The papers of woodturner Bob Stocksdale and fiber artist Kay Sekimachi measure 19.5 linear feet and 0.125 GB and date from circa 1900 to 2015. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, writings, professional files, exhibition files, project files, personal business records, printed and digital material, scrapbooks, photographic material, and artwork. Of note are records from Sekimachi's forced internment during World War II at Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942 to 1944.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of woodturner Bob Stocksdale and fiber artist Kay Sekimachi measure 19.5 linear feet and 0.125 GB and date from circa 1900 to 2015. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, writings, professional files, exhibition files, project files, personal business records, printed and digital material, scrapbooks, photographic material, and artwork. Of note are records from Sekimachi's forced internment during World War II at Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942 to 1944.
The bulk of biographical materials are from Kay Sekimachi with some originating from her time spent in forced internment at Topaz and Tanforan camps. These records include identification cards, War Relocation Authority printed materials, and school records. Also found are awards, resumes, and blank stationery. Some materials are from Stocksdale's 85th birthday and memorial service.
Letters and extensive greeting cards are from friends, family, and professional acquaintances. Correspondents include Norman Anderson, Peter Collingwood, Jack Lenor Larsen, Sam and Alfreda Maloof, Forrest L. Merrill, Miné Okubo, Barbara Shawcroft, and others.
Writings and notes are scattered and include two interviews with Kay Sekimachi, hanging instructions, and notes. Writings by others are by Jack Lenor Larsen, Tran Turner, and Yoshiko Uchida.
Sekimachi's and Stocksdale's professional activities are documented through files relating to their participation at conferences, awards ceremonies, and lectures. Also found are fiber samples, order forms for materials and equipment, and notes on techniques and design by Kay Sekimachi. Exhibition records include extensive documentation on Marriage in Form, In the Realm of Nature, and Loom and Lathe as well as files for various solo and group exhibitions for both Sekimachi and Stocksdale. Gallery and institution files include material on multiple or unnamed exhibitions. Exhibiton documentation may include correspondence, writings, proposals, printed material, financial and loan records, condition reports, and photographs. Project files contain material for proposed book projects, a retrospective, and portfolio, by and about Sekimachi and Stocksdale. Also found are three commissions files for works by Sekimachi. A proposed retrospective on the work of Bob Stocksdale by Kay Sekimachi includes a digital sound recording of recollections.
Personal business records include sales books, purchase records for works of art by others, appraisals, contracts, consignment receipts, and insurance records.
Published books, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, magazines, and newsletters are found within printed materials. Of note is a publication by the San Francisco Chronicle entitled "This World" which features illustrations by Miné Okubo.
Four scrapbooks compiled by Kay Sekimachi date from 1937 to 1944. Most of the scrapbooks contain printed material from magazines and other sources with images such as children, valentines, food, birds, clothing, and may include scattered sketches and notes by Sekimachi. One scrapbook dates from the end of Sekimachi's internment at Topaz and relocation to Cincinnati, Ohio. This scrapbook includes sketches and printed materials concerning local and global events. Loose material found in this series was likely meant to be pasted into a new or the forth scrapbook. These materials include relocation information, Japanese-American publications, maps, clippings, sketches, and printed programs.
The bulk of photographic materials consist of slides of various vacation locations and homes and date from the 1960s to the 1980s. Also found are scattered portraits of Kay Sekimachi and Bob Stocksdale, as well as a photo of Miné Okubo with Roy Leeper and Cecil Thompson. Artworks are largely by Kay Sekimachi and include watercolor and pencil sketches as well as designs for fabrics and a weaving portfolio. Watercolor and pencil sketches are of Tanforan Assembly Center and date from circa 1942.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1920-2003 (1.5 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1943-2014 (7.6 linear feet; Box 2-10)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1960s-2008 (0.2 linear feet; Box 10)
Series 4: Professional Files, 1950s-2011 (1.1 linear feet; Box 10-11, 22)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1951-2015 (2.9 linear feet; Box 11-14, ER01; 0.125 GB)
Series 6: Project Files, circa 1900-2004 (0.3 linear feet; Box 14)
Series 7: Personal Business Records, 1970s-2010 (0.7 linear feet; Box 14-15)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1943-2011 (2.3 linear feet; Box 15-17, 22)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1937-1946 (0.9 linear feet; Box 17, 21)
Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1950-2001 (0.9 linear feet; Box 18)
Series 11: Artwork, 1942-circa 1970 (1.1 linear feet; Box 18-20, 22-23)
Biographical / Historical:
Bob Stocksdale (1913-2003) was a woodturner active in California. He was known for bowls he formed from rare types of wood. Kay Sekimachi (1926- ) is a Japanese-American fiber artist and educator also active in California. She began her career in weaving on and off the loom and was part of the New Basketry movement.
