Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Peter Cook in honor of Julian Francis Abele and Julian Abele Cook, Sr.
An interview with Alexis Smith conducted 2014 January 24 and April 14, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art at Smith's studio, in Venice, California.
Ms. Smith discusses growing up in Southern California and her early years living with her parents on the grounds of Metropolitan State Hospital, a mental institution in Norwalk, California; her mother's death when Ms. Smith was 11; the family's time in Whittier and Palm Springs and being raised as an only child by her father; her early interest in French studies and travel to France as a student; her interest in studying art beginning with a John Coplans class at UC Irvine; her time at at UC Irvine in the early days of the university and her growing attraction to the life of an artist; the origin of her name Alexis Smith; and the encouragement of her fellow artists to continue pursuing her cut-up collages from literature, photos, magazines, and Hollywood ephemera. Ms. Smith also describes her time with her artist women's group in the 70s; her husband Scott Grieger; working for Frank Gehry; her showing with the Nicholas Wilder Gallery; her relationship with Chris Burden and her time with him during his period of performance pieces in the 70s; the Riko Mizuno Gallery; her work with terrazzo and its use for installations at the LA Convention Center, Ohio State University, and other installations; the appropriation of text and the assistance of Jerry Solomon utilizing custom frames in her artwork; the impact of women from history, media and literature on her art; her relationship with Coy Howard; the Holly Solomon Gallery; her Jane series; her On the Road series; her installation Snake Path at UC San Diego; her piece for SITE Santa Fe Red Carpet; teaching at UCLA; her installation of the piece Scarlet Letter at Las Vegas Central Library and its subsequent removal; her associations with Margo Leavin Gallery and Honor Fraser gallery; and the loss of her long-time studio space and the challenges of storing her artwork. Ms. Smith also recalls Judy Chicago, Robert Irwin, Vija Celmins, Larry Bell, Barbara Burden, Richard Sedivy, Avilda Moses, Craig Krull, and Allen Ruppersberg among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Alexis Smith (1949- ) is a collage, multimedia, and installation artist in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is an art critic and writer from Beverly Hills, California.
General:
Originally recorded as 5 sound files. Duration is 3 hr., 11 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.
Occupation:
Collagists -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
The papers of California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002) date from 1958-1992, and measure 17.45 linear feet. The collection includes documentation of Wortz's tenure at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she specialized in collecting and presenting the California "light and space" artists during the 1970s and 1980s. Wortz's papers include biographical information, personal and professional correspondence, interview transcripts and sound recordings, professional and student writings and notes, diaries of five trips abroad, UCI administrative, dossier, and teaching files, general subject and artist files, printed material, several pieces of artwork; and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002) date from 1958-1992, and measure 17.45 linear feet. The collection includes documentation of Wortz's tenure at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she specialized in collecting and presenting the California Light and Space artists during the 1970s and 1980s. Wortz's papers include biographical information, personal and professional correspondence, interview transcripts and sound recordings, professional and student writings and notes, diaries of five trips abroad, UCI administrative, dossier, and teaching files, general subject and artist files, printed material, several pieces of artwork; and photographs.
Wortz's biographical material includes annotated appointment books and calendars, resumes, and some family, financial, and legal records.
Correspondence files document Wortz's activities beyond her work at UCI, including scattered correspondence with artists such as Eleanor Antin, Daniel Barber, Christo, Craig Kauffman, Cork Marchesi, Martha Rosler, Eve Sonneman, Hap Tivey, and Elsa Warner. Correspondence also relates to arrangements for lectures, juries, panels, symposiums, and other professional activities in which Wortz participated.
Interviews include transcripts of four interviews conducted by Wortz with subjects including Peter Lodato and Dewain Valentine, and a sound recording of an interview with Nina Wiener.
Writings and notes include drafts, and some published copies, of articles and essays written for journals, magazines, and exhibition catalogs; Wortz's dissertation and thesis; notes; student essays and class notes; and scattered writings by others. Included in the published works are copies of Artweek containing articles by Wortz, and drafts and published copies of essays on Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Jasper Johns, Jay McCafferty, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Rauschenberg, Klaus Rinke, Beth Ames Schwartz, and James Turrell.
Diaries document five separate overseas trips to locations including Asia in 1977, Paris in 1978, and the U.S.S.R., where Wortz delivered a paper on Robert Irwin, in 1989.
University of California, Irvine, records include Wortz's administrative files documenting her work on various committees, her directorship of the Fine Arts Gallery, including budget and exhibition records, her work as Chair of Studio Art, and her collaborations with other faculty, including Judy Baca, Sandy Ballatore, Tony Delap, Craig Kauffman, and Rena Small. Wortz's dossier files provide a thorough record of her accomplishments from the late 1970s-1990, and her UCI teaching files document the content of core art courses which she taught at UCI in the 1970s and 1980s.
Subject files provide additional documentation of Wortz's interest in particular artists and subjects, and include scattered correspondence with artists, as well as additional correspondence, reports, printed material, index card files, sound cassettes, and photographs, documenting her interests in art and politics, feminism, religion and spirituality, museum management and training, and other subjects.
Printed material includes announcements, catalogs, journals, newsletters, and material specifically documenting Wortz's activities.
Artwork includes a piece of floor covering from a Jim Dine exhibition, a booklet by Daniel Barber, Flams by Rena Livkin, and several pieces of unidentified artwork.
Photographs include photos of Wortz with her family and with UCI faculty including Tony DeLap, Craig Kauffman, and Ed Moses; photos of events with friends and family, including Hap Tivey's wedding to Liza Todd with Elizabeth Taylor in attendance; photos of artists including Frederick Eversley, Bill Harding, Jack Ox, and Stephen Zaimo; and photos of artwork by artists including Tony DeLap, Barbara Smith, Marc Van Der Marck, and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as ten series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1966-1988 (0.25 linear feet; Boxes 1, 19)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1967-1992 (1.25 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 18)
Series 3: Interviews, 1971-circa 1980s (6 folders; Boxes 2, 18)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1958-circa 1990 (4.25 linear feet; Boxes 2-6, 19)
Series 5: Diaries, 1977-1989 (6 folders; Box 6)
Series 6: University of California, Irvine, 1960-1991 (4.8 linear feet; Boxes 6-11, OV 20)
Series 7: Subject Files, circa 1960-1990 (4.25 linear feet; Boxes 11-15, 18)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1960s-1980s (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 15-16, 19)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1960s-circa 1980s (3 folders; Boxes 17, 19)
Series 10: Photographs, 1960s-1980s (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 17, 19)
Biographical / Historical:
California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002), taught at the University of California, Irvine, from 1975, serving as Director of UCI's Fine Arts Gallery and Chair of the Department of Studio Art. Wortz's special area of interest was the work of the California "light and space" artists emerging in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
After attending Stanford University and graduating from Radcliffe College with a bachelors degree in art history, Wortz received her masters degree in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her doctorate in theology and the arts from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley. Wortz taught at California State University and the University of California Extension in the early 1970s. At UCI her colleagues included Judy Baca, Sandy Ballatore, Tony Delap, Craig Kauffman, and Rena Small.
Wortz married Edward C. Wortz in the early 1970s, following her divorce from her first husband, Thomas G. Terbell, Jr. Edward Wortz's first career was as a research scientist working on NASA contracts in the air research industry in Colorado and California. Later he was involved in the arts and participated in collaborations with artists including Robert Irwin, Coy Howard, and James Turrell. He worked with Melinda Wortz to develop their personal collection of contemporary art.
Melinda Wortz was a prolific writer who wrote extensively for national art periodicals, including Arts Magazine, and Art News. She also wrote, and served as editor, for the California periodical Artweek from the 1960s to 1990s. She wrote numerous catalogs for artists including Larry Bell, Cork Marchesi, Doug Moran, Beth Ames Schwartz, and James Turrell; and published articles on Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and others. She lectured at Brown University, the Center for Art, Salt Lake City, Contemporary Art Museum, La Jolla, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the San Diego Museum, Wellesley College, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and many other institutions. In 1989 she traveled to the U.S.S.R. to deliver a paper on Robert Irwin at the International Art Critics Association annual meeting.
