An interview of Roswell Weidner conducted 1989 July 20-27, by Marina Pacini, for the Archives of American Art Philadelphia Project. Weidner discusses his early life, education, and art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, first at the school at Chester Springs, and later at the main school in Philadelphia. He discusses the programs at both schools, and recalls some of the faculty members, including Roy Nuse, Albert Laessle, George Harding, Joseph Pierson, Francis Speight, Daniel Garber, and Henry McCarter. He discusses the courses, exhibitions, and the competitions for traveling scholarships. He also discusses his study at the Barnes Foundation with Violette De Mazia and Angelo Pinto. After leaving the Academy, he joined the National Youth Administration and then transferred to the WPA with the Museum Extension, the Painting Project and the Print Project. He speaks of his work for each of these programs, their administration, and some of the individuals involved including Dox Thrash. He recalls Mary Curran and the efforts made by Albert Barnes to have her removed as head of the Painting Project. Weidner discusses his fifty years as a teacher at the Academy, beginning in 1939, and the changes in the institution since then, including the introduction of printmaking, the growth of abstraction, the hiring of women and black instructors, and other changes. He speaks of his wife, Marilyn Kemp Weidner, a paper conservator, and the development of her practice, as well as his own future work.
Biographical / Historical:
Roswell T. Weidner (1911-1999) was a painter and educator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr.; 18 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Material compiled by R. Sturgis Ingersoll preparatory to his biography of Henry McCarter (never completed), primarily Ingersoll's correspondence with McCarter's friends and associates, and McCarter's correspondence collected by Ingersoll.
Included are Ingersoll's correspondence requesting information and documents relating to McCarter; correspondence and clippings regarding the Henry McCarter Memorial Exhibition held at the J.B. Neumann Gallery, New York, N.Y. and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1943; and documents regarding McCarter's estate, 1943, 1944. Among the correspondents are Francis and Katherine Biddle, Mrs. Adolphe Borie (Edith), Alexander Crane, Royal Cortissoz, Charles Cullen, Bernard Davis, Daniel Garber, William Weeks Hall, Mrs. William Sergeant Kendall (Christine Herter), Joanna McCarter (McCarter's neice), Abraham Rattner, Lorna Gill Walsh, Franklin C. Watkins, and others.
McCarter's correspondence is with Albert C. Barnes, Cecilia Beaux, Francis and Katherine Biddle, Adolphe and Edith Borie, Bernard Davis, Lenora Owsley Herman, Anna Warren Ingersoll, R. Sturgis Ingersoll, William Sergeant Kendall, Nicholas Roosevelt, and others. Also included are a manuscript fragment by McCarter about individual expression and the "stifling' traditions of academic training, undated; Hannah Rile Weiman's handwritten notes of a lecture by McCarter at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1920 or 28; sketches by McCarter; 12 photographs of McCarter and others, ca. 1930; and clippings.
Biographical / Historical:
Ingersoll was a lawyer, art collector, and President of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; McCarter a Philadelphia painter.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1994 by Mr. Perry Benson, Ingersoll's grandson.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Lawyers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Topic:
Art, American -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Taylor, Bertha Fanning, 1883 or 8-1980 Search this
Extent:
25 Items ((on partial microfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scrapbooks
Date:
1887-1956
Scope and Contents:
Scrapbook containing: clippings, letters from Varina Jefferson Davis, Daniel Garber, and others; photographs of Latimer, her family, and her works; and source material for her paintings. Also, included are records of the Norfolk Art Corner and Tidewater Artists, with letters to Tidewater Artists president, Bertha Fanning Taylor, and a scrapbook kept by Taylor on "Art Week."
Biographical / Historical:
Glenna Latimer (1898-1980) was a painter in Norfolk, Va. Latimer was best known for her definitive portraits, but worked in landscapes and mural painting as well. A scholarship for her work enabled her to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia for four years. She was the first president of the Norfolk Art Corner.