Born in Indiana, Bob Stocksdale began his interest in carving by whittling with a pocket knife. Later, he created his own lathe with a washing machine motor and turned items such as baseball bats. During World War II, he was a conscientious objector and worked at various camps performing forestry work. It was in one of the camps that he turned his first bowl on a lathe.
After the war, Stocksdale settled in the Bay Area of California where he established his own woodturning shop in his basement. He concentrated on making bowls out of rare woods. His work has been recognized throughout the world and in 1998, he received the American Association of Woodturners Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, he received the James Renwick Alliance Masters of the Medium Award.
Kay Sekimachi was born in San Francisco, California in 1926. As a high school student, she was forcibly interned through Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which incarcerated approximately 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-American citizens during World War II. Along with her mother and siblings, Kay lived at Tanforan Assembly Center and later moved to Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. She continued her schooling at Topaz and after 1944, was resettled in Cincinnati, Ohio.
After graduating from high school, Kay Sekimachi enrolled at the California College of Arts and Crafts and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts where she learned the craft of weaving under Trude Guermonprez and Jack Lenor Larsen. Her early works were tapestries and garments. She later used her weaving techniques as part of the New Basketry movement to create baskets and boxes out of fibers. Also an educator, Kay taught weaving at San Francisco Community College. She received the American Craft Council Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship in 2002.
After the dissolution of his first marriage through which he had two children, son Kim and daughter Joy Stocksdale, Bob married Kay Sekimachi in 1972. The two had been acquainted for many years as they were both craft artists living in the Bay Area. Although they married later in life, Kay and Bob travelled the world and exhibited their art together in many exhibitions including Marriage in Form and Loom and Lathe.
Bob Stocksdale died in Oakland, California in 2003. Kay Sekimachi continues to exhibit her work and lives in Berkeley, California.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are an oral history interview of Bob Stocksdale conducted February 16-March 21, 2001, by Signe Mayfield and an oral history interview of Kay Sekimachi [Stocksdale] conducted July 26-August 6, 2001, by Suzanne Baizerman. Both interviews were conducted in Berkeley, California, during the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Provenance:
The Bob Stocksdale and Kay Sekimachi papers were donated in 2003, 2004, and 2015 by Kay Sekimachi Stocksdale as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of original audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
14 Pages
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Date:
1988 Aug. 17
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Nancy Crow conducted by Jean Robertson, Aug.17, 1988, as a part of Robertson's research for the book, "Nancy Crow: Quilts and Influences" by Nancy Crow and Jean Robertson, Collector Books, Dec. 1989. Crow speaks about her childhood and early artistic aspirations; her dissatisfaction with her first quilts in the early 1970s; traditional quiltmaking; her work in tapestry weaving; meeting Francoise Barnes and Virginia Randles and learning to quilt; the difference between the weaving and quilting process; working in series; her interest in Mexican folk art and African American quilts; living on an isolated farm and drawing inspiration from nature; her use of titles, colors, patterns, scale, and fabrics; the importance of her training in ceramics; and she compares her work to quilts by Michael James.
Biographical / Historical:
Nancy Crow (1943-) is a quiltmaker from Baltimore, Ohio. Interviewer Jean Robertson is an art critic and curator from Indianapolis, Ind.
Provenance:
Donated 2003 by Jean Robertson as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Researchers note: A separate 2002 interview of Crow, also conducted by Robertson and a part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America is also available.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959 -- Photographs Search this
Extent:
13.3 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Diaries
Christmas cards
Designs
Interviews
Sketchbooks
Sketches
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Place:
Japan -- Description and Travel
Date:
1880s-1997
Summary:
The collection measures 13.3 linear feet, dates from the 1880s-1997 and documents the life and varied career of Rudolph Schaeffer, artist, designer, teacher, writer, collector of Asian art, and pioneer in the field of color study who founded the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco in 1926. The papers include biographical information, correspondence, subject files, writings, diaries, journals, artwork, scrapbooks, sound recordings, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The collection measures 13.3 linear feet, dates from the 1880s-1997, and documents the life and varied career of Rudolph Schaeffer, artist, designer, teacher, writer, collector of Asian art, and pioneer in the field of color study who founded the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco in 1926. The papers include biographical information, correspondence, subject files, writings, diaries, journals, artwork, scrapbooks, sound recordings, and photographs.
