The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection measures 196.8 linear feet and dates from 1750 to 1980, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1972. Documenting the artistic career and personal life of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), the collection is primarily made up of two- and three-dimensional source material, the contents of the artists' studio, his record album collection, and his book collection and personal library. The collection also includes diaries and notes, financial and estate papers, exhibition materials, collected artifacts and ephemera, photographs, correspondence, and the papers of Robert Cornell (1910-1965) and Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), the artist's brother and mother.
Scope and Contents:
The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection measures 196.8 linear feet and dates from 1750 to 1980, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1972. Documenting the artistic career and personal life of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), the collection is primarily made up of two- and three-dimensional source material, the contents of the artists' studio, his record album collection, and his book collection and personal library. The collection also includes diaries and notes, financial and estate papers, exhibition materials, collected artifacts and ephemera, photographs, correspondence, and the papers of Robert Cornell (1910-1965) and Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), the artist's brother and mother.
Correspondence is with collectors, museums, galleries, artists, friends, family, charity organizations, admirers and those admired by Cornell, and World War II European pen pals. Discussions about the appreciation, donation, sale, purchase, and exhibition of Cornell's works are frequent, with the inclusion of shipping and loan documentation or notices of payment installments. Galleries and museums frequently request that Cornell agree to an exhibition, which he often declines, and fans request free works be mailed or affordable works be sold to them. With friends, artists, and those he admired, Cornell discussed topics that fascinate him, included bits of poetry or philosophical musings, sent clippings or a collaged letter, and occasionally discussed a project or work in process. After World War II, when so many were displaced by the war in Europe, Cornell answered ads for pen pals in the "Christian Science Monitor," often responding to requests for clothing or other goods, and sometimes exchanging many letters over several years. Family correspondence is with his mother, sisters, brother, and others, and often notes activities of the day, foods eaten, and general musings, as well as occasionally mentioning a project or artwork. Correspondents of note include Stan Brakhage, Betty Freeman, Charles Henri Ford, Allegra Kent, Yayoi Kusama, Roberto Matta, Marianne Moore, Octavio Paz, Sonia Sekula, Pavel Tchelitchew, Parker Tyler, Dorothea Tanning, and Betsy von Furstenberg, among others.
Cornell was often preoccupied with his thoughts, feelings, memories, a project or thematic "exploration," and jotted notes on seemingly any surface available. Notes and musings are on napkins, the backs of envelopes, newspaper clippings, and paper bags from record and magazine stores. Frequently, an observation would trigger a lengthy nostalgic moment, or a "feé," fairy-like child or girl, would capture his imagination and lead him to thoughts of 18th-century ballerinas and silent film stars. Cornell wrote longer diary notes, sometimes expanding on an earlier notation or emotion, and often wrote when he experienced trouble sleeping or woke early. Drafted letters to imaginary muses or admired individuals are interspersed among diaries, often revealing Cornell's yearnings to find emotional intimacy and human connection. Over time, Cornell revisited his notes and occasionally made further notations about renewed thoughts on a topic, dating the note with "revisited" or "reviewed." Notes are often written in a stream-of-consciousness style, for example, jumping from the mention of a record album or composer, to a ballerina of the same period, a note about a French poet, the memory of childhood, or an observation made earlier in the day, all in the space of a few lines. Notes about artistic processes or meanings behind works or images do occasionally emerge from the tangled, poetic notations. Notes also often provide insights into Cornell's internal emotional state and give clues about his intentions behind an artwork or a particular thematic fixation.
Financial materials document Cornell's professional and personal business activities, including the sale of artworks, annual expenses for supplies and household incidentals, payments and schedules for personal assistants, receipts for donations to charities and nonprofits, and tax documents. There is also information about who worked as assistants, or "helpers," in his later years and where Cornell purchased art supplies. Additionally, specific details are documented through receipts and invoices, such as what kind of paint he purchased. Estate records include preparations made for Cornell's artworks after his death, and clippings about other deceased artist's estates show that he thought often about such arrangements in his later years.
Exhibition files highlight several select solo exhibitions for Cornell, as well as preparations and planning for the "Robert Cornell: Memorial Exhibition" in honor of his brother in 1966. Also included are several early exhibition catalogs and announcements, including "Surréalisme" (January 9-29, 1932) and "Exhibition of Objects (Bibloquet) by Joseph Cornell" (December 6-31, 1939) at the Julien Levy Gallery, and "Romantic Museum: Portraits of Women, Constructions and Arrangements by Joseph Cornell" (December 1946) at the Hugo Gallery.
Film projects and collected film materials consist of files related to Cornell's various experimental film projects: "Aviary," "Cappuccino," "Centuries of June," "Fable for Fountains," "Nymphlight," "Serafina's Garden," and unrealized film scenario "Monsieur Phot." Files include film-making notes, correspondence, and photographs. Cornell's interest in film also led him to collect film-related materials, such as film stills, film posters, and screening programs. Scattered correspondence documents the interest other institutions and individuals had in purchasing and viewing his collection. Though most of his collected film stills and movie posters were donated to the Anthology Film Archives, film stills from "Escape Me Never" (1935) and "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928) are still within the collection, as well as film-screening programs for Cornell's collection of films.
Writing and design projects document Cornell's work authoring articles and designing issues of specialty dance magazine "Dance Index," and his layouts for popular magazines like "Good Housekeeping," "House and Garden," and "Mademoiselle." Other writing projects include brochures dedicated to opera singers Maria Malibran and Giulia Grisi, "Maria" and "Bel Canto Pet." Materials used for these brochures, such as copper photo engraving plates, are also found. Design work includes a series of Christmas cards created with The Museum of Modern Art as well as traced patterns ("textile tracings") and design clippings from Cornell's time working as a "textile designer" for Traphagen Commercial Textile Studio.
Cornell acquired troves of source material from bookstalls, antique stores, sporting good and department stores, hardware stores, and magazine and record shops. He kept boxes and files of material on admired individuals, such as actresses, artists, dancers, and singers, as well as on art projects or thematic "explorations." Files are on general topics such as American history, scientific phenomena, animals, plants, and humankind, as well as on series of artworks, such as "Castles," "Homage to the Romantic Ballet," and "Medici Slot Machines." Focused "exploration" projects include "Celestial Theatre," "Colombier," "GC 44," and "Switzerland," among others. Materials include photographs, photostats, maps, book fragments, autographed letters, notes, collage clippings and cutouts, collected prints and engravings, box and collage fragments, and scattered artifacts.
Collected ephemera includes large amounts of blank postcards and greeting cards, stamps, collected bus and train tickets, food labels and packaging, decals, and other materials. Artifacts are three-dimensional collected objects and source objects, which include found objects from the streets, dried flowers, and pieces of nature gathered from walks around his neighborhood. Cornell may have gathered materials because they inspired a memory or nostalgic feeling, or because they fit with a bin of other similar objects to select from for an artwork in progress.
Photographs found within the collection are of Cornell at work and as a child with family. Also found are assorted personal and family photographs, photographs of Cornell's attic and garage storage, and photographs of his Utopia Parkway house. Photographs of artwork include few installation photographs, in addition to photographs of Cornell's boxes and collages. Collected photographic materials include vintage photographs, such as tintypes, a cyanotype, stereoscopic glass slides, albumen prints, cabinet cards, and cartes-de-visite. Cornell also collected cased photographs, such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and one opalotype. Negatives and photostats were often produced from various prints and even other photographs and used in Cornell's boxes and collages. Images are of men and women, actors, authors, dancers, performers, well-known men and women, royalty, places, and artwork. Photographs of note include those by Hans Namuth of Willem and Lisa de Kooning and of Edward Hopper's bedroom; photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson; a photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron; photographs by Brassai; and a photogravure by Alfred Stieglitz from "Camerawork."
Also found in the collection are works of art by others, including a sketch by Pavel Tchelitchew, as well as artwork by Cornell, such as unfinished collages, Rorschach drawings or ink blots, and childhood artwork. Printed material includes assorted bulletins, flyers, exhibition materials for other artists, journals, and sent printed membership and charity materials. Magazines, including "View," are also included, and often have annotations by Cornell or a note to "cut" or "review" with page numbers. A large amount of magazine and newspaper clippings are in the collection, sometimes collected with a group of like material by Cornell, and at other times simply gathered in heaps. Occasional annotations are also found on the clippings.
Cornell's personal library and book collection includes over 2500 titles, ranging from fiction, poetry, and cinema, to history, science, and travel. Notable among the titles are "Baedeker's" travel guides that Cornell often sourced for his "Hotel" box series, as well as an influential publication by Max Ernst, "La Femme 100 têtes," which includes a typed letter and exhibition flyer tucked within. Books often have annotations, some fairly extensive, by Cornell, and assorted collected items, notes, and correspondence tucked between pages. Pages were often cut by Cornell, either to make photostats and use in a box, or to file with other thematic "explorations." A wide range of authors and topics provide insight into Cornell's interests and to ideas behind artwork and diary notes. Cornell's collection of record albums includes over 145 records. These contain inserted notes and clippings and are often referenced in diary notes Cornell made, noting a recent album or song listened to while at work in his studio.
The papers of Cornell's mother, Helen Storms Cornell, and his brother, Robert Cornell, are also included in the collection. Both lived with Cornell his whole life, spending the most time with him at their home at 3708 Utopia Parkway. Financial materials document shared responsibilities for billing, utilities, household fixes and chores, and expenditures, and Helen kept detailed financial records in a series of ledgers. Robert notes when he borrowed money from Cornell, or when he means to pay Cornell back for the purchase of a typewriter. Activities documented in diaries also occasionally cross paths with Cornell, noting his visitors or an exchange of letters continued after introductions through Cornell. Personal activities, such as Robert's interest in his train collection and his drawing projects and cartoon series, are also documented.
Arrangement:
The Joseph Cornell Study Center Collection is arranged into 15 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1917-1972 (Boxes 1, 98, OV118; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1813, 1934-circa 1973 (Boxes 1-8, 86; 6.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Diaries and Notes, 1940-1976 (Boxes 8-10, 98-99, 135, OV108, OV119; 3.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business and Estate Records, 1950-1978 (Boxes 10-14; 4.1 linear feet)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1932-1973 (Box 14; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Film Projects and Collected Film Materials, circa 1924-1972 (Boxes 14-16, 100, 133; 1.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Writing and Design Projects, circa 1910s, 1936-1962 (Boxes 16-18, 86, 100, 131-132, OV109-OV111, OV120-OV122; 3.6 linear feet)
Series 8: Source Material, 1750-circa 1911, 1926-1972 (Boxes 19-49, 86-92, 96, 100-105, 126-130, 132-137, OV112-OV115, OV125; 42.2 linear feet)
Series 9: Artifacts and Ephemera, 1768, circa 1839-1972 (Boxes 49-52; 3.2 linear feet)
Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1800s-1972 (Boxes 52-56, 80-86, 93, 106, 128, 133, OV116, OV123-OV124; 7.5 linear feet)
Series 11: Artwork, circa 1810-1972 (Boxes 56-57, 107, OV117; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 12: Printed Material, 1855-1972 (Boxes 57-76, 94-96, 107; 16 linear feet)
Series 13: Book Collection and Personal Library, 1722-1980 (99.8 linear feet)
Series 14: Record Album Collection, circa 1925-1974 (3.2 linear feet)
Series 15: Cornell Family Papers, 1910-1980 (Boxes 77-79, 97, 107; 3.2 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was a self-taught assemblage and collage artist, and filmmaker, active in New York City. He was born in Nyack, New York on December 24, 1903, and died of heart failure at his home in Queens, New York on December 29, 1972. The oldest of four children, he was born Joseph I. Cornell to his mother, Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), and his father, Joseph I. Cornell (1875-1917). Cornell had two younger sisters, Elizabeth ("Betty") Cornell Benton (1905-2000) and Helen ("Sissy") Cornell Jagger (1906-2001), as well as one brother, Robert Cornell (1910-1965), who had cerebral palsy.
Cornell attended the Phillips Academy, a preparatory boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts, beginning shortly after his father's death in 1917. He attended for four years but did not receive a diploma, and soon began work as a textile salesman for the William Whitman Company in Manhattan. His work took him, by foot, through the city, visiting secondhand bookshops on Fourth Avenue, browsing music stores and magazine shops, and catching early shows at the Metropolitan Opera House. He would occasionally wait outside the stage doors for favorite singers and dancers to emerge, requesting signatures on photographs or bits of costumes.
Around 1926, Cornell joined the Christian Science Church, joined by his brother Robert shortly thereafter, and both continued to be lifelong members. Cornell kept a number of books in his personal library on Christian Science teachings and regularly subscribed to "The Christian Science Monitor."
After living in several rental houses in Bayside, New York, Cornell's mother purchased a house for the family in 1929 in Flushing, Queens. Cornell, along with his mother and brother, would live at 3708 Utopia Parkway, for the rest of their lives. His two sisters soon married and moved away, eventually settling in Westhampton, Long Island and in the poultry-farming business.
With no formal art training to speak of, Cornell's first work was a Max Ernst-inspired collage, "Untitled (Schooner)," created in 1931. He was especially inspired by Ernst's collage novel, "La Femme 100 têtes," published in 1929. French artist Odilon Redon was also among the few artists Cornell named as an influence on his art. His first sculptural works were small, cardboard pill boxes with bits of ephemera, costume adornments, and nature hidden inside. Cornell also created a series of glass bell jar works, placing small trinkets and Victorian-era-like compositions within. It was these early collages and bell jar works that were included in Cornell's debut exhibition, "Surréalisme" (January 9-29, 1932), a group show at the Julien Levy Gallery. Cornell designed the announcement for the show and exhibited alongside Max Ernst, Man Ray, Pierre Roy, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Atget, George Platt Lynes, Jean Cocteau, and Salvador Dalí. Months later, Cornell was invited to have his first solo show, "Objects by Joseph Cornell: Minutiae, Glass Bells, Shadow Boxes, Coups d'Oeil, Jouets Surréalistes" (November 26-December 30, 1932), also at the Julien Levy Gallery.
In 1932, after eleven years of work, Cornell was laid off from the William Whitman Company due to the Great Depression. Soon after, he took on more responsibility in the church, working part-time as an attendant in the Christian Science Reading Room in Great Neck, New York. Beginning in 1933, he taught Sunday school classes for three years and in 1935, became the Sunday school librarian. However, his religious activities and artistic ventures continued to remain separate.
In the early 1930s, Cornell progressed from movie lover to filmmaker. When Julien Levy began his New York Film Society in 1933, holding screenings of various experimental films in the gallery, Cornell began buying and collecting films and film stills in earnest. He set up a 16-millimeter projector in his home to screen favorites, such as those by Georges Méliès, D.W. Griffith, and Louis Feuillade. His collection quickly grew to over 2,500 film stills and several hundred films, and included silent era films, such as nature documentaries, goofy newsreels, travelogues, early cartoons, and slapstick comedies, as well as several feature films. In 1933, Cornell wrote a screenplay, or "scenario," entitled "Monsieur Phot." Between 1935 and 1937, Cornell also occasionally created publicity photomontages for Universal and Columbia studios. Of the nearly thirty films Cornell created, periods of activity can generally be separated into two areas: collage films of the late 1930s, consisting of combined elements from films in his own collection, and films he directed in the 1950s, which were collaborations with other filmmakers set in New York City. "Rose Hobart," Cornell's most celebrated collage film, was created and shown in the Julien Levy Gallery in 1936 and includes clipped footage from "East of Borneo." Later films were directed and filmed with cinematographers Stan Brakhage, Rudy Burckhardt, and Larry Jordan.
In 1934, Cornell began a job at the Traphagen Commercial Textile Studio as a "textile designer," a job he held for six years. Continuing to work at his kitchen table in the evenings, Cornell completed his first assemblage box construction, "Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)," in 1936. It was first exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art's show, "Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism" (December 9, 1936-January 17, 1937). This work was also the first to be acquired by a museum, purchased for $60.00 by the Wadsworth Atheneum in Massachusetts in 1938. Cornell's European debut was also in 1938, as one of three Americans represented in the "Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme" (January 17-Febuary 24, 1938) at the Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris, alongside Man Ray and Anne Clark.
At the end of 1939, Cornell began corresponding with poet Charles Henri Ford, founder of avant-garde magazine "View," Pavel Tchelitchew, and Parker Tyler. After his "Soap Bubble Sets," this period saw the development of Cornell's homages to singers and actresses, including "Untitled (Fortune-Telling Parrot for Carmen Miranda)," the destroyed "Garbo (Greta Garbo in the Legendary Film 'The Crystal Mask,' c. 1845)," and "Dressing Room for Gilles." He also began using photostats of art reproduction prints, as with the print of Jean Antoine-Watteau's painting, "Pierrot" (circa 1719), used in his "Gilles" box.
In the 1940s, the Romantic ballet emerged as Cornell's new topic of interest. Through his friend Pavel Tchelitchew, Cornell was introduced to the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet founders, Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. Cornell collected dance memorabilia and had a great love of the Romantic ballet. His favorite dancers were primarily ballerinas of the nineteenth century, including Fanny Cerrito, Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler, Lucille Grahn, and Carlotta Grisi. Cornell's "Homage to the Romantic Ballet" works largely took the shape of jewel-box style wooden boxes with glass overlays and included bits of velvet, tulle, sequins, crystals, and chiffon, occasionally collected from dancers themselves. His most well-known work of this series is "Taglioni's Jewel Casket" (1940). Cornell also admired several living ballet dancers, including Tamara Toumanova, Zizi Jeanmaire, and Allegra Kent, who would all make their way into Cornell's box works and/or collages. Collecting for the "exploration," "Portrait of Ondine," Cornell's cased portfolio dedication to Fanny Cerrito and her role in the ballet "Ondine," began in the 1940s, though not completed until around 1960.
In late 1940, Cornell quit his job at Traphagen to concentrate on freelance commercial magazine design and editorial work during the day and his artwork at night. That same year, Charles Henri Ford started "View" magazine to promote Surrealists and Neo-Romantics in New York City and often asked Cornell to contribute. Published in the December 1941-January 1942 issue, one of his early contributions was a collage dedication to stage actress Hedy Lamarr: "Enchanted Wanderer: Excerpt from a Journey Album for Hedy Lamarr" (1941). Along with writing the accompanying text, he created a photomontage of Lamarr with her face overlaying the painted portrait of a Renaissance boy by Italian painter Giorgione. Peggy Guggenheim, at the advice of Marcel Duchamp, purchased multiple Cornell works prior to opening her new gallery, Art of This Century. Cornell also befriended Roberto Matta Echaurren, another Surrealist living in exile, who introduced him to Robert Motherwell.
After deciding to fully dedicate his time to his art in early 1940, he set up a studio in his basement. Complete with floor-to-ceiling wooden shelving, he kept his large collection of boxed source material stacked with handwritten labels in cardboard boxes. Themed folders of materials such as "Stamps" or "Maps" were kept in stacks and works in progress and finished works were stored in the basement, garage, and attic. Entering a renewed period of productivity, Cornell embarked on many new and important box projects in 1942. One of the first boxes created in his new basement studio, and the first of the "Penny Arcade" or "Medici Slot Machine" series, was "Medici Slot Machine" (1942), which includes a photostat of "Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa" (1557) by Sofonisba Anguissola. Another work from this time is the first of his "Castle" or "Palace" series, "Setting for a Fairy Tale" (1942), which uses a photostat of a French building from Jacques Androuet du Cerceau's book, "Les Plus excellents bastiments de France" (1576). "Untitled (Pharmacy)" (circa 1942) was the first of his "Pharmacy" series and included twenty-two apothecary jars. Cornell tended to work in series and created thirteen "Palace" boxes between 1942 and 1951, and ultimately created six "Pharmacy" works.
In 1943, Cornell began working at an electronics company, the Allied Control Company, Inc., to do his part to contribute to the defense effort during the war. He also sent correspondence and care packages to displaced Europeans, who listed their needs in "The Christian Science Monitor." Influenced by World War II, one of his strongest works to emerge in 1943 was "Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery." Another notable work to come out of this period, "The Crystal Cage (Portrait of Berenice)," was an excerpt from one of his album "explorations" that was published in the January 1943 issue of "View."
Cornell left his job at Allied Control in 1944, but soon began working at the Garden Centre in Flushing, owned by a fellow Christian Scientist. Cornell was often nostalgic for this time in his life, devoting an entire "exploration" of material fondly remembered as "GC 44." He rode a bicycle to work and enjoyed collecting trips gathering dried grasses, driftwood, shells, and other relics of nature on the same bicycle as he rode through the streets of Queens. During this time, he continued to tend to his projects for "Dance Index," a magazine founded in 1942 by Lincoln Kirstein, but taken over by Donald Windham in 1944. Cornell designed several covers for the magazine and was given control of the entire summer 1944 issue, which he devoted to the Romantic ballet. He also devoted a special 1945 issue to Hans Christian Andersen, making great use of the New York Public Library Picture Collection.
Throughout the 1940s, Cornell continued to support himself with commercial design work for magazines like "Vogue," "Good Housekeeping," "Harper's Bazaar," "Town & Country," and "Mademoiselle." In 1946, after thirteen years at the Julien Levy Gallery, he joined the Hugo Gallery. In December 1946, Cornell's solo exhibition, "Romantic Museum at the Hugo Gallery: Portraits of Women by Joseph Cornell," celebrated his favorite movie stars, singers, and ballet dancers, and included his work created for the show, "Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall)." Cornell's "Greta Garbo" box, as well as "Souvenir for Singleton," an homage to Jennifer Jones and her role in the film "Love Letters," were also included in the show. In late 1948, his West Coast debut was in the exhibition, "Objects by Joseph Cornell," held at the Copley Gallery. The end of the 1940s saw the final issue of "View" magazine in 1947, the closure of the Julien Levy Gallery in April 1949, and Cornell's departure from the Hugo Gallery after his last show in November 1949.
In late 1949, Cornell joined the Charles Egan Gallery, known primarily for showing Abstract Expressionists. At this time, Cornell was working on a new series of boxes known as his "Aviary" works, most of which include a white-painted box with cutouts of birds mounted on wood. Though he had worked on bird-related boxes before, including an "Owl" series in the mid-1940s, his "Fortune Telling Parrot" (1939), and "Object 1941" (1941), these newer works were stripped of French elements and left "clean and abstract" by design. His first show at the Egan Gallery, "Aviary by Joseph Cornell" (December 7, 1949-January 7, 1950), included twenty-six "Aviary" works, nearly all created in 1949. Donald Windham agreed to write the foreword for the exhibition catalog, a single folded sheet, and Cornell gave him one of the boxes in the show, "Cockatoo: Keepsake Parakeet," in appreciation. Through the Egan Gallery, Cornell became friends with a new group of artists, including Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov, and Willem de Kooning. Cornell also held two screenings of a selection of his collected films at Subjects of the Artist, an art school founded by Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, David Hare, and William Baziotes.
In 1950, Cornell's second show at the Egan Gallery, "Night Songs and Other New Work" (December 1, 1950-January 13, 1951), introduced his new "Observatory" series. These works are largely defined by stark, whitewashed spaces with astronomical charts and constellations replacing colorful birds. The Museum of Modern Art purchased its first Cornell work from this show in early 1951, "Central Park Carrousel, in Memoriam" (1950).
For three months in 1951, Cornell was beset by various ailments and had trouble finding the energy to create new work. He worried more for his aging mother and the health of his brother. After a monthlong vacation with his sisters in Westhampton, he returned with renewed interest in Emily Dickinson's poetry. His whitewashed boxes took on a new form in his newest "Dovecote" series, using grids and circular cutouts. The works then transformed into homages to Dickinson, notably "Toward the Blue Peninsula: For Emily Dickinson" (circa 1953), and then to his "Hotel" series. Cornell's "Hotel" boxes include photostats of vintage European ads for hotels collected from vintage travel guides, especially "Baedeker's," adhered to the back walls of the boxes. Another new series of work, his "Juan Gris" series, was dedicated to Cubist artist Juan Gris. Between 1953 and the mid-1960s, Cornell created at least fifteen "Juan Gris" boxes, which often include a cutout of a white cockatoo in a Cubist-collage habitat. Cornell's third and last show at Egan Gallery, "Night Voyage" (February 10-March 28, 1953), included some of these newest works. After leaving Egan Gallery, his work was introduced to Chicago collectors in a solo show at the Frumkin Gallery, "Joseph Cornell: 10 Years of His Art" (April 10-May 7, 1953), which included nearly thirty pieces. Cornell's first museum retrospective was this same show held at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (July 12-August 30, 1953).
As New York City continued to change, Cornell grew more nostalgic for the city he had explored since the 1920s. The impending closure of the Third Avenue El train prompted him to dream up a film project to capture its last days, resulting in "Gnir Rednow," a reworking of Stan Brakhage's 1955, "Wonder Ring." During this time, Cornell joined the Stable Gallery, run by Eleanor Ward, interacting often with Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Joan Mitchell, remaining there until the end of the 1950s. His astronomy-themed exhibition, "Winter Night Skies" (December 12, 1955-January 13, 1956), included his "Night Skies" series of work with celestial chart fragments, Greek mythological figures, and paint-splattered "windows" representative of star-filled night skies. In 1956, he became aware of ballerina Allegra Kent, and began a series of work devoted to her, the first of which was "Via Parmigianino (Villa Allegra)" (1956), which included a photostat of a painting by Parmigianino, "The Madonna of the Long Neck" (circa 1540). In late 1957, after two years, Cornell had his last show at Stable Gallery, "Joseph Cornell: Selected Works" (December 2-31, 1957), consisting of a series of "Sand Fountain" boxes and "Space Object" or "Celestial Navigation" works. The "Sand Fountain" boxes included different colors of sand meant to flow within, often from the tops into cordial glasses. His "Celestial Navigations" included galaxy-like compositions set within the boxes, with rolling, painted cork balls, metal rings, and constellation charts, sometimes hovering over cordial glasses or clay pipes. This last Stable Gallery show earned him his first published profile, written by Howard Griffin for the December 1957 issue of "Art News." Also in 1957, he won the Kohnstamm Prize for Construction at the Art Institute of Chicago's 62rd Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture.
Towards the end of the 1950s, Cornell spent less time creating new bodies of work, and focused more on revisiting previous series and reviewing piles of collected source material. In 1959, Cornell returned to making collages, frequently sourcing popular magazines. In December 1959, Cornell was awarded $1,500 for his "Orion" collage, entered in the Art Institute of Chicago's "63rd American Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture." Also in December, he was offered a show at Bennington College in Vermont, which he titled, "Bonitas Solstitialis: Selected Works by Joseph Cornell and an exploration of the Colombier" (November 20-December 15, 1959). The show included one of his newest "explorations" of collected material related to "colombier," or pigeon houses.