Provenance:
The lender, Davies, is Latimer's husband.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Letters to Brauner, mainly from artists invited to participate in exhibitions arranged by Brauner at Cornell University. Prominent correspondents include: Giffford Beal, George Bellows, Frank Benson, Karl Bitter, Edith Burroughs, Emil Carlson, John Carlson, Charles Caffin, Arthur Crisp, Randall Davey, Paul Dougherty, Daniel Garber, Lillian Genth, William Glackens, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Charles Hopkinson, Henry Hubbell, John Johansen, William Sargent Kendall; Leon Kroll, Jonas Lie, William Macbeth, William Mason, Gari Melchers, Willard Metcalf, Leonard Ochtman, Bela Lyon Pratt, Maurice Prendergast, A. Phimister Proctor, Edward Redfield, William Ritschel, Walter Sargent, Eugene Speicher, Robert Spencer, D. W. Tryon, C. Howard Walker, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Judd Waugh, and others.
Arrangement:
Arranged chronologically.
Biographical / Historical:
Olaf Brauner (1869-1947) was a portrait painter, occasional sculptor, and first professor of art at Cornell University.
Provenance:
The donor, Erling Brauner, is Olaf Brauner's son.
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.
Correspondence of director Wilbur D. Peat. Many of the letters are from well-known artists of the 1920s and 1930s relating to their contributions to an exhibition of American paintings which Peat was assembling in 1932-1933. [Microfilm title: The Herron Museum of Art]
Correspondents include: Dewey Albinson, A. S. Baylinson, Wenona Day Bell, Thomas H. Benton, George Biddle, Peter Blume, Ernest Blumenschein, C. Curry Bohm, Adolphe Borie, George H. Borst, Robert Brackman, Samuel Brecher, Alexander Brook, Charles E. Burchfield, Varaldo J. Carian, Mrs. E. F. Carpenter, John Carroll, Nicolai Cikovsky, Antonio Cirino, Charles Val Clear, Max B. Cohen, John S. Curry, Randall Davey, Charles H. Davis, Edwin Dickinson, Paul Dougherty, Susan M. Eakins, Henry S. Eddy, Virginia B. Evans, Jerry Farnsworth, Ernest Fiene, John K. Fitzpatrick, John F. Folinsbee, Anton P. Fabrick, Charlotte Gailor, Daniel Garber, Robert F. Gilder, William J. Glackens, John R. Grabach, Charles T. Greener, Charles P. Gruppe,
Eugene Higgins, Edward Hopper, Bernard A. Hunger, Henry G. Keller, Fanny M. King, Georgina Klitgaard, Leon Kroll, Max Kuehne, Georges La Chance, Luigi Lucioni, Reginald Marsh, Henry E. Mattson, Henry Lee McFee, Miriam McKinnie, Clarence Millet, Ross E. Moffett, Francis Mora, Frederick Mulhaupt, Jerome Myers, Watson Nayland, Warren Newcombe, Waldo Peirce, Van Dearing Perrine, Robert Philipp, Abraham Phillips (Tromka), Majorie Phillips, Paul A. Plaschke, Edward Redfield, Doel Reed, Charles Rosen, Edward B. Rowan, Olive Rush, Chauncey Ryder, Eugene F. Savage, Henry Schnakenberg, Zoltan Sepeshy, Edward Sewall, Leopold Seyffert, Nan Sheets, Simka Simkhovitch, Clyde J. Singer, Judson Smith,
Eugene Speicher, Francis Speight, Maurice Sterne, Alfred Stieglitz (letter written on the back of Peat's letter to Georgia O'Keeffe and written for her), Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, Ferdinand E. Warren, Frederick Judd Waugh, Max Weber, Lois Wilcox, Arnold Wiltz, Grant Wood, and Harold Holmes Wrenn.
Biographical / Historical:
The John Herron Art Institute became the Indianapolis Museum of Art ca. 1969-1970. Peat was director 1929-1965.
Other Title:
Herron Museum of Art [microfilm title, reel D131]
Provenance:
Donated 1962 by the John Herron Museum of Art.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