In addition to her curatorial work at the UCI Fine Arts Gallery, where she organized exhibitions for artists including Alice Aycock, Jonathan Borofsky, Audrey Flack, Jack Ox, and Dennis Oppenheim, Wortz curated exhibitions for University of California sister colleges, Pasadena Art Museum, and others.
Wortz received UCI and National Endowment for the Arts grants in support of her writing, and served on advisory boards of the Contemporary Arts Forum, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, Robert Rauschenberg's foundation, Advisory Board of Change, Inc., the Pasadena Art Museum, and others.
Wortz was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease at the age of 50 and died in 2002.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Edward C. Wortz, Melinda Wortz's husband, in 1994.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art historians -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Biographical material consists of awards, certificates, curriculum vitae, biographical outlines, exhibition lists, passports and other material. There is a partial transcript from a radio interview of Anna Walinska. Also included are limited financial records.
Correspondence includes Anna Walinska's letters to her family from her 1954-1955 trip abroad to multiple countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. There is personal and professional correspondence with friends, artists and art institutions. Notable correspondents include Milton Avery, Louise Nevelson, Beata Welsing, Bracha Hacohen, William Littlefield, and Walinska's brother Louis Walinsky.
Writings consist of Walinska's notes, notebooks, lectures, essays, and a handwritten prospectus for Guild Art Gallery. There is one folder of writings by others about Walinska at the end of the series.
There are four travel diaries that describe Walinska's trip around the world from 1954-1955, during which she traveled to many countries, and later trips to locations such as Israel and Trinidad.
Printed Material include clippings about Anna Walinska, group and solo exhibition catalogs, announcements, event invitations, and course catalogs for the Master Institute of United Art in New York City, where Walinska taught painting and drawing classes.
There are three scrapbooks: one scrapbook is about Guild Art Gallery, the second scrapbook is about the Holocaust exhibition, the third oversized scrapbook documents Walinska's career and activities overall.
Artwork consists of two bound sketchbooks as well as drawings and sketches in a variety of mediums from pencil and ink to watercolors and oils.
Photographs are of Walinska, friends, family, artists, artwork, exhibition installations, and other subjects. One album includes photos of Anna Walinska and her travels, along with images of friends and colleagues. The second album includes photographs of Walinska's solo exhibition at Sunken Meadow Gallery (1959). There is also one folder of photocopies of photos of assorted artwork by Walinska.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1927-2002 (Box 1; 11 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1949-1995 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1935-circa 1983 (Box 1; 8 folders)
Series 4: Travel Diaries, 1954-1973 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1942-2002 (Boxes 1-2; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, circa 1929-1980 (Boxes 2, 4; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1929-1963 (Box 3; 5 folders)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1932-1980 (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Anna Walinska (1906-1997) was a New York artist, teacher and gallery director who traveled widely and is most well known for her paintings related to the subject of the Holocaust.
Anna Walinska was born in London, England in 1906 to labor organization leader Ossip Walinsky and poet Rosa Newman Walinska. She had two siblings, Emily and Louis. The family immigrated to New York City in 1914, and Anna Walinska began studying at the Art Students League in 1918. In 1926, she travelled to Paris and studied art at the Academie de Grande Chaumier with Andre L'Hote. France was her primary residence until 1930.
In 1935, Walinska and artist Margaret Lefranc co-founded the Guild Art Gallery at West 57th Street in New York and gave Arshile Gorky his first solo exhibition in the city. The gallery closed its doors in 1937. In 1939, Walinska was the Assistant Creative Director of the Contemporary Art Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. During this time, Walinska also pursued her own art and exhibited work in numerous group shows.
From 1954 to 1955, Walinska traveled around the world, visiting the capitals and major cities of many countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Places she went included Japan, Burma (now known as Myanmar), Pakistan, Greece, Italy, France and Spain. During her four month stay in Burma, she painted a portrait of Prime Minister U Nu and she later became a highly respected portrait artist who painted numerous illustrious subjects such as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, artists Louise Nevelson and Mark Rothko, and many others.
In 1957, Walinska became the artist-in-residence at the Riverside Museum where she also taught and exhibited with other artists. That same year, she had her first retrospective at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
Walinska exhibited widely and often. Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings, 1953-1978, which opened at the Museum of Religious Art at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, is probably the most well-known of her exhibitions and it traveled across the country to several other sites such as the War Memorial Building in Baltimore and Mercy College of Detroit. Works from this exhibition were acquired by multiple museums to become part of their permanent collections.
Walinkska died on December 19, 1997 at the age of 91 in New York City. In 1999, there was a retrospective of her work titled Echoes of the Holocaust: Paintings, Drawings, and Collage, 1940-1989 held at Clark University's Center for Holocaust Studies. The Onisaburo Gallery at New York's Interfaith Center also held a solo exhibition titled Portraits of Faith (2000). Her art is part of the collections at the Denver Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Rose Art Museum, and other museums.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also has the Guild Art Gallery records, which consists of material related to the gallery that was co-founded by Anna Walinska.
Provenance:
The papers were donated by Anna Walinska in two installations in 1976 and 1981. Rosina Rubin, Anna Walinska's niece, made a third donation of material in 2017.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., research center.
Occupation:
Gallery directors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Madagascar introduction de m. le gouverneur général Cayla texte et légendes de G. Petit, photos de R. Mourlan. Ouvrage honoré d'une souscription du Ministère des colonies et du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
The papers of abstract expressionist painter and playwright Paul Jenkins measure 11.1 linear feet and date from circa 1915 to 2010. Jenkins's career in New York and Paris is documented through biographical material, family papers, correspondence, writings, personal business records, printed material, photographs of Jenkins in his studio and at various events, and original artwork by Jenkins and others.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of abstract expressionist painter and playwright Paul Jenkins measure 11.1 linear feet and date from circa 1915 to 2010. Jenkins's career in New York and Paris is documented through biographical material, family papers, correspondence, writings, personal business records, printed material, photographs of Jenkins in his studio and at various events, and original artwork by Jenkins and others.
Biographical material and family papers consist of awards and certificates, calendars, marriage, divorce, and estate papers, and military service records. Also included are family papers and a scrapbook belonging to Jenkins's aunt, Louise Jenkins.
Correspondence, which makes up the bulk of the collection, is with family, friends, and fellow artists, including Alice Baber, Norman Bluhm, Willem de Kooning, and Lee Krasner Pollock, as well as art organizations, schools, museums, galleries, and gallery owners, such as the Art Students League of New York, New York University, Museum of Modern Art, Martha Jackson Gallery, Zoe Dusanne, and Peggy Guggenheim.
Writings includes scattered writings by Paul Jenkins, two of his travel diaries, and the guest book for an exhibition in Tokyo. Also found are a copy of Lili Krahmer Verame's China travel diary and the writings and research materials of others.
Personal business records consist of financial records, lease documents, price lists, travel documents, and papers regarding Jenkins's rental property. Also included are a file on the New York University medal designed by Jenkins and a file concerning a Karl Prantl statue.
Printed material consists of event programs, newsletters, bulletins, member reports, press releases, art exhibition announcements and catalogs, concert and theater announcements and programs, news and magazine clippings, and obituaries and memorial announcements.
Artwork contains miscellaneous sketches and collages by Paul Jenkins. Additional artworks include sketches, watercolors, and prints by other artists, as well as 8 oversize mixed media sketches by Frank Prince of Jenkins's Meditation Mandala Sundial sculptures.
Photographs of Paul Jenkins depict him in his studio, with family and friends, and at events. Photographs of family and friends include Esther Ebenhoe Jenkins, Alice Baber Jenkins, Norman Bluhm, Thomas Erma, Françoise Gilot, Matsumi "Mike," Carole, and Bunshi Paul Kanemitsu, and Frank Prince.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1915-1997 (Box 1; 9 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1930-2010 (Box 1-9, 13; 9 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1950-2003 (Box 9-10; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, circa 1944-1990 (Box 10; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1952-2010 (Box 10-11; 0.6 linear feet)
Aeries 6: Artwork, circa 1935-2007 (Box 11-12, OV 14; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 7: Photography, circa 1940-1998 (Box 12; 0.4 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Paul Jenkins (1923-2012) was an abstract expressionist painter and playwright in New York, New York, and Paris, France. Jenkins was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923, and moved to Youngstown, Ohio as a teenager. After serving in the U.S. Maritime Service and the U.S. Naval Air Corps, Jenkins studied playwriting with George McCalmon at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). In 1948, he moved to New York City, where he studied with Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League of New York.