Correspondence documents Schaeffer's personal and professional activities as well as the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design. Subject files contain various combinations of correspondence, photographs, printed material, and drawings reflecting Schaeffer's activities, projects, and interests. Within the subject files is correspondence with artists, including Mark Tobey. Extensive writings include manuscripts for published and unpublished articles and drafts, notes, and manuscripts of several unpublished books including Collected Lectures of Rudolph Schaeffer on Color and Design, Color and Design, Prismatic Color Theory, and Rhythmo-Chromatics, all undated. Diaries include a volume recording Schaeffer's 1936 trip to Japan. 42 volumes of journals, compiled between 1954 and 1987, contain entries on a wide range of subjects including lists of errands, invitation lists, class notes, drafts of letters, notes including staff assignments and staff meetings, autobiographical notes and reminiscences, and musings on religion and philosophy.
The Artwork series houses artwork by Schaeffer and his students. Found are hand-made Christmas cards, designs, sketches, and sketchbooks. Seven scrapbooks document Rudolph Schaeffer's career, his school and former students, and the San Francisco art scene. They contain printed material, photographs, letters, and a small amount of artwork. Volume 3 is devoted to East West Gallery, and volume 7 documents Rudolph Schaeffer's 90th Birthday and the 50th Anniversary of the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design.
Most untranscribed sound recordings (audio cassettes and reels) are of lectures by Schaeffer and others delivered at the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design.
Miscellaneous records includes a series of hand-baticked fabric samples from the Wiener Werkstatte, as well as transcripts of an oral history with Schaeffer and other interviews.
Printed material concerns the career of Rudolph Schaeffer, his school and former students, the San Francisco art scene, and general art topics. Included are articles and a book by Schaeffer, catalogs and other items produced by the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, and miscellaneous items about or mentioning Schaeffer and his school. Items of note are announcements of courses taught by Schaeffer in Piedmont and San Francisco prior to the opening of his school, and theatre programs from productions with sets and some costumes designed by Schaeffer in the early 1920s.
Photographs are of artwork, people, places, events, stage designs, and miscellaneous subjects. Artwork includes some designs by Rudolph Schaeffer; people include Schaeffer, his family, friends, and students. Of particular note are a photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright's visit to the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, and one of Rudolph Schaeffer and Imogen Cunningham. Places include interior and exterior views of the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design at its St. Anne Street and Mariposa Street locations. Also included are photographs by Ansel Adams of the home of Ed and Caroline Fey.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Information, 1900-1988 (Box 1; 0.1 linear ft.)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1906-1989 (Box 1, 19; 0.5 linear ft.)
Series 3: Subject Files, 1907-1988 (Boxes 1-2, OV 16; 1.3 linear ft.)
Series 4: Writings, circa 1910-1987 (Boxes 2-6, 15, 19, 21; 4.2 linear ft.)
Series 5: Artwork, 1911-1957 (Boxes 6-15, 19, 21 OV 17; 0.6 linear ft.)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, 1933-1976 (Boxes 6, 14, 19; 0.6 linear ft.)
Series 7: Sound Recordings, 1949-1986 (Boxes 11-13; 1.2 linear ft.)
Series 8: Miscellaneous Records, 1905-1986 (Box 7, 19, 22; 0.8 linear ft.)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1906-1994 (Boxes 7-8, 15, 19, 22; 1.2 linear ft.)
Series 10: Photographs, 1880s-circa 1988 (Boxes 8-10,15, 20, 22, OV 18; 1.8 linear ft.)
Biographical Note:
Rudolph Schaeffer (1886-1988), a proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement, aspired to unite technology, science, and lifestyle in order to live in harmony with nature. An individual with many talents and interests, he was best known for his work in the field of color study and as a teacher and the founder of the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco.
Born on a farm in Clare, Michigan in 1886, Rudolph Schaeffer displayed musical and artistic talent from a young age. Although he initially wanted to become a professional musician, he began focusing more on art when his musical abilities were compromised by an improperly set broken wrist. Schaeffer received his first formal art training as a high school student and then attended the Thomas Normal Training School in Detroit, where he studied music, art, and design. He continued studying independently, developing interests in calligraphy and metal craft.
