Selected records of the PWAP include the following series: Central Office (Washington, D.C.) Correspondence and Related Records, including progress reports, minutes of meetings, and finance records (reels DC1-3); Correspondence and Personal Files of Edward P. Rowan, Technical Director (reels DC3-4); Central Office Correspondence With Artists (reels DC5-7); Central Office Files and Publicity Materials, including correspondence of project director Edward Bruce (reel DC8); Newspaper Clippings (reels DC8-9); Correspondence and Related records of Cecil Jones, Business Director (reels DC9-12); Final Reports on Projects, Report Materials and Project Issuances (reel DC12); Regional Office Records (reels DC12-13); and selected Correspondence of the New York Regional Office (Region 2) With Artists concerning administrative details of employing artists (DC 112-115). Each series has been described separately.
Biographical / Historical:
The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the first of the New Deal art programs, was established under the Department of the Treasury in December 1933 to assist unemployed artists by enabling them to work on the decoration of non-federal public buildings. Although it lasted only until the following summer, it engaged nearly 4,000 artists in all parts of the country and served as an important precedent for subsequent federal art programs, such as the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. Later art projects administered under the Department of the Treasury were the Section of Fine Arts, originally the Section of Painting and Sculpture, and the Treasury Relief Art Project, both of which served to employ artists to decorate federal buildings across the United States.
Provenance:
Series microfilmed by AAA were selected from the National Archives record group 121, records of the Public Buildings Service. Additional records of the PWAP are preserved at the National Archives. Series which were not microfilmed include: correspondence of L.W. Roberts, assistant secretary of the Treasury; the central file of the Advisory Committee and the Project; card lists of allocated paintings and other works of art; and receipt cards for works of art.
AAA has filmed, and described separately, selected records of the Treasury Relief Art Project (reels DC14-38) and the Section of Fine Arts (reels DC38-43) from record group 121. In addition, selected records of the WPA Federal Art Project (National Archives record group 69) were also filmed (reels DC44-DC111 and DC129-130).
1.8 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 2 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Sketchbooks
Date:
1920-1982
Scope and Contents:
Biographical material, interviews, printed materials, writings, correspondence, art work, and photographs.
REEL 290: Eleven scripts for radio programs on the Index of American Design, broadcast in New York throughout 1940. Interviewees include: Rothschild, Holger Cahill, director of the WPA-FAP; Edith Halpert, director of American Folk Art Gallery; Katherine Coffey, curator of Newark Museum; Alice Winchester, editor of "Antiques"; and Theodore Starr.
REEL NDA 15: Press releases; pamphlet on permanent art programs; Index of American Design papers; a report concerning government art programs; memorandum to Gustave Von Groschwitz outlining a plan for new subject matter for FAP artists; and "Report to the Sculptors of the Federal Art Project" by Girolamo Piccoli.[Report to the sculptors...under microfilm title Girolamo Piccoli]
UNMICROFILMED: Writings on art and on the Index of American Design; radio scripts for the series "The American Artists" sponsored by Artists Equity, 1953; clippings, 1936-1982; a nearly complete set of his newsletter, THE PRAGMATIST IN ART, 1964-1978; material on Kenneth Hayes Miller; resumes, school transcripts and memorabilia; photographs of Rothschild and of his sculpture; correspondence concerning THE PRAGMATIST IN ART (1964-1978), The Index of American Design (1968-1973), his research on Miller (1964-1977) and other publications, his work for Artists Equity, and other matters; a sketchbook; and a drawing. Among the correspondents are Samuel Kramer, editor of "The Shipyard Worker," Peppino Mangravite, Katherine Schmidt Shubert, Betty Burroughs Woodhouse, and critics Rudolf Arnheim, John Canaday and Donald Kuspit.
Biographical / Historical:
Lincoln Rothschild (1902-1983) was a cculptor and writer in New York, N.Y. Rothschild was the director of the New York Unit of the Index of American Design, 1937-1940. He taught at Columbia University and Adelphi College, 1946-1950 and was the National Executive Director for Artists' Equity Association, 1951-57. He was the author of SCULPTURE THROUGH THE AGES (1942) TO KEEP ART ALIVE-KENNETH HAYES MILLER, AMERICAN PAINTER 1876-1956 (1974), FORMS AND THEIR MEANINGS IN WESTERN ART (1976) and numerous articles.