Over the course of his career, Jenkins experimented with multiple techniques, including oil on primed canvas, flowing paints, acrylics, watercolor, and mixed media collages. After traveling extensively and meeting many artists, Jenkins ultimately became associated with the Abstract Expressionists. His work gained the attention of other members of the art world and he held solo exhibitions at venues such as the Zoe Dusanne Gallery in Seattle and the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. Jenkins' paintings were purchased by both museums and private collectors, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Peggy Guggenheim.
In addition to his painting, Jenkins continued to explore other creative endeavors. He experimented with sculpture, producing works for events and permanent displays, including the Sculptors' Symposium at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and the Sculpture Garden of the Hofstra Museum. His plays, such as Strike the Puma, were published and performed off Broadway in New York City. Jenkins's art served as the backdrop for multiple stage productions, and in 1978, his paintings were featured in the Academy Award nominated movie An Unmarried Woman. Jenkins also collaborated on a number of book projects, including Anatomy of a Cloud, a collection of autobiographical collages and texts.
Throughout his adult life, Jenkins split most of his time between New York and Paris. He continued to create and exhibit new works until his death in New York in 2012.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art are an interview of Paul Jenkins, August 1969, conducted by Albert Elsen, and an oral history interview, 1968, conducted by Colette Roberts.
Provenance:
The papers were donated 2007-2009 and in 2012 by Paul and Suzanne Jenkins.
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.
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.
The donor has retained all intellectual property rights, including copyright, that they may own.
The papers of sculptor Karl Bitter date from 1887 to 1977 and measure 2.5 linear feet. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs of works of art and commemorative medals from expositions. Also found are scattered biographical information, family correspondence, two diaries, printed materials, sketchbooks, and sketches.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of sculptor Karl Bitter date from 1887 to 1977 and measure 2.5 linear feet. The bulk of the collection consists of photographs of works of art and commemorative medals from expositions. Also found are scattered biographical information, family correspondence, two diaries, printed materials, sketches, and sketchbooks.
Biographical material consists of one short biography of Karl Bitter. The bulk of the correspondence is to Bitter's children, Marietta (Mrs. Walter Abel) and Francis Bitter, and relates to the relocation of Bitter's caryatid sculptures on the St. Paul Building in New York City. There are typescripts of letters from Karl Bitter to sculptor Daniel C. French and from Marie Bitter to her children.
Two diaries from 1901 and 1909 kept by Bitter describe his trips abroad. The 1901 diary is similar to a scrapbook and was kept during his honeymoon with Marie Schevill. Their travels through France and Italy are vividly described through prose, sketches, maps, postcards, and a photo of Bitter and Marie. A 1909 diary is from Bitter's first trip back to Austria since he left for the United States. Written in the form of letters to his wife, he describes his reactions to being back in Europe, seeing his family, and sightseeing.
Scattered printed material includes a clipping, an exhibition announcement, a postcard, and reproductions of works of art by Bitter.
Photographs are of Bitter, his family and friends, studios, and sculpture. Also found are two photo albums containing many images of Bitter's sculptures throughout the country.
There are two sketchbooks and a print by Blanche Stollson. Also found are Bitter's commemorative medals from various international expositions.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1927 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 2: Family Correspondence, 1915-1958 (Box 1, 3 folders)
Series 3: Diaries, 1901-1909 (Box 1, 3; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1912-circa 1977 (Box 1, OV 7; 4 folders)
Series 5: Photographic Materials, 1887-circa 1960s (Box 1-5, OV 7; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 6: Artwork and Artifacts, circa 1890-1915 (Box 1, 3, 6; 1 linear foot)
Biographical / Historical:
Austrian-born sculptor Karl Bitter (1867-1915) was active in New York City, New York. He exhibited his works at worldwide expositions and examples of his sculpture and memorials can be found throughout the United States.
Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was born in Vienna, Austria, where he trained as a sculptor. While serving in the Austrian military in 1889, Bitter immigrated to the United States and applied for citizenship. Ultimately, Bitter settled in New York City and worked as an assistant in a home decorating firm while establishing his reputation as a sculptor. After winning a 1930 competition to design the Astor memorial bronze gates at Trinity Church, he used the funds to establish a small studio on 13th Street, which he shared with fellow sculptor Giuseppe Moretti. Bitter quickly established himself as a world-famous scuptor who also specialized in private memorials and works for public buildings.
After working as a sculptor at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and as director at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in 1901, Bitter was named head of the sculpture programs at both the 1904 St. Louis Exposition and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco, California.
Bitter was awarded the silver medal of the Paris Exposition, 1900; the gold medal of the Pan-American Exposition, 1901; and the gold medal at the St. Louis Exposition, 1904. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Design, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Players' Club, Century Club, and the Architectural League.
Karl Bitter married Marie Schevill with whom he had three children. He died suddenly in 1915 after being struck by a car.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels N70-8 and N70-35) including biographical material, correspondence, and photographs. While most of these materials were later donated, the photographs remain with the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Portions of the Karl Theodore Francis Bitter papers were lent for microfilming by Bitter's daughter, Marietta Bitter Abel, in 1969. Marietta Bitter Abel, Mr. Michael Abel, and Lt. Col. Jonathon F. Abel donated most of the loaned material excluding the photographs along with additional items in several increments from 1970-2010. The commemorative medals were gifted in 1975 by Walter Hancock, a friend of Bitter's son Francis.
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.
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.
The collection documents Louis S. Nixdorff's participation in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. He was a member of the University lacrosse team that represented the United States.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains an oversize scrapbook of newspaper clippings, loose clippings from a Baltimore newspaper Sunday supplements, a diary recorded by Nixdorff, and an album of photographs that Nixdorff took on the Amsterdam visit and several other trips.
The newspaper clippings in an oversize scrapbook follow the fortunes of the Johns Hopkins University lacrosse team, national champions for 1926 and 1927, through its 1928 season, a post-season series, the playoffs to represent the United States at the Olympic Games in the summer of 1928, and the Olympic lacrosse games in Amsterdam. Newspaper clippings years later reminisce about the 1928 lacrosse team at the Olympic games in Amsterdam.
The newspaper clippings recounting various games are seldom identified and most of the articles are not dated. Some are from the Baltimore Post, later taken over by the News and were written by Yale Merrill. Others are from the Sunpapers, morning and evening. Some carry an Associated Press identification. Many of the accounts of the 1928 intercollegiate season prior to the Olympic Games were written by W. Wilson Wingate. Some of the news clippings are incomplete.
The trip of the 268 Olympic athletes to Amsterdam on the S.S. President Roosevelt is described graphically by Louis S. Nixdorff in his diary. The diary transcript included later in this Register has been transcribed exactly as written by the author, regardless of omissions of obvious words or occasional misspellings. The diary entries relating to the voyage clearly depict the boredom of the long voyage for young athletes eager to get to Amsterdam and compete in the Olympics. Training was continued during the trip insofar as it was possible on shipboard. Training and meals represented welcome relief from the monotony of the journey.
The diary is written in a clear hand in a soft-cover, lined notebook. Nixdorff presumably purchased it specifically to put his thoughts and observations down on this exciting and, to him, historic trip. The diary covers the period from the departure of the lacrosse team from the Baltimore and Ohio railroad station in Baltimore for New York on July 10, 1928, to the departure from Cherbourg for home on August 15, 1928. It includes Mr. Nixdorff's accounts of shipboard life, the game against the Canadians that the Americans won and their loss to the English team on the following day. England's subsequent loss to Canada meant that each team had a win and a loss. No team was declared a victor. The diary also covers a one-week stay in Paris, including a trip to the nearby World War I battlefields.
The collection contains snapshots that Nixdorff took on the S.S. President Roosevelt en route to Amsterdam, and images of Olympic events and of sightseeing in and around Amsterdam and Paris. These photographs mounted in an album portray an individual's effort to document his travels in a meaningful way.
