The papers of librarian, curator, and photographer Paul Vanderbilt (1905-1992) measure 25.2 linear feet and date from 1854 to 1992 with the bulk of the material dating from 1945 to 1992. The papers are comprised of biographical materials, personal and business correspondence, interviews, writings and notes, fourteen diaries and two diary fragments, reference and project files, photographic materials, sound recordings, and professional files.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of librarian, curator, and photographer Paul Vanderbilt (1905-1992) measure 25.2 linear feet and date from 1854 to 1992 with the bulk of the material dating from 1945 to 1992. The papers are comprised of biographical materials, personal and business correspondence, interviews, writings and notes, fourteen diaries and two diary fragments, reference and project files, photographic materials, sound recordings, and professional files.
Biographical materials include seven appointment books, family letters and documents, and an honorary degree from the University of Wisconsin.
Vanderbilt's correspondence is with colleagues, and organizations including Dorothea Lange, Beaumont Newhall, Roy Stryker, and Julia Vanderbilt.
Sound recordings of interviews of Vanderbilt conducted by Mary North Allen, Barbara Crane, Carl Haywood, Jack Holzhueter, and Jane Plunkett. Other recordings are of Vanderbilt discussing his personal and professional life.
Writings by Paul Vanderbilt include drafts of Between the Landscape and its Other, poems, lectures, student papers, and notes on a variety of subjects. Writings by others are found for William Blake, Gregory Conniff, Woody Guthrie, Michael Lesy, Arnold R. Pilling, Jesse H. Shera, and Roy Stryker.
Fourteen of Vanderbilt's personal diaries and two diary fragments date from 1926 to 1990.
Reference files consist of printed materials on art, art historians, book reviews, library and information studies, photography and microphotography techniques, and other themes of interest to Vanderbilt. Project files include material from Vanderbilt's various projects, including a guide to the iconography of Iran, the reclassification of FSA photographs, and the Union Library Catalog of Philadelphia.
Included in professional files are administrative records, correspondence, exhibition files, project files, printed material, and research files created during Vanderbilt's career at the Library of Congress, Graphic History Society, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Farm Security Administration. Also found are materials for Vanderbilt's work as a consultant for several organizations, lecture documents, and art-related workshops.
Photographs are by and of Paul Vanderbilt, the staff of the Library of Congress, and George Talbot. Negatives include images for the Farm Security Administration. Bibliography cards and photographs of artwork from the Library of Congress can be found on microfilm reels within the collection.
Also found are fourteen unidentified sound recordings.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1894-1992 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1933-1992 (1.5 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 3: Interviews, 1967-1992 (1.5 linear feet; Box 2-4)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1887-1992 (4.0 linear feet; Box 4-8)
Series 5: Diaries, 1926-1990 (0.5 linear feet; Box 8)
Series 6: Reference Files, 1877-1992 (2.5 linear feet; Box 8-10, 26)
Series 7: Project Files, 1935-1990 (3.0 linear feet; Box 10-13)
Series 8: Professional Files, 1854-1991 (11.7 linear feet; Box 13-24)
Series 9: Photographic Materials, 1912-1980s (0.5 linear feet; Box 24)
Series 10: Sound Recordings, circa 1980s (0.5 linear feet; Box 24-25)
Biographical / Historical:
Paul Vanderbilt (1905-1992) was a librarian, curator, and photographer active in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin.
Paul Vanderbilt was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and educated in Germany, Switzerland, and Massachusetts. He attended Amherst College from 1923 to 1925 before transferring to Harvard where he graduated with a BA in art history in 1927. After graduation, Vanderbilt traveled to Europe where he studied at the American School of Librarianship in Paris and the Institut de Psychologie Bibliogique in Lausanne. In 1929, he returned to the United States and became a librarian at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and director of the Union Library Catalog project for the Philadelphia area.
In 1941 Vanderbilt began working under Roy Stryker cataloging the extensive photographic survey collection of the Farm Security Administration and U.S. Office of War Information. The collection is a rich resource of images of American life between 1935 and 1944. In 1943, the FSA photograph collection was transferred to the Library of Congress and Vanderbilt went with it as the curator of the newly formed Prints and Photographs Division, eventually becoming the Division chief of fine arts.
During the early 1950s, Vanderbilt also served as the director of the Graphic History Society of America. There he published a quarterly bulletin Eye to Eye and developed a guide to iconography in Iran. In 1954, he became the Curator of Iconographic Collections at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and worked there until he retired in 1972.
Vanderbilt remained active after retirement. He became an artist-in-residence at the Apeiron Workshops, worked as a photographer for the Seagram courthouse project and the George Eastman House, and was a presenter at multiple conferences. Vanderbilt devoted much of his later life to working on his book titled Between the Landscape and its Other which was published posthumously after Vanderbilt's death in 1992.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Paul Vanderbilt conducted by Richard Doud on November 10, 1964.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1981 by Paul Vanderbilt and in 1993 by his estate through John W. Winn, executor.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
6.2 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 9 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1932-1971
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; photographs and photograph albums; diaries; writings; sketches and sketchbooks; biographical data; catalogs; material relating to the Artists Tenants Association; clippings; and miscellany.
REEL D388: Correspondence, 1945-1966; photographs; sketches; and clippings.
REELS N70-9-N70-10: 75 photographs by Weber and photographer Harry Callahan of Mies van der Rohe, taken from 1961-1964, with occasional photos of Weber, his studio, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and other friends, including one of Moholy-Nagy by Arthur Siegel, 1946. Also included are 30 letters from Clair Fox Gallery, Howard Wise Gallery, Harry Callahan, Jack Kerouac and other friends; and 2 sketchbooks, 1962.
REEL 671: 9 photograph albums and ca. 200 photographs of Weber, friends, family (including his artist wife, Anne Weber), studios, and his works of art. Among them are one of Weber by Barbara Crane, ca. 1960, a contact sheet of photographs of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and many photographs by Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Cora Ward, Robert D. Hall, Annet Held and Yves Hervochon, including photos of Charles Cajori and Jack Greenbaum by Cora Ward, and Ornette Coleman by Callahan.
REELS 841-845: Correspondence, 1932-1971; 3 diaries (written in German), 1941-1944, April 1942, and April to August 1964; poetry by Weber; writings on art, 1951-1968; writings on other artists; sketchbooks and drawings, 1945-1971; biographical material; material on the Artists Tenants Association; catalogs; clippings; and miscellany.
UNMICROFILMED: Three photos by Harry Callahan, including one each of Eleanor Callahan, Weber, and "Drawing in Space with a Flashlight"; and one of Jean (Hans) Arp by Dina Woelffer, 1957. One photo of Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe taken by Aaron Siskind, ca. 1950.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter; New York, N.Y.; b. 1918 in Basel, Switzerland; d. August 15, 1971.
Provenance:
Material on reel D388 and N70-9 (portion) lent for microfilming 1969 by Hugo Weber; and material on reel N70-9 (portion)-N70-10, 671 & 841-845 donated 1971 by Anne Weber, ex-wife of Hugo Weber.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Barbara Crane, photographs 1948-1980 : imagination phototechnics, and chance: the work of Barbara Crane : recollections / [with essays] by Estelle Jussim [and] by Paul Vanderbilt