In 1907, Schaeffer taught manual training courses in the Columbus, Ohio, public schools. The following summer he traveled to Paris and London. While in London he saw an exhibition of Josef Hoffman's modern interiors that had a great impact on his own design ideas. He then returned to Michigan and taught in schools close to home. In 1909, Schaeffer attended a design course in Minneapolis taught by A. E. Batchelder, director of Throop Polytechnic Institute in Pasadena. Both Batchelder and his course were strong influences on Schaeffer, as was Ralph Johnot, a proponent of Arthur Wesley Dow's design principles. In 1910 Schaeffer joined the faculty of Throop Polytechnic Institute, where he remained for five years.
The U. S. Commission on Education selected Schaeffer to be part of a delegation of twenty-five American teachers sent to Munich for several months in 1914 to investigate the exemplary industrial design curriculum offered in their secondary schools. Schaeffer subsequently expected to begin teaching at the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles at the start of the 1914 school year, but World War I erupted while he was in Germany and his return to the United States was delayed so long that another teacher had to be hired to fill his place.
In 1915 Schaeffer was a manual training instructor at the California College of Arts and Crafts (formerly the Hopkins School), and taught design and metal crafts at the University of California Berkeley. For a number of years afterwards, he did free lance design work, taught private classes, and ran a small summer school in his Piedmont studio. Schaeffer was a visiting professor at Stanford University in 1918 when he was drafted and sent to drafting and surveying courses by the Army. Between 1917 and 1924 Schaeffer was on the faculty of the California College of Arts and Crafts where he taught design, color, handicrafts, and interior design. During this period he developed a new approach to teaching color and design based on the prismatic color wheel.
During the early 1920s Schaeffer worked as a set designer and as Art Director of Greek Theatre at the University of California at Berkeley, Schaeffer began applying prismatic color theory to set and costume design. He also designed sets for productions in Detroit. In 1925, Schaeffer saw the Paris Exposition and researched interior and stage design while in France.
The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design which, in its early days was called the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Rhythmo-Chromatic Design, opened on St. Anne Street in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1926. In 1951 the school then moved to Union Street on Telegraph Hill where it remained for nearly a decade. In 1960, the school purchased a former boys' school on Mariposa Street, Portero Hill. Rudolph Schaeffer lived in a small cottage built for him at the rear of the property where he designed and tended a remarkable "Peace Garden."
The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design was best known for its courses in color and interior design. Schaeffer was the first person in the United States to teach prismatic color theory, is credited with being the first to use the term "interior design" rather than "interior decoration" and the first to incorporate the use of models into interior design coursework. In 1959 the school's courses were expanded from 2 to 3-year programs and a diploma was awarded. Former students include many successful interior designers, textile designers, furniture designers, industrial designers, commercial artists, color consultants, teachers, and master flower arrangers.
In addition to the interior design and color diploma courses, the school offered a summer session, classes for children, a brief lecture series for the general public, and a wide variety of classes including advertising art, architecture and design, art history, art in public schools, calligraphy, color design, color for television, color for weavers, color theory, design, drawing, environmental aesthetics, fashion design, fashion illustration, flower arrangement, industrial design, interior design, Notan, sculpture, space planning, textile design, and weaving. Always struggling financially and sometimes lacking adequate enrollment, the school nevertheless managed to stay open for nearly 60 years. In 1984, the Board of Directors voted to remove Schaeffer from the board and close the school. Two years earlier the board had forced Schaeffer to retire, appointed him Director Emeritus, and brought in a new director charged with making the institution financially solvent, reorganizing the curriculum, and working toward accreditation. Unable to separate himself from the school (though he had done so legally when it was incorporated in 1953), Schaeffer balked and refused to cooperate with plans for revitalizing the institution.
One of the aims of the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design was to interpret Asian esthetic principles. To this end the East West Gallery was established at the school in 1950. A membership organization, it offered exhibitions, lectures, concerts, and other programs that encouraged cultural integration. Exhibitions alternated between East (Asian art and artifacts from Rudolph Schaeffer's collection or other sources) and West (student work or work of local artists illustrating the influence of the Asian esthetic on contemporary art and design). East West Gallery was a membership organization, the first space of its kind in San Francisco for Asian art and operated in each of the school's locations.