Other material in the collection includes copies of three reminiscent articles published in the Baltimore Sun magazine section on April 5, 1951, June 26, 1955, and April 23, 1978; photogravure pictures of a Hopkins University of Virginia game and a Hopkins-University of Maryland game without attribution or date; Mr. Nixdorff's visa for France; Gen. Douglas MacArthur's report on the ninth Olympiad to the president of the United States; the official program for August 5, 1928; the passenger list for the S.S. President Roosevelt's return to New York; a cloth Olympic blazer patch; and two cloth lacrosse numbers.
This collection represents a contribution to both sports history and the history of the Olympics. The collection complements several Archives Center photographic collections, emphasizing international travel and touring by an American between the two World Wars.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into five series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1926-1987
Series 2: Diary, 1928
Series 3: Photographs, 1928
Series 4: Newspaper clippings/Scrapbook, 1928, 1951, 1955, 1978
Series 5: Programs, Awards, Invitations, 1928
Biographical / Historical:
Louis S. Nixdorff (October 1, 1906-January 23, 1992), a native Baltimorean, spent his life there. He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in 1924 and from the Johns Hopkins University in 1928 with a degree in business administration. While attending Johns Hopkins he was a member of the University lacrosse team that represented the United States at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. He later became a real estate executive and president of Properties Incorporated in Baltimore. Mr. Nixdorff continued to make real estate appraisals and to manage properties after retirement. He belonged to the Johns Hopkins Club, the Baltimore City Real Estate Brokers Round Table and the Maryland Historical Society. He also was an enthusiastic golfer.
The tremendous interest and excitement generated by lacrosse in Baltimore in 1928 is clear from the press coverage of intercollegiate lacrosse for that year. Stories on important games began at least a day before the event, continued during the day of the game in morning and evening papers and lasted for at least a day afterward.
The process that culminated in the selection of the Johns Hopkins University team to represent the United States in the Olympic games in Amsterdam was a formal one. The lacrosse ladder selected by the Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association to place before the Olympic Committee included ten teams. Of these, six were chosen by the Olympic Lacrosse Committee for national playoffs: the Mount Washington Club, Army, Navy, the University of Maryland, Rutgers and the Johns Hopkins University. In the playoffs the University of Maryland defeated Rutgers 7-2 and Navy 6-2. Hopkins defeated Mt. Washington 6-4 and Army 4-2. In ever-mounting excitement, Hopkins on June 23, 1928, overwhelmed Maryland 6-3. The executive committee of the American Olympics Commission formally ratified this selection of the Johns Hopkins University lacrosse team to represent the United States at the 1928 Olympics. Four members of that team are in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame: C. Gardner Mallonee, John Lang, Tom Biddison, and Bill Logan.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
George W. Sims Collection (AC0127)
Clyde W. Stauffer Photographic Album (AC0139)
Donald Sultner-Welles Collection (AC0145)
Separated Materials:
An Olympic blazer patch and two lacrosse numbers are in the Division of Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life).
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center by Mrs. Anne Byrd Nixdorff, January 1992.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
An interview of Betty Woodman conducted 2003 April 22 and 29, by John Perreault, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in New York, New York.
Woodman speaks of frequent moves with her family during her childhood; her father's woodworking skills; gaining an interest in arts and crafts at four when she made a tablecloth with crayon drawings; attending summer camps, including Girl Scout Camp, where she participated in arts and crafts activities; being the first girl to take shop in her middle school; making model airplanes for air raid wardens during World War II; her interest in making functional objects; her introduction to clay and hand-building in high school; attending the School for American Craftsmen in New York City; collaborating with fellow students; her early desire to be a "craftsperson and not an artist"; her work with silk-screen fabric for The Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia and glass at CIRVA in Marseille, France; teaching at the University of Colorado and the City of Boulder Recreation Department; working at the European Ceramic Work Center in Den Bosch, Holland, and the Bellagio Study Center in Italy; her studios in New York, Colorado, and Italy; her travels to India, The Netherlands, and Mexico; living in New Mexico, New York, Colorado, and Italy; her business Roadrunner Pottery in New Mexico with partner Elenita Brown; collaborative projects with Joyce Kozloff, Cynthia Carlson, Bud Shark, Judith Solodkin, and her husband George Woodman; developing a following in New York; how being a woman has affected her work and how she enjoys working with other women artists; the change of market for American crafts; Italian, Greek, and Etruscan influences; teaching experiences; the importance of getting reviews in art magazines; and the strong support from her husband George, a painter. Betty Woodman recalls Lynn Feelyn, Olan Wassen, Bernard Leach, Peter Voulkos, Shoji Hamada, Bob Kushner, Richard Serra, Wayne Higby, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Betty Woodman (1930-2018) was a ceramist from New York, New York. John Perreault (1937- ) is an independent critic and curator from New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 55 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.
Occupation:
Ceramicists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Interview of Jason Berger, conducted 1979 January 12 and 1980 February 1, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Berger speaks of growing up in Massachusetts; serving in the Army during World War II; studying and teaching at the Museum School in Boston; marrying his wife, Marilyn Powers; studying sculpture in France; exhibiting at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and other galleries; the art collective Direct Vision; being fired from the Museum School; and teaching at SUNY Buffalo and the Art Institute of Boston. Berger also recalls Karl Zerbe, Ture Bengtz, Hyman Bloom, Hyman Swetzoff, Jack Levine, Leslie Fiedler, Clemens Benda, Ossip Zadkine, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Jason Berger (1924-2010) is a painter and printmaker from Brookline, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 5 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Howard Ben Tré conducted 2007 July 7, by Josephine Shea, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the artist's studio, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Ben Tré speaks of his childhood in Rockaway Park, New York; his Polish immigrant father who was a woodworker and artist; inheriting a particular aesthetic and sense of hard work from his father; attending Brooklyn Technical High School to play football but not graduating; moving to Marshall, Missouri to attend Missouri Valley College for one year; attending Brooklyn College; becoming involved in Students for a Democratic Society, the antiwar movement and civil rights movement of the 1960s; traveling to Cuba as part of the first Venceremos Brigade to cut sugarcane in 1969; meeting his first wife, Gay, in Cuba and returning to New York with her; organizing a food co-op and community events in Brooklyn; moving to Portland, Oregon; working in construction for the city before going back to school to study veterinarian medicine at Portland State University; discovering the glass studio in a garage at Portland State; meeting Dale Chihuly and working at Pilchuck Glass School; utilizing the foundry skills learned from Brooklyn Technical High to work with glass in casting and cope and drag methods; his series Burial Boxes and the influence of ancient architecture and ceremonial Chinese bronzes; the rise of the studio glass movement as symptomatic of socio-political-economic times, not just the pioneering efforts of Harvey Littleton and Dominic Labino; traveling throughout Europe with Gay; visiting Stanislav Libenský and Jaraslava Brychtová in Czechoslovakia; visiting Dan Dailey at Cristallerie Daum in France; attending Rhode Island School of Design [RISD]; his first show at Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery in 1980; teaching experiences at Haystack Mountain School of Craft and Appalachian Center for Craft; building and installing an oven at Blenko Glass in Milton, West Virginia and at Super Glass in Brooklyn; working with Mold Melted Glass Studio in Pelechov, Czech Republic; the history of glass and early glass-working techniques; his many commissions, including sited public projects such as Post Office Square in Boston; the adoption of his name, Ben Tré; return visits to Cuba; working with RISD to create a winter study session in Havana; and his view of artists as artists, not defined by medium. Ben Tré also recalls Anthony Parker, Italo Scanga, Ron Onorato, Alice Aycock, Ferdinand Hampson, Steven Polander, Karen LaMonte, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Howard Ben Tré (1949- 2020) was a glass artist from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Josephine Shea is a curator from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.
General:
Originally recorded 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 3 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.
Webster, E. Ambrose (Edwin Ambrose), 1869-1935 Search this
Extent:
2.2 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Postcards
Notebooks
Notes
Sketches
Scrapbooks
Place:
Chile -- description and travel
Paris (France) -- description and travel
Provincetown (Mass.) -- Description and Travel
Date:
1890-1991
Summary:
The papers of painter Houghton Cranford Smith measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1890-1991. They consist of eight scrapbooks compiled by his widow containing correspondence with family and friends, biographical materials, sketches, school work, extensive clippings, exhibition catalogs, travel documents and numerous photographs of family and friends.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter Houghton Cranford Smith measure 2.2 linear feet and date from 1890-1991. They consist of eight scrapbooks compiled by his widow containing correspondence with family and friends, biographical materials, sketches, school work, extensive clippings, exhibition catalogs, travel documents and numerous photographs of family and friends.