By 1962, Cornell was working diligently on new collages, using Masonite boards and colorful magazine clippings. He also began creating collages using nude images interspersed with constellation clippings or hazy blue dyes. As in previous decades and art movements, Cornell became acquainted with new artists, spending less time in the city and more time hosting visitors at his Utopia Parkway home. Visitors included artists Walter De Maria, Robert Whitman, Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, and Robert Indiana. Tony Curtis also became a frequent visitor and friend, introduced by Richard Feigen in 1964. The early 1960s was also the first time Cornell put out an advertisement for assistants in the "Long Island Star-Journal," employing a number of young men and women who helped organize clippings and run errands. Cornell also met Joyce Hunter, a young runaway waitress at a city coffee shop, who would occupy his thoughts and diary notes for the next several years. When she was murdered at the end of 1964, Cornell paid for her funeral. He went on to make several "Penny Arcade" collages in memoriam to her, including, "Penny Arcade (re-autumnal)" (1964).
In 1964, Cornell began friendships with several women including artist Carolee Schneeman, who was his first assistant in the early 1960s. He also met artist Yayoi Kusama through art dealer Gertrude Stein. After becoming friends, she visited him often and they exchanged letters and notes. As he did with other artist friends, Cornell supported her by purchasing several of her early watercolor paintings, and they stayed connected until his death in 1972.
Cornell's life greatly changed in 1965 with the death of his brother, Robert. By this time, his mother lived with his sister in Long Island, and Cornell was alone in the Utopia Parkway house for the first time. He exchanged frequent letters and phone calls with his mother and devoted much time to thinking about Robert and Joyce, often aligning them in his diary notations. Cornell also created a series of collages dedicated to his brother's memory, incorporating photostats of Robert's hundreds of drawings into Cornell's work, as with the later collage, "The Heart on the Sleeve" (1972). Cornell's "Time Transfixed" series of collages were also dedications to Robert's memory, referencing Magritte and Robert's love of trains. He mounted an exhibition, "Robert Cornell: Memorial Exhibition" (January 4-29, 1966), at the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, where he showed Robert's artwork alongside his newly created collage dedications.
After Robert's death, Cornell relied more heavily on assistants, going through many part-time "helpers." In October 1966, Cornell's mother died, adding her to his constant thoughts and diaries. Though he was still grieving, he was given two major retrospectives in 1967. The first was at the Pasadena Art Museum, put on by James Demetrion and Walter Hopps, "An Exhibiton of Works by Joseph Cornell" (January 9-February 11, 1967). The second retrospective was at the Guggenheim Museum just three months later, "Joseph Cornell" (May 4-June 35, 1967), organized by Diane Waldman. After these shows, he was highlighted in the December 15, 1967 issue of "Life" in the article, "The Enigmatic Bachelor of Utopia Parkway."
In 1968, Cornell was given an "award of merit," which included a medal and $1,000, by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He was also given a medal and $1,000 by the Brandeis University Creative Arts Awards in the painting category, along with an exhibition. Days later, "The New York Times" announced Cornell the winner, along with Donald Judd, of India's first Triennale of Contemporary World Art. The Brandeis exhibition, "Boxes and Collages by Joseph Cornell" (May 20-June 23, 1968), was organized by William Seitz and concentrated on Cornell's more recent 1960s collages. Cornell was also included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's hundredth anniversary show, "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940 to 1970" (October 18, 1969-February 1, 1970), where twenty-two of Cornell's boxes were shown in their own gallery. At the end of 1970, Cornell was given a solo show at the Metropolitan, "Collages by Joseph Cornell" (December 10, 1970-January 24, 1971), which included forty-five of his newest collages.
Now preferring to stay closer to his home in Flushing, Cornell was more interested in sharing his art with young adults and children, than an adult audience. He hosted a group of high school students, sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's education department, at his home in conjunction with his collage show (1970-1971). He also showed his work in the art department of Queens College of the City University of New York. Cornell still hosted visitors on occasion, having Yoko Ono and John Lennon at his home at least once. Leila Hadley, Betsy von Furstenberg, and Anne Jackson also made frequent visits. With his deteriorating health, Cornell worried about what would happen to his work after his death and hired lawyer Harry Torczyner to help him plan his estate and get his affairs in order.
In 1972, Cornell had a show at the Cooper Union, a college in New York, specifically for children. He displayed his boxes and collages at child-height and had cherry soda and brownies at the opening reception on February 10. He then held a show at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, also for children: "Children's Preview of the Exhibition of Joseph Cornell – Collages and Boxes (April 18-June 17, 1972). In the winter of 1972, at the request of the Phoenix House drug treatment and prevention program, Cornell contributed to a charity project compiling limited-edition lithographic prints for a portfolio, which included artists like David Hockney, James Rosenquist, and Ellsworth Kelly.
On December 29, 1972, a week after turning sixty-nine, Cornell died of heart failure at his home. He was cremated and interred near the graves of his mother, father, and brother, overlooking the Hudson River in Nyack, New York.
Works Cited:
1. Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. "Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination." New Haven, Connecticut and London: Yale University Press, 2007. Exhibition Catalog.
2. McShine, Kynaston. "Joseph Cornell." New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980.
3. San Francisco Cinematheque and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Joseph Cornell: Films." 2007. Exhibition Program. (Presented in conjunction with SFMOMA's exhibition of "Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination").
4. Schaffner, Ingrid and Lisa Jacobs. "Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery." Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The MIT Press, 1998.
5. Solomon, Deborah. "Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell." New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.
Separated Materials:
The Smithsonian Archives of American Art houses the Joseph Cornell papers, 1804-1986, bulk 1939-1972.
Provenance:
The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection was donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by Joseph Cornell's sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth Cornell Benton and John A. Benton, in 1978, which prompted the creation of the Joseph Cornell Study Center. Additional materials were donated in installments by the artist's estate, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, from 1985 to 1997. Elizabeth and John A. Benton originally donated 66 linear feet of three-dimensional and non-textual source material and 50 linear feet of books to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, which were subsequently transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Joseph Cornell Study Center in 1994 and 1995.
Restrictions:
Access to the collection requires an advanced appointment. Contact collection staff at least two weeks prior to preferred date, at AmericanArtCornellStudy@si.edu.
Series 9: Artifacts and Ephemera, Series 13: Personal Library and Book Collection, and Series 14: Record Album Collection, are still undergoing processing and preservation and may not be available for research use. Record albums are unavailable for playback. Contact collection staff for full lists of publications and record albums.
Rights:
Unpublished materials are protected by copyright. Permission to
publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.
Occupation:
Collagists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States Search this
The records of the National Arts Club measure 32.1 linear feet and date from 1898 to 1960. The collection documents the founding of the club, and it's governance, administration, exhibitions, and social activities
Scope and Content Note:
Records of the National Arts Club, spanning the period 1898 to 1960, document the founding of the organization, and its governance, administration, finances, exhibitions, and social activities. There are large gaps in the records and many of those surviving are incomplete, which can be explained by a 1932 resolution of the Board of Governors that "old files and letters and bills in the storeroom prior to 1922 may be destroyed at the discretion of the Secretary and Treasurer."
Minutes and reports of the Board of Governors and Executive Committee are fairly complete through 1949, but sparse thereafter. Records do not exist for all standing and special committees, and those remaining tend to be concentrated in the early twentieth century.
Correspondence of the officers, for the most part, is routine and relates to administrative matters. Financial records cover the period 1917 to 1950, with a large number of gaps.
A small number of records of the Arts Realty Co. (later known as 15 Gramercy Park, Inc.) are extant. These include lists of stockholders, correspondence concerning mortgage bonds, and minutes.
Membership records, arranged alphabetically, are available for the years 1931 to 1959, and there are rosters arranged by membership category, 1940-1952; in addition, printed membership lists were issued circa 1900-1951.
More than four hundred exhibitions are known to have been held in the galleries of the National Arts Club between 1899 and 1960. Catalogs for 124 National Arts Club exhibitions are available at the Archives of American Art; 69 titles are to be found among the Club's records and an additional 55 were microfilmed previously as parts of other collections. Other exhibition documentation includes printed matter such as invitations, entry blanks, publicity, and photographs (see Appendix A). For some exhibitions, supporting documentation such as correspondence with exhibitors and collectors, sales and consignment records, and shipping receipts have survived. These files are mainly confined to Books of the Year exhibitions, Arts and Crafts/Decorative Arts exhibitions, and a smaller number of exhibitions of Living American Etchers, 1928-1957.
General social events, activities sponsored by Arts Club committees, and special commemorative occasions are documented by invitations, programs, publicity, calendars of events, and photographs. The majority of this material is contained in seventeen scrapbooks, 1898-1940. Programs of the Men's Open Table, 1915-1950, are particularly well documented by the Chairman's correspondence and three volumes containing meeting notices with signatures of members in attendance.
In addition to printed matter relating to exhibitions and events, scrapbooks, 1898-1940, contain general publicity, clippings concerning members, and samples of National Arts Club printed matter such as form letters to the general membership, brochures, ballots, house rules, published membership lists, year books, and the like. Loose printed matter augments that preserved in the scrapbooks. These sources combined provide a fairly complete set of the Bulletin, but the number of year books is small, and there are catalogs of only slightly more than a third of the exhibitions identified.
Photographs, in addition to those recording exhibitions and events, include portraits of governors, officers, distinguished visitors, speakers, and performers; views of Gramercy Park and the interior and exterior of the clubhouse; and works of art in the permanent collection.
Miscellaneous material includes information on the National Arts Club's first home on West 34th Street, and the Tilden Mansion, its current clubhouse on Gramercy Park; histories of the organization; unpublished speeches presented at Club occasions; and copies of legal documents, including the Club's charter and act of incorporation.
See Appendix A for an annotated list of National Arts Club exhibitions, 1899-1960
Arrangement:
The records are arranged into the following series:
Series 1: Board of Governors, 1898-1960, undated
Series 2: Administration, 1898-1960, undated
Series 3: Financial Records, 1917-1952
Series 4: Membership, circa 1900-1962
Series 5: Arts Realty Co., 1909-1913, 1945-1956, undated
Series 6: Miscellaneous, 1890-1961, undated
Series 7: Photographs, 1899-1957, undated
Series 8: Printed Matter, 1893-1960, undated
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1898-1940
Historical Note:
The National Arts Club was founded by Charles de Kay, literary and art critic for the New York Times who believed there was a need for a club uniting all of the arts. In March of 1898, de Kay called together a number of civic leaders and men prominent in the art world who supported the idea, elected the first officers and incorporated the Club in 1899.
As stated in a circular issued by the Club, its specified purposes were: to promote the mutual acquaintance of art lovers and art workers in the United States; to stimulate and guide toward practical and artistic expression the artistic sense of the American people; to maintain in the City of New York a Club House...for social purposes in connection with the arts; to provide proper exhibition facilities for such lines of art, especially applied and industrial art, as shall not be otherwise adequately provided for in the same City; and to encourage the publication and circulation of news, suggestions and discussions relating to the fine arts.
During its initial months, the National Arts Club operated from a temporary office at 156 Fifth Avenue. In the search for a permanent site, considerable care was taken to select an auspicious location and accommodations, and in 1899 the first clubhouse was opened at 37 West 34th Street in leased quarters renovated expressly for the Club. Within a year, the gallery and restaurant required additional space, and there was a desire to provide overnight quarters for members visiting from out of town. In 1901 the Club created a corporation, Arts Realty Co., which issued shares to members and other investors for the purpose of raising funds to purchase the adjacent property (39 West 34th Street). This end was accomplished, and when it was decided to move the Club to another location, proceeds from the sale of the lease on 37 West 34th Street and the lot next door, augmented by additional funds subscribed by members, enabled Arts Realty Co. to acquire the Tilden Mansion at 15 Gramercy Park in 1905. Construction was begun immediately on a connecting studio tower to the rear (119-121 East 19th Street), designed by architect and Club President George B. Post. Upon completion, the Club bought the property from Arts Realty Co., issuing both First and Second Mortgage Bonds to individual subscribers. The Gramercy Park property has been occupied by the Club since 1906.
A show of American gold and silver work in October 1899 was the first exhibition held at the National Arts Club. Decorative arts, crafts, and industrial arts figured prominently in early exhibitions, as did designs for civic improvements. The monthly exhibition schedule emphasized contemporary American art, but also included some historical shows. Members of the public were admitted without charge to the galleries, where they could view such innovative and important exhibitions as Pictorial Photographs presented by the Photo-Secession (1902) and a group exhibition featuring the works of Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, and Maurice Prendergast (1904). After about 1907, exhibitions grew more conservative, probably reflecting the personal tastes of Art Committee members rather than a formal opposition of the Club to nonrepresentational art. Increasingly, the exhibition schedule was filled by shows of members' work, the Club's permanent collection (mainly works by artist members, usually given in payment for life membership), the Annual Arts and Crafts exhibitions, Books of the Year exhibitions, and shows organized by various art societies.
In addition to exhibitions, the National Arts Club regularly featured a variety of cultural programs such as concerts, lectures, and dramatic presentations for members and guests. Parties, dinner, dances, and other social activities drew members to the Club, too. During its first years, some artist members expressed dissatisfaction with the high priority given social functions; by 1905, J. Carroll Beckwith, Walter Shirlaw, and Stanford White were among those who had resigned for this reason.
Within the National Arts Club there have been some smaller societies. The earliest of these were The Discus, a short lived dining and debating club, and The Vagabonds, a lunch group of writers, editors, printers and illustrators. The Men's Open Table, founded in 1910, met weekly for more than forty years for dinner followed by a talk, given by a fellow member or an outside, often professional, lecturer. A wide range of topics, not necessarily on the arts, were presented and discussed at the Men's Open Table. The American Institute of Graphic Arts is one of the organizations said to have developed from associations formed and discussions held at the Men's Open Table. A Women's Open Table, patterned after the men's, was established later.
The National Arts Club, unlike many other private clubs founded during the same era, admitted women members from its inception. Throughout its history, the Club's membership has been comprised of artists, musicians, writers, and performers, as well as collectors and supporters of the arts drawn from all parts of the country. Membership peaked at around 1,800 in 1920, declining throughout the Depression and again in the mid-1950s, and remaining at about 600 for the next two decades.
1898 -- Founding; occupied temporary office at 156 Fifth Ave.
1899 -- Incorporation; leased clubhouse at 37 West 34th St.; opened first exhibition, American Gold and Silver Work
1900 -- Constitution adopted
1901 -- First donations to permanent collection; Arts Realty Co. formed for the purpose of acquiring and financing the adjacent property (39 West 34th St.)
1905 -- Arts Realty Co. purchased Gramercy Park property (Tilden Mansion) on behalf of NAC; remodeling of clubhouse and construction of studio tower begun
1906 -- Plan for financing new clubhouse approved; second Mortgage Bonds issued; clubhouse and studio tower occupied; First Annual Books of the Year Exhibition
1907 -- Annual Members' Exhibition initiated; Bulletin began publication
1910 -- First meeting of Men's Open Table (established 1909)
1914 -- Essay contest, "A Critical Estimate of the Altman Collection"
1917 -- American Artists War Emergency Fund Committee issues art stamp
1923 -- Junior Artist membership category created
1930-1931 -- Essay contest, "Soul of America"
1940 -- Works by deceased artist life members deaccessioned from permanent collection; fund for refugee artists established
1962 -- Clubhouse designated New York City Landmark
1976 -- Clubhouse designated National Historic Landmark
1987 -- NAC records donated to Archives of American Art
Appendix A: Annotated List of National Arts Club Exhibitions, 1899-1960:
* = photographs included with records of NAC (See pp. 22-23 for reel and frame numbers)
+ = photograph in NAC album (See pp. 24 for reel and frame numbers)
x = catalog, checklist, or printed announcement included with NAC printed matter
s = copy of catalog in NAC scrapbook (volume number noted, see pp. 27-32 for reel and frame numbers of each volume)
Microfilm reel and frame numbers (e.g.: N134:416-419) are cited below for NAC catalogs appearing in other collections within the Archives of American Art.
DateExhibitionOct. 30 *, 1899 -- House Warming, Exhibition of American Gold and Silver Work
Nov. 13-18, 1899 -- Tenth Exhibition of the Woman's Art Club; Reception to Miss Cecilia Beaux (N134:416-419)
Nov. 27-Dec. 10, 1899 -- Art Pottery, American, Oriental, and European (N134:407-415)
Dec. 23-Jan. 8, 1899 -- Exhibition of Small Bronzes (N134:437-443)
Jan. 13, 1900 -- Exhibition of Photographs, works by members of the Society of Mural Painters
Jan. 29, 1900 -- Design for Street Refuge, shown by New York Municipal Art Society
Feb. 5-22, 1900 -- Exhibition of Embroideries and Native Rugs (N134:420-425)
Feb. 24-Mar. 10, 1900 -- John Leslie Breck Memorial Exhibition (N443:703-708; N551:719-724)
Mar. 24-Apr. 14, 1900 -- Pastel Exhibition, American Work
Apr., 1900 -- Old and Modern Japanese Prints
Apr. 14-21, 1900 -- Ernest Tarleton Memorial Exhibition
Apr. 21-May 3, 1900 -- Exhibition of Color Reproductions, American and European
May 10-21, 1900 -- American Art Leatherwork (N134:432-426)
May 24-30, 1900 -- Small Exhibition of Japanese Water Colors
May 31-June 14, 1900 -- William Hamilton Gibson Memorial Exhibition
June, 1900 -- New York Municipal Art Society Competition
Nov. 28-Dec. 19 x, 1900 -- Arts and Crafts (N134:421-431)
Jan., 1901 -- Birds and Beasts in Art
Feb., 1901 -- Art Leatherwork and Objects Relating to the Hearth
Mar., 1901 -- Works by the Society of Mural Painters
Apr., 1901 -- Books and Bookmaking
Apr., 1901 -- Howard Walter, Water Colors Taken in Europe
May, 1901 -- Glass in the Arts
May, 1901 -- Memorial to John A. Fraser, His Paintings
May-Nov., 1901 -- Arts and Crafts in the Liberal Arts Building, Pan-American Pacific Exhibition, Buffalo, N.Y.
June-Sept., 1901 -- Sculpture, Oil Paintings, Pastels, Water Colors, and Objects of Industrial Art by Members of the Club
Oct., 1901 -- Memorial Window for the Ames Family by John La Farge
Nov., 1901 -- Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by the Woman's Art Club
Dec., 1901 -- Objects Shown at the Pan-American Pacific Exposition
Jan., 1902 -- Ecclesiastical Art
Feb., 1902 -- Art Objects Relating to Civic Art, under the auspices of the Municipal Art Society
Mar., 1902 -- American Pictorial Photographs, shown by the Photo-Secession
Mar. 26-Apr. 21, 1902 -- Fourth Annual Exhibition of the National Sculpture Society (N551:725-729; N134:446-451)
May, 1902 -- Pictures of "Womanhood"
May, 1902 -- Memorial Window for Baltimore by D. Maitland Armstrong; Memorial Window for Wells College by Mrs. Ella Condie Lamb June Window in Stained Glass, Memorial to Julia Doane, Chicago, by John La Farge
Oct., 1902 -- Collection of Objects in Metal; Artistic Bird Cages lent by A. W. Drake, Esq.
