An interview of Roswell Weidner conducted 1989 July 20-27, by Marina Pacini, for the Archives of American Art Philadelphia Project. Weidner discusses his early life, education, and art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, first at the school at Chester Springs, and later at the main school in Philadelphia. He discusses the programs at both schools, and recalls some of the faculty members, including Roy Nuse, Albert Laessle, George Harding, Joseph Pierson, Francis Speight, Daniel Garber, and Henry McCarter. He discusses the courses, exhibitions, and the competitions for traveling scholarships. He also discusses his study at the Barnes Foundation with Violette De Mazia and Angelo Pinto. After leaving the Academy, he joined the National Youth Administration and then transferred to the WPA with the Museum Extension, the Painting Project and the Print Project. He speaks of his work for each of these programs, their administration, and some of the individuals involved including Dox Thrash. He recalls Mary Curran and the efforts made by Albert Barnes to have her removed as head of the Painting Project. Weidner discusses his fifty years as a teacher at the Academy, beginning in 1939, and the changes in the institution since then, including the introduction of printmaking, the growth of abstraction, the hiring of women and black instructors, and other changes. He speaks of his wife, Marilyn Kemp Weidner, a paper conservator, and the development of her practice, as well as his own future work.
Biographical / Historical:
Roswell T. Weidner (1911-1999) was a painter and educator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr.; 18 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Selected records, including scrapbooks, 1874-1954; letterbooks of the Dalton Dorr administration, 1876-1904; Board of Trustees letterbooks regarding the Pottery and Porcelain exhibitions, 1888-1890; and Fiske Kimball correspondence relating to the PWAP and the WPA, 1933-1942.
REELS P14-P16 and 4557-4758: Scrapbooks, 1874-1954, containing clippings relating to the museum.
REEL P16, frames 350-375: "Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art" (No. 1-8, Jan. 1903-Oct. 1904).
REELS 1395-1396: Correspondence and other papers of Director Fiske Kimball, 1933-1942, relating to various federal and state relief projects, particularly the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), of which he was chairman of Region 3 (Del, Penn., N.J.), and the WPA, which financed several projects at the Museum. Much of the correspondence relates to the selection of artists to be given employment under the PWAP, and to the controversy surrounding the administration of the program by Mary Curran, including complaints from artists and groups. Frequent correspondents include Forbes Watson, Edward Bruce, and Holger Cahill.
REELS 4549-4557: Letterbooks of Acting Director Dalton Dorr, 1876-1904 (incoming) and 1876-1901 (outgoing), and of curator Edwin Atlee Barber, 1893-1901, and President William Platt Pepper, 1893-1901. Correspondence pertains to acquisitions, the collection, staff, Memorial Hall repairs, and the overall establishment of the museum and school. Also included are letterbooks of the Board of Trustees, 1888-1890, relating to the 1888-1889 Pottery and Porcelain exhibitions at the museum, containing correspondence with firms and individuals regarding submissions and prizes.
Biographical / Historical:
Art museum; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Est. 1876 as the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. In 1929 the name changed to the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, and in 1938 to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and School of Industrial Art. Dalton Dorr served as director, 1876-1904. Fiske Kimball was director 1925-1954.
Provenance:
Material on reels P14-P16 lent for microfilming by the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, 1955. The Fiske Kimball material on reels 1395-1396 was filmed at the Museum in 1963; the remainder on reels 4549-4558 was microfilmed in 1993 as part of AAA's Philadelphia Arts Documentation Project.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Federal aid to the arts -- United States Search this
Sound recording: 1 sound tape reel, 7 in. ; (24 p. transcript on partial microfilm reel)
26 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1965
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Joseph Hirsch conducted by Harlan Phillips in 1965 for the Archives of American Art.
Hirsch speaks of his early education and background in industrial art; his first involvement with the Federal Art Project, including the easel painting project, murals, and the Index of American Design; artistic experimentation during the 1930s; public perception of federally suuported art projects. He recalls Holger Cahill, Audrey McMahon and Mary Curran.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, lithographer; New York, N.Y. and Pennsylvania.
General:
An unrelated interview of Louis Schanker conducted by H. Phillips is also on this tape.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
An interview of Henri Marceau conducted 1964 September 11, by Richard Doud, for the Archives of American Art.
Marceau discusses his education in architecture; teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, becoming curator of the Johnson collection and its movement to the Philadelphia Museum of Art; his museum career; Federal art projects; the WPA under Mary Curran and the problems she had with the Artists' Union; Albert Barnes' role in the controversy; and the reaction of the public and press.
Biographical / Historical:
Henri Marceau (1896-1969) was an art administrator and art historian in Philadelphia, Pa.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 56 min.
Sound quality is poor.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Arts administrators -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- Interviews Search this
"Philadelphia's Shame: An analysis of the un-American administration of the Federal Art Project in Philadelphia" by Henry Hart is a 15-page pamphlet written in circa 1938, criticizing Philadelphia W.P.A. Art Project Regional Director Mary Curran. The pamphlet was published by The Friends of Art and Education, located in Philadelphia.
Scope and Contents:
"Philadelphia's Shame: An analysis of the un-American administration of the Federal Art Project in Philadelphia" by Henry Hart is a 15-page pamphlet written in circa 1938, criticizing Philadelphia W.P.A. Art Project Regional Director Mary Curran. The pamphlet was published by The Friends of Art and Education, located in Philadelphia.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Provenance:
The donor of this item is unknown.
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. 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 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.
Citation:
"Philadelphia's Shame: An analysis of the un-American administration of the Federal Art Project in Philadelphia" by Henry Hart, circa 1938. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This series consists of personal and work-related correspondence (primarily incoming correspondence) between Cahill and various friends and colleagues. While a large portion of the series documents Cahill's position as Director of the FAP, it also extends beyond those years and illuminates other aspects of Cahill's career including his interest in folk and Asian art, and his work as an art critic.