Biographical materials include photographs of Smith, of his artwork and of friends and family in Provincetown and New Mexico, school documents from the Foebel Academy, the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and the Art Students' League, autographed menus, correspondence, including postcards and letters to family and friends sent from Bermuda and Jamaica, customs declarations, exhibition catalogs, newspaper clippings, a passport to Chile, newsletters, and Smith's teaching contract from the University of Kansas. Additionally, there are significant photographs and letters documenting Smith's art studies with E. Ambrose Webster at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The collection also includes Smith's correspondence from France and South America. A significant portion of the collection includes papers from his time in France from 1913-1914, where he studied at the Parisian art school Academie Julian. These include a log from a tandem bicycle trip with classmate Harold P. Browne, an invitation to the Bal Randolphe, a Browne Art Class brochure and a narrative entitled "A Party of Fugitives from France," which describes Smith's forced fleeing from France after the French mobilization in 1914. There are also papers describing his South American travels which include notes and correspondence about Argentina, Uruguay and his time in Chile, which spans five years.
Materials documenting Smith's return to France and studies at the Academie Ozenfant from 1926 to 1933 include Smith's passport, ship passenger lists and other travel documents, correspondence with family, French identification letters, exhibition catalogs, newspaper clippings and his Academie Ozenfant list of classes and student card. Of particular note are correspondence from and a picture of Sir Walter Kitchener, governor of Bermuda, and letters from wife Elena Peralta to her parents-in-law. Topics covered in the correspondence of this scrapbook include sons Houghton Jr. and Gerrit and the birth of daughter Florence, financial difficulties, art teachers Amadee Ozenfant and Andree L'hote and the family's travels to Bermuda, New Mexico and New York City.
Materials from later in Smith's life include correspondence from Smith to second wife Laura Gilbert Williams, exhibition catalogs and registers, photographs of artwork, newspaper clippings of reviews received for Smith's exhibited paintings and congratulatory letters from family and friends on Smith's successful exhibits and feature article in The American Artist. Additionally, there is significant correspondence with the Passedoit Gallery, Homer Saint-Gaudens of the Carnegie Institute regarding the exhibition and purchase of Smith's artwork and Smith's gifted painting to the Butler Institute of American Art. Additionally, there are several biographical newspaper articles and a biographical sketch written by his wife Laura after his death.
Of note is the artist's original handwritten notes and final published version of his reminiscence "The Provincetown I Remember," notes about painting with various colors and color charts, related assignments from Smith's Color Theory Class, a signed copy of the book Color by E. Ambrose Webster, Smith's former art teacher, pencil sketches, a class notebook about lettering and an address book.
Arrangement:
As requested by the donor, the original arrangement has been maintained, but the collection has been rehoused for preservation purposes. The collection is arranged as 4 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1890-1991 (Boxes 1-2; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Writings, 1963-1991 (Box 2; 2 folders)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1916-1991 (Box 2, OV 4; 6 folders)
Series 4: Miscellany, circa 1920s-1977 (Box 2, OV 3; 7 folders)
Biographical Note:
Painter Houghton Cranford Smith (1887-1983) traveled extensively and painted throughout his life. He lived and studied art in France, South America, New York City and Provincetown. He had three children, Houghton Jr., Gerrit and Florence with his first wife, Elena Peralta. He held the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas department of Drawing and Painting from 1921-1925.
Smith became widely recognized for his artwork in the 1940s. He married his second wife, Laura Gilbert Williams, in 1941. He has exhibited at many venues including the Passedoit Gallery, Corcoran Gallery, Richmond Museum, Columbia Art Museum, Walker Memorial Gallery, Art Institute of Kansas City and the Provincetown Art Association. For six consecutive years he was represented at Carnegie Institute's annual invitation exhibition.
Provenance:
Florence Cranford Smith Shepard donated her father's papers in 1993-1994.
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:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
The papers of painter, etcher, printer, muralist, and art teacher Gabrielle de Veaux Clements measure 1 linear foot and date from 1860 to 1948. Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence, including extensive correspondence from Clements to her mother; writings, including notes and essays on art history and etching techniques; printed material; artwork; eight sketchbooks; and photographs of Clements, her family and friends, and her work.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter, etcher, printer, muralist, and art teacher Gabrielle de Veaux Clements measure 1 linear foot and date from 1860 to 1948. Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence, including extensive correspondence from Clements to her mother; writings, including notes and essays on art history and etching techniques; printed material; artwork; 8 sketchbooks; and photographs of Clements, her family and friends, and her work.
Biographical material consists of an address book, artwork sales and price lists, and autobiographical notes.
Correspondence is primarily with Clements' family, friends, and business associates. The series includes significant correspondence from Clements to her mother during her college years at Cornell University.
Writings include notes and essays on art history and etching techniques, 2 notebooks of poetry, and a travel diary chronicling a trip to Egypt with Ellen Day Hale.
Printed material includes clippings, exhibition catalogs, a map of the artists' colony at Rockport, Folly Cove in Massachusetts, and a copy of the book Suggestions for Illuminating by W. Randle Harrison.
Artwork consists of sketches and original etchings by Clements and artwork by others.
There are 8 sketchbooks consisting primarily of cityscapes, landscapes, and figure and portrait studies.
Photographs are of Clements, her family and friends, artists models, and work by Clements and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical materials, circa 1920-1944 (3 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1875-1945 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1885-1940 (8 folders; Box 1)
Series 4: Printed material, circa 1860-1948 (5 folders; Box 1)
Series 5: Artwork, circa 1895-1940 (3 folders; Box 1)
Series 6: Sketchbooks, circa 1884-1940 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 7: Photographs, circa 1875-1940 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, printer, and art teacher Gabrielle de Veaux Clements (1858-1948) lived and worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; and Folly Cove near Gloucester, Massachusetts. She was known for her etchings and her commissioned murals for the cities of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Clements was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to physician Richard Clements and his wife, Gabrielle De Vaux. Her interest in art was supported by her family and, at the age of seventeen, she began studying lithography with the designer Charles Page at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. After graduating in 1880 from Cornell University, where she had produced a number of scientific drawings and lithographs, Clements studied with painter Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and won the school's Toppan Prize. In 1883, Clements was introduced to etching techniques by the artist Stephen Parrish and began exhibiting and printing her works professionally.
In 1884, Clements traveled abroad to Paris to study at the Academie Julian where she was joined in 1885 by fellow painter and future lifelong companion Ellen Day Hale. Upon returning to her Philadelphia studio in 1885, Clements taught other female artists, including Margaret Bush-Brown, and exhibited in numerous institutions, including the National Academy of Design and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1895, Clements moved to Baltimore to teach art at the newly established Bryn Mawr School, where she remained until 1908. During her tenure in Baltimore, she was commissioned by the Bendann Galleries to etch nine views of Baltimore and also painted five church murals in Washington, D.C., which led to subsequent murals in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Clements and Hale frequently traveled abroad, visiting France, Italy, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, and spent summers at "The Thickets," the house they purchased in the artists' colony at Folly Cove. During World War I, they wintered in Charleston, South Carolina where they opened their studios to young female artists and taught innovative etching, painting, and color printmaking techniques. After the war, they again opened their studios in Folly Cove to young artists and continued to teach and experiment with soft-ground etching and aquatints in color. This work was highlighted in special exhibitions at the J.B. Speed Art Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. Clements died in Rockport, Massachusetts in 1948.
Provenance:
The Gabrielle de Veaux Clements papers were donated by Mrs. Harlan Starr, Jr. in 1983.
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.