Nov., 1902 -- Annual Exhibition by the Woman's Art Club
Nov., 1902 -- Paintings by Four Western Artists, Messrs. Duveneck, Steele, Meakin and Sharp, through the courtesy of the Cincinnati Museum Association
Dec., 1902 -- Designs Submitted for Competition for the Emblem of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Jan. s, 1903 -- Portraits of Napoleon, lent by John Leonard Dudley, Jr., Esq. (volume 4)
Jan., 1903 -- "Autumn," Stained Glass Window for the country residence of William C. Whitney, by John La Farge
Feb., 1903 -- Eskimo and Arctic Objects, with Paintings from the Arctic and Antarctic Circles by Frank Wilbert Stokes
Mar., 1903 -- Objects of Municipal Art
Apr., 1903 -- Examples of Ideal Art by American Artists
May, 1903 -- Sculptures by Rodin, Roche, and Rivere, belonging to Miss Lois Fuller
May, 1903 -- Portraits and other Paintings by American Artists of the Colonial and Early Periods
June-Oct., 1903 -- Summer Exhibition of Paintings, Water Colors, and Sculpture by Members of the Club
Nov., 1903 -- Jewelry and Precious Stones, Modern, Old and Oriental
Dec. 1-14, 1903 -- Thirteenth Annual Exhibition of the Woman's Art Club (N134:452-456)
Dec., 1903 -- Stained Glass Window, designed by Miss Mary E. Tillinghast
Dec., 1903 -- Sketches for the Sculpture at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, shown by the National Sculpture Society
Jan. 5-16 s, 1904 -- Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Eminent American Painters (N134:426-464, and volume 4)
Jan. 5-16 s, 1904 -- Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, and Maurice Prendergast (volume 4)
Feb., 1904 -- Pictures by Contemporary American Artists
Mar. 2-15, 1904 -- Loan Exhibition of Pictures by American Figure Painters (N50:471-472; N134:460-461)
Mar., 1904 -- Annual Exhibition of Objects of Municipal Art
Apr. 5-15 s, 1904 -- Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Some Boston Artists (N443:713-715, and volume 4)
Apr. 19-30 s, 1904 -- Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Old Masters, lent by the Messrs. Durand-Ruel (N443:711-712; N134:462-464, and volume 4)
May 3-14 s, 1904 -- Oil Paintings, Water Colors, and Drawings by John La Farge, N.A. (volume 4)
May, 1904 -- Photographs of Paintings by Old Italian Masters, under the auspices of the Library Committee
Oct., 1904 -- Work of Holders of the Lazarus and Reinhart Scholarships executed while at the American Academy in Rome
Nov., 1904 -- "The Moral and Divine Law," painting by John La Farge
Nov., 1904 -- Exhibition by Members of the Nippon-Bijitsuin (Japanese Art Academy)
Jan., 1905 -- Exhibition by the Lyme Group of Painters
Feb., 1905 -- "Old Masters" and Aphrodite
Feb., 1905 -- Pictures by Some Boston Artists
Mar., 1905 -- Annual Exhibition of the Municipal Art Society of New York
Apr., 1905 -- Artistic and Commercial Posters, under the Auspices of the Municipal Art Society
Apr., 1905 -- Textiles and Ceramics
Oct., 1905 -- "Out of Doors" as Seen by Various Artists
Nov., 1905 -- Color Prints by S. Arlent-Edwards
Dec., 1905 -- American Indians as Seen by the Artist and the Artist Photographer
Jan., 1906 -- Birds and Beasts in Art
Feb., 1906 -- Miniatures
Mar., 1906 -- Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Municipal Art Society
Mar., 1906 -- Exhibition by the Alumni of Cooper Institute
Apr. 2-14 s, 1906 -- Municipal Art Society Exhibit of Poster Designs (volume 4)
Apr.-May, 1906 -- Exhibition by the Women's Art Club of New York
Nov. 8-18 s, 1906 -- Opening Exhibition [first exhibition in new quarters]: American Paintings from the Collection of Mr. William T. Evans (D45:29-34, and volume 4)
Dec., 1906 -- Books of the Year
Dec. 8-Jan. 1 s, 1906 -- Pictures by Some American Painters (volume 4)
Jan. 12-Feb. 1 s, 1907 -- Modern German Paintings from the Collection of Mr. Hugo Reisinger (N443:716-717, and volume 4)
Feb. s, 1907 -- Exhibition of Wood Engravings by Timothy Cole made for Century Magazine
Feb., 1907 -- Longfellow Memorial
Mar. 13-31, 1907 -- Sixth Annual Exhibition of the Municipal Art Society of New York
Apr., 1907 -- New York Society of Ceramic Artists
Apr., 1907 -- Paintings and Sculpture by Members
May s, 1907 -- Exhibition of Artists' Preliminary Sketches
May-Nov., 1907 -- Sketches by Members
Oct. 16-Nov. 16 s, 1907 -- Fall Exhibition of Sketches by Members (volume 4)
Nov. 20-Dec. 11, 1907 -- Arts and Crafts Exhibition (N29:1001-1026)
Dec., 1907 -- Second Annual Exhibition of the New Books of the Year
Jan. 4-25 s, 1908 -- Contemporary Art (N443:744-746, and volume 5)
Feb., 1908 -- First Annual Exhibition of Advertising Art
Nov. *, 1908 -- Third Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec., 1908 -- Arts and Crafts Exhibition
Jan., 1909 -- Second Annual Exhibition of Advertising Art
Jan., 1909 -- Small Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Contemporary Artists
Feb. 2-20 s, 1909 -- International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography (volume 1)
Feb. 23-Mar. 17 s, 1909 -- John W. Alexander Retrospective Exhibition (volume 5)
Apr., 1909 -- Exhibition of the New York Society of Keramic Arts
May, 1909 -- Spring Exhibition of Members' Work
July, 1909 -- Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William T. Evans
Sept.-Oct., 1909 -- Three Centuries of New York, under the auspices of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration
Nov. 3-26 s, 1909 -- Fourth Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year (volume 5)
Dec., 1909 -- Third Annual Exhibition of Arts and Crafts
Jan., 1910 -- William M. Chase Retrospective Exhibition
Feb., 1910 -- Exhibition of American Landscape Painting
Mar. 2-28 s, 1910 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Louis Mark, of Budapest (volume 5)
Apr. 6-30 s, 1910 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred East, of London (N134:465-469, and volume 5)
May, 1910 -- Exhibition of Household Art, under the auspices of the Domestic Training Department of the Public Schools
May 4-Oct. s, 1910 -- Third Annual Exhibition of the Former Students of the Art Students League (volume 5)
Oct. 20-Nov. 1 s +, 1910 -- Third Annual Exhibition of Advertising Art (volume 5)
Nov.-Dec., 1910 -- Fifth Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. * +, 1910 -- Fourth Annual Arts and Crafts Exhibition
Jan. 5-Feb. 3 s +, 1911 -- First Annual Artist Life Members' Exhibition (volume 5)
Feb. +, 1911 -- Exhibition of the New York Society of Keramic Arts
Feb. 11-Mar. 10, 1911 -- Circuit Exhibition of Contemporary Art (D12:437-439; N52:105-107)
Mar. 8-Apr. 5 * s +, 1911 -- Paintings and Drawings by Walter Shirlaw, N.A. (N52:967-973, and volume 5)
Apr., 1911 -- Exhibition of the Municipal Art Society of New York
Apr. 26-May * s +, 1911 -- Group Exhibition of Paintings: William R. Derrick, Reynolds Beal, Frederick J. Waugh (volume 5)
Oct. 25-Nov. 4 * +, 1911 -- Exhibition of Color Schemes and Model Rooms in Miniature
Nov. 8-30 * +, 1911 -- Sixth Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 7-28 * +, 1911 -- Fifth Annual Arts and Crafts Exhibition
Jan. 3-28 s +, 1912 -- First Prize Exhibition of Artist Life Members (N443:754-756, and volume 6)
Jan. 31-Feb. 18 * s +, 1912 -- Otto Walter Beck Exhibition (volume 6)
Feb. 21-Mar. 10 s +, 1912 -- Etchings of E. T. Hurley (volume 6)
Mar. 13-20 s +, 1912 -- National Park Pictures Collected and Exhibited by the Department of the Interior (volume 3)
Apr. 4-21 s +, 1912 -- Paintings, Embroideries, and Tapestries from the Collection of Mr. Emerson McMillan (D45:462-468; N443:757-762, and volume 6)
Apr. 4-Mar. 12 s, 1912 -- Exhibition of Original Dickens and Thackeray Drawings by Harry Furniss (volume 3)
May 8-June 1 * s +, 1912 -- Sculpture Exhibition (volume 6)
June 4-8 +, 1912 -- Exhibition of Industrial Art, under the auspices of The School Art League and the Art Departments of the City High Schools
June-Oct., 1912 -- Summer Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Oct. 16-Nov. 12 +, 1912 -- Third Special Exhibition of the Society of Illustrators
Nov. 13-29, 1912 -- Seventh Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 4-28 +, 1912 -- Sixth Annual Exhibition of the National Society of Craftsmen
Jan. 8-Feb. 9 +, 1913 -- Work of the Painter, Sculptor, and Architect Members (N443:763-767; N50:126-130)
Feb. 12-Mar. 9 * +, 1913 -- Exhibition of Works by the Late Frederick Warren Freer
Mar. 12-31 +, 1913 -- The Applied Arts of Germany
Apr. 2-27 +, 1913 -- Small Works by Six Painters: Richard E. Miller, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Charles W. Hawthorne, William Wendt, William Ritschel, and Elise Dodge Pattee
Apr. 30-June 1 +, 1913 -- Small Marbles and Bronzes (N551:732-737)
May-June, 1913 -- Summer Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture
Oct. 15-Nov. 9, 1913 -- Society of Illustrators
Nov. 12-28, 1913 -- Eighth Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 3-28 * +, 1913 -- Seventh Annual Exhibition of the National Society of Craftsmen
Jan. 8-Feb. 1 +, 1914 -- Work of Painter, Sculptor, and Architect Members
Feb. 4-21, 1914 -- The Pastellists
Feb. 5-Mar. 21 x +, 1914 -- Contemporary Art
Mar. 11-29 * +, 1914 -- Hungarian Peasant Art (N134:470-479)
Apr. 1-May 2 +, 1914 -- Paintings by Eleven Western Artists
May 6-31 * +, 1914 -- Exhibition of Small Sculpture (N551:738-743)
June-Sept., 1914 -- Paintings
Nov. 4-27, 1914 -- Ninth Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 3-28 +, 1914 -- Eighth Annual Exhibition of National Society of Craftsmen
Jan. 7-31 +, 1915 -- Work of Painter Members (N551:744-746)
Feb. 4-25 +, 1915 -- Forty-eighth Annual Exhibition of American Water Color Society
Mar. 3-24 +, 1915 -- Portraits (N551:747-748)
Apr. 7-13 +, 1915 -- Sculpture
May 5-21, 1915 -- Exhibition of Municipal Art Society
June-Oct. *, 1915 -- Work of Painter Members
Oct. 13-30 +, 1915 -- Fifth Special Exhibition of the Society of Illustrators
Nov. 5-13 +, 1915 -- American Wood Engraving, under the auspices of the American Institute of Graphic Arts
Nov. 17-Dec. 3, 1915 -- Tenth Anniversary Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 8-30 +, 1915 -- Ninth Annual Exhibition of the National Society of Craftsmen
Jan. 6-28 +, 1916 -- Work of Painter Members
Feb. 3-27 +, 1916 -- Forty-ninth Annual Exhibition of American Water Color Society
Mar. 2-25 * +, 1916 -- Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Academicians and Associates Selected from the Permanent Collection of the National Academy of Design (N551:749-752; N134:480-483)
Mar. 28-Apr. 14 +, 1916 -- One Hundred American Paintings by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (N443:768-770)
Mar. 28-Apr. 14 +, 1916 -- Exhibition of American Printing
Apr. 19-May 6, 1916 -- Exhibition of the Municipal Art Society
Nov., 1927 -- Twenty-second Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 7-24 +, 1927 -- Fifth Annual Exhibition of Works of Living American Etchers (N552:13-18)
Jan., 1928 -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Feb. 8-29 +, 1928 -- Small Paintings
Mar. 8-31 x, 1928 -- Exhibition of Decorative Arts
Apr. 4-20 +, 1928 -- Exhibition by Junior Artist Members of the Club
Nov., 1928 -- Twenty-third Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec., 1928 -- Small Paintings
Jan. 8-Feb. 8 + -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Feb. 13-Mar. 8 -- Sixth Annual Exhibition by Living American Etchers
Mar. + -- Richard M. Hurd Loan Exhibition of Italian Primitives
Apr. 3-26 + -- Exhibition by Junior Artist Members of the Club
May 1-Oct. 1 + -- Summer Exhibition by Painter Life Members
Nov. -- Twenty-fourth Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 4-26 * + -- Exhibition of the Decorative Arts
Jan. 8-Feb. 1 +, 1930 -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Feb. 5-28 x +, 1930 -- Seventh Annual Exhibition of Living American Etchers
Mar. 5-28 +, 1930 -- Junior Artist Members' Exhibition
Apr. 16-Sept. 30 +, 1930 -- Members' Exhibition of Small Paintings (N134:484-490)
Nov., 1930 -- Silver Anniversary Exhibition of Books of the Year
Dec. 3-26 * +, 1930 -- Eighth Annual Exhibition by Living American Etchers
Jan. 7-Feb. 6 +, 1931 -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Mar. 4-27 +, 1931 -- Exhibition by the Junior Artist Members
Mar. 13-Apr. 15 x, 1931 -- Auction Exhibition and Sale by Artist Members
Apr. 1-25 +, 1931 -- Members' Work of the New York Water Color Club
May 2-24 +, 1931 -- The Story of Gramercy Park in Portraits and Historical Objects of the Period, in connection with Gramercy Park Centenary Celebration
June 3-Oct. 1 +, 1931 -- Members' Exhibition of Small Paintings
Oct. 21-Nov. 20, 1931 -- Twenty-sixth Annual Exhibition of Books of the Year
Nov. 26-Dec. 26, 1931 -- Sixteenth Annual Exhibition by the Society of American Etchers (formerly The Brooklyn Society of Etchers)
Jan. 6-13 +, 1932 -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Feb. 3-27 +, 1932 -- Exhibition of Drawings by Artist Members
Mar. 2-26 +, 1932 -- Paintings by Junior Artist Members
Mar. 13-Apr. 15 +, 1932 -- Auction Exhibition and Sale by Artist Members
Apr. 20-30 +, 1932 -- Exhibition by a Group of New York Art Schools
May 4-Oct. 1 +, 1932 -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Small Paintings
Jan. 4-27 +, 1933 -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Mar. 1-31 +, 1933 -- Junior Artist Members
Apr. 5-22 +, 1933 -- Society of Illustrators
May 3-Oct. 1 +, 1933 -- Members' Exhibition of Small Paintings and Sculpture
Jan. 3-27 +, 1934 -- Members' Annual Exhibition
Jan. 31-Mar. 2 +, 1934 -- Memorial Exhibition of a Group of Former Painter and Sculptor Members: Max Bohm, Emil Carlsen, Charles Hawthorne, Robert Henri, Karl Bitter, Solon Borglum, Daniel Chester French, Edmund Quinn
Mar. 7-29 +, 1934 -- Junior Artist Members
Apr. 4-27 +, 1934 -- Society of Illustrators, Thirty-second Annual Exhibition
May 2-June 28 +, 1934 -- Members' Exhibition of Small Paintings and Sculpture (N552:69-71; N134:491-494)
Nov.-Dec., 1934 -- Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Etchers (formerly The Brooklyn Society of Etchers) (N552:49-65)
undated -- Twenty-ninth Annual Exhibition of Fifty Books of the Year
Apr. 24-May 3 +, 1940 -- Flower and Still Life Paintings
May 8-June 1, 1940 -- Special Exhibition of Water Colors, Architectural Renderings, Type Compositions, and Color Reproductions by Edwin Hooper Denby, A.I.A., S.A.D.G. (N443:779-780; N134:509-510)
Dec. +, 1940 -- Twenty-fifth Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Etchers
Feb. 4-Mar. 1, 1942 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Artists of the United Nations (N134:512-518)
June 12-Sept. 30, 1942 -- Members' Summer Exhibition (N134:519)
Dec. 16-Jan. 22, 1942 -- Exhibition of Chinese and Indian Art (N134:520)
Mar. 31-, 1943 -- Exhibition of Junior Members (N134:521)
July 1-Sept. 30, 1943 -- Summer Exhibition of Smaller Paintings by Members (N134:522)
Feb. 17-Mar. 15, 1944 -- Exhibition of Studies by American Masters (N134:523)
Oct. 5-27, 1944 -- Exhibition of Enlarged Photographs of American Patriots as Seen in Sculpture (N134:523)
Jan. 10-Feb. 9 x, 1945 -- Members' Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Dec. 22-Jan. 4, 1945 -- Seventh Annual Exhibition of the American Veterans Society of Artists, Inc. (N134:527-540)
May 21-30, 1946 -- The Traphagen School Exhibition of Costume Design, Illustrating the Development of American Fashion (N134:526)
Feb. 20-Mar. 7, 1947 -- Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Paintings (N134:541)
Apr. 20-May 2, 1947 -- Junior Members' Exhibition
Dec. 10-24, 1947 -- Ninth Annual Exhibition of American Veterans Society of Artists, Inc. (N121:721-733)
Feb. 23-Mar. 6, 1948 -- Forty-seventh Annual Exhibition of the New York Society of Ceramic Arts (N134:543)
Mar. 9-21, 1948 -- Annual Exhibition of Junior Members (N134:543)
Apr. 8-May 30, 1948 -- Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Members, Past and Present (N134:543)
June 10-Sept., 1948 -- Members' Summer Exhibition (N134:544)
Jan. 19-Feb. 9, 1949 -- Fifty-first Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Members and Guest Artists (N134:544)
Mar. 14-31, 1949 -- Exhibition by Members of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors (N134:545)
May 5-Sept. 15, 1949 -- Members' Summer Exhibition (N134:546)
Oct. 15-Nov. 4, 1949 -- Fourth Annual Exhibition of the Photo-Engravers Society
Jan. 4-Feb. 1, 1950 -- Fifty-second Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Members and Guest Artists (N134:546-548 and 550)
Jan. 28-Feb. 19, 1950 -- Eighty-third Annual Exhibition of the American Water Color Society (N134:549)
Feb. 8-23, 1950 -- Exhibition of Creative Art Associates (N134:549)
Mar. 16-Apr. 2, 1950 -- Exhibition of Room Interiors Especially Designed by Members of the American Institute of Decorators, in collaboration with Members of the National Society of Mural Painters (N134:551)
May 7-28, 1950 -- Active Members' Exhibition (N134:551-554)
June 28-Sept. 15, 1950 -- Members' Summer Exhibition (N134:555)
Feb. 26-Mar. 17 x, 1951 -- Paul Mommen
Mar. 24-Apr. 19, 1951 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Non-Members (N134:558-559)
May 5-31, 1951 -- Spring Water Color Exhibition (N134:560)
June 6-, 1951 -- Group Exhibition by Distinguished Artist Members: Gifford Beal, Louis Betts, Charles Clapman, Walter Farndon, Albert Groll, Eugene Higgins, Leon Kroll, Van Dearing Perrine, Keith Shaw Williams
Jan. 6-30, 1952 -- Fifty-fourth Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Members and Guest Artists (D176:917-919; N134:561)
Feb. 9-28, 1952 -- Annual Water Color Exhibition (N134:562)
Mar. 9-27, 1952 -- Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Distinguished American Artists (N134:572)
Jan. 4-18, 1953 -- Fifty-fifth Annual Exhibition by Painter and Sculptor Members and Guest Artists (N134:563)
Jan. 25-Feb. 8, 1953 -- Annual Water Color Exhibition (N134:564)
Feb. 15-Mar. 1, 1953 -- Open Exhibition of Oil Paintings (N134:565-568)
Mar. *, 1953 -- Art of Indonesia
May 3-24, 1953 -- Members' Exhibition of Smaller Paintings in Oil (N134:569-571)
Nov. 1-14, 1954 -- The American Artists Professional League, American Art Week (N121:258-259)
Oct. 2-19, 1955 -- Open Water Color Exhibition
Jan. 8-22 x, 1956 -- Fifty-eighth Annual Exhibition by Painter and Sculptor Members and Guest Artists (N134:573-575)
June 17-Sept. 7 x, 1956 -- Members' Summer Exhibition
Sept. 24-Oct. 8 x, 1956 -- James H. Walsh
Oct. 28-Nov. 10 x, 1956 -- Small Picture Exhibition by Members and Guests
Nov. 16-30 x, 1956 -- August Benziger
Dec. 5-22 *, 1956 -- Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of Books of the Year
Jan. 6-27, 1957 -- Fifty-ninth Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Members and Guest Artists
Feb. 1-15, 1957 -- Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Sixtieth Annual Exhibition (N134:576-577)
Sept. * x, 1957 -- International Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Jan. 10-24 x, 1958 -- Sixtieth Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Members and Guest Artists
May 21-31 x, 1958 -- Water Color and Graphic Arts Exhibition by Members and Non-Members
Oct. 17-31 x, 1958 -- Twelfth Annual Exhibition of the Photo-Engravers Society
Nov. 22-Dec. 3 x, 1958 -- Metropolitan Young Artists Show
Jan. 11-26 x, 1959 -- Sixty-first Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Members and Guest Artists
Dec. 9-Jan. 7 x, 1959 -- Metropolitan Young Artists Show
Jan. 15-28 x, 1960 -- Sixty-second Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Members and Guest Artists
Apr. 18-May 1, 1960 -- Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Flower Painting Exhibition and Sale (D176:1128-1129)
June 8-29 x, 1960 -- Summer Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Members
undated -- * Arts and Crafts Exhibitions
undated -- * x Annual Exhibitions of Books of the Year
undated -- * Ceramic Art Exhibition
undated -- x Water-Oils by Charles S. Chapman, N.A.
undated -- x Fine Art of the Caribbean
undated -- x Painters of the United States, 1720-1920, from the Permanent Collection of the Fine Arts Department, International Business Machines Corp.
undated -- * Pottery Exhibition
undated -- * Traveling Exhibition of Enlarged Photographs of Sculpture and Spring Exhibition of Small Sculpture by Members of the National Sculpture Society
undated -- * Exhibition of Small Sculpture
undated -- x Modern Tapestries from Vienna
undated -- x Annual Open Water Color Exhibition
undated -- x Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Flower Paintings Exhibition and Sale
These citations were compiled from Art Index, 1929-1960; The New York Times Index, 1898-1960; Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 1898-1906; Nineteenth Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, 1898-1899; and Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, 1900-1960, using the format employed in Art Index. Citations are presented in chronological order, as it is anticipated that most researchers consulting the National Arts Club Records will be interested in a specific event or era in the Club's history, or are apt to be researching artists whose National Arts Club affiliation or exhibition activities were confined to a particular period.
1898
National Art Club. -- Harpers Weekly -- 42:329, April 2.
1899
Club to advance art industries. -- Critic -- 34:349-51, April.
National Arts Club organized. -- New York Times -- (7-2), 29-288-2, April 26.
1909
Position as a factor in the encouragement of the fine arts. G. Teall. -- Craftsman -- 15:604-13, February.
Club officials rule a member may take a process server into club as a guest to serve papers on fellow member, case of R.S. Perrin vs. D. Whipple. -- New York Times -- 7:3, June 29.
1913
Lecture of Prof. Eucken on Art and Morality. -- New York Times -- 9:3, March 1.
Offers prize to member who writes best manuscript on "A Critical Estimate of the Altman Collection." -- New York Times -- 12:7, November 8.
Annual exhibition of Books of the Year; organization of American Institute of Graphic Arts planned. -- New -- York Times 9:3, November 13.
1914
Alexander de Yourevitch has visited Russian political exiles as agent from the Czar; arranges for Russian trade exhibit in New York; National Arts Club has agreed to cooperate. -- New York Times -- 20:2, March 27.
Dinner in honor of Shakespeare celebration, address by Henry Clews. -- New York Times -- 13:2, April 24.
Farewell dinner to Karl Vollmoeller and George Sylvester Viereck at National Arts Club by Alfred Rau. -- New York Times -- III, 7:3, May 7.
Exhibition of Books of the Year (editorial). -- New York Times -- VI, 514:2, November 22.
1915
Awards announced. -- New York Times -- 10:1, January 7.
Paintings exhibition. -- New York Times -- V, 11:13, January 10.
Poster exhibition. -- New York Times -- III, 2:5, March 28.
Thanksgiving dinner to east side waifs. -- New York Times -- 11:1, November 26.
1917
Annual exhibition; Gold Medal and $1000 prize awarded to Ben Foster. -- New York Times -- 10:6, January 4.
Memorial services for W.B. Howland. -- New York Times -- 7:3, March 3.
Offers prizes for best patriotic medal, poem, and song. -- New York Times -- 9:14, April 6.
Offers prizes to promote expression of American patriotism in art. -- New York Times -- IV, 13:2, April 15.
H.A.W. Wood speaks at distribution of prizes. -- New York Times -- 11:3, May 31.
"Road to France," $500 prize offered for appropriate music. -- New York Times -- 13:2, June 9.
American Artists' War Emergency Fund Committee announces that art stamp will be sold to aid artists reduced in circumstances through the war. -- New York Times -- 13:6, July 10.
Offers prize of $500 for best musical setting for D.M. Henderson's "The Road to France." -- New York Times -- VIII, 9:3, August 12.
Prize for music for war song by D.M. Henderson is awarded to Signe Lund. -- New York Times -- 13:3, November 1.
1919
Annual books exhibition. -- New York Times -- VIII, 686:1, November 23.
1921
Comment on suggestion by G. Bellows that proposed members should possess some work by living American artist. -- New York Times -- III, 20:3, February 6.
Elects governors. -- New York Times -- 9:2, April 13.
1922
Awards Agar prize to Christine Herter. -- New York Times -- 16:7, April 7.
Address by Ann Martin. -- New York Times -- 4:3, August 3.
1923
Annual exhibition of books; I. Zangwill speaks; protest by member. -- New York Times -- 6:1, November 8.
1924
Prize winners of annual exhibition. -- New York Times -- 4:15, January 10.
Honors J.G. Agar at dinner. -- New York Times -- 6:2, February 26.
1925
Mural panels of Old NY used for New Year's fete to be put on exhibition. -- New York Times -- 29:1, January 4.
Announces prize winners at Members' Annual Exhibition. -- New York Times -- VIII, 11:2, January 18.
Murals depicting history of NYC, painted for New Years' ball, to be given to Museum of the City of New York. -- New York Times -- 25:4, February 3.
Exhibition of lithographs, woodcuts, and linoleum prints. -- New York Times -- VIII, 11:13, April 12.
1926
Exhibition. -- New York Times -- 4:5, January 14.
Exhibition. -- New York Times -- 17:3, April 8.
Exhibition of photographs of recent buildings. -- New York Times -- VIII, 12:6, April 18.
15th century books brought from Germany by Dr. Otto H.F. Vollbehr on exhibition at the National Arts Club. -- New York Times -- 6:6, August 24.
15th century Book of Hours, worth $15,000, stolen from exhibition at National Arts Club. -- New York Times -- 1:2, August 26.
Feature article on exhibition. -- New York Times -- IV, 15:1, August 29.
Book of Hours mysteriously returned to Vollbehr by E.M. Garlock, attorney, acting for unnamed client who claims to have bought book from stranger. -- New York Times -- 19:1, September 12.
Editorial on return of book. -- New York Times -- 20:4, September 13.
21st annual book exhibit; addresses. -- New York Times -- 28:3, November 4.
History in connection with 20th anniversary celebration. -- New York Times -- VIII,18:6, November 7.
1927
New Year's Eve costume ball. -- New York Times -- 15:3, January 1.
Exhibition of American paintings. -- New York Times -- 25:5, March 3.
Exhibition of etchings. -- New York Times -- IX, 10:4, December 11.
1928
Exhibits. -- New York Times -- 30:2, January 12; -- New York Times -- IX, 13:2, January 29.
Awards in small painting exhibition. -- New York Times -- 27:2, February 10.
Exhibit. -- New York Times -- VIII, 15:3, February 12.
First exhibition of decorative arts. -- New York Times -- 28:4, March 15; -- New York Times -- IX, 15:4, March 18.
Exhibition. -- New York Times -- IX, 15:2, April 15.
1929
J. Lie, P. Manship, and C. Beach win prizes. -- New York Times -- 25:3, January 11.
Annual members' exhibition. -- New York Times -- X, 18:4, January 27.
Exhibition of crafts. -- New York Times -- X, 15:6, December 8.
Prize awarded to D.C. Nisbet. -- New York Times -- 23:5, December 29.
1930
Arts Club prizes announced. -- Art News -- 28:21, January 4.
Annual exhibition of painting and sculpture. -- New York Times -- VIII, 13:3, January 19.
Seventh annual exhibition. -- New York Times -- VIII, 13:1, February 16.
Annual junior art show. -- New York Times -- 3:5, March 15; -- New York Times -- X, 19:3, March 16.
Exhibition of prints by living American etchers. -- New York Times -- X, 18:1, December 14.
1931
New York season; Living American Etchers. -- Art Digest -- 5:14, January 1.
M. Gregg Memorial Prize awarded to I.G. Olinsky; medal to H.W. Watrous. -- New York Times -- 34:6, January 10.
Exhibitions. -- New York Times -- VIII, 12:7, February 22.
Exhibition of Junior Artist Members. -- New York Times -- IX, 13:4, March 15.
Hold exhibition of portraits and other objects relating to history of Gramercy Park. -- New York Times -- II, 1:7 and 18:4, May 3.
Annual exhibition of paintings by members. -- New York Times -- 30:6, June 4.
Awards to R.D. Bowden $3000 prize, offered by J.G. Agar for best book on "The Soul of America." -- New York Times -- 20:6, June 8.
1932
Annual exhibition of work by painter and sculptor members; prizes announced. -- New York Times -- 27:7, January 7.
Art Club prizes. -- Art Digest -- 6:10, January 15.
Forum on development of art talent in young artists. -- New York Times -- 13:8, January 18.
Arts Club prizes. -- Art News -- 30:20, January 23.
Opening. -- New York Times -- 16:7, February 4.
Prizes awarded to junior artists. -- New York Times -- 19:2, March 8.
Art auction totals $600. -- New York Times -- 19:5, April 14.
Members' exhibition of small paintings. -- New York Times -- 16:6, May 5.
National Arts Club book exhibition. E. Yost. -- Publishers Weekly -- 122:2382-3, December 31.
1933
R. Nickerson, new member, wins medal at annual painting and sculpture show; other awards. -- New York Times -- 18:2, January 5.
Annual members' exhibition. -- New York Times -- 13:2, January 13; -- New York Times -- IX, 12:6, January 15.
National Arts club prizes. -- Art Digest -- 7:15, January 15; -- Art News -- 31:7, January 28 Celebrates 119th birthday of S.J. Tilden. -- New York Times -- 17:6, February 8.
Exhibition by junior artist members. -- New York Times -- 15:2, March 2.
1934
Prizes for annual members' show announced. -- New York Times -- IX, 12:3, January 14.
Annual dinner. -- New York Times -- 17:4, January 18.
Prizes. -- Art Digest -- February 1, 8:19; -- Art Digest -- 8:13, May 15.
Memorial exhibition of eight of its deceased painter and sculptor members. -- New York Times -- IX, 12:6, February 4.
Junior members exhibit. -- New York Times -- 17:1, March 8; -- New York Times -- IX, 9:7, March 18; Prizes awarded. -- New York Times -- 22:8, March 22.
Annual members' show. -- New York Times -- 17:2, May 3; Awards, -- New York Times -- 21:1, May 8; -- New York Times -- IX, 7:7, May 13.
Awards given by Arts Club. -- Art News -- 32:4, June 2.
Rare book exhibition planned. -- New York Times -- 19:4, September 18; Exhibition. -- New York Times -- 17:1, September 19.
1935
Annual exhibition of members' work opened. -- New York Times -- 17:5, January 10; -- New York Times -- 9:3, January 14.
Annual dinner; awards. -- New York Times -- 20:7, January 17.
Stag dinner; portrait of Victoria replaces painting of nude. -- New York Times -- 23:4, February 1.
Prizes, annual exhibition of painting and sculpture. -- Art Digest -- 9:21, February 1.
Members' annual exhibition. -- New York Times -- 18:2, February 8; -- New York Times -- VIII, 9:6, February 17.
Annual exhibition by junior artists. -- New York Times -- 18:5, March 9.
Arts Club plans a large bazaar. -- Art News -- 33:10, August 17.
Series of articles on traditions of club being written. -- New York Times -- II, 7:1, October 6.
Plans for annual book week. -- New York Times -- II and III, 8:5, October 13; exhibitors to be entertained by J.R. Gregg, president. -- New York Times -- 19:2, October 30.
To award two trips to Europe for mural decoration. New -- York Times -- 26:7, November 1; -- New York Times -- 19:5, November 14.
To hold "At Home" tea. -- New York Times -- II, 8:2, December 8.
Dinner. -- New York Times -- 14:8, December 11.
1936
Annual members' exhibition. -- New York Times -- 19:6, January 9; -- New York Times -- 13:8, January 11; -- New York Times -- IX, 10:1, January 19.
Exhibition of modern textbooks. -- New York Times -- 17:7, February 6.
Announces winners of trips to Europe. -- New York Times -- 21:2, February 11.
Exhibition by neighboring organizations. -- New York Times -- IX, 8:1, April 12.
Summer exhibit from permanent collection. -- New York Times -- IX, 7:4, June 21.
Exhibition of contemporary books; authors' night. -- New York Times -- VI, 9:2, November 8.
Plans for children's matinee at annual book exhibition. -- New York Times -- VI, 7:2, November 8.
Women's open table plans dinner. -- New York Times -- 16:4, November 23.
Exhibition of Society of American Etchers. -- New York Times -- XII, 9:2, November 29.
1937
Awards at members' exhibit. -- New York Times -- 24:3, January 27.
Exhibitions sponsored by Society of American Etchers. -- New York Times -- 21:3, February 3; -- New York Times -- X, 9:7, February 7.
Women's committee holds drama dinner. -- New York Times -- 13:1, February 15.
R.D. Kohn speaks, -- New York Times -- 25:7, March 11.
Jr. artists group exhibit. -- New York Times -- IX, 10:1, March 14; Awards. -- New York Times -- 23:6, March 25.
Photographic exhibition. -- New York Times -- X, 10:2, May 16.
Officers elected. -- New York Times -- 19:1, May 20.