In addition to running the school Schaeffer was involved in many other activities. He wrote several articles about flower arrangement, color, and color theory that were published in popular magazines. In 1935, he published Flower Arrangement Folio I (said to be the first on the subject published in this country) and in 1942 edited and wrote the introduction to Sunset's Flower Arrangement Book by Nell True Welch. Over a period of many years, he worked on several monographs on color, design, and "rhythmo-chromatics." None were ever published.
A sought-after speaker on the subjects of color, interior design, flower arrangement, and myriad other art topics, Schaeffer frequently served as a juror for art exhibitions and flower shows. From the 1930s on, the San Francisco department store Emporium used his services as a color consultant, as did Dutch Boy paints, and numerous textile and clothing manufacturers. Builders also asked Schaeffer to select interior and exterior colors for suburban housing developments.
Schaeffer worked on planning and designing the decorative arts exhibition at the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition. In 1943-44, he participated in the Red Cross's Arts and Skills program, using color therapy with shell-shocked soldiers in a psychiatric unit.
The Rudolph Schaeffer Collection of Asian Art began as a collection of ceramics, both historical and contemporary examples chosen for their form and color, which he used for flower arrangements and in set-ups for still life classes. It soon expanded to include color prints, paintings, screens, and other works of art and portions were exhibited frequently in the East West Gallery. Selections from this collection were exhibited in Kansas City in 1960 and at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in 1976.
The City of San Francisco declared June 26, 1986, Schaeffer's 100th birthday, "Rudolph Schaeffer Day" and it was observed with great fanfare. He died at home on March 5, 1988, a few months before his 102nd birthday.
Provenance:
The Rudolph Schaeffer papers were donated in 1991 by Rudolph Schaeffer and the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design administrator Peter Docili, and in 1999 and 2000 by James Alexander, a friend of both Schaeffer and Docili, who had been storing portions of Docili's estate after his death in 1998, with the assistance of Frances Valesco, a fiber artist and researcher. An addition was received in 2007 by William Woodworth, a close friend and caretaker of Schaeffer's and in 2017 and 2018 by Frances Valesco.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of archival audiovisual recordings requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Topic:
Artists -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Designers -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- California -- San Francisco Search this
The Juliette Elkon Hamelecourt papers measure 3.1 linear feet and date from 1911-2000, with the bulk of the records dating from 1940s-2000. The papers document Hamelecourt's career through resumes, personal business records, and writings, as well as general correspondence, printed material, scrapbooks, and photographs. The collection also contains a series of interviews conducted by Hamelecourt with artists at the Chelsea Hotel in New York.
Scope and Contents:
The Juliette Elkon Hamelecourt papers measure 3.1 linear feet and date from 1911-2000, with the bulk of the records dating from 1940s-2000. Biographical material consists of resumes, notes and other writings, as well as some personal business records such as contracts, price lists, loan agreements, and consignment lists. Correspondents include customers, museums, galleries, friends, publishers, and family members and discussions regard exhibitions, sales, food, and personal matters. The collection's printed material consists of clippings about Hamelecourt, Haiti, the Chelsea Hotel, and other artists; exhibition announcements, invitations, and catalogs; press releases, newsletters, and bulletins; articles written by Hamelecourt; reproductions of her artwork; and the book jacket from Hamelecourt's Edith Cavell: Heroic Nurse (1958). Hamelecourt's scrapbooks contain a variety of material such as correspondence with museums, galleries, and family members about her life and artwork as well as correspondence for historical and cultural research purposes; photographs and slides of Hamelecourt, artwork, family, and friends; printed material; sketches; drafts of her autobiography; and biographical papers pertaining to her marriage in 1969. The collection also contains a series of interviews conducted by Hamelecourt with artists at the Chelsea Hotel including Arman, Bettina, Bernard Childs, Rita Fetcher, Eugenie Gershoy, Adolph Cook Glassgold, Maxwell Gordon, and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 6 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1972-1991 (Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1943-1999 (Box 1; 12 folders)
Series 3: Interviews with Chelsea Hotel Artists, circa 1980 (Box 1; 5 folders)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1943-2000 (Box 2; .8 linear feet)
Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1911-1999 (Box 2-3, OV 4; 1 linear foot)
Series 6: Photographs, 1940-1990s (Box 3; 5 folders)
Biographical / Historical:
Juliette Elkon Hamelecourt (1912-2002) was a fiber artist, tapissiere, and lecturer in Haiti, New York, and Cleveland. Hamelecourt was born in Belgium and spent her early years traveling with her father in England and China. Hamelecourt first learned needlework in China at the age of 10. After her father's death a couple of years later, she returned to live in Belgium with her grandparents where Hamelecourt worked alongside her grandmother who was a volunteer conservationist, repairing chasubles for the local clergy. Hamelecourt's early tapestries were ultimately lost or destroyed during World War II when she and her family moved to New York as refugees. Until the late 1950s she worked as a culinary editor, food consultant, and author of non-fiction, while needlework remained a hobby. Hamelecourt first visited Haiti reporting on French Caribbean cuisine in the late 1950s, and soon after moved there as a representative for the World Craft Council. In Haiti, she trained local women to embroider designs from their own environment and folklore. Hamelecourt moved to the Chelsea Hotel in New York around 1970, at this time she began receiving commissions for her work--some of which she sub-contracted to her Haitian embroiderers--and consulting as a designer. She established an embroidery workshop at the hotel with a grant from the New York Council on the Arts. Hamelecourt moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1980.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Juliette Hamelecourt, 1978-1997, and by the Juliette Elkon Hamelecourt estate via Leonard Spremulli in 2014.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Fiber artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Tapissiers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Juliette Elkon Hamelecourt papers, 1911-2000. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
The glaze recipes in the studio practice files are access restricted; written permission is required to view these documents. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Toshiko Takaezu papers, circa 1925-circa 2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Alice L. Walton Foundation.
The papers of fiber artist Claire Zeisler measure 3.5 linear feet and date from 1941 to 1992. Zeisler's career is documented through project files, printed materials, and scrapbooks. The bulk of the collection consists of twenty-two scrapbooks containing resumes and chronologies; an honorary degree; business correspondence with libraries, museums, and other institutions concerning exhibitions of Zeisler's work and the loan of her personal art collection; exhibition lists and condition reports; loan records; printed materials for exhibitons; and scattered sketches and hanging instructions. Project files contain documents relating to titled weavings and general works, and may include fabric samples, hanging instructions, plans, and material costs. Also found are three exhibition catalogs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of fiber artist Claire Zeisler measure 3.5 linear feet and date from 1941 to 1992. Zeisler's career is documented through project files, printed materials, and scrapbooks. The bulk of the collection consists of twenty-two scrapbooks containing resumes and chronologies; an honorary degree; business correspondence with libraries, museums, and other institutions concerning exhibitions of Zeisler's work and the loan of her personal art collection; exhibition lists and condition reports; loan records; printed materials for exhibitons; and scattered sketches and hanging instructions. Project files contain documents relating to titled weavings and general works, and may include fabric samples, hanging instructions, plans, and material costs. Also found are three exhibition catalogs.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as three series
Series 1: Project Files, circa 1941-1991 (0.8 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Printed Material, 1977-1987 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Scrapbooks, 1941-1992 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-5)
Biographical / Historical:
Claire Zeisler (1903-1991) was a fiber artist and art collector active in Chicago, Illinois.
Zeisler was born Claire Block in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1903. She studied at Columbia College Chicago but left to marry Harold Florsheim in 1921. The couple divorced in 1943 and she married Ernest Zeisler in 1946.
For much of her early life, Claire concentrated her interest in art on collecting. Throughout the 1930s, she acquired paintings by European modern artists such as Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso. Later, she collected paintings by American artists such as Franz Kline and Robert Rauschenberg. She expanded her collection to include textile works and baskets by Native Americans, and African sculpture among others.
After her divorce, she returned to the study of art at the Chicago Institute of Design and the Illinois Institute of Technology. She studied under Bea Swartchild who inspired a love for weaving. Zeisler's first works used traditional loom techniques but later she focused on knotting and braiding. She innovated free-falling fiber sculpture and her works helped push fiber art from craft to a fine art.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview of Claire Zeisler conducted by Dennis Barrie in June 1981.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel 3109) inluding scrapbooks lent by Ziesler in 1983. Some, but not all, of this material was included in later donations. This material remains with the lender and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Scrapbooks on reel 3019 were lent to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in August 1983 by Claire Zeisler. In 1992 her son and executor, Thomas Florsheim, donated additional scrapbooks, and project and weaving files. He interfiled new material in the previously microfilmed scrapbooks, 1941-1983, expanding them from eight notebooks to thirteen.