Sarre, Friedrich Paul Theodor, 1865-1945 Search this
Extent:
150 Linear feet (circa 30,000 items)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Blueprints
Journals (accounts)
Photographs
Clippings
Notebooks
Drawings
Sketchbooks
Articles
Paper squeezes
Correspondence
Diaries
Sketches
Rubbings
Place:
Turkey
Mesopotamia
Bakun, Tall-e (Iran)
Iran
Iraq
Lebanon
Persepolis (Iran)
Pasargadae (Extinct city)
Taq-e Bostan Site (Iran)
Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq)
Syria
Date:
1903-1947
Summary:
An outstanding scholar in the field of Iranian studies, Ernst Herzfeld (1879--1948) explored all phases of Near Eastern culture from the prehistoric period to Islamic times. This collection documents Herzfeld's excavations at Samarra, Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Aleppo and includes correspondence; field notebooks; drawings; sketchbooks; inventories of objects; "squeeze" copies of architectural details; and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
Papers (1899--1962) of German born archaeologist Ernst Emil Herzfeld (1879--1948), a preeminent scholar of Near Eastern and Iranian studies. The collection measures 150 linear feet (circa 30,000 items) and documents Herzfeld's work as a pioneer in the field and sheds light on his excavations at Samarra, Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Aleppo. Formats include correspondence; field notebooks; drawings; sketchbooks; inventories of objects; "squeeze" copies of architectural details; and photographs.
Arrangement:
This collection is organized into seven series.
Series 1: Travel journals
Series 2: Sketchbooks
Series 3: Notebooks
Series 4: Photographic files 1-42
Series 5: Drawings and maps
Series 6: Squeezes
Series 7: Samarra Expedition
Biographical / Historical:
The Ernst Herzfeld Papers document the career of Ernst Herzfeld (1879--1948), a German architect, archaeologist, and historian of Islamic and Pre-Islamic studies. After training as an architect he studied archaeology under Delitzch from 1903 to 1906 at the excavations at Assur in Mesopotamia. A student of Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew, Herzfeld received a doctorate in Humanistic Studies at universities in Munich and Berlin in 1907. His work with Friedrich Sarre to survey the monuments of the Tigris-Euphrates valleys resulted in landmark studies in architectural history, published in 1911 and 1920.
In 1920 Herzfeld was appointed to the chair of Historical Geography in Berlin and began his excavation at Samarra. Herzfeld's work there led to a six-volume publication. He published widely throughout his life on the sources of Islamic architecture and ornament, including the Royal Palace at Persepolis.
From 1934 until the end of his life Herzfeld spent his time producing many books and articles, lecturing, and working at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1936--1945.) Many of his works continue to be published post-humously.
1879 July 23 -- Born in Celle, Germany.
1897 -- Received diploma from Joachimsthaler Gymnasium, Berlin.
1897-circa 1898 -- Fulfilled military service.
circa 1899 -- Studied architecture at the Technical University and Assyriology, art history, and philosophy at the Friedrich-Wilhems Universität in Berlin.
1903 -- Passed exam in structural engineering.
1903-1905 -- Assistant to Walter Andrae (1875-1956) in Assur.
1905-1906 -- Traveled throughout Iran and Iraq.
1907 -- Excavation in Cilicia. Passed oral exam in February. Awarded doctorate in Humanistic Studies by Friedrich-Wilhems Universtät zu Berlin. After receiving Ph.D. traveled extensively in Syria and Iraq with Friedrich Sarre, director of the Islamic Museum in Berlin.
1911-1913 -- Field Director under direction of Sarre during expedition to Samarra.
circa 1914 -- Drafted into service in France and Poland during World War I. Sent to Iraq where he functioned as a surveyor.
1916 -- Father died.
1917 -- Appointed associate professor for Historical Geography and Art History of the Ancient Orient at Berlin. Along with Friedrich Sarre and others, founded the German-Persian Society to increase cultural and economic exchange between Germany and Persia.
1920 -- Appointed world's first full professor of Near Eastern Archeology. Begins excavation at Samarra.
1922 -- Mother died.
1923-1934 -- In Persia, where he completed many excavations and studies.
1928 -- Excavation at Pasargadae.
1931-1934 -- Appointed director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and moved to Persepolis.
1934 -- As grandson of Jews, Nazi legislation expelling state employees of Jewish descent forced Herzfeld to retire as a professor employed by the state. Moved to London.
1936 -- Delivered Lowell Lectures. Moved to Boston. Lectured on Iranian history and appointed a member of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.
1944 -- Retired from Princeton University.
1948 January 20 -- Died.
Provenance:
Ernst Herzfeld donated his papers to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1946.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
An interview of Raquel Rabinovich conducted 2012 September 25 and October 9, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Rabinovich's home, in Rhinebeck, New York.
Rabinovich speaks of growing up in Argentina; becoming aware of art; reproductions and books; European art; her Jewish heritage; her parents moving to Argentina before World War I; Jewish persecution; her parents' background; living in Cordoba; speaking Spanish and Yiddish growing up; quiet reflections; church; art exposure; traveling and moving to Paris; the influence of Ernesto Farina; Peron's dictatorship and rebellion; attending medical school and the call of art; political activities and spending time in jail; meeting Jose and moving to Scotland; Paris and exposure to artwork; teachings of Andre Lhote; her early works; abstraction; painting; the Mona Lisa; darkness and light; "The Dark is Light Enough"; exposure to literature and poetry; living in Copenhagen; meeting Jorge Luis Borges; the Book of Sand; her siblings; her children and her relationship to them; staying up to date with current events; libraries and a lack of books growing up; meditation; texture and the monochromatic works; interest in Jasper Johns' work; meeting Jasper Johns; living in New York; trip to Machu Picchu and spending the night outdoors; "Cloister, Crossing, Passageway 1.32"; glassworks and transparency; exhibiting artwork; her divorce; Rodolfo Mondolfo; environment and exposure; quiet contemplation; spending time with artwork; commissioned work near High Falls; "River Library"; libraries as places of knowledge; minimalism; the 1980s; her daughter's wedding and her relationship with Jose; stones; traveling to Nepal, Thailand, India, and Egypt; temples; Buddhism; "Chhodrtens"; garbhagrihas; NEA fellowship and residency in Paris; "Thrones for the Gods"; INTAR Gallery; "Gateless Gates"; artifacts; Pabhavikas sculpture; Charles Stein; Linda Weintraub; George Quasha; Station Hill Press; "Enfolded Darkness" and "Light Unworn". Rabinovich also recalls Baron Hughes, Beethoven, Lenin, Diego Velazquez, Andre Lhote, Mondrian, Picasso, Braque, David Levi Straus, Robert Kelly, Cezanne, Philip Pavia, Agnes Martin, Dorothea Rockburne, Barry Schwabsky, Bill Zimmer, Agnes Denes, Louisa Valenzuela, Julia Herzberg, and Marco Maggi.
Biographical / Historical:
Raquel Rabinovich (1929- ) is a painter and sculptor in Rhinebeck, New York. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator from New York, New York.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of New York gallery owner and art dealer David Herbert measure 5.8 linear feet and date from circa 1909-1996, with the bulk of the material dating from 1945-1995. Herbert's papers document his years working for Betty Parsons Gallery, Sidney Janis Gallery, Graham Gallery, and others; the operation of the David Herbert Gallery from 1959-1962; Herbert's partnerships and agreements with Richard Feigen and others; and his activities as an independent dealer. Records include biographical material, correspondence, notebooks, subject files, artist files, exhibition files, business records, printed material, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York gallery owner and art dealer David Herbert measure 5.8 linear feet and date from circa 1909-1996, with the bulk of the material dating from 1945-1995. Herbert's papers document his years working for Betty Parsons Gallery, Sidney Janis Gallery, Graham Gallery, and others; the operation of the David Herbert Gallery from 1959-1962; Herbert's partnerships and agreements with Richard Feigen and others; and his activities as an independent dealer. Records include biographical material, correspondence, notebooks, subject files, artist files, exhibition files, business records, printed material, and photographs.
Biographical material includes address books and calendars, educational records, records of Herbert's military service in the United States Naval Construction Battalion in Japan, and resume's charting his career.
Correspondence is with Herbert's parents, friends, business colleagues, and artists. It includes documentation of Herbert's partnership with Richard Feigen, and his cooperative work with Irving Blum and Walter Hopps of Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, and Robert Fraser in London. Also documented are Herbert's relationship with Jaime Andrade and Andrade's family, and a lawsuit Herbert brought against Aaron Berman relating to the ownership of an Ellsworth Kelly drawing. There are scattered letters and postcards from artists and collectors, including Martin Blaszko, Lloyd Cotsen, Martin Hoffman, Ray Johnson, Josephine Merck, Alfonso Ossorio, Paul Sorel, and Clyfford Still.