H. Hamilton exhibit. -- New York Times -- IX, 6:7, September 26.
Book of the year exhibit. -- New York Times -- 23:6, November 4; -- New York Times -- VI, 4:3, November 28.
Mr. H.P. Crine elected life member. -- New York Times -- 9:1, November 28.
Members' exhibit. -- New York Times -- 28:3, December 9.
1938
Women's Open Table plans. -- New York Times -- 11:2, January 17.
Members' annual exhibit. -- New York Times -- , January 18 26:2; -- New York Times -- IX,9:3, January 23; Awards. -- New York Times -- 22:2, January 27.
Members studio receptions planned. -- New York Times -- VI, 2:7, January 30.
Dinner honoring Dr. W. Damrosch. -- New York Times -- 12:5, March 7.
Exhibit by art groups near NYC. -- New York Times -- 20:8, March 28.
Group show. -- New York Times -- X, 8:2, April 17.
Viennese ball. -- New York Times -- 22:6, April 21.
J.F. Talcott elected president; D.E. Waid executive committee chairman. -- New York Times -- 21:6, November 19.
Victorian ball. -- New York Times -- 18:1, December 17.
1939
Members' memorial exhibit. -- New York Times -- 15:1, January 13; -- New York Times -- IX, 9:2, January 22.
Members' painting and sculpture exhibit. -- New York Times -- IX, 9:2, February 5.
Jr. Members' lecture. -- New York Times -- 10:2, February 6.
Painting exhibit. -- New York Times -- 18:1, March 1; -- New York Times -- X, 10:2, March 5.
Jr. Members party planned. -- New York Times -- 50:3, March 5.
Exhibit of neighboring art organizations. -- New York Times -- 13:2, April 17.
Wild West party planned to benefit Jr. Members Scholarship Fund; to close 40th anniversary celebration. -- New York Times -- II, 2:8, April 23; -- New York Times -- II, 3:1, April 30.
Jr. Members plan New Year's Eve Olympian Ball. -- New York Times -- 30:2, December 19; -- New York Times -- II, 1:2, December 31.
1940
Art by deceased life members to be sold. -- New York Times -- 17:2, January 5.
Group show; awards. -- New York Times -- 21:2, January 11.
Group show. -- New York Times -- 24:2, January 24; -- New York Times -- IX, 9:2, January 28.
Non-members exhibition. -- Art News -- 38:15, February 3.
Exhibits: ceramics. -- New York Times -- 17:4, February 16; Ceramics and flowers. -- New York Times -- 15:5, February 19; Ceramics. -- New York Times -- II, 5:2, February 25; Exhibits: Jr. members. -- New York Times -- IX, 10:2, April 14; Group show awards. -- New York Times -- 21: 5, April 25.
Pan-American Ball held. -- New York Times -- 21:5, April 20.
Fund campaign for refugee artists started. -- New York Times -- 8:2, July 31.
Establishes artist refugee fund. -- New York Times -- 19:1, August 1.
Benefit exhibit plans. -- New York Times -- 20:8, October 2; Exhibit. -- New York Times -- IX, 5:4, October 6.
County fair planned. -- New York Times -- II, 3:3, October 6.
Refugee artists show their work. -- Art News -- 39:10, October 12.
Annual book exhibit opens. -- New York Times -- 3:5, November 3.
Testimonial luncheon for foreign authors in U.S. -- New York Times -- 45:2, November 10.
National Arts Club dramatizes books at the 35th annual new books of the year exhibition. -- Publishers Weekly -- 138:2046, November 30.
1941
Annual members' exhibit. -- New York Times -- 24:8, January 10; Comment. -- New York Times -- IX, 9:2, January 12; Awards. -- New York Times -- 24:6, January 23.
Annual prizes. -- Art Digest -- 15:13, February 1.
Benefits concerts planned. -- New York Times -- 39:1, February 23; -- New York Times -- 20:7, March 28.
Annual exhibit awards. -- New York Times -- 28:3, March 11; Comment. -- New York Times -- I, 10:3, March 16.
Group shows. -- New York Times -- IX, 10:1, March 30; -- New York Times -- IX, 8:2, May 25; -- New York Times -- X, 13:5, May 25; -- New York Times -- IX, 7:5, June 15.
Book exhibit. -- New York Times -- 1:6,November 9.
1942
Group show. -- New York Times -- X, 10:1, January 18.
Group show. -- New York Times -- 14:4, February 4; Private preview. -- New York Times -- 15:4, February 5; Comment. -- New York Times -- IX, 9:6, February 8.
Jr. members to honor servicemen at Hallowe'en party. -- New York Times -- 16:3, October 30.
37th annual show of new books. -- Publishers Weekly -- 142:2044, November 14.
To sponsor Chinese and Indian art exhibit in NYC. -- New York Times -- VIII, 9:1, December 13; Exhibit. -- New York Times -- 42:5, December 17.
1945
Holds Xmas fair. -- New York Times -- 13:3, November 16.
1946
Contemporary American painting exhibit planned. -- New York Times -- 23:6, February 20.
Jr. members and young non-members exhibition. -- Art News -- 45:67, May.
Annual book show plans. -- New York Times -- 21:2, November 1; Show, W.L. Laurence speaks. -- New York Times -- 13:1, November 12.
Annual book show. -- Publishers Weekly -- 150:2731, 2718, November 9.
Packaging the book. P. Boswell. -- Art Digest -- 21:3, November 15.
Choosing best book jackets, 41st annual book show. -- Art News -- 45:8, December.
1947
Preview exhibit. -- New York Times -- 21:5, January 9.
Forming symphony orchestra. -- New York Times -- 27:1, September 19.
1948
Ninth annual exhibition of American Veterans Society of Artists. -- Art Digest -- 22:19, January 1.
Conservatives score at the 50th annual exhibition of painting and sculpture. -- Art Digest -- 22:17, February 1.
Fiftieth annual exhibition. -- Art News -- 47:49, March.
Book fair opens in NYC. -- New York Times -- 30:7, December 9.
1949
Summer annual. -- Art Digest -- 23:14, August.
Dinner honors Mrs. F.D. Roosevelt. -- New York Times -- 39:5, October 11.
1950
Fifty-second annual exhibition of oils and sculptures. -- Art Digest -- 24:12, January 15.
Members' summer exhibition. -- Art Digest -- 24:18, August.
Fair plans. -- New York Times -- 44:8, November 1.
1951
Members-guests annual. -- New York Times -- II, 19:1, January 14.
53rd Annual Exhibition. -- Art Digest -- 25:18, January 15; -- Art News -- 49:47, February.
Non-members annual. -- New York Times -- 21:5, March 30.
Open competition for non-members. -- Art Digest -- 25:18, April 15.
Summer painting exhibition series opens. -- New York Times -- 42:8, June 7.
Members work. -- New York Times -- II, 6:4, June 17.
Summer exhibition. -- Art Digest -- 25:19, July.
1952
Fifty-fourth annual exhibition. -- Art Digest -- 26:19, January 15; -- Art News -- 49:47, February.
Members and guests annual. -- New York Times -- 59:2, January 6; Awards. -- New York Times -- 16:2, January 17.
Watercolor annual; awards. -- New York Times -- 14:4, February 8; -- Art News -- 51:56, March.
Non-members painting annual; awards. -- New York Times -- 16:5, March 10; -- New York Times -- 27:3, March 13.
Small pictures by members; awards. -- New York Times -- 25:5, April 9.
Exhibition of small oils. -- Art Digest -- 26:18-19, April 15; -- Art News -- 49:47, February.
1953
Theatre in an art gallery. A. Scheff. -- Theatre Arts -- 37:92, January.
Members-guests annual; awards. -- New York Times -- II, 11:2, January 11.
Non-members painting annual; awards. -- New York Times -- 21:5., February 19.
Members work; awards. -- New York Times -- II, 13:2, May 10; -- New York Times -- II, 8:5, June 21.
1954
Painting and sculpture annual by members and guests. -- New York Times -- 25:5, January 26.
Fifty-sixth annual exhibition. -- Arts Digest -- 28:17, February 1.
Members and non-members annual; contemporary watercolors; awards. -- New York Times -- 27:5, February 11; Review. -- New York Times -- II, 14:2, February 14.
Grand national annual members' competition. -- Art News -- 53:63, May.
1955
Painting and sculpture annual; awards. -- New York Times -- 23:1, January 12.
Fifty-sixth annual exhibition. -- Arts Digest -- 28:17, February 1.
Paintings annual; awards. -- New York Times -- 18:4, March 1.
Annual exhibition of American oil paintings. -- Art Digest -- 29:26, March 15.
Poet P. MacKaye honored on 80th birthday. -- New York Times -- 28:2, March 16.
1957
Arts Club honors Neuman; WNYC. C. Durgin. -- Musical America -- 77:12, April.
Art Clubs of America. -- Artist -- 53:67, June.
1958
At founding [sixtieth anniversary]. -- New York Times -- 49:2, November 27.
First annual metropolitan young artists show; awards. -- New York Times -- 49:2, November 27
1959
Stadium Concerts founder Mrs. C.S. Guggenheimer gets scroll from Mayor Wagner and National Arts Club medal. -- New York Times -- 9:2, March 12.
1960
Tenor competition awards. -- New York Times -- 47:8, November 15.
Provenance:
The National Arts Club donated its records to the Archives of American Art in 1987. Although a limited amount of printed matter was available at various libraries and on microfilm through the Archives of American Art, scholars have not had access to unpublished records of the Club until this time.
In November 2017 an addition to the Officers' Correspondence was donated by Elizabeth G. Knudsen, granddaughter of Edmund Greacen, former Arts Committee Chair.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
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.
New York N.Y. -- Buildings, structures, etc., Photographs
Date:
1840-1967
bulk 1900-1960
Summary:
The papers of New York City art critic, writer, and lecturer Forbes Watson date from 1840-1967 with the bulk of materials dating from 1900-1960 and measure 13.92 linear feet. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, business records relating to the Arts Publishing Corporation, records documenting Watson's work for the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture, reference files, an exhibition file from the Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition, writings and notes, ten scrapbooks and loose pages, printed materials, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York City art critic, writer, and lecturer Forbes Watson date from 1840-1967 with the bulk of materials dating from 1900-1960 and measure 13.92 linear feet. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, business records relating to the Arts Publishing Corporation, records documenting Watson's work for the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture, reference files, an exhibition file from the Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition, writings and notes, ten scrapbooks and loose pages, printed materials, and photographs.
Biographical material includes Watson's Harvard diploma, documents concerning his service with the Red Cross in World War II, biographical accounts, and obituaries.
Correspondence is primarily with colleagues and includes scattered letters from Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Ira Glackens, Allen Tucker, and Max Weber. Other letters are from artists, art historians, and museum curators. A notebook contains shorthand drafts of letters from Watson.
Business records include personal business records consisting of various tax and stock records. The Arts Publishing Corporation records concern Watson's tenure as editor of The Arts magazine and contains a contract, correspondence, financial records, stockholders reports, press releases, a scrapbook, and issues of The Arts. Also included are business records pertaining to the Art in Federal Buildings, Inc..
The U.S. Treasury Department file is the largest series and documents Watson's federal employment as technical director, chief advisor, and consultant for Treasury Department's public art programs - the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture. The files contain correspondence, financial reports, prospectuses, exhibition files, typescripts, clippings, exhibition catalogs, miscellaneous printed material, and photographs, and a scrapbook. The files contain a record of Watson's and other federal administrators' interactions with many artists during the Depression Era. Correspondence is primarily between Watson and Edward Bruce, Olin Dows, Henry and Elinor Morgenthau, and Edward B. Rowan. Found are scattered letters from artists including Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Paul Manship, and William Zorach, among many others. There are exhibition files for "Art for Bonds," "Army at War," and "War Against Japan." There are also photographs of U. S. Treasury Department events including a radio broadcast by John Dewey, Robert La Follette, Jr., and Sumner Welles.
Documents from the Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition at the National Academy of Design contains a prospectus, an exhibition catalog and artists' statements.
Artist/Patron files contain reference material concerning painters, sculptors, photographers, dancers, composers, authors, art collectors, art dealers, and museum administrators. Files may include writings, notes, artworks, exhibition catalogs and other printed materials. Of particular note are photographs, which include portrait photographs of artists and of artists in their studios. Notable photographers include Ansel Adams, Arnold Genthe, Man Ray, photographs of New York City by Charles Sheeler and a photo of Henri Matisse by A. E. Gallatin. Files for Nan Watson, Symeon Shimin, and Glenn O. Coleman contain artworks. A file for Constantin Brancusi contains legal documents concerning U. S. Customs vs. Brancusi.
Art and Architecture files consist of reference material including photographs and notes concerning miscellaneous unattributed art works, American architecture, and furnishings.
Notes and writings consist of miscellaneous notes and typescripts of lectures and published articles, and notebooks.
Nine scrapbooks and loose scrapbook pages contain clippings of articles written by Watson, lists, and exhibition announcements and catalogs. Additional printed material includes clippings, copies of the Hue and Cry newspaper, exhibition announcements and catalogs, press releases, calendars of events, brochures for the Art Students League, book catalogs, published books, and miscellaneous printed material.
Photographs are of Forbes Watson; family members including his wife, painter Nan Watson; and members of the Art Students League including Peggy Bacon, Minna Citron, Stewart Klonis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Reginald Marsh. There are also photographs of juries for the Carnegie Institute International Exhibitions that include colleagues Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Gifford Beal, Guy Pene DuBois, Leon Kroll, Henri Matisse, Homer Saint-Gaudens, and Maurice Sterne.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1902-1960 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1913-1960 (Box 1; 33 folders)
Series 3: Business Records, 1920-1944 (Box 1-3, 14, 22; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 4: U. S. Treasury Department File, 1926-1945 (Box 3-6, 14, 17, 22, OV 21; 3.4 linear feet)
Series 5: File for Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition "Paintings of the Year," 1946 (Box 6; 5 folders)
Series 6: Artist/Patron Files, 1840-1967 (Box 6-9, 15, OV 21; 2.8 linear feet)
Series 7: Art and Architecture File, 1929-1930 (Box 9; 35 folders)
Series 8: Notes and Writings, 1875-1950 (Box 9-10, 22; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1904-1951 (Box 9, 11, 14, BV 18, BV 19, BV 20; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 10: Printed Material, 1900-1961 (Box 10, 12-13, 16-17, 22; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 11: Photographs, 1900-1950 (Box 13, 22; .4 linear feet)
All material is arranged chronologically, with the exception of the Artist/Patron Files which are arranged alphabetically.
Biographical Note:
Forbes Watson (1879-1960) worked primarily in New York City and Washington, D.C. as an art critic, writer, lecturer, and consultant to the U. S. Treasury Department's Public Works of Art Project and Section of Painting and Sculpture (Section of Fine Arts).
Forbes Watson was born on November 27, 1879 in Boston, the son of stockbroker John Watson and his wife Mary. Watson grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, attending the Phillips Academy in Andover, and graduating from Harvard University in 1902. After a brief period of freelance writing, he was hired by The New York Evening Post as an art critic in 1911 and worked there until 1917. In 1910, he married Agnes, professionally known as painter Nan Watson.
During World War I, Watson served with an American volunteer ambulance unit with the French army, later working with the American Red Cross in Paris. After the war, he moved back to New York City and worked as art critic for The World, from the early 1920s until 1931 and as editor of The Arts magazine from 1923-1933. Watson also lectured at the Art Students League, and at various universities and arts organizations.
In 1933, Watson moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as technical director of the U. S. Treasury Department's short-lived Public Works of Art Project. In October 1934, Watson was employed as Chief Adviser to the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later renamed the Section of Fine Arts) and later as Consultant to the Secretary's Office of the Treasury. During World War II, he organized various traveling exhibitions including "Art for Bonds" that promoted the sale of war bonds. Watson retired in 1946 and lived in Gaylordsville, Connecticut.
Watson was the author of numerous essays and reviews, and several books including American Painting Today and Winslow Homer, a biography of the noted American artist. With Edward Bruce, he produced a pictorial volume Art in Federal Buildings, Vol. I: Mural Designs. At his death he was working on his autobiography.
Forbes Watson died on May 31, 1960 in New Milford, Connecticut.
Provenance:
The Forbes Watson papers were donated by Watson's widow, Nan Watson, in 1961. An additional folder of material was donated in 2018 by the Museum of Modern Art via Michelle Elligott, Chief of Archives, Library and Research.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers 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:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Interview of I.J. (Isaac) Sanger, conducted 1981 November 17, by Estill Curtis "Buck" Pennington, for the Archives of American Art, in New York, N.Y.
Sanger speaks of his first encounters with art as a child growing up in rural Virginia, and of his first industrial art classes, taken at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville while he was still attending high school in Free Union. After graduating, he received what he describes as his first real training in art while working for the carpentry shop at Columbia University in New York in the early 1920s. While attending Columbia, he found work as a furniture designer for the YMCA [Young Men's Christian Association]. Sanger also worked for his professor Albert Heckman, doing linoleum cuts for "Aesop's Fables," which Heckman was illustrating. He explains that it was Heckman who encouraged him to continue practicing print making. Until then, he had been working in oil and water color while studying "Art Structure" with Arthur Dow.
When the Depression hit in 1929, Sanger lost his position with the YMCA and worked odd jobs until Albert Heckman introduced him to Gustave von Groschwitz, who brought him on to the WPA. During the 1930s, he received widespread recognition for his work; his prints were selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for their "50 Prints of the Year" show in 1928 and 1929. Following his work with the WPA, Sanger served the army in World War II at Camp Kearns in Utah. He explains how he continued expanding his portfolio throughout the War, and once it was over, spent 25 years as a commercial artist. He relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1951 and became a member of the Washington Print Society while Prentiss Taylor was secretary. In D.C., he was a graphic designer for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, but kept up his own private work, which Jacob Pins featured at the Smithsonian Castle. After formally retiring in 1966, Sanger decided to dedicate his time to travel, but adds that he still makes print making, painting, and furniture design a priority.
Biographical / Historical:
I. J. Sanger (1899-1986) was a painter and printmaker of Marlow Heights, Md.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 6 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art 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.
Occupation:
Furniture designers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The years before World War I were spent in patent litigation for aviation pioneers Glenn Curtiss and Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Scope and Contents:
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation Archives - Patent Files collection consists primarily of materials relating to patents issued to and maintained by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation and its subsidiaries from the 1910s to the 1950s, though the bulk of the materials pre-date World War II. The majority of the collection is original patent certificates. Other materials include records of litigation proceedings, correspondence, memoranda, aircraft drawings and blueprints, reports, sales brochures, meeting minutes, and annual reports.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in four series: Patents, Patent File Wrappers, Patent Litigation, and Curtiss-Wright Corporation Records. Series I contains original patents and related materials issued or assigned to the Curtiss-Wright Corporation and related organizations. Covering the years between 1911 and 1939, the series is further divided into two subseries: United States Patents and International Patents. Series II consists of file wrappers prepared by the United States Patent Office, containing a complete record of the patent's history. The third series includes materials from Curtiss-Wright's numerous litigation proceedings in defense of its patents. The fourth series contains business records created by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation including photocopies of historic patent and stock documents, division minutes, and reports for the U.S. Navy Department.
Series I - Patents, 1911-1939
Subseries I - United States Patents, 1911-1939
Subseries II - International Patents, 1916-1935
Series II - Patent File Wrappers, 1916-1930
Series III - Patent Litigation, 1916-1947
Series IV - Curtiss-Wright Corporation Records, 1906-1945
Historical Note:
The years before World War I were spent in patent litigation for aviation pioneers Glenn Curtiss and Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wright brothers claimed wing warping patents and sought to prevent Curtiss and others from manufacturing and selling aircraft and products based on these patents. During World War I, the aircraft manufacturing industry set up the Manufacturer's Aircraft Association, a patent pool in which all participants were allowed to use any patents to build aircraft for the war effort. After the war, Wright Aeronautical Corporation and the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company continued to be major players in the aircraft industry, long after Curtiss and the Wrights ended association with their namesakes.
In 1929, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company merged with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. After the merger, responsibility for engine and propeller manufacture was consolidated under the Wright name while Curtiss concentrated on airplanes. Although the two companies were merged by name and under the direction of a corporate headquarters located in New York City, the separation and specialization of the two divisions continued to cause problems for the company. The election of former Wright personnel to key corporate positions soon led to Wright becoming the dominant division. The Great Depression and the collapse of the market for commercial aviation revealed how reliant the aviation industry was on military production. Sales dropped and Curtiss-Wright was forced to close certain satellite plants and transfer some of their product lines to the St. Louis facility.
During the U.S. military build-up prior to World War II, existing Curtiss-Wright plants were expanded and new aircraft factories were built to meet the growing production demand. The company failed, however, to plan for the future after the war. In 1946, Curtiss-Wright had only two experimental military models at hand for postwar delivery and no assurance of production orders. Wright Aeronautical continued to build engines, but was no longer at the forefront of development. The eventual sale of the Airplane Division to North American included design rights to the former Curtiss-Wright airplanes. The Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division, which manufactured airframes, finally closed down in 1951.
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation still exists in the 21st century, but has become a diversified technology corporation in various markets, including aviation and defense.
Provenance:
Curtiss-Wright Corporation, gift, 1987.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Covers his youth, education, and career at the USNM, c. 1902-1965, including: family and childhood in Flushing, New York; mineral collecting with Arthur Payne; undergraduate major in chemistry at Colgate University, 1921-1924; stratigraphic research fo...
Collection Creator::
Cooper, G. Arthur (Gustav Arthur), 1902-2000, interviewee Search this
Container:
Interviews
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9524, G. Arthur Cooper Oral History Interviews
Taylor, Frank A. (Frank Augustus), 1903-2007, interviewee Search this
Extent:
26 audiotapes (Reference). 45 digital .mp3 files (Reference copies).
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Compact discs
Audiotapes
Transcripts
Electronic records
Date:
1974, 1979-1980, 1982, 2005
Introduction:
The Smithsonian Institution Archives began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives'
record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program
staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. There are also interviews conducted
by researchers or students on topics related to the history of the Smithsonian or the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Taylor was interviewed for the Oral History Program because of his long and outstanding scholarly and administrative career during his sixty years at the Smithsonian.
Descriptive Entry:
Taylor was interviewed by Miriam S. Freilicher on ten occasions between January and April of 1974, by Pamela M. Henson on seven occasions between July 1979 and April
2003, and by Henson and Cynthia Field in May of 2005. The interviews cover Taylor's youth and education, career at the Smithsonian from laboratory apprentice to Director-General
of Museums, work on the Exhibits Modernization Program, development of the National Museum of History and Technology, role as an administrator and work in the international
museum community.
Historical Note:
Frank Augustus Taylor (1903-2007) was a Curator of Engineering and Industries and administrator at the Smithsonian. He was born in 1903 in Washington, D.C., where he grew
up. In 1922 he accepted a position as Laboratory Apprentice in the Division of Mechanical Technology of the United States National Museum (USNM), and in 1925 he advanced to
Museum Aid. After receiving the B.S. in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Taylor was appointed Assistant Curator in 1929. He became Curator
of the Division of Engineering in 1933 and Head Curator of the Department of Engineering and Industries in 1948. Taylor also received the J.D. from Georgetown University Law
School in 1934.
During his early years at the Smithsonian, Taylor worked to improve the exhibits and collections in the Arts and Industries Building of the USNM. During the depression,
he was assistant director of the Historical American Merchant Marine Survey, WPA Federal Project #6, which was administered through the Smithsonian. In 1950, as chairman
of the Exhibits Modernization Committee, he began planning the renovation program for exhibits in the USNM. In 1946 he also began the planning effort for a science and technology
museum, and in 1954, the authorization for the National Museum of History and Technology was passed by Congress. In 1955 he was appointed Assistant Director of the USNM with
special responsibility for planning the NMHT. Taylor oversaw construction of the building, hiring of staff, and development of exhibits. In 1958 he was appointed the first
Director of the new museum which opened in January of 1964.
In the fall of 1962 Taylor was appointed Director of the United States National Museum with responsibility for both the National Museum of History and Technology and the
National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). In 1968 he became Director-General of Museums with responsibilities for Smithsonian-wide programs in conservation, exhibits and
registration, the National Museum Act programs, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Taylor was active in the international museum community and worked
closely with the American Association of Museums and the International Council of Museums. He oversaw the 1965 Belmont Conference and Report on the needs of America's museums
which led to the National Museum Act and the Museum Services and
Facilities Act. Taylor was responsible for the development of the legislation and programs of the National Museum Act. Taylor retired on 23 January 1971 but continued to work
at the Smithsonian as a Research Associate of Smithsonian Institution Archives and as Consultant to the Secretary until 1983.
Collection consists of records documenting one of the oldest advertising agencies created in Philadelphia. The company then moves to New York and expanses to international markets. During its history NW Ayer & Sons acquires a number of other advertising agencies and is eventually purchased. The largest portion of the collection is print advertisements but also
includes radio and television. NW Ayer is known for some of the slogans created for major American companies.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists primarily of proof sheets of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son, Incorporated for their clients. These materials are in series one through thirteen and consist primarily of print advertisements. There are also billboards, radio and television commercials. The advertisements range from consumer to corporate and industrial products. The majority of the advertisements were created for Ayer's New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and international offices. Printed advertisements created by Cunningham & Walsh, Hixson & Jorgensen and Newell-Emmett are also included among these materials. Researchers who are interested in records created by Ayer in the course of operating an advertising agency will find these materials in Series fourteen-nineteen.
Series fourteen consists of advertisements created by NW Ayer & Son to promote their services to potential clients.
Series fifteen are scrapbooks of some of the earliest advertisements created by the company. Series sixteen are publications. Some of the publications were created by Ayer while others were about Ayer or the advertising industry in general. Provides good background materials and puts the company in perspective. Series eighteen are the legal records. Materials relating to employees including photographs, oral histories etc. are found in series nineteen.
Series twenty is one of the smallest amounts of materials and includes information relating to the history of NW Ayer & Son.
The container lists for series one-thirteen are part of a database and are searchable. The list has been printed for the convenience of the researcher and is included in this finding aid. Series fourteen-twenty container lists are also a part of the finding aid but are not in a searchable format.
Series 1, Scrapbooks of Client Advertisements, circa 1870-1920, is arranged into three boxes by chronological date. There are two bound scrapbooks and one box of folders containing loose scrapbook pages. NW Ayer & Son compiled an assortment of their earliest ads and placed them into scrapbooks. Besides the earliest advertisements, the scrapbooks contain requests to run advertisements, reading notices and listings of papers Ayer advertised in. The early advertisements themselves range from medical remedies to jewelry to machines to clothing to education and more. Most of the advertisements in the bound scrapbooks are dated.