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.
An interview of Nancy Crow conducted 2002 December 18, by Jean Robertson, for the Archives of American Art, at her home and studio, in Baltimore, Ohio, as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Crow speaks of her early childhood and her father's high standards; her early interest in color; her studies at Ohio State University and her first ceramics professor Edgar Littlefield; joining the textile guild in Athens, Ohio; how her quilting evolved from traditional to contemporary and abstract forms; her practice of working on several quilts simultaneously; the influence of Anna Williams, a quiltmaker in Baton Rouge, Alabama; and she describes her studio. Crow also discusses her association with the Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia; a trip to China that resulted in the series Chinese Souls; and how beauty is her ultimate goal. She talks about her travels to Mexico and South Africa; her technical mastery of strip piecing; working at home while raising two sons; the dyeing process; her sketchbooks; her long-term working relationship with hand quilter, Marla Hattabaugh; teaching at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts; the beginnings of the Quilt National Show at the Dairy Barn; the Ohio Arts Council; the Art Quilt Network; periodicals including FiberArts, Surface Design, Hali, and Raw Vision; two seminal exhibitions in her career, "Nancy Crow: Work in Transition," at the American Craft Museum, 1993, and "Nancy Crow -- Improvisational Quilts," at the Renwick Gallery, 1995; and the changing market for quilts in America. She recalls Bruce Hoffman, Rick and Ruth Snyderman, Jan Myers-Newberry, Rosalie Gascoigne, Sandra Blaine, Vivian Harvey; Linda Fowler, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Nancy Crow (1943- ) is a fiber artist and quiltmaker in Baltimore, Ohio.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 31 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. Researchers note: A separate 1988 interview of Crow, also conducted by Robertson is also available.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
The Dennis Barrie interviews of Ohio artists measures 2.0 linear feet and date from circa 1984. Video recordings with five Ohio artists, originally titled the "Artists in Residence Series," were produced by the New Organization for the Visual Arts in conjunction with the Archives of American Art. Dennis Barrie, Midwest Director of the Archives of American Art, interviews painters Patricia Zinsmeister Parker and Ken Nevadomi, sculptor John Clague, fiber artist Wenda Von Weise, and ceramicist George Roby. Each discusses their background, training, lifestyle, and problems they've faced as artists. The videocassette recordings are dated 1984, but the interviews may have occurred in 1980.
Scope and Contents:
The Dennis Barrie interviews of Ohio artists measures 2.0 linear feet and date from circa 1984. Video recordings with five Ohio artists, originally titled the "Artists in Residence Series," were produced by the New Organization for the Visual Arts in conjunction with the Archives of American Art. Dennis Barrie, Midwest Director of the Archives of American Art, interviews painters Patricia Zinsmeister Parker and Ken Nevadomi, sculptor John Clague, fiber artist Wenda Von Weise, and ceramicist George Roby. Each discusses their background, training, lifestyle, and problems they've faced as artists. The videocassette recordings are dated 1984, but the interviews may have occurred in 1980.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Dennis Barrie was the Director for the Midwest Office of the Archives of American Art in the 1970s and 1980s.
Provenance:
A project of the New Organization of the Visual Arts and Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. The interviews were conducted by Dennis Barrie, Director of the Midwest Office of the Archives of American Art.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Dennis Barrie interviews with Ohio artists, circa 1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
The Dennis Barrie interviews of Ohio artists were produced by the New Organization for the Visual Arts in conjunction with the Archives of American Art. The project was originally titled the "Artists in Residence Series." Dennis Barrie, Midwest Director of the Archives of American Art, in five separate videos, interviews Ohio artists, including painters Patricia Zinsmeister Parker and Ken Nevadomi, sculptor John Clague, fiber artist Wenda Von Weise, and ceramicist George Roby. Each discusses their background, training, lifestyle, and problems they've faced as artists. The videos are dated 1984, but may have orignally been created in 1980. Production included Paula L. Grooms, producer, and videographers, Howard J. Schwartz, Eric P. Caldwell.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Dennis Barrie interviews with Ohio artists, circa 1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Carolyn Mazloomi, 2002 September 17-30. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Nancy Crow, 2002 December 18. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Glen Kaufman, 2008 January 22-February 23. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