Notebooks provide brief notes on Herbert's day-to-day business dealings. Subject files, consisting primarily of printed material, document Herbert's interests in several art world figures, subjects such as ancient art, and travel to locations such as Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and Greece.
Exhibition files include installation shots and catalogs for many of the exhibitions held at the David Herbert Gallery between 1959 and 1962.
Artist files document Herbert's interest in individual artists, such as William Draper, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Sven Lukin, Edgar Negret, Louise Nevelson, Anthony Padovano, Eduardo Ramirez, and Jeanne Reynal, through printed material, photographs of artwork, scattered artist letters, and sales documentation.
Business records document the financial details and overall goals of Herbert's various business ventures. There is a sales book for Betty Parsons Gallery and Sidney Janis Gallery; Herbert's appraisal, consignment, commission, sales, and loan records; Herbert's business plans and projections; financial statements from the David Herbert Gallery; sales records for Graham Gallery; and records of Herbert's partnership with Douglas McKelvy.
Printed material includes announcements and catalogs from galleries Herbert worked for or collaborated with, including Graham Gallery, Betty Parsons Gallery, Feigen/Herbert Gallery, Stewart Neill Gallery, and Robert Fraser Gallery. Also found are obituaries and other new clippings of interest to Herbert.
Photographs are of Herbert, family members, and friends and colleagues, including his companion, Jaime Andrade, Leona Carrington, William Draper, Jon Carsman, Hans Namuth, and Leon Polk Smith. Many are color snapshots collected in two photographs albums. Also found are photographs taken in Japan and Iwo Jima in 1945-1946 of street scenes, Naval Construction Battalion facilities, and Herbert's army colleagues and friends.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as nine series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1920-circa 1995 (0.7 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1942-1996 (1 linear foot; Boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Notebooks, circa 1950s-circa 1995 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 4: Subject Files, 1950s-1992 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1959-1963 (0.25 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 6: Artist Files, 1950s-1993 (0.75 linear feet; Boxes 3-4)
Series 7: Business Records, 1950s-1992 (0.6 linear feet; Box 4)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1949-circa 1995 (1.4 linear feet; Boxes 5-7)
Series 9: Photographs, circa 1909-circa 1990 (0.4 linear feet; Box 7)
Biographical / Historical:
New York gallery owner and art dealer David Herbert (1920-1995, born David Herbert Schmerer), worked for a number of important galleries in New York, had his own eponymous gallery from 1959-1962, operated as a private dealer, and was in partnership with dealer Richard Feigen from 1962-1964.
Herbert served in the United States Naval Construction Battalion from 1943-1946 and was posted to Japan in 1945-1946. After receiving a BA in art history from Syracuse University in 1951, he worked for Betty Parsons Gallery (1951-1953) and Sidney Janis Gallery (1953-1959), selling the work of contemporary American painters and sculptors, handling publicity, and installing exhibitions.
Herbert forged strong connections with artists and collectors alike, and was instrumental in launching the careers of a number of important artists. One such artist was Ellsworth Kelly, whom he recommended to Parsons, triggering Kelly's New York career. He opened the David Herbert Gallery in 1959, with investment from Douglas McKelvy, promoting the works of artists including Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Louise Nevelson, to leading collectors and museums.
Herbert often worked in cooperation with colleagues Irving Blum and Walter Hobbs in Los Angeles, and Robert Fraser in London. After closing his gallery in 1962, Herbert entered a partnership with dealer Richand Feigen, operating the Feigen/Herbert Gallery from 1962-1964. From 1964-1969 he worked as a private dealer specializing in twentieth century works of art and serving as a consultant to collectors, museums, artists, and corporate interests. From 1969-1975 he was Director and Art Salesman of contemporary and 19th Century American Art at Graham Gallery. Herbert subsequently continued as a private dealer from 1975 until his death.
Herbert traveled extensively, visiting museums, collectors, and galleries in England, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Hawaii, and Japan. Through Edgar Negret, whom Herbert represented, he met Jaime Andrade, who became his assistant at the Feigen/Herbert Gallery in 1963. In turn Andrade shared with Herbert an interest in pre-Columbian art and contemporary Spanish and Latin America art, hosting multiple visits to his native Ecuador by Herbert and others, including artist William Draper.
Andrade served as executor of Herbert's estate, following Herbert's death in 1995.
Provenance:
The David Herbert papers were given to the Archives of American Art by Jaime Andrade, Herbert's companion, in 1999.
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.
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:
Gallery owners -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
David Herbert papers, circa 1909-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Merryll Saylan conducted 2006 May 20-June 5, by Glenn Adamson, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the Victoria & Albert Museum, in London, England.
Saylan speaks of her childhood in Los Angeles, California; her early musical education in piano and viola; memories of World War II; her family's political views during the Cold War; meeting her first husband at UCLA; dropping out of school to move to Virginia and Georgia in fulfillment of her husband's military service; experiencing anti-Semitism in Georgia; the challenges of her eldest son's speech problems; traveling to France, Japan, Guatemala, Hong Kong and the Philippines; her interest in Japanese culture; completing her B.A. in design at UCLA and her M.A. in studio art at California State University, Northridge; anti-Vietnam sentiment on campus; early interests in environmental design; her second husband and his friends; her interest in furniture and woodworking; differing approaches to woodworking on the east and west coasts; her views on feminism and working women; her use of color and texture in woodworking; teaching experiences; popular perception of her work; receiving a grant to go to England and her involvement with English and German woodturners; the lack of collector interest in her work; forced absences from working because of illnesses; serving on the boards of the American Association of Woodturners and The Woodturning Center; her involvement in the International Turned Objects Show, the Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Biannual Exposition, and the International Turning Exchange; her thoughts on future work. Saylan also recalls George Foy, Bob Stocksdale, Michael Cooper, Pamela Weir-Quiton, Joanne Rapp, J.B. Blunk, Marvin Lipofsky, Gail Fredell, Wendy Maruyama, Ralph Evans, Del Stubbs, Jerry Glaser, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Merryll Saylan (1936- ) is a wood artist from San Rafael, California. Glenn Adamson (1972- ) is a museum professional, in London, England.
General:
Originally recorded on 7 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 9 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.
The papers of landscape painter Sanford Robinson Gifford, date from the 1840s through 1900, and circa 1960s-1970s. The bulk of the papers fall between 1855-1881; material from the circa 1960s-1970s consists of photographic copy prints for which the Archives does not have the originals. The small collection measures 0.9 linear feet of scattered documentation of Gifford's life, primarily extensive biographical accounts of his travels in the mid 1850s and late 1860s in the form of bound letters to his father. These serve as detailed journals of his impressions of Europe and the Middle East, the development of his painting, and his relationships with other artists such as Albert Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge. The collection also contains sketches by Gifford, printed material including catalogs of Gifford's paintings, and photographs of Gifford and others.
Scope and Content Note:
The collection dates from the 1840s through 1900, and circa 1960s-1970s with the bulk of the material falling between 1855-1881. Material from circa 1960s-1970s consists of photographic copy prints of original photographs from the mid to late 1800s for which the Archives does not own the originals. The papers measure 0.9 linear feet and provide detailed documentation of the life of Hudson River School landscape painter, Sanford Robinson Gifford, during the mid 1850s and late 1860s. The papers contain extensive accounts of Gifford's travels in 3 bound volumes of typewritten letters from Gifford to his father. These letters serve as travel journals and provide extensive and vivid descriptions of Gifford's work and experiences in Europe and the Middle East, and document his relationships with a variety of other artists, including Alfred Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge, during this period.