Series 2, Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930, NW Ayer was fond of creating scrapbooks containing proofsheets. The series contains proofsheets created between 1892 and 1930, organized into 526 boxes. For convenience of storage, access and arrangement, the scrapbooks were disassembled and the pages placed in original order in flat archival storage boxes. The proofsheets are arranged by book number rather than client name. Usually the boxes contain a listing of the clients and sometimes the dates of the advertisements to be found within the box.
Series 3, Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975, is organized into 532 oversize boxes, and contain proofsheets and tearsheets created between 1920 and 1972. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by company name (occasionally subdivided by brand or product), and thereunder chronologically by date of production. Many major, national advertisers are represented, including American Telephone & Telegraph, Armour Company, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Carrier Corporation, Domino Sugar, Caterpillar tractor company, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Goodyear, Hills Bros. Coffee, Ladies Home Journal, National Dairy, Plymouth (Chrysler Corporation), Steinway, TV Guide, United Airlines and the United States Army. Also contained in this series are three scrapbooks of client advertisements including Canada Dry, Ford Motor, and Victor Talking Machine.
Series 4, 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001, is organized into ninety three oversized boxes,one folder and contains proofsheets for select Ayer clients, created between 1975 and 2001. Within this series, materials are arranged alphabetically by client name and there under chronologically by date of production. Major national advertisers represented include American Telephone & Telegraph, Avon, the United States Army, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Dupont, TV Guide, Sealtest, Kraft Foods, Gillette, General Motors, Cannon Mills.
Series 5, Billboards, circa 1952-1956, consists of mounted and un-mounted original art/mock-ups. Twenty-two pieces of original art created as mock-ups for Texaco billboards.
Series 6, Film and Video Commercials, 1967-1970,
Series 7, Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated, is arranged into eight boxes and includes radio scripts, television scripts, and story boards for commercials.
Subseries 7.1, Scripts and storyboards for Radio and Television Commercials, dates Scripts for radio and television commercials includes title, date, length of commercial, advertising agency, client information
NW Ayer's radio and television materials mainly focus on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Some of Ayer's materials relate to Bell Telephone Hours.
Storyboards are used in television and film to assist the director in working with crew to tell the story. To show the viewer through the use of figures, visual effects and camera angles. When directors first start thinking about their storyboard they create a story in their mind. They think of all the camera angles, visual effects and how the figures will interact in their mind. They try to create an extraordinary story in their head to attract the viewer (YOU) In order for the storyboard to be entirely effective it can't be a passive document. When done properly, a storyboard serves as a central design, meeting the needs of many team members including graphics artists, video personnel and programmers.
Another function of a storyboard is to help the team communicate during the training development process. This communication is very important in working with a large team as in the movie King, produced in 1996. Figures help the director explain to the crew how they are going to record the film and how to present it to the audience. Sometimes the director wants special effects to be added to the film, but his budget might not be that big so the director will have to change the story to fit their budget.
The Visual Effects are an important part in the storyboards it adds a special touch of creativity to your film. Camera angles are an important expects in your film because the camera angles determine where the viewing audience will look. If you want your audience to look at a certain object you must turn their attention to it by focusing on that object and maybe you might try blocking something out. Then you will have your audience's attention and you may do whatever else you have to, it could be scaring them are just surprising them or whatever you do.
Also included is talent information and log sheets relating to the storage of the commercials.
Bell Telephone Hour Program, 1942-[19??], The Bell Telephone Hour, also known as The Telephone Hour, was a five minute musical program which began April 29, 1940 on National Broadcasting Company Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968.
Earlier shows featured James Melton and Francia White as soloists. Producer Wallace Magill restructured the format on April 27, 1942 into the "Great Artists Series" of concert and opera performers, beginning with Jascha Heifetz. Records indicate that the list of talents on the program included Marian Anderson, Helen Traubel, Oscar Levant, Lily Pons, Nelson Eddy, Bing Crosby, Margaret Daum, Benny Goodman, José Iturbi, Gladys Swarthout and .The series returned to radio in 1968-1969 as Bell Telephone Hour Encores, also known as Encores from the Bell Telephone Hour, featuring highlights and interviews from the original series.
National Broadcasting television specials sponsored by the Bell System, 1957-1987includes information relating to Science series, Bell system Theshold Series, Bell telephone hour and commercial and public sponsored programs
Series 8, Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989, is arranged alphabetically by the name of the client in ninety boxes and six oversize folders. Clients include Illinois Bell Telephone (1955-1989), Microswitch (1969-1989), Teletype (1975-1984), John Deere (1974-1989) and Caterpillar (1966-1972) are particularly well represented. Other clients of interest include Dr. Scholl's shoes (circa 1968-1972), the Girl Scouts (1976-1980), Sunbeam Personal Products Company (1973-1981), Bell and Howell (1974-1983) and Alberto Culver shampoos (1967-1971), Honeywell, Incorporated, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Associations, Kraft, Incorporated, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and YMCA.
Series 9, Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987, include printed advertisements created by this office and information relating to the employees.
Subseries 9.1, Print Advertisements, 1977-1987, printed advertisements arranged in one box alphabetically by client. There is a sparse sampling of clients from this particular Ayer branch office. The majority of the advertisements contained within this series are from Pizza Hut (1986-1987). Also included are Computer Automation (1977-1978), State of the Art, Incorporated (1982) and Toshiba (1986).
Subseries 9.2, Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s, includes cards of employees who worked in the Los Angeles office. Information on the cards includes name, address, telephone number, birthday, date hired, departure date and why (retired, terminated, resigned, etc) and position. Not all cards have all information. There is also a photograph of the employees on the cards.
Series 10, Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated, NW Ayer maintained partnerships with international companies such as Sloanas Ayer in Argentina, Connaghan & May Paton Ayer in Australia, Moussault Ayer in Belgium, NW Ayer, LTD. in Canada, GMC Ayer in France, Co-Partner Ayer in Germany, Wong Lam Wang in Hong Kong, MacHarman Ayer in New Zealand, Grupo de Diseno Ayer in Spain, Nedeby Ayer in Sweden, and Ayer Barker in United Kingdom. This group of material is a small sampling of advertisements created from these International offices. It is arranged alphabetically by client. There are quite a few automobile advertisements (i.e. Audi, Fiat, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen). In addition there are numerous advertisements for various personal items from MacLean's toothpaste to Quick athletic shoes to Labello lip balm, etc. Most of the advertisements have the creator's name printed on the advertisements.
Series 11, Cunningham & Walsh, Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated contains 98 boxes 11 folders materials from the New York advertising agency acquired by NW Ayer in the 1960s. The company began with Newel-Emmett, an agency of nine men which broke up in 1949. Two of the men Fred Walsh and Jack Cunningham formed this agency in bearing their names in 1950. The agency created "let your fingers for the walking campaign for American Telephone & Telegraph, Mother Nature for Chiffon, and Mrs. Olson for Folgers's coffee and let the good times roll for Kawasaki motorcycle. In 1986, NW Ayer Incorporated purchased Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated.
Subseries 11.1, Print Advertisements, 1915-1987, are contained in ninety eight boxes of primarily print advertisements arranged alphabetically by client name. Clients that are particularly well represented are Graybar (electrical implements, circa1926-1937), Johns-Manulle (circa1915-1971), Smith and Corono typewriters (circa 1934-1960), Sunshine Biscuit Company (circa 1925-1961), Texaco Company (circa 1936-1961), Western Electric (circa 1920- 1971) and Yellow Pages (circa 1936-1971). Cunningham and Walsh also represented several travel and tourism industry clients, including Cook Travel Services (circa 1951-1962), Italian Line (circa 1953-1961), Narragansett and Croft (circa 1956-1960) and Northwest Airlines (circa 1946-1955). There are photographs of Texaco advertisements dating from 1913-1962. There is also a scrapbook of advertisements from the Western Electric Company dating from 1920-1922.
Subseries 11.2, Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967, consist of materials created for Western Electric. Materials are arranged in chronological order.
Subseries 11.3, Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated include client lists, information relating to NW Ayer purchase and annual report 1962.
Series 12, Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, a Los Angeles advertising company, merged with Ayer in 1969. This series is housed in one box. Within the box are four scrapbooks and folders with a hodgepodge of materials relating to advertising. Of most interest are the scrapbooks. Two scrapbooks deal with Hixson and Jorgensen's self promotion ad campaign "the right appeal gets action" (1953-1957). The other two scrapbooks contain news clippings about the company and its activities (1959-1971).
Series 13, Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957, founded in 1919 and governed in the 1940s by a partnership of nine men. The partnership broke up in 1949 when the men went their separate ways. The materials consist of print advertisements for one of client, Permutit Company, a water conditioning company. The materials are arranged in one box in chronological order.
Series 14, House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991, 16 boxes consists of advertisements or self-promotion advertisements to campaign for new clients. The series is arranged chronologically by date into fifteen boxes. Within the series are two scrapbooks containing self promotion ads from 1888-1919 and 1892-1895. Numerous house ads relate to Ayer's "Human Contact" campaign. In addition to the self promotion ads, Ayer ran advertisements expounding about particular concepts or themes for example, one month the concept would "understand" while another month would be "teamwork" and yet another would be on "imagination". Some of the self promotion ads target specific groups like Philadelphia businessmen. Other advertisements incorporate the fine arts.
Series 15, Scrapbooks, 1872-1959, relates to company events, records and news clippings about Ayer's history. The six boxes are arranged by chronological date. Two of the boxes focus solely on the death of founder F.W. Ayer (1923). Another box houses a scrapbook that showcases Ayer's annual Typography Exhibition (1931-1959). One box contains a scrapbook that specifically deals with correspondences relating to Ayer's advertising. Yet another box's contents are folders of loose pages from scrapbooks that have newspaper clippings, order forms, correspondences and other company records. In one box, a bound scrapbook houses a variety of materials relating to Ayer and advertising (i.e. newspaper clippings, competitor's advertisements, NW Ayer's advertisements, correspondences for advertisements, clippings regarding the "theory of advertising."
Series 16, Publications, 1849-2006, are housed in thirty four boxes and are arranged into three main categories.
Subseries 16.1, House Publications, 1876-1994, covers diverse topics; some proscriptive works about the Ayer method in advertising, some commemorating people, anniversaries or events in the life of the agency. Materials consist of scattered issues of the employee newsletter The Next Step 1920-1921. The materials are arranged in chronological order by date of publication. Ayer in the News, The Show Windows of an Advertising Agency, 1915, book form of advertisements published on the cover of Printer's Ink, highlighting Ayer's relations with advertisers. The Story of the States, 1916, Reprint in book form of a series of articles published in Printer's Ink for the purpose of adding some pertinent fact, progressive thought and prophetic vision to the Nationalism of Advertising highlights major businesses, manufacturer, natural resources and other qualities or attractions of each state. The Book of the Golden Celebration, 1919, includes welcome address and closing remarks by founder F. Wayland Ayer, The Next Step, 1920 employee newsletter with photographs, employee profiles, in-house jokes, etc., Advertising Advertising: A Series of Fifty-two Advertisements scheduled one time a week. Twenty-seven, thirty and forty inches, a day of the week optional with publisher, 1924
Subseries 16.2, Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-2006, includes a book first published in 1939. Includes articles, documenting events and is arranged chronologically by date of publication.
Subseries 16.3, General Publications about Advertising, 1922-1974, are arranged chronologically by date of publication and relate primarily to the history of advertising.
Subseries 16.4, Publications about Other Subjects, 1948-1964, include four books about the tobacco industry primarily the history of the American Tobacco Company and Lorillard Company from the Cunningham and Walsh library.
Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s
Subseries 17.1, Contracts, 1885-1908, undated, are arranged alphabetically and span from 1885-1908. The majority of the contracts are with newspaper and magazine publishers from around the country.
Subseries 17.2, General client information, 1911-1999, undated, including active and cancelled lists with dates, client gains, historical client list, (should move this to series 20) Ayer Plan User Guide Strategic Planning for Human Contact, undated
Subseries 17.3, Individual Client Account Information, 1950s-1990s, undated, contain information used by Ayer to create advertisements for some of its clients. American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate Case History, American Telephone &Telegraph Corporate advertisement memo, commissioned artists for DeBeers advertisements, DeBeers information relating to the creative process and photography credits, a case history for DeBeers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., The Diamond Engagement Ring, Managing Communication at all levels, DuPont publications, JC Penny Marketing Communication Plan Recommendation, Leaf, Incorporated, Saturn presentation, and USAREC oral presentation.
Subseries 17.4, Potential Clients, 1993, includes grouping has a questionnaire sent to Ayer by a potential client. Questionnaire response for Prudential Securities, 1993 Prudential Securities advertising account review, 1993.
Subseries 17.5, Financial Records, 1929-1938, includes balance sheet, 1929 May 1 Balance sheet and adjustments Consolidated statement of assets and liabilities, Expenses 191936-37 Business review and expenses, 1937 and 1938 Business review and expenses comparative statement, 1937 and 1938.
Series 18, Legal Records, circa 1911-1982, Ayer's legal records are arranged by twelve subject groupings within four boxes. The twelve groupings are advertising service agreements (circa 1918-1982), bylaws, copyright claims, correspondences, international correspondences, dissolution of trusts, stock information, agreements between partners, incorporation materials, reduction of capital, property information and miscellaneous materials. The bulk of the materials are the advertising service agreements. These agreements are between Ayer and their clients and state the services Ayer will offer and at what cost. The bylaws are Ayer's company bylaws from 1969 and 1972. The copyright claims are certificates stating Ayer's ownership over certain published materials (i.e. "Policy", Media Equalizer Model, and Don Newman's Washington Square Experiment). The correspondences relate to either the voting trust and receipts for agreement or the New York Corporation. The international correspondences are from either Ayer's Canadian office or London office. The dissolutions of trusts contains materials about the dividend trust of Wilfred F. Fry, the investment trust of Winfred W. Fry, the voting trust, and the New York corporation. The stock information has stock certificates and capital stock information. The agreements between partners (1911-1916) specify the terms between F.W. Ayer and his partners. The incorporation materials (circa 1929-1977) deal with Ayer advertising agency becoming incorporated in the state of Delaware. The reduction of capital grouping is a notification that shares of stock have been retired. The property information grouping contains property deeds and insurance policy (circa 1921-1939), a property appraisal (1934), and a bill of sale (1948). The miscellaneous grouping contains a house memo regarding a set of board meeting minutes and a registry of foreign companies in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1929-1954).
Subseries 18.1, Advertising Service Agreements, 1918-1982
Subseries 18.2, Bylaw Materials, 1969-1972
Subseries 18.3, Copyright Claims, 1962-1969
Subseries 18.4, Correspondence, 1928-1933
Subseries 18.5, International Office Correspondence, 1947-1948
Subseries 18.6, Dissolution of Trusts, 1934-1937
Subseries 18.7, Stock Information, 1934-1974
Subseries 18.8, Agreements between Partners, 1911-1916
Series 19, Personnel Records, circa 1889-2001, are arranged into eight groupings within eight boxes. The groupings are employee card files, photographs, Ayer alumni, biographies, speeches, recollections, oral histories, and miscellaneous. Typed manuscript of book A Copy Writer Speaks by George Cecil, NW Ayer, Incorporated copy head 1920s-1950s
Subseries 19.1, Employee card files, circa 1892-1915; 1929-1963, consists of index cards with the name, age, job title, date and wage increases, date of hire/fire, as well as remarks about the employee's service and/or reasons for seeking or leaving the job. Materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the employee within three boxes.
Subseries 19.2, Photographs, circa 1924-1984, undated, are housed in two boxes. The photographs grouped together by subjects i.e. personnel, company events, Ayer buildings, and miscellaneous. This grouping primarily consists of personnel photographs. Includes a glass plate negative dated 1924 of NW Ayer.
Subseries 19.3, Ayer Alumni, circa 1989-98, include employees who have left Ayer. There is a listing of Ayer "graduates" and their current job. Emeritus, Ayer's alumni newsletter 1989-1996, makes up the majority of materials in this grouping. The newsletter keeps the alumni up to date with the happenings of Ayer and what has become of former Ayer employees. Emeritus is a quarterly newsletter devoted to the activities, thoughts and feelings of Ayer alumni a body of people who consists of retirees and former employees.
Subseries 19.4, Biographical Information, circa 1889-1994, undated, prominent members of Ayer's operations had biographical sketches completed of them. This was true for the bio sketches of Robert Ervin, Louis T. Hagopian, and George A. Rink. There is a substantial file on Dorothy Dignam ("Mis Dig"), a leading woman in the advertising world from the 1930s to the 1950s. Also of interest is a video ("The Siano Man") compiled by Ayer employees to commemorate Jerry Siano's retirement from Ayer in 1994. The series is arranged alphabetically by last name.
Subseries 19.5, Speeches, circa 1919-1931; 1975, contains speeches made by Wilfred W. Fry and Neal W. O'Connor. Wilfred W. Fry had various speaking engagements connected with Ayer. Contained in this group is a sampling of his speeches from 1919 to 1931. Neal O'Connor's speech "Advertising: Who Says It's a Young People's Business" was given at the Central Region Convention for the American Association of Advertising Agencies in Chicago on November 6, 1975. The speeches are arranged alphabetically by the speaker's last name.
Subseries 19.6, Recollections, 1954-1984, undated, are arranged alphabetically by last name. These are recollections from Ayer employees about the company and its advertisements. Some recollections are specifically about certain types of advertisements, like farm equipment while others reflect on F. W. Ayer and the company.
Subseries 19.7, Oral History Interview Transcripts, 1983-1985; 1989-1991, include interviews with key NW Ayer personnel, conducted by Ayer alumnae Howard Davis, Brad Lynch and Don Sholl (Vice President creative) for the Oral History Program. The materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.
Subseries 19.8, Oral History Interview Audio Tapes, 1985-1990, include interviews on audiotape the materials are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee.
Subseries 19.9, Internal Communications, 1993-1999, includes information sent to employees relating to retirements, management changes, awards won by the company, promotions, potential new accounts, free items, grand opening of Ayer Café, donation events, sponsorship programs, holiday schedules, discounts for employees from clients, Ayer joins MacManus Group.
Subseries 19.10, General Materials, 1940; 1970, includes agency directory entry including a list of the employees, 1970s, annual banquet program for the Curfew Club May 22, 1940 a group formed by the Philadelphia employee in 1938. It sponsored numerous sports, social and educational activities. Groups were formed in public speaking, music appreciation and a series of talks on Monday evenings title the modern woman. The front page was a series of talks for general interest. A list of officers, 1991, Twenty five year club membership, 1973 December 1, List of NW Ayer graduates, 1970, List of Officers, 1991 May 31, Obituary for Leo Lionni, 1999 October 17, List of photographers of advertisements, 2001
Series 20, Background and History Information, 1817-1999, undated includes a chronology, 1817-1990, quick reference timeline, 1848-1923, loose pages from a scrapbook containing examples of correspondence, envelopes, advertisements dating from 1875-1878; slogans coined by NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1899-1990, history of management, 1909-1923, articles and photographs about the building and art galleries, 1926-1976, publications about the Philadelphia building, 1929, pamphlet relating to memories of NW Ayer & Sons, Incorporated, 1930s-1950s, television history, 1940-1948, Article about the history of the company, 1950 January, pocket guide, 1982, AdWeek reports about standings for advertising agencies, information relating to Human Contact which is NW Ayer's Information relating to Human Contact, undated which is their philosophy on advertising.
Series 21, Materials Created by other Advertising Agencies, 1945-1978, undated, consists of print advertisements collected by Ayer from other major advertising companies. The companies include Doyle Dane Bernback, Incorporated, Leo Burnett Company, Grey Advertising Agency, D'Arcy Ad Agency, Scali, McCabe, Sloves, Incorporated and Erwin Wasey Company. The materials are arranged in alphabetical order by client and include products from Ralston Purina and Van Camp (Chicken of the Sea), Kellogg, American Export Lines and No Nonsense Fashions.
Series 22, 2010 Addendum of Print Advertisements, circa 1879s-1999, undated, includes material given to the Archives Center in 2010. It is organized into seventy one oversized boxes and contains proofsheets of print advertisements for select Ayer clients. These are arranged alphabetically by client name and include substantial quantities of materials from American Telephone &Telegraph (1945-1996), Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (1967-1987), Carrier (1971-1981), Citibank (1973-1991), DeBeers (1940s-1960s and1990s), Electric Companies Advertising Program [ECAP] (1942-1970s), General Motors (1989-1998), J.C. Penney (1983-1986), Newsweek (1966-1975), and Proctor and Gamble (1980s-1890s). There are also numerous other clients represented by smaller quantities of materials.
Subseries 22.2, Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated, include Cannon towels, Cheny Brothers silks, Cornish & Company organs and pianos, Enterprise Manufacturing Company, 1879 sad iron, an ad from Harper's Weekly 1881 for ladies clothing, Ostermoor & Company mattresses, Pear's soap, Porter's cough balsam, Steinway pianos.
Series 23, Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985, consists of three boxes of printed advertisements for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Some of the same advertisements might also be found in series two, three and four.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into twenty-three series.
Series 1: Scrapbooks of Client Print Advertisements, circa 1870-1920
Series 2: Proofsheets, circa 1870-1930
Series 3: Proofsheets, circa 1920-1975
Series 4: 2001 Addendum, circa 1976-2001
Series 5: Billboards, circa 1952-1956
Series 6: Audiovisual Materials
Series 7: Radio and Television Materials, 1933-1993, undated
Series 8: Chicago Office Print Advertisements, 1954-1989
Series 9: Los Angeles Office Materials, 1950s-1987
Subseries 9.1: Printed Advertisements, 1977-1987
Subseries 9.2: Personnel Files, 1950s-1970s
Series 10: Foreign Print Advertisements, 1977-1991, undated
Series 11: Cunningham & Walsh Incorporated Materials, 1915-1987, undated
Subseries 11.1: Printed Advertisements, 1915-1987
Subseries 11.2: Radio and Television Advertisements, 1963-1967
Subseries 11.3: Company Related Materials, 1962-1986, undated
Series 12: Hixson & Jorgensen Materials, 1953-1971, undated
Series 13: Newell-Emmet, 1942-1957
Series 14: House Print Advertisements, 1870-1991
Series 15: Scrapbooks, 1872-1959
Series 16: Publications, 1849-2006
Subseries 16.1: House Publications, 1876-1994
Subseries 16.2: Publications about NW Ayer, 1949-1995
Subseries 16.3: General Publications about Advertising, 1922-2006
Subseries 16.4: Publications about other Subjects, 1948-1964
Series 17, Business Records, circa 1885-1990s
Subseries 17.1: Contracts, 1885-1908, undated
Subseries 17.2: General Client Information, 1911-1999, undated
Subseries 22.2: Print Advertisements on Glass Plate Negatives, 1879-1881, undated
Series 23: Microfilm of Print Advertisements, circa 1908-1985
Biographical / Historical:
Founded in Philadelphia in 1869, NW Ayer & Son is one of the oldest and largest advertising agencies in America. For most of its history, it was the undisputed leader and innovator in the field of advertising. In 1876, NW Ayer & Son pioneered the "open contract", a revolutionary change in the method of billing for advertising which became the industry standard for the next hundred years. NW Ayer pioneered the use of fine art in advertising and established the industry's first art department. It was the first agency to use a full-time copywriter and the first to institute a copy department. The agency relocated to New York City in 1974. During its long history, the agency's clients included many "blue-chip" clients, including American Telephone & Telegraph, DeBeers Consolidated Diamond Mines, Ford Motor Company, Nabisco, R. J. Reynolds and United Airlines. However, in later years, the Ayer's inherent conservatism left the agency vulnerable to the creative revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the advertising industry restructuring of the 1980s and the economic recession of the early 1990s. The agency was bought out by a Korean investor in 1993. In 1996, NW Ayer merged with another struggling top twenty United States advertising agency, Darcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, under the umbrella of the McManus Group. Ayer continues to operate as a separate, full-service agency.
Through a series of buyouts and mergers, Ayer traces its lineage to the first advertising agency founded in the United States, a Philadelphia agency begun by Volney Palmer in 1841. Palmer began his career in advertising as a newspaper agent, acting as middleman between newspaper publishers and advertisers across the country. By 1849, Palmer had founded his own newspaper, V. B. Palmer's Register and Spirit of the Press, and had developed a complete system of advertising which included securing advertising space and placing ads in scores of commercial, political, religious, scientific and agricultural journals across the country. Palmer went one step further than the "space jobbers" of the day when he began offering "advertisements carefully drawn for those who have not the time to prepare an original copy." Always an enthusiastic promoter of advertising as an incentive to trade and American economic growth, Palmer promised advertisers that "every dollar paid for advertising in country newspapers will pay back twenty-fold" and encouraged skeptical consumers that "he who wishes to buy cheap should buy of those who advertise." When Palmer died in 1863, the agency was bought by his bookkeeper, John Joy, who joined with another Philadelphia advertising agency to form Joy, Coe & Sharpe. That agency was bought out again in 1868 and renamed Coe, Wetherill & Company. In 1877, Coe, Wetherill and Company was bought out by the newly formed NW Ayer & Son.
Francis Wayland Ayer was an ambitious young schoolteacher with an entrepreneurial streak. Having worked for a year soliciting advertisements on a commission basis for the publisher of the National Baptist weekly, Francis Ayer saw the potential to turn a profit as an advertising agent. In 1869, Ayer persuaded his father, Nathan Wheeler Ayer, to join him in business, and with an initial investment of only $250.00, NW Ayer & Son was born. Notwithstanding a smallpox epidemic in Philadelphia in 1871 and the general economic depression of the early 1870s, the agency flourished. The senior Ayer died in 1873, leaving his interest in the agency to his wife, but Francis W. Ayer bought her out, consolidating his interest in the company's management. In 1877, with Coe, Wetherill & Company (the successor to Palmer's 1841 agency) on the verge of bankruptcy and heavily indebted to Ayer for advertising it had placed in Ayer publications, Ayer assumed ownership of that agency. Thus did NW Ayer lay claim to being the oldest advertising agency in the country.
Both Nathan Wheeler and Francis Wayland Ayer began their careers as schoolteachers, and one of their legacies was a commitment to the cause of education: correspondence schools and institutions of higher learning were historically well-represented among Ayer clients. Just after World War I, the agency was heralded as "co-founder of more schools than any citizen of this country" for its conspicuous efforts to advertise private schools. Well into the 1960s, an "Education Department" at Ayer prepared advertisements for over three hundred private schools, camps and colleges, representing almost half the regional and national advertising done for such institutions. In fact, to its clients Ayer presented advertising itself as being akin to a system of education. In 1886, Ayer began promoting the virtues of the Ayer way advertising with the slogan, "Keeping Everlastingly at It Brings Success."