There is significant correspondence with the artist Stanton MacDonald Wright between 1936 and 1950, and with the artist Irene Pereira between 1950 and 1953. The series also documents research which Cahill conducted in the late 1940s on the development of the Index of American Design for his introduction to a book on the Index by the National Gallery of Art, published by the Macmillan Company. Correspondence from 1949 provides another angle on the historical details of the FAP through lengthy correspondence documenting Cahill's criticism of William Francis McDonald's book Federal Relief Administration and the Arts (Ohio State University Press, 1969).
There is a large amount of correspondence from July 1960 comprising sympathy letters to Dorothy C. Miller following Cahill's death. Correspondence from 1977 encloses a catalog of an exhibition organized by New York WPA Artists, Inc., at the Parsons School of Design in November 1977. The exhibition, New York City WPA Art, was dedicated to the memory of Holger Cahill.
See Appendix for a list of correspondents (with the exception of those microfilmed on reel 1105) in Series 2
Appendix: Correspondents in Series 2:
Abbott, Berenice: 1944 (letter to the Editor)
Abbott, John: [1946]
Abell, Walter ( -- Canadian Art): -- 1943-1944 (2 letters)
Adams, Charles C.: 1940
Alcopley, Mr.: [1952] (including typescript "Pictures of Alcopley" by Saburo Hasegawa); 1953-1960 (4 letters)
Alsberg, Henry G. (Director, Federal Writers' Projects): 1936 (4 letters)
American Council of Learned Societies: 1949
American Federation of Arts: 1949-1952 (3 letters)
American Folk Art Gallery: 1941
American Heritage: 1954
American Swedish Historical Foundation: 1949
Andrews, Robert Armstrong and Eleanor: [1960], undated
Art in America: 1953
Artists For Victory: [1942]
Artists League of America: 1945
Artists Union of Massachusetts: 1936 (telegram to President Roosevelt)
Arts Council of Japanese Americans for Democracy: 1944
Ashton, Dore: [1960]
Bach, Richard F. (Metropolitan Museum): 1924 and 1950
Bailey, Herbert: 1972 (letter from Naomi Bliven)
Baker, Donald: [1936]
Baker, Jacob (WPA): 1935-1960, undated (10 letters)
Barach, Frederica (Writers' War Board): 1944
Barker, Virgil and Ida: 1945-1960 (4 letters)
Barnard College: 1951 (2 letters)
Barr, Alfred H., Jr. (Museum of Modern Art): 1935-1960 (16 letters)
Barr, Tony: 1960
Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Inc.: 1950
Baur, John (Brooklyn Museum): 1946-1960 (6 letters)
Winchester, Alice ( -- Antiques -- Magazine): 1950-1951 (6 letters)
Winser, Beatrice: 1924-1944 (6 letters)
Winter, Anna K. (antiques dealer): 1935
Wisconsin: State Historical Society of Wisconsin: 1939
Woodstock Artists Association: 1960
Woodward, Ellen S.: 1936-1938 (3 letters)
Worcester, Wakefield (architect): 1936
Wright, Russell (industrial designer): [1960]
Wyn: A. A. Wyn, Inc.: 1951
Youngerman, Jack: 1960
Zegri, Armando (Galeria Sudamericana): 1960
Zimmerman, Fred and Dorothy: [1960]
Zorach, William: 1936-1960 (3 letters)
Collection Restrictions:
The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via the Archives of American Art website.
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:
Holger Cahill papers, 1910-1993, bulk 1910-1960. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the digitization of the microfilm of this collection was provided by Jane Blumenfeld.
"Philadelphia's Shame: An analysis of the un-American administration of the Federal Art Project in Philadelphia" by Henry Hart, circa 1938. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Henri Marceau, 1964 September 11. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
United States. National Youth Administration Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
United States. Work Projects Administration Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Roswell Weidner, 1989 July 20-27. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Hugh Mesibov conducted by Linda Shopes for the Archives of American Art Philadelphia Project. Mesibov speaks of his early life and early art experiences including his attendance at the Graphic Sketch Club (now known as the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial); financial difficulties in the 1930s and his subsequest successful application to the Federal Art Project; his experiences on the FAP print project, including reminiscences of fellow artists Dox Thrash and Michael Gallagher; the development of the carborundum print process and its subsequent promotion; how the project was run and work assigned; his experiences on the easel and mural projects; political problems with the state director, Mary Curran, and the Artists' Union; and his post-FAP career.
Biographical / Historical:
Printmaker, associated with WPA Federal Art Project; Philadelphia, Pa.
An interview of Frank Gasparro conducted by Linda Shopes. Gasparro speaks of his early life including his studies with Giuseppe Donato; struggling through the Depression carving cemetery monuments; his successful application to the Federal Art Project (FAP) and his experiences while working with it; projects he worked on with the FAP and how they were assigned; how the project functioned; relations with other artists; political problems involving the Pennsylvania state director of the FAP, Mary Curran, and the Artists Union; and his subsequent work for the U.S. Mint.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptor; Pennsylvania. Worked on Federal Art Project in Pennsylvania.
Provenance:
Donated by the Pennsylvania State Archives, 1991.
Restrictions:
Untranscribed; use requires an appointment.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Pennsylvania -- Interviews Search this
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Collection Citation:
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Uncommon legacies : Native American art from the Peabody Essex Museum / John B. Grimes, Christian F. Feest, Mary Lou Curran ; foreword by Dan L. Monroe ; preface by Richard W. Hill, Sr. ; additional contributions by Thomas "Red Owl" Haukaas ... [et al.]