Additional records provide scattered documenation of other periods of Gifford's life. Letters refer to his travels in the American west and his Civil War service and its effect on his painting. Printed material includes clippings and exhibition catalogs, and includes a catalogue of his paintings published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1881. Artwork by Gifford includes sketches by the artist and prints, engravings and paintings by various others. Original photographs date from 1856-1900 and include images of Gifford during the Civil War. Copyprints for which the Archives does not own the originals date from the circa 1960s-1970s and include two images of a family home in Hudson, New York, where Gifford had a studio in the mid 1860s, a portrait photograph of Gifford, and an image of Gifford on the Hayden expedition.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 4 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Letters, 1855-1874 (Box 1; 3 volumes, 1 folder)
Series 2: Printed Material, circa 1850s-1881 (Box 2; 4 folders)
Series 3: Artwork, circa 1840s-circa 1870s (Box 2, OV 3; 4 folders)
Series 4: Photographs and Copy Prints, 1856-circa 1900, circa 1960s-1970s (Box 2, 5, OV 4; 11 folders)
Biographical Note:
Sanford Robinson Gifford was born in Greenfield, New York, in 1823. He attended Brown University from 1842-1844 and moved to New York City in 1845 where he studied drawing, perspective and anatomy under the direction of the British watercolorist and drawing-master, John R. Smith. He also studied the human figure in anatomy classes at the Crosby Street Medical college and took drawing classes at the National Academy of Design. In 1846 he visited the Berkshire Hills and the Catskill Mountains, sketching from nature. "These studies," he wrote to O. B. Frothingham in 1874, "together with the great admiration I felt for the works of Cole developed a strong interest in landscape art, and opened my eyes to a keener perception and more intelligent enjoyment of nature. Having once enjoyed the absolute freedom of the landscape painters life I was unable to return to portrait painting."
The American Art Union bought and showed some of Gifford's first pictures in 1847. In 1851 he was elected an associate, and in 1854 an academician, of the National Academy of Design.
Gifford traveled widely to sketch landscapes for future paintings, recording his experiences in letters to his father which he intended would "serve the double purpose of letter and journal, and be an economy of time." He requested that his father number the letters sequentially and keep them together.
In the summer of 1855 Gifford visited England, Scotland and Paris, where he spent the winter of 1855 transforming his English and Scottish sketches into paintings. In the fall of 1856 he rented a studio in Rome and, over the course of the winter, painted pictures that reportedly pleased him "pretty well," including Lake Nemi. During the spring of 1857, Gifford spent time with fellow artists Worthington Whittredge, William H. Beard and Albert Bierstadt before leaving Rome in May with Bierstadt for a walking tour of southern Italy, where they planned to reconnect with Whittredge and Beard. Gifford ended his European tour with a visits to Innsbruck, Munich, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin and Paris, before returning to the United States at the end of the summer.
On his return Gifford rented studio Number 19 in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York City, which he retained until his death. Over the next few years he also made frequent summer trips to various northeastern locales including the Catskills, the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains in Vermont, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, Maine and Nova Scotia.
Gifford served in New York's Seventh Regiment when it marched to the defense of Washington in April 1861, and again in 1862 and 1863. Several paintings resulted from this experience, including Sunday Morning at Camp Cameron (1861), Bivouac of the Seventh Regiment at Arlington Heights, Virginia (1861) and Camp of the Seventh Regiment, near Frederick, Maryland, in July 1863 (1864).
In 1868 Gifford returned to Europe, again visiting London and Paris, where he met with friends Jervis McEntee and his wife. He then spent the summer visiting the Alps and Sicily before wintering in Rome. In 1869 he traveled to Egypt where he and a small party hired a boat to take them on a two-month voyage from Cairo down the Nile River. Subsequently, Gifford traveled to the Middle East with Alfred Craven via the Suez Canal, where his itinerary included Syria, Jerusalem, Samaria, Damascus, Greece and Turkey. Gifford arrived in Venice in June 1869 and sailed for the United States at the beginning of September.
In 1870 Gifford visited Colorado with Worthington Whittredge and John Frederick Kensett, and accompanied a United States Geological party under Dr. Hayden in the exploration of Wyoming, Utah, and the Colorado Territories. In the summer of 1873 he visited California, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska.
Gifford married in 1877 but in 1880 became ill and died of malarial fever and pneumonia at the age of 58. That same year he was honored with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's first monographic retrospective and a memorial catalogue of his known pictures.
Related Material:
Five sketchbooks were loaned by Vassar College in 1966 and the originals were returned to the donor after microfilming on reel D254.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels D254 and 688) including twenty-one sketchbooks, photographs, passports and certificates, an 1888 European travel diary of Mary Louise Willard, wife of Gifford's nephew, Harold, and a 1966 letter. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Edith Wilkinson first donated the Sanford Robinson Gifford papers in 1955 and 1957. James C. Gifford donated copy prints of photographs in 1964. Five sketchbooks were lent for microfilming by the Vassar College Art Library in 1966 and George and Frances Gifford Cummings donated additional material in 1973. In 1974, sixteen sketchbooks, photographs, and other materials were lent for microfilming by Dr. Sanford Gifford, Gifford's great-nephew.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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.
The papers of painter and writer Henry Bacon date from 1849-1931 and measure 1.9 linear feet. The collection documents Bacon's career and travels through France and Egypt. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, writings by Bacon and others, scattered business records, printed material, scrapbooks, photographs, eight sketchbooks and additional sketches.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter and writer Henry Bacon date from 1849-1931 and measure 1.9 linear feet. The collection documents Bacon's career and travels through France and Egypt. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, writings by Bacon and others, scattered business records, printed material, scrapbooks, photographs, eight sketchbooks and additional sketches.
Scattered biographical materials include an address book, a photo identification card, genealogical material, and autobiographical notes and resumes. The bulk of correspondence is in French written by French artists included in Bacon's book Parisian Art and Artists, including Beaumont, E. Berne-Bellecourt, Vincent Chevillard, Luigi Chialiva, Georges Clairin, Edmond Dupain, Carolus Duran, Antonio Gonzalez, Ferdinand Heilbuth, Madeleine Lemaire, Luc Oliver Merson, and Leon Olivie. Also found is correspondence between Louisa Lee Bacon with museums and institutions concerning her husband's art.
Writings and notes contain short stories, personal accounts, and poems by Henry Bacon, as well as a biographical work on Bacon by Louisa Bacon, and unsigned poems in French. Manuscripts of Bacon's books are not found.
Scattered personal business records include a sales record notebook, an expense journal, and a lease. Printed materials consist primarily of clippings, a few exhibition catalogs, a copy of Bacon's book Étretat: Hamlet of the Setting Sun, and printed images of works of art. Two scrapbooks document Bacon's career as an artist through clippings, photos, exhibition catalogs, and announcements.
Photographs include portraits and snapshots of Bacon and his wife, travel photos used as reference, and photos of works of art. Artwork by Bacon includes eight sketchbooks, watercolor sketches, and pen and ink sketches.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1864-circa 1930 (Box 1; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1849-1931 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1875-circa 1912 (Box 1-2, 5; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business and Financial records, 1864-1871 (Box 2; 2 folders)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1882-1931 (Box 2; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, 1866-1923 (Box 3; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographs, circa 1862-circa 1930 (Box 3-5; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 8: Artwork and Sketchbooks, 1864-1912 (Box 4-5; 0.4 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter and writer, Henry Bacon (1839-1912) spent much of his career and life in France and Egypt. He is best known for his watercolor depictions of Egyptian desert scenes.
Henry Bacon was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1839. During the Civil War, ee enlisted in the Union Army and served as corporal in Company D, 4th Battalion of Rifles of the 13th Massachusetts Regiment. Also during the war, he worked as a field artist for Leslie's Weekly. He suffered an injury at the Second Battle of Bull Run and was discharged in 1864. That same year, he married Lizzie Lord and moved to France. The couple settled in Paris where Bacon studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel. He spent many summers in Étretat, France--a subject he painted and wrote about in his bookÉtretat: Hamlet of the Setting Sun.
After the death of Lizzie Lord, Bacon married Louisa Lee Andrews. In the 1890s, Henry and Louisa spent their time split between London and Egypt. It was during this time that Bacon produced his many watercolor scenes of the desert, the Nile River, and of the Egyptian people. Henry Bacon died in Cairo in 1912.
Separated Materials:
Also found in the Archives are three sketchbooks lent by Nancy C. Brecht for microfilming on reels 4040-4041. The scrapbooks are not described in the container listing of this finding aid but are available for viewing in Archives of American Art offices and via interlibrary loan.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1987 by Nancy N. Brecht, the grandniece of Henry Bacon and granddaughter of Bacon's brother, Earle.
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.