The agency's goals were simple: "to make advertising pay the advertiser, to spend the advertiser's money as though it were our own, to develop, magnify and dignify advertising as a business." Initially, Ayer's fortunes were tied to newspapers, and the agency began to make a name for itself as compiler and publisher of a widely used American Newspaper Annual. During the first years, Ayer's singular goal was "to get business, place it [in newspapers] and get money for it"; after several years as an independent space broker, however, Francis Ayer resolved "not to be an order taker any longer." This decision led NW Ayer and Son to a change in its mode of conducting business which would revolutionize the advertising industry: in 1876, Ayer pioneered the "open contract" with Diggee & Conard, Philadelphia raised growers and agricultural suppliers. Prior to the open contract, NW Ayer & Sons and most agencies operated as "space-jobbers," independent wholesalers of advertising space, in which the opportunities for graft and corrupt practices were virtually unlimited. In contrast, the open contract, wherein the advertiser paid a fixed commission based on the volume of advertising placed, aligned the advertising agent firmly on the side of the advertiser and gave advertisers access to the actual rates charged by newspapers and religious journals. The open contract with a fixed commission has been hailed by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker as one of the "three great landmarks in advertising history." (The other two were Lasker's own development of "reason-why" advertising copy and J. Walter Thompson's pioneering of sex appeal in an advertisement for Woodbury's soap.) Although the transition to the open contract did not happen overnight, by 1884, nearly three-quarters of Ayer's advertising billings were on an open contract basis. Since Ayer was, by the 1890s, the largest agency in America, the switch to direct payment by advertisers had a significant impact on the advertising industry, as other agencies were forced to respond to Ayer's higher standard. Just as important, the open contract helped to establish N W Ayer's long-standing reputation for "clean ethics and fair dealing" -- a reputation the agency has guarded jealously for over a century.
The open contract also helped to establish Ayer as a full service advertising agency and to regularize the production of advertising in-house. From that point forward, Ayer routinely offered advice and service beyond the mere placement of advertisements. Ayer set another milestone for the industry in 1888, when Jarvis Wood was hired as the industry's first full-time copywriter. Wood was joined by a second full time copywriter four years later, and the Copy Department was formally established in 1900. The industry's first Art Department grew out of the Copy Department when Ayer hired its first commercial artist to assist with copy preparation in 1898; twelve years later Ayer became the first agency to offer the services of a full time art director, whose sole responsibility was the design and illustration of ads.
Ayer's leadership in the use of fine art in advertising has roots in this period, but achieved its highest expression under the guidance of legendary art director Charles Coiner. Coiner joined Ayer in 1924, after graduating from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Despite early resistance from some clients, Coiner was adamant that "the use of outstanding palette and original art forms bring a greater return in readership, in impact and prestige for the advertiser." To this end, Coiner marshaled the talents of notable painters, illustrators and photographers, including N.C. Wyeth and Rockwell Kent (Steinway), Georgia O'Keefe (Dole), Leo Lionni (DuPont), Edward Steichen (Steinway, Cannon Mills), Charles Sheeler (Ford), and Irving Penn (DeBeers). Coiner believed that there was a practical side to the use of fine art in advertising, and his success (and Ayer's) lay in the marriage of research and copywriting with fine art, an arrangement Coiner termed "art for business sake." Coiner's efforts won both awards and attention for a series completed in the 1950s for the Container Corporation of America. Titled "Great Ideas of Western Man" the campaign featured abstract and modern paintings and sculpture by leading U.S. and foreign artists, linked with Western philosophical writings in an early example of advertising designed primarily to bolster corporate image. In 1994, Charles Coiner was posthumously named to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Fame, the first full time art director ever chosen for that honor.
Coiner and fellow art director Paul Darrow also created legendary advertising with the "A Diamond Is Forever" campaign for DeBeers; ads featured the work of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and other modernist painters. The "A Diamond is Forever" tagline was written in 1949 by Frances Gerety, a woman copywriter at Ayer from 1943 to 1970. In 1999, Ad Age magazine cited "A Diamond is Forever" as the most memorable advertising slogan of the twentieth century.
Coiner also earned respect for his volunteer government service during World War II; he designed the armbands for civil defense volunteers and logos for the National Recovery Administration and Community Chest. As a founding member of the Advertising Council in 1945, Ayer has had a long-standing commitment to public service advertising. In the mid-1980s, Ayer became a leading force in the Reagan-era "War on Drugs". Lou Hagopian, Ayer's sixth CEO, brokered the establishment of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a media coalition which generated as much as a million dollars a day in donated advertising space and time to prevent the use and abuse of illegal drugs. Famous names appear among NW Ayer's clientele from the very earliest days of the agency. Retailer John Wanamaker, Jay Cooke and Company, and Montgomery Ward's mail-order business were among the first Ayer clients. The agency has represented at least twenty automobile manufacturers, including Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Plymouth, and Rolls-Royce. Other major, long-term clients through the years have included American Telephone & Telegraph, Canada Dry, Cannon Mills, Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Kellogg's, R. J. Reynolds, Steinway and Sons, United Airlines, and the United States Army. By the time of Ayer's hundredth anniversary in 1969, some of these companies had been Ayer clients for decades if not generations, and the longevity of those relationships was for many years a source of Ayer's strength.
But the advertising industry began to change in the late 1960s and 1970s, due in part to a "creative revolution." Small advertising agencies won attention with provocative copywriting and art direction that more closely resembled art than advertising. Advances in market research allowed clients to more narrowly tailor their advertising messages to distinct groups of consumers, and this led to a rise in targeted marketing which could more readily be doled out to specialized small agencies than to larger, established firms like NW Ayer & Son. The civil rights and anti-war movements also contributed to increasing public skepticism with the values of corporate America, and by extension, with some national advertising campaigns. Older, more conservative firms like Ayer were hard pressed to meet these new challenges.
About 1970, in an effort to meet these challenges and to establish a foothold on the West Coast, Ayer bought out two smaller agencies--Hixson & Jorgenson (Los Angeles) and Frederick E. Baker (Seattle). The agency relocated from Philadelphia to New York City in 1974 in an attempt both to consolidate operations (Ayer had operated a New York office since the 1920s) and to be closer to the historic center of the advertising industry. Riding the wave of mergers that characterized the advertising industry in the late 1980s and 1990s, Ayer continued to grow through the acquisition of Cunningham & Walsh in 1986 and Rink Wells in 19xx.
During this transitional period, Ayer received widespread acclaim for its work for the United States Army, which included the widely recognized slogan "Be All You Can Be". Ayer first acquired the Army recruitment account in 1967 and with help from its direct marketing arm, the agency was widely credited with helping the Army reach its recruitment goals despite an unpopular war and plummeting enlistments after the elimination of the draft in 1973. Ayer held the account for two decades, from the Vietnam War through the Cold War, but lost the account in 1986 amid government charges that an Ayer employee assigned to the account accepted kickbacks from a New York film production house. Despite Ayer's position as the country's 18th largest agency (with billings of $880 million in 1985), the loss of the agency's second largest account hit hard.
NW Ayer made up for the loss of the $100 million dollar a year Army account and made headlines for being on the winning end of the largest account switch in advertising history to date, when fast food giant Burger King moved its $200 million dollar advertising account from arch-rival J. Walter Thompson in 1987. Burger King must have had drive-thru service in mind, however, and Ayer made headlines again when it lost the account just eighteen months later in another record-breaking account switch. Another devastating blow to the agency was the loss of its lead position on the American Telegraph and Telephone account. Ayer pioneered telecommunications advertising in 1908, when the agency was selected to craft advertising for the Bell System's universal telephone service. Despite valiant efforts to keep an account the agency had held for most of the twentieth century, and for which they had written such memorable corporate slogans as American Telephone &Telegraph "The Voice with a Smile" and "Reach Out and Touch Someone", the agency lost the account in 1996.
After a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the late 1980s, the economic recession of the early 1990s hit Madison Avenue hard, and Ayer was particularly vulnerable. Despite the agency's long history and roster of "blue-chip" clients, Ayer was not known for cutting-edge creative work. Moreover, though the agency had offices overseas, Ayer had never built a strong multinational presence, and many of the smaller international offices were sold during the financial turmoil of the 1980s. This left a real void in the new climate of global marketplace consolidation. By about 1990, earnings were declining (although Ayer was still among the top twenty United States agencies in billings), and the agency was suffering from client defections, high management turnover, expensive real estate commitments and deferred executive compensation deals, all fallout of the high-flying 1980s. This was the atmosphere in 1993, when W.Y. Choi, a Korean investor who had already assembled a media and marketing empire in his homeland, began looking for an American partner to form an international advertising network. Jerry Siano, the former creative director who had recently been named Ayer's seventh CEO, was in no position to refuse Choi's offer of $35 million to buy the now floundering agency. The infusion of cash was no magic bullet, however. Choi took a wait-and-see approach, allowing his partner Richard Humphreys to make key decisions about Ayer's future, including the purging of senior executives and the installation of two new CEOs in as many years.
The agency's downward trend continued with the loss of another longtime client, the DeBeers diamond cartel in 1995. Adweek reported that Ayer's billings fell from $892 million in 1990 to less than $850 million in 1995. Several top executives defected abruptly, and the agency failed to attract major new accounts. Ayer was facing the loss not merely of revenue and personnel, but the loss of much of the respect it once commanded. Ayer remained among the twenty largest U.S. agencies, but an aura of uncertainty hung over the agency like a cloud. A new CEO was appointed, and Mary Lou Quinlan became the agency's first woman CEO in 1995. A year later, Ayer and another struggling top twenty agency, D'arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, combined as part of the McManus Group of companies. In 1998, the McManus Group had worldwide billings of more than $6.5 billion.
Under the McManus Group, Ayer was able to expand its international operations and begin to rebuild a stronger global presence. Several important new clients were won in 1997 and 1998, including Avon, General Motors, Kitchenaid, several Procter & Gamble brands and, most notably, Continental Airlines worldwide accounts. Born in the nineteenth century, Ayer may be one of a very few advertising agencies to successfully weather the economic and cultural transitions of both the twentieth and twentieth first centuries. Ayer was eventually acquired by the Publicis Groupe based in Paris, France which closed down the N.W. Ayer offices in 2002.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)
Hills Bros. Coffee Incorporated Records (AC0395)
Provenance:
The collection was donated by N W Ayer ABH International, April 15, 1975 and by Ayer & Partners, October 30, 1996.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Physical Access: Researchers must use microfilm copy. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Technical Access: Viewing the film portion of the collection without reference copies requires special appointment, please inquire; listening to audio discs requires special arrangement. Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: reproduction fees may apply. Publication and production quality duplication is restricted due to complex copyright, publicity rights, and right to privacy issues. All duplication requests must be reviewed and approved by Archives Center staff. Potential users must receive written permission from appropriate rights holders prior to obtaining high quality copies.
The records of New York City Kraushaar Galleries measure 91.9 linear feet and 0.181 GB and date from 1877 to 2006. Three-fourths of the collection documents the gallery's handling of contemporary American paintings, drawings, and sculpture through correspondence with artists, private collectors, museums, galleries, and other art institutions, interspersed with scattered exhibition catalogs and other materials. Also included are John F. Kraushaar's estate records; artists' files; financial ledgers documenting sales and gallery transactions; consignment and loan records; photographs of artwork; sketchbooks and drawings by James Penney, Louis Bouché, and others; and two scrapbooks.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of New York City Kraushaar Galleries measure 91.9 linear feet and 0.181 GB and date from 1877 to 2006. Three-fourths of the collection documents the gallery's handling of contemporary American paintings, drawings, and sculpture through correspondence with artists, private collectors, museums, galleries, and other art institutions, interspersed with scattered exhibition catalogs and other materials. Also included are John F. Kraushaar's estate records; artists' files; financial ledgers documenting sales and gallery transactions; consignment and loan records; photographs of artwork; sketchbooks and drawings by James Penney, Louis Bouché, and others; and two scrapbooks.
The collection reflects all activities conducted in the day-to-day administration of the business and relates to the acquisition, consignment, loan, sale, and exhibition of art by twentieth-century American artists and European artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The records document specific arrangements for loans and exhibitions, artist-dealer relations, relationships with public and private collectors, interaction with the art dealer community, and routine requests for information.
Much of the artist correspondence relates to practical arrangements for exhibitions of artwork, but in many cases also documents the development of individual artists and the effect of their relationship with the galleries on their ability to produce marketable work. Many of the artists represented in the collection also wrote lengthy letters, particularly to Antoinette Kraushaar, describing their attitudes to their work and providing insight into how that work was shaped by events in their personal lives.
The bulk of the correspondence with museums and institutions concerns practical arrangements for loans of artwork and provides detailed information about market prices and insurance values. It offers insight into the general climate of opinion toward particular artists and styles at any given time. Correspondence with other galleries and dealers also concerns loans and sales of artwork but, due to the typically cordial and cooperative nature of relations between the Kraushaars and their contemporaries, may also provide a more extensive and personal view of relationships and trends in the art dealer community. Similarly, while a portion of the correspondence with private collectors concerns routine requests for information and loans of art on approval, there is also substantive correspondence documenting the development of the artistic vision of collectors such as Preston Harrison, Elizabeth S. Navas, and Duncan Phillips.
From 1917 to the mid-1930s correspondence was handled mainly by John Kraushaar, and the bulk of that relating to European galleries and European art can be found during these years. Although there are only a handful of materials before 1926, records from the 1920s and 1930s document Kraushaar Galleries' growing commitment to American artists and the climate of the market for their work. The financial hardships of the Depression are vividly depicted in the numerous letters written during the 1930s seeking payment on accounts receivable and requesting extensions on accounts payable.
From the mid-1930s to 1968 correspondence was conducted primarily by Antoinette Kraushaar and, to some degree, by her assistants in later years. As the galleries' focus on American art increased, so did the volume of correspondence with artists, and the collection is particularly rich during the 1940s and early 1960s. In later years to 2006, most of the correspondence was conducted by Carol Pesner and gallery assistants.
The exhibition catalogs included in the collection do not represent a complete set. Those found are working copies used by the galleries in preparation for exhibitions and are often annotated with prices or insurance values. Additional exhibition catalogs can be found on the microfilm described in the Administrative Information section of this finding aid.
The majority of Kraushaar Galleries' insurance records can be found in files relating to the company Wm. E. Goodridge & Son, later known as Wm. E. Goodridge, Inc. Shipping and transportation records are generally filed under the names of the companies used for such transactions and can primarily be found under Davies, Turner & Co., Hudson Forwarding & Shipping Co., Railway Express Agency, Inc., and W. S. Budworth & Son, and to a lesser degree under American Railway Express Company, Arthur Lenars & Cie., C. B. Richard & Co., De La Rancheraye & Co., Hayes Storage, Packing & Removal Service, Inc., and Willis, Faber & Co. Ltd.
The 2008-2009 accretion includes additional correspondence similar in content and with correspondents as described above, as well as some artists' Christmas cards. However, the bulk of the additional correspondence dates from 1965-2006, with a handful of miscellaneous correspondence from 1877 to the mid-twentieth century. Also found are financial and business records including records from the closing of the John F. Kraushaar estate; over 40 ledgers providing nearly complete documentation of the gallery's sales and transactions from its establishment to 1946; incoming consignment records, including account statements and correspondence with artists, from the 1940s to 2006; and outgoing consignment and loan records from 1899-2006. The gallery's representation of its stable of artists is documented through artists' files containing printed and digital materials, exhibition catalogs and announcements, price lists, and biographical information, as well as containers of photographs and negatives of artwork. Also found is a 1933 sketchbook by James Penney, drawings and sketchbooks by Louis Bouché, and two scrapbooks.
See Appendix for a list of Kraushaar Galleries exhibitions
Arrangement:
Kraushaar Galleries generally filed all types of records together with correspondence in a combination of alphabetical and chronological files. Thus financial records, insurance records, receipts, photographs, and exhibition catalogs can be found interfiled with general correspondence in Series 1-3. A group of photographs of artwork maintained separately by Kraushaar Galleries constitutes Series 4. Series 6 was minimally processed separately from Series 1-5, and the arrangement reflects the original order of the addition for the most part.
Records in Series 1-3 were originally filed alphabetically by name of correspondent and then by month, by a span of several months, or by year. The alphabetical arrangement has been retained, but to facilitate access the collection was rearranged so that correspondence was collated by year. From 1901 to 1944 outgoing letters and incoming letters are filed separately; in 1945 some outgoing letters are filed separately, with the bulk of the material filed together as correspondence; from 1946 to 1968 incoming and outgoing letters are filed together as correspondence.
For Series 1-3 organizations or individuals represented by at least 15 letters are filed in separate file folders. All other correspondents are arranged in general files by letters of the alphabet, with selected correspondents and subjects noted in parentheses after the folder title.
Series 2 and several boxes in Series 3 contain a variety of notes and receipts received and created by Kraushaar Galleries that were originally unfoldered. The notes can be found in folders adjacent to the receipts and include handwritten notes of customer names and addresses, financial notes and calculations, catalogs of exhibitions, invitations and announcements to exhibitions frequently used as note paper, and other miscellany. Although most of the miscellaneous notes are undated, they are filed, with the receipts, at the end of the year to which they appear to relate. For the years 1929 and 1930 Kraushaar Galleries created separate alphabetical files for some of the billing statements received from other businesses. These have been filed adjacent to "Miscellaneous Notes" and "Receipts" in the appropriate years.
Kraushaar Galleries tended to file correspondence with businesses alphabetically according to the letter of the last name: for example, Wm. E. Goodridge & Son would be filed under G rather than W.
Series 1: Outgoing Letters, 1920-1945 (boxes 1-9; 9 linear ft.)
Series 2: Incoming Letters (boxes 10-26; 16.25 linear ft.)
Series 3: Correspondence, 1945-1968 (boxes 26-53; 27.75 linear ft.)
Series 4: Photographs, undated (box 54; 0.5 linear ft.)
Series 5: Artwork, [1926, 1938] (box 53; 2 items)
Series 6: Addition to the Kraushaar Galleries Records, 1877-2006 (boxes 55-99, BV100; 38.4 linear feet, ER01-ER02; 0.181 GB)
Historical Note:
Charles W. Kraushaar established Kraushaar Galleries in 1885 as a small store on Broadway near Thirty-first Street in New York City. Initially the store sold artist materials, photogravures, and reproductions. Drawing on his previous experience working with William Schause, a leading dealer in European paintings, Kraushaar soon progressed to selling original watercolors, paintings, and engravings by European artists, primarily landscapes of the Barbizon School.
In 1901 Kraushaar moved the business to 260 Fifth Avenue and with the assistance of his brother, John F. Kraushaar, began adding more modern French and American painters to the inventory. Of particular interest to John Kraushaar was the group of American realists known as "The Eight," who had held a self-selected, self-organized exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908. The Eight were Arthur B. Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan. Luks, whom John Kraushaar met around 1902, was probably the first major American artist represented at Kraushaar Galleries. In 1917 John Sloan was invited to hold his first one-person show at the galleries despite accusations that his exhibition at the Whitney Studio the previous year had represented a brutal depiction of life that lacked subtlety and sensitivity.
When Charles Kraushaar died suddenly in 1917, John assumed control of the galleries and soon enlisted the assistance of his daughter, Antoinette Kraushaar. Antoinette had suffered a bout of pneumonia during the influenza epidemic of 1918 that cut short her education; grooming her for a career in the galleries was a logical step. Following the end of the First World War, Kraushaar resumed his buying trips to Europe, often accompanied by Antoinette, and exhibited works by European artists such as André Derain, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent Van Gogh. However, it was the increasing commitment to contemporary American artists for which the galleries would become best known. In addition to The Eight, the Kraushaars developed their inventory of American paintings and etchings with exhibitions of work by artists such as Gifford Beal, Charles Demuth, Guy Pène Du Bois, Gaston Lachaise, Jerome Myers, Charles Prendergast, and Henry Schnakenberg.
Returning from a buying trip to Europe in 1929, John Kraushaar wrote to California collector Preston Harrision on July 26 that "the prices over there, especially for modern pictures are astounding." Nevertheless, Kraushaar believed that investing in modern art would yield benefits within the next five years, and he refused to be influenced by museums and critics outside of New York who were reluctant to agree. He exhibited a healthy disrespect for museum directors in general, whom he referred to in his letters to Harrision as "dead heads" who ought to be sent to different art centers of the world in order to "get in touch with what is going on there" (March 11, 1929).
Like most of its contemporaries, Kraushaar Galleries suffered considerably during the Depression of the 1930s and struggled to collect and, in turn, pay accounts due. On October 5, 1931, John Kraushaar confessed to H. S. Southam, "Business is very bad with us, and I know that you will treat it confidentially when I tell you that I have had to sacrifice a good part of my personal holdings to provide cash for my own business." By 1934 the rent on the galleries' current location at 680 Fifth Avenue, where Kraushaar had moved in 1919, was out of all proportion to the amount of business that was being generated. In 1936, a timely move to 730 Fifth Avenue allowed the family to effect substantial economies without a disproportionate loss of business.
During the 1930s, John Kraushaar's health began to fail, and he was frequently absent from the galleries. Consequently, Antoinette Kraushaar took on greater responsibility for the operation of the business with the assistance of her brother Charles. Although Antoinette was one of few women to hold such a prominent position in the art business at that time, there is no evidence in the records to suggest that artists or customers who had been accustomed to dealing with John Kraushaar had any difficulty accepting the transition in management from father to daughter.
Nevertheless, collecting accounts remained difficult, and although business had improved by 1938 it was now stymied by the threat of war in Europe. The warmth of relations between the Kraushaars and the artists they handled, and their colleagues, was crucial to Antoinette during these years. She repeatedly expressed her gratitude for their understanding and assistance in her letters as she struggled to meet financial obligations and operate the business in her father's absence, experimenting with different strategies as she evolved an approach that would sustain the business. In a letter to Gifford Beal dated August 6, 1941, she spoke of "hellish times" and stressed, "I have learned a great many things during the past few years and hope that we are groping our way towards a working solution of our own affairs at least."
While there is no question that Antoinette Kraushaar shared her father's genuine interest in contemporary American artists, the growing commitment to these artists that was forged during these years was driven in large part by necessity. By increasing her stock of American art and adding "younger painters of promise," she was able to sell work in a much broader price range. Consequently she could reach a wider audience and increase the likelihood that the business would remain solvent. This method of business also suited her personality far more than having a very specialized inventory of highly priced work, an approach that she confessed to J. Lionberger Davis on December 3, 1940, "requires a particular kind of temperament, and frankly I neither like it nor believe in it."
Throughout her career Antoinette imbued the business with her personal style. She understood that elitism alienated art buyers of moderate income, who constituted her bread and butter, and believed strongly that the gallery environment should not be intimidating to potential customers. She corresponded at length with old and new clients alike, patiently offering advice when asked and maintaining liberal policies for those who wished to borrow artwork on approval. She also participated in events that promoted efforts to make art available to a wider audience, such as a 1951 exhibition and seminar at the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center that addressed problems of buying and selling art. She was a two-time board member of the Art Dealers Association of America and considered the organization to be an important source of support for the gallery community.
In her dealings with other commercial galleries and art institutions, Antoinette Kraushaar exhibited a strong spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm, consistently lending art to small, locally owned businesses and community organizations as well as to more established galleries and world-class museums. She also developed long and mutually beneficial associations with the art departments of many educational institutions across the country, which proved to be fertile ground for young and upcoming artists.
Antoinette Kraushaar exhibited the same honesty and fairness in dealing with artists as her father had, expressing her opinions of their work in a forthright manner and maintaining a policy of always looking at the work of any artist who came to her. She understood the inherent difficulties of dealing with living artists but relished the excitement of encouraging their work and watching them develop. On November 14, 1947, in reply to a letter from the artist Bernard Arnest, in which Arnest apologized for burdening her with his worries, she reminded him, "One of the functions of a dealer is to act as a safety valve. Didn't you know?"
Although she would not retain artists indefinitely if she felt their work had deteriorated in quality, Antoinette often stressed that she was prepared to accept little or no initial financial return on the work of artists who showed promise or whose work held a particular appeal for her. In a letter of December 30, 1940, she reassured Walt Dehner that the lack of sales from his recent exhibition would not lead her to withdraw his work from the galleries. In typically unassuming style she advised Dehner to "go on painting whatever interests you. We have found that there is no recipe for success, either artistic or material."
In the early 1940s Antoinette Kraushaar implemented two changes to her inventory. Sensing that interest in sculpture was growing, she rearranged the space to give that medium more room and attention. The market for etchings had been declining since the late 1930s, and as she reduced this part of her inventory she also acted on her personal passion for drawings by opening a small gallery devoted to contemporary American drawings that were priced well within the range of most customers.
By the time Kraushaar Galleries moved to 32 East Fifty-seventh Street, late in 1944, American art had become the main focus of the business. While the long-standing interest in The Eight and other artists of that period continued, the galleries also handled contemporaries such as Louis Bouché, Samuel Brecher, John Heliker, Andrée Ruellan, and Karl Schrag. When John Kraushaar died in December 1946, Antoinette and Charles legally assumed control of the business. This partnership continued until 1950, when Antoinette assumed sole ownership of the gallery.
In 1955 the galleries moved uptown to smaller quarters at 1055 Madison Avenue, and Antoinette Kraushaar gave up the greater part of her print business. She was inundated with requests from artists to be allowed a chance to show her their work, and the galleries' exhibition schedule was always full. Contemporary artists she now represented included Bernard Arnest, Peggy Bacon, Russell Cowles, Kenneth Evett, William Dean Fausett, William Kienbusch, Joe Lasker, and George Rickey, and she continued to exhibit artwork by Charles Demuth, William Glackens, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Boardman Robinson, and John Sloan.
By the late 1950s the artists of the generation that her father had promoted in the early part of the century had died, but Antoinette Kraushaar had the pleasure of seeing his faith in them come to fruition. In a letter to Ralph Wilson dated October 20, 1958, she stated with satisfaction, "The Boston Museum is taking (at long last) a deep interest in (Maurice) Prendergast, and they will probably do an important show within the next year." Her correspondence with William Glackens's son Ira in the 1960s reveals the extent to which Glackens's popularity had grown since his death in 1938, and the market for John Sloan's work had been increasing steadily since the late 1920s. In 1962 James Penney summed up Kraushaar Galleries' success in the foreword of a catalog for an exhibition of paintings and sculpture the galleries had organized with the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute at Hamilton College:
1854 -- Charles W. Kraushaar born
1871 -- John F. Kraushaar born
1885 -- Kraushaar Galleries established on Broadway near Thirty-first Street
1901 -- Galleries moved to 260 Fifth Avenue
1902 -- Antoinette Kraushaar born
1917 -- Charles W. Kraushaar died; John Kraushaar assumed control of the business, increasing inventory of modern American and European artists; first John Sloan exhibition
1919 -- Galleries moved to 680 Fifth Avenue
[1920] -- Antoinette Kraushaar began assisting with the business
1924 -- Maurice Prendergast died
1936 -- Galleries moved to the Heckscher Building at 730 Fifth Avenue
1938 -- William J. Glackens died
1944 -- Galleries moved to the Rolls Royce Building at 32 East Fifty-seventh Street; American art now the main focus of the business
1946 -- John Kraushaar died; Antoinette and Charles Kraushaar assumed control of the business
1948 -- Charles Prendergast died
1950 -- Antoinette Kraushaar assumed sole ownership of Kraushaar Galleries
1951 -- John Sloan died
1955 -- Galleries moved to 1055 Madison Avenue
1959 -- Carole Pesner joined Kraushaar Galleries
1964 -- Galleries extended into adjacent building
1981 -- Galleries moved to 724 Fifth Avenue
1986 -- Katherine Kaplan joined Kraushaar Galleries
1988 -- Antoinette Kraushaar retired from day-to-day management of the business
1992 -- Antoinette Kraushaar died
Appendix: List of Kraushaar Galleries Exhibitions:
The Archives of American Art does not hold a complete collection of catalogs from exhibitions held at Kraushaar Galleries; therefore the dates and titles of exhibitions provided in this appendix are inferred from a variety of sources including correspondence, notes, artists' files, and requests for advertising. Italics indicate that the exact title of an exhibition is known.
