet; Boxes 7-14)

Series 5: Registrar Files, 1970-2010 (10.0 linear feet; Boxes 14-22, 110-111, OV 112)

Series 6: Artist Files, 1905-2010 (66.7 linear feet; Boxes 22-87, OV 113-114)

Series 7: Institution Files, 1951-2009 (5.5 linear feet; Boxes 88-93)

Series 8: Exhibition Files, 1955-2009 (6.3 linear feet; Boxes 93-99)

Series 9: Financial Records, 1960-2011 (3.7 linear feet; Boxes 99-103)

Series 10: Printed Material, 1948-2010 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 103-104)

Series 11: Photographic Material, 1950-2006 (5.6 linear feet; Boxes 103-108, OV 112)

Series 12: Virginia Zabriskie Personal Records, 1943-2008 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 108-109)

Biographical / Historical:

Zabriskie Gallery was founded by Virignia Zabriskie in 1954 when she purchased the Korman Gallery from Marvin Korman. The gallery featured works from artists such as Robert De Niro Sr., Lester Johnson, Mary Frank, and Pat Adams. Some of the more notable exhibitions included "Surrealism 1936 — Objects, Photographs, Collages and Documents" (1986), "Surrealism and the Book" (1991), and "André Masson in America" (1996). In 1977, Zabriskie opened Galerie Zabriskie in Paris to primarily show photography as there was only one gallery at the time doing so in Paris. Zabriskie closed the Galerie Zabriskie in 1998, but continued to operate the Zabriskie Gallery in New York unitl it closed in 2010.

Virginia Zabriskie (1927-2019) was an American art dealer who worked primarily in New York City and Paris. Zabriskie completed her studies in art history at New York University's Institute of Fine Art. Zabriskie became one of the youngest art dealers in New York in 1954 when she purchased the Korman Gallery. Zabriskie was also a founding member of the Art Dealers Association of America.

Related Materials:

Also included in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Virginia Zabriskie conducted by Paul Cummings, May 28-June 6, 1975.

Provenance:

The Zabriskie Gallery records were donated to the Archives of American Art in seven installments by Virginia Zabriskie between 1992-2011.

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References 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, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Function:

Art galleries, Commercial -- France

Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)

Citation:

Zabriskie Gallery Records, 1905-2011. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.

Identifier:

AAA.zabrgall

See more items in:

Zabriskie Gallery records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9a1494de5-aa0b-4dfb-ade0-49ac762190b2

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-zabrgall