Other Title:
Girolamo Piccoli [microfilm title]
Provenance:
Material on reel NDA15 donated by Rothschild, 1964; remainder donated 1987 by his widow, Elisabeth Rothschild.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Selected records of TRAP include the following series: General Administrative and Reference File of the Chief of TRAP, Olin Dows, includes correspondence, reports, planning projects for artists, and memoranda (reel DC14); Correspondence of the New York City Supervisor with the Washington, D.C. office (reels DC14-15); and the bulk of the records, Central Office Correspondence with Field Offices, State Supervisors and Others (reels DC16-38). Each series has been described separately in this database.
Biographical / Historical:
The Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) was established in 1935 under the Department of the Treasury with special funds allocated from the Works Progress Administration (later the Work Projects Administration) to decorate those federal buildings not funded by the Section of Fine Arts and as a relief agency for unemployed, but highly competent artists. The Chief of TRAP was Olin Dows, Forbes Watson was Director, and Cecil H. Jones Assistant Chief, later replacing Dows.
Provenance:
Series microfilmed in 1966 by AAA were selected from the National Archives record group 121, records of the Public Buildings Service. Additional records of TRAP are preserved at the National Archives. Series which were not microfilmed include a card record by artist of art works submitted in competitions, 1936-1939.
AAA has filmed and described separately, selected records of the Public Works of Art Project (reels DC1-13 and DC112-115), and the Section of Fine Arts (reels DC38-43), also from record group 121. Researchers may also wish to consult the personal papers of Forbes Watson and Olin Dows.
United States. Work Projects Administration Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
Extent:
4.4 Linear feet ((on 12 microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945
Date:
1935-1942
Scope and Contents:
Records documenting activities of the Survey to inventory portraits in America done before 1860 in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Included are research documents; correspondence; interoffice memoranda; survey manuals; press releases; clippings; photographs of works of art; short biographies of sitters and artists; ca. 15,000 of the original survey cards; first drafts of checklists and catalogs; and lists of portraits received too late to be included in the final version of the catalog.
Biographical / Historical:
The Historical Records Survey (HRS) had its origins in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civil Works Administration. In 1935 it came under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project and eventually was designated as an independent program under Federal Project No. One. The projects, ideally suited for white collar workers, employed individuals to survey, classify and collect historical records. One program of the HRS was to document American portraits (sculpture, prints and paintings) done before 1860.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming by the Massachusetts State Library, A. Hunter Rineer, State Librarian, Boston, Mass., 1977.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
United States. Work Projects Administration Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
Extent:
0.4 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 1 reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1931-1942
Scope and Contents:
Reports and photographs of the Technical Service Division of the WPA-Federal Art Project, New York; publications of the New York City WPA Art Project including "The WPA Federal Art Project a Summary of Activities and Accomplishments," undated, "Oils, Watercolors, Prints & Sculpture by Artist Teachers of the Art Teachers Division," 1939, "Art in Action: An Exposition of Work in Progress by the New York City WPA Art Project," 1941, and "Technical Problems of the Artist: Canvas Adhesives," 1939, with clippings glued to the inside cover. (A duplicate pamphlet without the clippings was microfilmed on reel 3482). Also included are catalogs, announcements and newspaper clippings concerning Doktor's exhibitions, and the original manuscript to his novel, "The Laughing Torch" along with several rejection letters from publishers.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter; head of the Restoration, Installation and Technical Service Division of the Federal Art Project (FAP) in New York City. Died 1995.
Provenance:
Donated by Raphael Doktor, 1993-1995. An additional copy of "Technical Problems of the Artist" was donated ca. 1970 and microfilmed on reel 3482.
Restrictions:
All except mss.: "Technical Problems of the Artist: Canvas Adhesives" (microfilm reel 3482) is: Unmicrofilmed; use requires an appointment and is limited to AAA's Washington, D.C. storage facility.
Treasury Department Art Projects : painting and sculpture for federal buildings, November seventeen to December thirteen, nineteen hundred thirty-six, Corcoran Gallery of Art / introduction by Forbes Watson, 1936