Jan., 1912 -- Paintings by Gustave Courbet and Henri Fantin-Latour
Apr., 1912 -- Paintings by Frank Brangwyn and Henri Le Sidaner
Jan., 1913 -- Paintings by Ignacio Zuloaga
May, 1913 -- Etchings by Seymour Haden
June, 1913 -- Paintings and Lithographs by Henri Fantin-Latour
Oct., 1913 -- Etchings by Frank Brangwyn
Jan., 1914 -- Ignacio Zuloaga
Mar., 1914 -- Paintings by Alphonse Legros
Apr., 1914 -- George Luks
May, 1914 -- Seven Modern Masterpieces including Gustave Courbet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Alphonse Legros, Matthew Maris, and James McNeill Whistler
undated, 1915 -- Paintings by John Lavery
Jan.-Feb., 1917 -- James McNeill Whistler's White Girl
Feb.-Mar., 1917 -- Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar.-Apr., 1917 -- Paintings and Etchings by John Sloan
Summer, 1917 -- Works by French artists including A. L. Bouche, Josef Israels, Gaston La Touche, and Alphonse Legros
Oct., 1917 -- Monoprints by Salvatore Antonio Guarino
Nov., 1917 -- Etchings and Mezzotints by Albany E. Howarth
Jan., 1918 -- Recent Paintings by John Lavery
Jan.-Feb., 1918 -- Paintings and Watercolors by George Luks
Feb.-Mar., 1918 -- Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1918 -- Paintings by John Sloan
Apr.-May, 1918 -- Paintings by A. L. Bouche
May, 1918 -- War Paintings by J. Mortimer Block, Charles S. Chapman, Guy Pène Du Bois, H. B. Fuller, George Luks, W. Ritschell, John Sloan, and Augustus Vincent Tack
Oct., 1918 -- Oil Paintings by William Scott Pyle
Nov., 1918 -- Paintings by Gustave Courbet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Alphonse Legros, Edouard Manet, Antoine Vollon, James McNeill Whistler, and Ignacio Zuloaga, and bronzes by Antoine Louis Bayre, Emile Antoine Bourdelle, and Mahonri Young
Apr., 1919 -- Paintings and Monoprints by Salvatore Anthonio Guarino
Jan.-Feb., 1919 -- Decorative Panels and Other Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1919 -- Paintings and Drawings by John Sloan
May, 1919 -- Paintings by George Luks, Monticelli, and A. P. Ryder
Sept., 1919 -- Work by Jean Louis Forain
Oct., 1919 -- Etchings and Lithographs by Alphonse Legros
Jan., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by George Luks
Feb., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by John Sloan
Feb., 1920 -- Paintings by William Scott Pyle
Mar., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by Gifford Beal
Apr., 1920 -- Recent Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Apr., 1920 -- Paintings by Henri Le Sidaner
Apr., 1920 -- Paintings and Drawings by Jean Louis Forain
Apr.-May, 1920 -- Paintings and Drawings by Jerome Myers
May, 1920 -- Paintings by Henrietta M. Shore
Jan., 1921 -- Paintings by French and American Artists
Jan.-Feb., 1921 -- Paintings by George Luks
Feb., 1921 -- New Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Apr., 1921 -- John Sloan Retrospective
Summer, 1921 -- French and American Artists
Oct., 1921 -- Paintings of Mountford Coolidge
Oct., 1921 -- Works by Henri Fantin-Latour and Henri Le Sidaner
Nov., 1921 -- Frank Van Vleet Tompkins
Dec., 1921 -- Paintings and Bronzes by Modern Masters of American and European Art
Jan., 1922 -- Exhibition of Recent Paintings and Watercolors by George Luks
Feb., 1922 -- Paintings by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1922 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Gifford Beal
Apr., 1922 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Summer, 1922 -- Paintings by Modern Masters of American and European Art
Oct., 1922 -- Recent Paintings of the Maine Coast by George Luks
Jan., 1923 -- Exhibition of Paintings by George Luks
Feb., 1923 -- Paintings and Decorative Panels by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1923 -- Landscapes by Will Shuster
Mar., 1923 -- Paintings by Samuel Halpert
Apr., 1923 -- Marine Figures and Landscapes by Gifford Beal
Apr.-May, 1923 -- Paintings by John Sloan
May, 1923 -- Paintings by Frank Van Vleet Tompkins
June, 1923 -- Etchings by Marius A. J. Bauer
Oct., 1923 -- American Watercolors by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, and William Zorach
Dec., 1923 -- Etchings and Lithographs by Alphonse Legros
Dec., 1923 -- Paintings, Drawings, and Pastels by Charles Adolphe Bischoff
Jan., 1924 -- Paintings by Celebrated American Artists
Mar., 1924 -- Paintings and Drawings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Apr., 1924 -- New Paintings by George Luks
May, 1924 -- Paintings by Marjorie Phillips
Summer, 1924 -- French and American Modern Artists
Oct., 1924 -- Painting, Watercolors, and Sculpture by William Zorach
Nov., 1924 -- Watercolors by Seven Americans
Dec., 1924 -- French Paintings
Jan., 1925 -- Paintings by John Sloan
Jan.-Feb., 1925 -- Maurice Prendergast Memorial Exhibition
Mar., 1925 -- Plans and Photographs of Work in Landscape Architecture by Charles Downing Lay
Apr., 1925 -- Paintings by William J. Glackens
Dec., 1925 -- Watercolors by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Carl Broemel, Richard Lahey Jerome Myers, Maurice Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, Abraham Walkowitz, and William Zorach
undated, 1926 -- Lower Broadway by W. Walcot
Feb., 1926 -- Paintings by Paul Burlin
Feb., 1926 -- Portraits of Duncan Phillips, Esq. Charles B. Rogers, Esq. & The Hon. Elihu Root Painted by Augustus Vincent Tack
Mar., 1926 -- Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings by Gifford Beal
Apr., 1926 -- John Sloan
Sept.-Oct., 1926 -- Exhibition of Etchings by C. R. W. Nevinson
Oct., 1926 -- Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by Nineteenth-Century French Artists
Oct., 1926 -- Paintings and Drawings by Mathieu Verdilhan
Dec., 1926 -- Exhibition of Watercolors by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Carl Broemel, Guy Pène Du Bois, Ernest Fiene, Samuel Halpert, Henry Keller, Louis Kronberg, Richard Lahey, Charles Lay, Jerome Myers, Maurice Prendergast, Henry
Dec., 1926 -- Schnakenberg, A. Walkowitz, Martha Walters, William Zorach
Jan., 1927 -- French Drawings and Prints
Feb., 1927 -- Paintings, Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by John Sloan
Mar., 1927 -- Gifford Beal
Mar.-Apr., 1927 -- Decorative Panels and Watercolors by Margarett Sargent
Mar.-Apr., 1927 -- Exhibition of Drawings and Lithographs of New York by Adriaan Lubbers
Apr., 1927 -- Paintings and Etchings by Walter Pach
Apr.-May, 1927 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Leopold Survage
Apr.-May, 1927 -- Etchings and Woodcuts by D. Galanis
May, 1927 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Summer, 1927 -- Paintings by American Artists
Summer, 1927 -- Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings by Georges Braque, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, André Derain, Henri Fantin-Latour, Jean Louis Forain, Constantin Guys, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Morissot, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Odilon Redon, Segonzac, and Georges Seurat
Oct.-Nov., 1927 -- Exhibition of Etchings in Color by Bernard Boutet de Monvel
Nov., 1927 -- Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs, and Watercolors by Ernest Fiene
Dec., 1927 -- Watercolors by American Artists including Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Carl Broemel, Charles Demuth, Guy Pène Du Bois, Ernest Fiene, Henry G. Keller, Richard Lahey, Charles Downing Lay, Howard Ashman Patterson, [Maurice] Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, Abraham Walkowitz, Frank Nelson Wilcox, and [William] Zorach
Dec., 1927 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Dec., 1927 -- Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Media by George Biddle
Jan.-Feb., 1928 -- Paintings by S. J. Peploe
Feb., 1928 -- Drawings by Henri Fantin-Latour
Feb., 1928 -- Pastels and Drawings by Margarett Sargent
Feb., 1928 -- Drawings for Balzac's Les Contes Drolatiques by Ralph Barton
Feb.-Mar., 1928 -- Sculpture by William Zorach
Mar., 1928 -- Recent Paintings by Marjorie Phillips
Mar.-Apr., 1928 -- Exhibition of Paintings by William Glackens
Apr., 1928 -- Paintings, Drawings and Lithographs by R. H. Sauter of London, England
Oct., 1928 -- Modern French Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1928 -- Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by Richard Lahey
Nov., 1928 -- Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by J. D. Fergusson
Nov.-Dec., 1928 -- Paintings, Drawings and Etchings by Walter Pach
Dec., 1928 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Abraham Walkowitz
Jan., 1929 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Margarett Sargent
Jan., 1929 -- Watercolors by Rodin
Jan.-Feb., 1929 -- Exhibition of Sculpture by Arnold Geissbuhler
Feb., 1929 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Guy Pène Du Bois
Feb.-Mar., 1929 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Mar., 1929 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Adriaan Lubbers
Mar.-Apr., 1929 -- Exhibition of Etchings by Gifford Beal, Frank W. Benson, Childe Hassam, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan
Apr., 1929 -- Exhibition of Paintings by Arnold Friedman
Apr., 1929 -- Sculpture by Harriette G. Miller
May, 1929 -- Paintings by Howard Ashman Patterson
May, 1929 -- Paintings by William Meyerowitz
Oct., 1929 -- Exhibition of Modern French Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings
Nov., 1929 -- Modern French and American Paintings, Watercolors, Prints, and Sculpture (at Gage Galleries in Cleveland)
Jan., 1930 -- Paintings by Paul Bartlett
Feb., 1930 -- Watercolors by Auguste Rodin
Feb.-Mar., 1930 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Summer, 1930 -- Paintings by American Artists
Oct., 1930 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Maurice Prendergast
Nov., 1930 -- Paintings by Ruth Jonas
Nov., 1930 -- Sculpture by Harriette G. Miller
Jan., 1931 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Richard Lahey
Jan.-Feb., 1931 -- Paintings by Erle Loran Johnson
Feb.-Mar., 1931 -- Paintings, Watercolors and Etchings by Gifford Beal
Mar., 1931 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Walter Pach
Mar.-Apr., 1931 -- Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings by Rudolf H. Sauter
May, 1931 -- Exhibition of Watercolors by John La Farge, Gifford Beal, H. E. Schnakenberg, Maurice Prendergast, Guy Pène Du Bois, Richard Lahey
Fall, 1931 -- Modern French Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings
Dec., 1931 -- Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolors by D. Y. Cameron, Joseph Gray, Henry Rushbury, Muirhead Bone, Edmund Blampied, Gwen John
Dec., 1931 -- Lithographs and Posters by H. de Toulouse-Lautrec
Jan., 1932 -- Watercolors by Pierre Brissaud
Feb., 1932 -- Paintings and Drawings by A. S. Baylinson
Mar., 1932 -- Watercolors and Pastels by French and American Artists
Apr., 1932 -- Paintings by Nan Watson
May, 1932 -- Sculpture by Behn, Bourdelle, Geissbuhler, Lachaise, Maillol, Miller, Nadelman, Renoir, Young, Zorach; Decorative Panels by Max Kuehne, and Charles Prendergast
June-Aug., 1932 -- Paintings and Watercolors by American Artists
Oct.-Nov., 1932 -- Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings by Various Artists
Jan., 1933 -- Paintings by Paul Bartlett
Jan.-Feb., 1933 -- Lithographs by Henri Fantin-Latour
Feb., 1933 -- Etchings of Dogs by Bert Cobb
Feb.-Mar., 1933 -- Paintings by American Artists
Feb.-Apr., 1933 -- Paintings by Contemporary Americans
Apr., 1933 -- Paintings by Maurice Prendergast
Oct., 1933 -- Exhibition of French Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1933 -- Drawings by Emily W. Miles
Oct.-Nov., 1933 -- Exhibition of Etchings and Lithographs
Nov., 1933 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Henry E. Schnakenberg
Dec., 1933 -- Watercolors by Gifford Beal
Jan., 1934 -- Exhibition of Drawings by Denys Wortman for "Metropolitan Movies"
Summer, 1934 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Isabel Bishop, Ann Brockman, Preston Dickinson, Guy Pène Du Bois, William J. Glackens, Richard Lahey, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Harriette Miller, Maurice Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, and John Sloan
Oct.-Nov., 1934 -- Exhibition of Etchings and Lithographs
Nov.-Dec., 1934 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Mar., 1935 -- Complete Collection of Etchings by Mahonri Young
July-Aug., 1935 -- Paintings by American Artists including Gifford Beal, Reynolds Beal, Ann Brockman, Guy Pène Du Bois, William J. Glackens, Max Kuehne, Richard Lahey, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Harriette G. Miller, Maurice Prendergast, Henry E. Schnakenberg, John Sloan, and Abraham Walkowitz
Oct.-Nov., 1935 -- Decorative Panels by Charles Prendergast
Nov., 1935 -- Exhibition of Paintings by H. E. Schnakenberg
Mar., 1936 -- Paintings by Louis Bouché
Apr., 1936 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Oct.-Nov., 1936 -- Loan Collection of French Paintings
Dec., 1936 -- Monotypes in Color by Maurice Prendergast
Jan., 1937 -- Recent Watercolors by H. E. Schnakenberg
Jan., 1937 -- Paintings of Flowers by William J. Glackens
Feb., 1937 -- Etchings by John Sloan
Feb., 1937 -- A Group of American Paintings
Sept., 1937 -- A Group of Paintings by Gifford Beal, Louis Bouché, Guy Pène Du Bois, William J. Glackens, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, John Sloan, J. Alden Weir
Oct.-Nov., 1937 -- Decorative Panels by Charles Prendergast
Dec., 1937 -- American Watercolors
Jan.-Feb., 1938 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Feb.-Mar., 1938 -- Drawings by William Glackens, Guy Pène Du Bois, John Sloan, Denys Wortman
Apr., 1938 -- Paintings by Louis Bouché
May, 1938 -- Paintings and Pastels by Randall Davey
Oct., 1938 -- Selected Paintings by Modern French and American Artists
Nov., 1938 -- Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois from 1908 to 1938
Nov., 1938 -- Paintings and Sculpture by Harriette G. Miller
Dec., 1938 -- Watercolors by Prendergast, Keller, Demuth, Wilcox and Others
Jan., 1939 -- Paintings by H. H. Newton
Oct., 1939 -- French and American Paintings
Oct.-Nov., 1939 -- Drawings by William Glackens of Spanish-American War Scenes
Nov., 1939 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Russell Cowles
Jan.-Feb., 1940 -- Recent Paintings by Louis Bouché
Feb.-Mar., 1940 -- Paintings by Henry Schnakenberg
Mar.-Apr., 1940 -- Paintings by Maurice Prendergast
Apr.-May, 1940 -- Watercolors by Charles Kaeselau
May-June, 1940 -- A Group of Recent Paintings by Gifford Beal, Russell Cowles, John Koch, Henry Schnakenberg, Esther Williams, Louis Bouché, Guy Pène Du Bois, Harriette G. Miller, John Sloan, Edmund Yaghjian
Oct., 1940 -- Drawings by American Artists
Nov., 1940 -- Walt Dehner
Mar., 1941 -- John Koch
May-June, 1941 -- Watercolors and Small Paintings by Gifford Beal
Oct.-Nov., 1941 -- Recent Paintings by Russell Cowles
Nov.-Dec., 1941 -- Paintings and Watercolors by Henry E. Schnakenberg
Dec., 1941 -- Charles Prendergast
Jan., 1942 -- Paintings by Samuel Brecher
Jan.-Feb., 1942 -- Recent Paintings by Guy Pène Du Bois
Mar.-Apr., 1942 -- Recent Paintings by Louis Bouché
Mar.-Apr., 1942 -- Illustrations by Boardman Robinson Commissioned by the Limited Editions Club for Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology"
Dec., 1942 -- Paintings from the Period of the Last War
Feb., 1943 -- Paintings and Watercolors by William Dean Fausett
Mar., 1943 -- Paintings by John Hartell
May-July, 1943 -- Watercolors by Contemporary American Artists
Feb.-Mar., 1944 -- Samuel Brecher
Feb.-Mar., 1944 -- Paintings, Gouaches, and Drawings by Andrée Ruellan
Mar., 1944 -- Vaughn Flannery
Mar.-Apr., 1944 -- Recent Paintings by Russell Cowles
Apr.-May, 1944 -- Recent Paintings by Louis Bouché
May-June, 1944 -- Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Watercolors by Henry G. Keller
Oct., 1944 -- Esther Williams
Nov.-Dec., 1944 -- Paintings and Watercolors of France by Maurice Prendergast
Dec., 1944 -- William J. Glackens Sixth Memorial Exhibition
Dec., 1944 -- Kraushaar Galleries Sixtieth Anniversary Exhibition of Paintings by William J. Glackens, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, and John Sloan
Jan.-Feb., 1945 -- Paintings by Gifford Beal
Feb.-Mar., 1945 -- Paintings by Andrée Ruellan
Apr.-May, 1945 -- Charles Locke
May-June, 1945 -- William Dean Fausett
Oct., 1945 -- Paintings by John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1945 -- Recent Watercolors by Marion Monks Chase
Nov.-Dec., 1945 -- Gouaches by Cecil Bell
Dec., 1945 -- Memorial Exhibition of Paintings and Watercolors by Ann Brockman
undated, 1946 -- Russell Cowles
Jan.-Feb., 1946 -- Richard Lahey
Feb., 1946 -- John Koch
Feb.-Mar., 1946 -- Paintings by Ernst Halberstadt
Mar., 1946 -- Paintings of Mexico and Guatemala by Henry E. Schnakenberg
Mar., 1946 -- Iver Rose
Apr., 1946 -- Louis Bouché
Apr.-May, 1946 -- Russell Cowles
May-June, 1946 -- Paintings by Bernard Arnest, Charles Harsanyi, Irving Katzenstein, Anna Licht, James Penney, Etienne Ret, and Vernon Smith
Sept., 1946 -- Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of Boardman Robinson
Nov., 1946 -- Guy Pène Du Bois
Nov.-Dec., 1946 -- William J. Glackens Eighth Memorial Exhibition
Jan., 1947 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1947 -- Sculpture by Robert Laurent
Feb.-Mar., 1947 -- Paintings by Iver Rose
Feb.-Mar., 1947 -- Recent Paintings by Vernon Smith
Apr., 1947 -- Charles Prendergast
Apr., 1947 -- Louis Bouché
Apr.-May, 1947 -- Esther Williams
Oct.-Nov., 1947 -- Anna Licht
Nov., 1947 -- William J. Glackens Ninth Memorial Exhibition, with Works by Lenna Glackens
Mar., 1948 -- Russell Cowles
Apr.-May, 1948 -- Bernard Arnest
Aug.-Sept., 1948 -- New York Paintings and Watercolors
Oct.-Nov., 1948 -- Kenneth Evett
Nov.-Dec., 1948 -- Watercolors and Pastels by Harriette G. Miller
Jan.-Feb., 1949 -- John Hartell
Sept.-Oct., 1949 -- Contemporary American Watercolors and Gouaches
Oct., 1949 -- Contemporary Paintings
Jan., 1950 -- Maurice Prendergast Retrospective of Oils and Watercolors
Jan.-Feb., 1950 -- James Penney
Feb.-Mar., 1950 -- Paintings by Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1950 -- Russell Cowles
Jan.-Feb., 1951 -- William Sommer
Feb., 1951 -- Prints and Drawings by Various Artists
Feb., 1951 -- Paintings by Louis Bouché
Mar., 1951 -- Kenneth Evett
Apr.-May, 1951 -- Paintings by Gallery Artists
May-July, 1951 -- Contemporary American Watercolors
July-Aug., 1951 -- Paintings on the Summer Theme
Sept.-Oct., 1951 -- Vaughn Flannery
Oct.-Nov., 1951 -- Recent Paintings by Gallery Artists
Nov., 1951 -- Paintings by John Koch
Nov.-Dec., 1951 -- Joe Lasker
Dec., 1951 -- Small Prints and Drawings
Jan., 1952 -- Recent Gouaches by William Kienbusch
Jan., 1952 -- John Sloan: Recent Etchings from 1944-1951, and Etchings and Drawings Selected from All Periods of His Career
Feb.-Mar., 1952 -- Andrée Ruellan
Mar.-Apr., 1952 -- Bernard Arnest
Apr.-May, 1952 -- Recent Sculpture by Robert Laurent
May, 1952 -- Recent Paintings by Contemporary American Artists
May-June, 1952 -- Watercolors by Joseph Barber, Edward Christiana, Walt Dehner, Sidney Eaton, Wray Manning, and Woldemar Neufeld
July-Aug., 1952 -- Color Prints (Woodcuts, Etchings, and Lithographs) by Eleanor Coen, Caroline Durieux, Max Kahn, Tom Lias, Woldemar Neufeld, James Penney, George Remaily, Ann Ryan, and Karl Schrag
Nov., 1952 -- Karl Schrag
Dec., 1952-Jan. 1953 -- Eight Oregon Artists
Jan., 1953 -- Charles Prendergast Memorial Exhibition
Jan.-Feb., 1953 -- John Hartell
May, 1953 -- John Heliker
June, 1953 -- Humbert Alberizio, Vaughn Flannery, William Kienbusch, George Rickey, Andrée Ruellan, and Karl Schrag
Sept., 1953 -- Works by Gifford Beal, Kenneth Evett, Tom Hardy, John Koch, and James Lechay
Sept.-Oct., 1953 -- Paintings by Glackens, Lawson, Prendergast, Sloan
Oct.-Nov., 1953 -- Paintings by E. Powis Jones
Oct.-Nov., 1953 -- Recent Works by John Koch
Nov., 1953 -- Kenneth Evett: Drawings from Greek Mythology
Nov.-Dec., 1953 -- Recent Metal Sculptures by Tom Hardy
Nov.-Dec., 1953 -- Pastels, Drawings and Prints by Peggy Bacon
Nov.-Dec., 1953 -- Recent Paintings by Ralph Dubin
Feb.-Mar., 1954 -- Russell Cowles
Mar.-Apr., 1954 -- James Penney
Nov.-Dec., 1954 -- Tom Hardy: Metal Sculptures
Jan., 1955 -- Mobiles, Machines, and Kinetic Sculpture by George Rickey
Jan.-Feb., 1955 -- James Lechay
Feb., 1955 -- Mobiles by George Rickey
Feb.-Mar., 1955 -- Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs by John Sloan (with a selection of prints by artists whose work influenced him in his early years: Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Rops, Daumier, Rowlandson and others, to mark the publication of John Sloan: A Painter's Life by Van Wyck Brooks)
Mar.-Apr., 1955 -- Jane Wasey
Apr., 1955 -- Recent Work by Joe Lasker
May-June, 1955 -- Sculpture and Drawings by Contemporary American Artists
Jan., 1956 -- Carl Morris
Jan.-Feb., 1956 -- John Laurent
Feb.-Mar., 1956 -- William Kienbusch
Mar., 1956 -- Andrée Ruellan
Mar.-Apr., 1956 -- Karl Schrag
Apr.-May, 1956 -- John Heliker
May, 1956 -- Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast
Oct., 1956 -- The Eight
Jan.-Feb., 1957 -- Paintings by John Hartell
Apr., 1957 -- James Penney
Apr.-May, 1957 -- John Heliker
May-June, 1957 -- Fourteen Painter-Printmakers (American Federation of Arts exhibition)
June-July, 1957 -- 20th Century American Artists
Nov., 1957 -- William Glackens and His Friends (based on the book by Ira Glackens)
Nov., 1957 -- Marguerite Zorach
Jan., 1958 -- Gouches, Drawings and Small Glyphs by Ulfert Wilke
Jan.-Feb., 1958 -- Tom Hardy
Feb.-Mar., 1958 -- John Koch
Feb.-Mar., 1958 -- Still Life Exhibition with Works by William J. Glackens and Maurice Prendergast
Feb.-Mar., 1958 -- Cecil Bell
Mar., 1958 -- Karl Schrag
Mar., 1958 -- Carl Morris
Mar.-Apr., 1958 -- Louis Bouché
Apr., 1958 -- Paintings and Drawings by Joe Lasker
Apr.-May, 1958 -- Paintings and Drawings by Walter Feldman
Apr.-May, 1958 -- Sculpture by Henry Mitchell
May-June, 1958 -- Works in Casein and Gouache by Bernard Arnest, William Kienbusch, Carl Morris, and Karl Schrag
July, 1958 -- Still Life Paintings and Watercolors by American Artists
Oct.-Nov., 1958 -- Kenneth Evett
Nov., 1958 -- Elsie Manville
Nov.-Dec., 1958 -- John Laurent
Jan., 1959 -- Kinetic Sculpture by George Rickey
Jan.-Feb., 1959 -- Bernard Arnest
Mar., 1959 -- Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1959 -- Paintings by Joe Lasker
Apr.-May, 1959 -- Henry Mitchell
Sept.-Oct., 1959 -- Robert Searle
Oct.-Nov., 1959 -- Russell Cowles
Nov., 1959 -- Caseins and Paintings by William Kienbusch
Dec., 1959 -- Paintings by Vaughn Flannery
Feb., 1960 -- James Lechay
Apr., 1960 -- Landscapes by John Sloan
Apr.-May, 1960 -- John Guerin
May-June, 1960 -- Drawings and Small Sculpture by Gallery Artists
Oct., 1960 -- Ainslie Burke
Oct.-Nov., 1960 -- Leon Goldin
Nov.-Dec., 1960 -- Ulfert Wilke
Jan., 1961 -- Leonard DeLonga
Jan., 1961 -- Kenneth Evett
Jan.-Feb., 1961 -- Walter Feldman
Feb.-Mar., 1961 -- Watercolors and Pastels by Early Twentieth-Century American Artists
Mar., 1961 -- Paintings by Ralph Dubin
Mar.-Apr., 1961 -- James Penney
Apr.-May, 1961 -- John Koch
June, 1961 -- Works by Humbert Albrizio, Bernard Arnest, Cecil Bell, Louis Bouché, Ralph Dubin, Kenneth Evett, Walter Feldman, John Hartell, John Heliker, William Kienbusch, John Koch, Robert Laurent, James Lechay, Elsie Manville, Henry Mitchell, James Penney, George Rickey, Andrée Ruellan, Henry E. Schnakenberg, Karl Schrag, Jane Wasey, and Marguerite Zorach
Sept., 1961 -- Works by Contemporary Americans
Oct., 1961 -- George Rickey: Kinetic Sculpture
Oct.-Nov., 1961 -- Carl Morris
Nov.-Dec., 1961 -- Peggy Bacon
Dec., 1961 -- Selected Works by Twentieth-Century Americans
Jan., 1962 -- Polymer Resin and Sumi Ink Paintings by Kenneth Evett
Jan.-Feb., 1962 -- Louis Bouché
Feb.-Mar., 1962 -- Karl Schrag
Mar., 1962 -- Marguerite Zorach
Apr., 1962 -- John Laurent
Apr.-May, 1962 -- Sculpture by Tom Hardy
May-June, 1962 -- Drawings by Contemporary American Artists
July-Aug., 1962 -- Group Exhibitions - Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by 20th Century American Artists
Oct., 1962 -- Bernard Arnest
Feb., 1963 -- William Kienbusch
Feb.-Mar., 1963 -- John Guerin
Mar., 1963 -- John Hartell
Sept.-Oct., 1963 -- Andrée Ruellan
Oct.-Nov., 1963 -- Ainslie Burke
Nov., 1963 -- Walter Feldman
Dec., 1963 -- Drawings by John Koch
Dec., 1963 -- Paintings by Contemporary Americans
Jan., 1964 -- Leonard DeLonga
Jan.-Feb., 1964 -- Joe Lasker
Feb.-Mar., 1964 -- Leon Goldin
Mar., 1964 -- Paintings by Ralph Dubin
Apr., 1964 -- Carl Morris
Apr.-May, 1964 -- Paintings and Drawings by John Heliker
Oct.-Nov., 1964 -- Louis Bouché
Nov.-Dec., 1964 -- Karl Schrag
Dec., 1964 -- Kenneth Evett
Feb., 1965 -- Russell Cowles
Feb.-Mar., 1965 -- James Lechay
Mar.-Apr., 1965 -- James Penney
Apr.-May, 1965 -- Gifford Beal
Feb., 1966 -- Dennis Leon
Feb.-Mar., 1966 -- Henry Schnakenberg
Mar.-Apr., 1966 -- John Hartell
Apr., 1966 -- Elsie Manville
Oct., 1966 -- Contrasts - Early and Late Works by Selected Contemporaries
Oct.-Nov., 1966 -- Tom Hardy
Nov.-Dec., 1966 -- Francis Chapin
Dec., 1966-Jan., 1967 -- Karl Schrag: Etchings and Lithographs
Jan.-Feb., 1967 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb.-Mar., 1967 -- Carl Morris
Mar.-Apr., 1967 -- Ainslie Burke
Apr.-May, 1967 -- John Heliker: Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors
May-June, 1967 -- William Glackens
Oct., 1967 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct.-Nov., 1967 -- John Laurent
Jan.-Feb., 1968 -- Dennis Leon
Feb.-Mar., 1968 -- Robert La Hotan
Apr., 1968 -- John Guerin
Apr.-May, 1968 -- Leon Goldin
Sept.-Oct., 1968 -- Contemporary Sculpture and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1968 -- Karl Schrag
Nov.-Dec., 1968 -- James Lechay: Portraits and Landscapes
Dec., 1968-Jan., 1969 -- Group Exhibition
Jan., 1969 -- Elsie Manville
Mar., 1969 -- Kenneth Evett
Apr.-May, 1969 -- James Penney
Sept.-Oct., 1969 -- New Works by Contemporary Artists
Oct.-Nov., 1969 -- John Hartell: Exhibition
Nov., 1969 -- Peggy Bacon
Dec., 1969 -- Selected Examples by American Artists 1900-1930
Jan., 1970 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb., 1970 -- Joe Lasker
Mar., 1970 -- Group Exhibition
Mar.-Apr., 1970 -- Dennis Leon
Apr.-May, 1970 -- Jerome Myers
Oct.-Nov., 1970 -- Tom Hardy
Jan.-Feb., 1971 -- Jane Wasey
Mar.-Apr., 1971 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct., 1971 -- Ainslie Burke
Nov.-Dec., 1971 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1972 -- John Koch
Mar.-Apr., 1972 -- Robert La Hotan
Apr.-May, 1972 -- Leon Goldin
May-June, 1972 -- Selected Works by 20th Century Americans
Sept.-Oct., 1972 -- Gallery Collection: American Watercolors and Drawings
Oct.-Nov., 1972 -- John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1972 -- Peggy Bacon
Dec., 1972 -- 20th Century Americans
Jan., 1973 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb., 1973 -- Carl Morris
Mar., 1973 -- James Lechay
Mar.-Apr., 1973 -- Russell Cowles: Landscape Paintings
Apr.-May, 1973 -- Jerome Witkin
May-June, 1973 -- Kenneth Evett: Watercolors
Oct.-Nov., 1973 -- Kenneth Callahan
Jan., 1974 -- Joe Lasker
Jan.-Feb., 1974 -- Bernard Arnest
Feb.-Mar., 1974 -- Concetta Scaravaglione
Oct., 1974 -- Ainslie Burke
Oct.-Nov., 1974 -- James Penney
Jan., 1975 -- Tom Hardy
Jan.-Feb., 1975 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1975 -- Robert La Hotan
Mar.-Apr., 1975 -- William Kienbusch
Apr., 1975 -- Elsie Manville
Apr.-May, 1975 -- Gifford Beal
Oct.-Nov., 1975 -- John Hartell
Nov., 1975 -- Daniel O'Sullivan
Mar., 1976 -- Jerome Witkin
May, 1976 -- Linda Sokolowski
Sept.-Oct., 1976 -- Joe Lasker, Illustrations from Merry Ever After
Oct., 1976 -- Leonard DeLonga
Nov.-Dec., 1976 -- Kenneth Callahan
Jan., 1977 -- James Lechay
Mar., 1977 -- Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1977 -- David Cantine
Oct.-Nov., 1977 -- John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1977 -- Ainslie Burke
Feb., 1978 -- Robert La Hotan
Apr., 1978 -- Elsie Manville
Oct., 1978 -- Tom Hardy
Oct.-Nov., 1978 -- Jerome Witkin
Jan.-Feb., 1979 -- Joe Lasker
Feb., 1979 -- Kenneth Evett
Feb.-Mar., 1979 -- Karl Schrag
Mar.-Apr., 1979 -- Carl Morris
Apr.-May, 1979 -- Linda Sokolowski
Oct.-Nov., 1979 -- Daniel O'Sullivan
Feb.-Mar., 1980 -- Kenneth Callahan
Mar., 1980 -- Ainslie Burke
Oct., 1980 -- John Hartell
Jan., 1981 -- Leonard DeLonga
Feb., 1981 -- James Lechay
Feb.-Mar., 1981 -- Robert La Hotan
Mar.-Apr., 1981 -- Jerry Atkins
Apr.-May, 1981 -- Ben Frank Moss
Jan.-Feb., 1982 -- Jerome Witkin
Feb.-Mar., 1982 -- Elsie Manville
Mar.-Apr., 1982 -- Karl Schrag
Apr.-May, 1982 -- Linda Sokolowski
May-June, 1982 -- David Cantine
Sept.-Oct., 1982 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct.-Nov., 1982 -- Joe Lasker
Nov.-Dec., 1982 -- Daniel O'Sullivan
Jan.-Feb., 1983 -- William Kienbusch: Memorial Exhibition
Feb.-Mar., 1983 -- Jerry Atkins
Mar.-Apr., 1983 -- John Hartell
Apr.-May, 1983 -- John Heliker
May-June, 1983 -- Kenneth Evett
Oct., 1983 -- Concetta Scaravaglione
Oct.-Nov., 1983 -- Ben Frank Moss
Nov.-Dec., 1983 -- Russell Cowles
Dec., 1983-Jan., 1984 -- 20th Century Americans
Jan.-Feb., 1984 -- Marguerite Zorach: Paintings at Home and Abroad
Feb.-Mar., 1984 -- Robert La Hotan
Mar., 1984 -- David Smalley
Apr., 1984 -- Carl Morris
May, 1984 -- Karl Schrag
July, 1984 -- Drawings by 20th Century Americans
July-Aug., 1984 -- Collages and Drawings by Joseph Heil
Aug.-Sept., 1984 -- Drawings and Prints by Tom Hardy
Sept.-Oct., 1984 -- James Penney: Memorial Exhibition
Oct.-Nov., 1984 -- Paintings and Drawings by Leon Goldin
Nov.-Dec., 1984 -- Isabelle Siegel
Dec., 1984-Jan., 1985 -- Group Exhibition: Contemporary American Paintings and Sculpture
Jan.-Feb., 1985 -- James Lechay
Feb.-Mar., 1985 -- Ainslie Burke
Mar., 1985 -- Karen Breunig
Apr., 1985 -- Kenneth Callahan
Oct., 1985 -- Elsie Manville
Oct.-Nov., 1985 -- William Glackens
Jan.-Feb., 1986 -- Linda Sokolowski
Feb.-Mar., 1986 -- Jerry Atkins
Apr.-May, 1986 -- Jane Wasey
Oct.-Nov., 1986 -- John Hartell
Nov.-Dec., 1986 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1987 -- Kenneth Evett
Apr.-May, 1987 -- Ben Frank Moss
May-June, 1987 -- David Smalley
Oct.-Nov., 1987 -- Isabelle Siegel
Feb.-Mar., 1988 -- Karen Breunig
Mar.-Apr., 1988 -- Leon Goldin
Sept.-Oct., 1988 -- Elsie Manville
Oct.-Nov., 1988 -- James Lechay
Jan.-Feb., 1989 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1989 -- Linda Sokolowski
Jan.-Feb., 1990 -- Kenneth Callahan: Works of the Fifties
Jan.-Feb., 1990 -- Gifford Beal: Watercolors
Mar., 1990 -- Robert La Hotan: Recent Paintings
Mar.-Apr., 1990 -- Sonia Gechtoff: New Paintings
May-June, 1990 -- David Smalley: Recent Sculpture
May-June, 1990 -- Andrée Ruellan: Sixty Years of Drawing...
Oct., 1990 -- Isabelle Siegel
Nov., 1990 -- Leon Goldin
Jan.-Feb., 1991 -- Karl Schrag
Feb.-Mar., 1991 -- Joe Lasker
Apr., 1991 -- Ainslie Burke
Nov.-Dec., 1991 -- Linda Sokolowski: Oils, Collages, Monotypes
Dec., 1991-Jan., 1992 -- Elsie Manville: Small Works on Paper
Mar., 1992 -- Tabitha Vevers
May-June, 1992 -- Sonia Gechtoff
Oct.-Nov., 1992 -- James Lechay
Nov.-Dec., 1992 -- Karl Schrag
Mar., 1993 -- Leon Goldin: Works on Paper
Apr.-May, 1993 -- Robert La Hotan
Oct., 1993 -- David Smalley: Sculpture Inside and Out
Oct., 1993 -- Andrée Ruellan: Works on Paper 1920-1980
Mar.-Apr., 1994 -- Kenneth Evett: Travels: Themes and Variations (Watercolors of Italy, Greece, Arizona, Maine and California)
Mar.-Apr., 1994 -- Tabitha Vevers
Oct.-Nov., 1994 -- Linda Sokolowski
Nov.-Dec., 1994 -- Karl Schrag
Jan.-Feb., 1995 -- Langdon Quin
Mar.-Apr., 1995 -- Robert La Hotan
Sept.-Oct., 1995 -- Sonia Gechtoff
Jan.-Feb., 1996 -- Elsie Manville: Paintings and Works on Paper
Oct.-Nov., 1996 -- Karl Schrag: A Self Portrait Retrospective, 1940-1995
Jan.-Feb., 1997 -- Joe Lasker: Paintings and Watercolors
Mar.-Apr., 1997 -- Tabitha Vevers
Oct.-Nov., 1997 -- James Lechay
Feb.-Mar., 1998 -- Linda Sokolowski: Canyon Suite: Works from the Southwest
Mar.-Apr., 1998 -- Leon Goldin: Paintings on Paper
Sept.-Oct., 1998 -- Sonia Gechtoff: Mysteries in the Sphere
Oct.-Nov., 1998 -- Langdon Quin: Recent Paintings
Nov.-Dec., 1998 -- John Gill
Jan.-Feb., 1999 -- Robert La Hotan
Feb.-Mar., 1999 -- Ann Sperry: Where Is Your Heart
Nov.-Dec., 1999 -- Kathryn Wall
Jan.-Feb., 2000 -- Elsie Manville
Sept.-Oct., 2000 -- Joe Lasker
Oct.-Nov., 2000 -- James Lechay
Oct.-Nov., 2000 -- Tabitha Vevers
May-June, 2001 -- Kenneth Callahan: Drawings
Dec., 2001-Jan., 2002 -- Sur La Table: A Selection of Paintings and Works on Paper
Jan.-Feb., 2002 -- Karl Schrag: Theme and Variations II: The Meadow
undated, 2003 -- Ann Sperry
Jan.-Feb., 2003 -- Andrée Ruellan: Works on Paper from the 1920s and 1930s
Oct.-Nov., 2003 -- Joe Lasker: Muses and Amusements
Nov.-Dec., 2003 -- Tabitha Vevers
Mar.-Apr., 2004 -- Leon Goldin: Five Decades of Works on Paper
May-July, 2004 -- Anne Frank: A Private Photo Album
Jan.-Feb., 2005 -- John Gill: Ceramics
Sept.-Oct., 2005 -- Karl Schrag: The Painter of Bright Nights
Related Material:
An untranscribed oral history interview with Antoinette Kraushaar was conducted for the Archives of American Art by Avis Berman in 1982, and is available on five audio cassettes at the Archives' Washington D.C. research facility.
Separated Material:
In addition to the records described in this finding aid, the following materials were lent to the Archives for filming in 1956 and are available on microfilm reels NKR1-NKR3 and for interlibrary loan: a book of clippings from 1907 to 1930, primarily of exhibition reviews; loose clippings and catalogs of exhibitions from 1930 to 1946; and a group of photographs and clippings relating to George Luks and other artists. These materials were returned to Kraushaar Galleries after microfilming.
Provenance:
53.5 linear feet of records were donated to the Archives of American Art by Kraushaar Galleries in three separate accessions in 1959, 1994, and 1996. Katherine Kaplan of Kraushaar Galleries donated an additional 38.4 linear feet in 2008-2009.
Restrictions:
Use of originals requires an appointment. A fragile original scrapbook is closed to researchers.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Katherine Kaplan Degn, Kraushaar Galleries. 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.
The papers of painter, collector, and writer John Graham measure 11.2 linear feet and date from 1799 to 1988, with the bulk of materials dating from 1890 to 1961. Papers document the life of John Graham, born Ivan Dombrowsky, through personal documents related to military service and family history, passports, artifacts, correspondence, appointment books, financial records, inventories, wills, extensive writings and notes, books, clippings, exhibition catalogs, photographs of Graham and his family and friends, and artwork created and collected by Graham.
Scope and Contents note:
The papers of painter, collector, and writer John Graham measure 11.2 linear feet and date from 1799 to 1988, with the bulk of materials dating from 1890 to 1961. Papers document the life of John Graham, born Ivan Dombrowsky, through personal documents related to military service and family history, passports, artifacts, correspondence, appointment books, financial records, inventories, wills, extensive writings and notes, books, clippings, exhibition catalogs, photographs of Graham and his family and friends, and artwork created and collected by Graham.
Biographical Materials and Artifacts include passports and other official documents, as well as records related to Graham's family, military service, and medical history. Among the artifacts are paint pots and a palette. Correspondence is with art and antique dealers and collectors, and includes significant correspondence and related documents of Jack Mayer, Graham's agent from the late 1950s. Several artists and famous friends are represented in Graham's correspondence including David Burliuk, Stuart Davis, Ultra Violet, Francoise Gilot, R.B. Kitaj, Marc Tobey, and Ron Gorchov.
Personal Business Records contain appointment books spanning 1931 to 1961 which record appointments but were also used as notebooks and sketchbooks. Other Business Records include inventories of Graham's books and antiques made by Graham, records of antique-related transactions, wills of Graham and his last wife, Marianne Strate, and extensive personal financial records from the last few years of his life.
Graham's writings are found scattered throughout the collection, as is his artwork. The Writings series is dominated by Graham's lengthy book projects, found in multiple drafts. The author's annotated published works are also found, as well as typescripts of several published essays by and about Graham. Lists, notes, and writings on a wide range of subjects are found on loose pages and in notebooks dated from 1931 to 1961. Among the Printed Materials are many annotated books from Graham's library, some of which contain drawings, and clippings and exhibition catalogs related to Graham's career going back to the 1920s. Reference files of printed ephemera and clippings collected by Graham are found on a variety of subjects, some of which contain pictorial subjects used in Graham's paintings.
Photographs depict Graham from childhood through his last years in cabinet card portraits, passport photographs, and snapshots. Photographs are also found of his parents, his five wives and four children, and a number of famous friends including Pablo Picasso, Françoise Gilot, their children, and Arshile Gorky. Artwork includes Graham's sketchbooks of 1934, 1960, and 1961, loose sketches, and a collection of file folders with many symbols and illustrations. Also found among the artwork are antique and contemporary prints and drawings collected by Graham.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged into 7 series:
Series 1: Biographical Materials and Artifacts, 1799, 1822, 1891-1961 (Boxes 1, 11-12, 17; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1932-1988 (Box 1; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Business Records, circa 1931-1962 (Boxes 1-3; 1.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Writings, 1839, circa 1923-1986 (Boxes 3-5, OV 13; 2.9 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Materials, circa 1885-1961 (Boxes 6-9, OV 14; 3.7 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1860-1985 (Box 9-10, 17, OV 15; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1852-1961 (Box 10, OV 16; 1 linear foot)
Biographical/Historical note:
The Russian émigré painter and writer John Graham, born Ivan Dombrowsky, was born in Kiev in 1886, 1887, or 1888. All three conflicting dates are found on various legal papers, licences, and passports. His parents were of minor nobility but with little means. He attended law school and served in the Circassian Regiment of the Russian army, earned the Saint George's Cross during World War I, and was imprisoned as a counterrevolutionary by the Bolsheviks after the assassination of Czar Nicholas II and his family in 1918. He fled for a time to his mother's native Poland, and finally in 1920, he emigrated with his second wife Vera and their son Nicholas to the United States. He began calling himself John in the US, and had his name officially changed to John Graham upon becoming a United States citizen in 1927. The name Graham may have been a transliteration of his father's name, Gratian. Graham is often described as a quixotic figure who cultivated a larger-than-life persona in the artistic circles of New York in the first half of the twentieth century through his authoritative philosophical and aesthetic arguments on the one hand, and his often fabulous tales of his early life on the other, including a story he wrote of his origins in which he was dropped as an infant onto a rock in the Caspian Sea by an enormous eagle.
In New York, Graham studied at the Art Students League, taking classes with John Sloan, William von Schlegell, and Allen Tucker. Among his fellow students were Dorothy Dehner and David Smith, Adolph Gottlieb, Alexander Calder, and Elinor Gibson, who married Graham in 1924. The couple lived briefly in Elinor's native Baltimore, Maryland, where he met Etta and Claribel Cone, collectors of modern European paintings. It may have been the Cone sisters who introduced Graham to their circle of avant-garde artists and art collectors in Paris in the late 1920s. Whatever its origin, Graham's early style has been compared to Cezanne, Braque, Derain, and Chirico, and his frequent trips to Europe made him a conduit for current art ideas and trends for the American artists who knew him.
Graham exhibited his paintings steadily in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including shows at the Society of Independent Arists (New York) in 1925, the Modernist Galleries (Baltimore) in 1926, Galerie Zaborowski (Paris) in 1928 and 1929, at Dudensing Galleries (New York) and Phillips Memorial Gallery (Washington) in 1929, the First Biennial at the Whitney Museum in 1932, and at 8th Street Gallery (New York) in 1933. During this period Graham and his wife Elinor lived in Paris, New York City, New Jersey, and upstate New York. He spent a year teaching at Wells College in Aurora, New York, where he also executed a series of wall panels in 1932. Graham's friendships with other artists during this period included Arshile Gorky, Stuart Davis, and Willem de Kooning. De Kooning is said to have called Davis, Gorky, and Graham the "three smartest guys on the scene."
Graham's European travels also enabled him to earn a living by buying primitive sculpture and antiques for collectors and dealers. In the 1930s he bought African Art for Vanity Fair editor and art collector Frank Crowninshield, and in 1936, Graham arranged an exhibition of Crowninshield's collection at Jacques Seligmann gallery. Graham and Elinor Gibson divorced in 1934 and he married Constance Wellman in Paris in 1936. They lived in Brooklyn Heights near Adolph Gottlieb, David Smith, and Dorothy Dehner, and worked for Hilla Rebay in her formation of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which became the Guggenheim Museum. Suffering financial hardship in the late years of the Depression, Constance and Graham lived in Mexico for several stretches of time, and Graham published several articles on Mexico and Mexican Art, and an essay entitled "Primitive Art and Picasso" in Magazine of Art.
Graham was a prolific writer, but only a few of his written works found their way into print. Aside from his essays, published works include a small book of poetry, Have It!, published in 1923, and a book which presented Graham's personal theories of art entitled System and Dialectics of Art, published in 1937 by Delphic Studios, an eclectic New York gallery and small press run by Alma Reed. The book was influential for a younger generation of American artists; Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in particular both expressed appreciation for Graham's ideas. For decades, Graham worked on several other major written works which were not published, including a highly stylized, symbolist work about his childhood and an encyclopedic collection of short, didactic essays on a wide range Grahamiam themes, a work which Graham usually referred to as Orifizio Mundi.
In 1942, Graham organized the exhibition "French and American Painters" at McMillen Gallery (New York) which showed Modigliani, Picasso, Braque, Rouault, and Matisse, alongside the Americans Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Stuart Davis, David Burliuk, and Walt Kuhn, among others. The show was well-received critically and, as it was Jackson Pollock's first public exhibition and Willem de Kooning's second, and the occasion of Pollock and Lee Krasner's meeting, could be considered a watershed event in contemporary American art.
Graham's own style made a pronounced shift away from abstraction in the 1940s. He began referencing renaissance art in his paintings, incorporating occult symbols, and signing them "Ioannus Magus," or "Ioannus San Germanus." His marriage to Constance ended acrimoniously around this time. He met Marianne Strate, a bookbinder, through her daughter Ileana Sonnabend and son-in-law Leo Castelli. They lived in Southampton, New York, where Graham was close to the Castellis, Paul Brach, Miriam Schapiro, and where he renewed his friendship with Willem de Kooning, who had a studio in Castelli's East Hampton home in the early 1950s. Marianne died in 1955.
Graham exhibited at the Stable Gallery in 1954, and at the newly-opened, uptown Whitney Museum of American Art in 1955. Jack Mayer became Graham's dealer in the late 1950s, held exhibitions at his Madison Avenue gallery, Gallery Mayer, in 1960, and arranged for an exhibition at the Tennessee Fine Arts Center in 1961, shortly before Graham's death. Graham left the United States for the last time in 1959, lived in Paris for two years, and died in June 1961 in a hospital in London. Gallery Mayer held a memorial exhibition at the end of 1961. Retrospective exhibitions of Graham's work have been held at the Art Institute of Chicago (1963), the Museum of Modern Art (1968), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1969), and the Phillips Collection (1987).
Separated Materials note:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 5049) including six volumes of notebooks and several loose sketches. Loaned materials were returned to MoMA and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The papers of John Graham were given to the Archives of American Art in five separate accessions between 1985 and 1988. The bulk of papers were donated by Graham's son, John David Graham, in 1985, with later additions from Patricia Graham, the widow of John David Graham, in 1986, 1987, and 1988, via the Andre Emmerich Gallery, Inc. The Department of Prints and Drawings of the Museum of Modern Art donated more papers and loaned additional materials for microfilming in 1986.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via the Archives of American Art website.
Rights:
Reel 5049: Museum of Modern Art, NY: John Graham Notebooks: Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from the Museum of Modern Art. 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.
An interview of Gene Crain, conducted 1999 March 7-May 22, by Susan Anderson, for the Archives of American Art, in the law offices of Gene Crain, Newport Beach, California.
Crain describes the focus of his collection of some 1000 works of art, and how it grew out of his longstanding relationships with artists Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Rex Brandt, and others. He recalls his relationships with Sheets, Dike, and Brandt at some length, including their feelings for the land as well as their personalities and work. He discusses urban growth, disappearance of the locale and nostalgia in the context of art collecting, and his collection as an important record of a certain time and place. He discusses convenience, climate, and topography as contributing factors to the emergence of the watercolor school as well as other important influences: Pacific rim culture and Far Eastern Art and philosophy; Mexican art and culture; the film industry, especially the Disney Studios; and the federal art projects as a catalyst and support system. Crain discusses the impact of social and economic factors in Southern California during the Depression, contrasting them with harsher conditions in other parts of the country; the development of his eye an aesthetic taste and his patronage of the artists beginning in the early 1960s; the artists' critical standing in the post-World War II period and the "crowding out" of the school by other movements such as Abstract Expressionism and Pop; and the viability of the school in the post-war period, its legacy, and comments on the present market value of the art.
Biographical / Historical:
E. Gene Crain (1934- ) is a lawyer and art collector from Newport Beach, California. Full name Ernst Gene Crain. Crain's art collection includes extensive holdings of prominent artists of the California School, a West Coast watercolor movement that arose during the Depression era.
General:
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 13 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 38 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art 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 administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
![view Covers his youth, education, and career at the USNM, c. 1902-1965, including: family and childhood in Flushing, New York; mineral collecting with Arthur Payne; undergraduate major in chemistry at Colgate University, 1921-1924; stratigraphic research fo... digital asset: G. Arthur Cooper and his wife, Josephine Cooper, are at work in his office in the Division of Invertebrate Paleontology, United States National Museum, now the National Museum of Natural History, in June of 1954. [Image no. 84-4051]](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=170&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/electronicresource.gif "G. Arthur Cooper and his wife, Josephine Cooper, are at work in his office in the Division of Invertebrate Paleontology, United States National Museum, now the National Museum of Natural History, in June of 1954. [Image no. 84-4051]")