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Artist:

Cornell, Joseph  Search this

Names:

Benton, Elizabeth Cornell  Search this

Cornell, Robert  Search this

Extent:

196.8 Linear feet

186 Nitrate negatives

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Nitrate negatives

Photographic photoprints

Photographs

Place:

New York, New York

Date:

1750-1980, bulk 1930-1972

Summary:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection measures 196.8 linear feet and dates from 1750 to 1980, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1972. Documenting the artistic career and personal life of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), the collection is primarily made up of two- and three-dimensional source material, the contents of the artists' studio, his record album collection, and his book collection and personal library. The collection also includes diaries and notes, financial and estate papers, exhibition materials, collected artifacts and ephemera, photographs, correspondence, and the papers of Robert Cornell (1910-1965) and Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), the artist's brother and mother.

Scope and Contents:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection measures 196.8 linear feet and dates from 1750 to 1980, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1972. Documenting the artistic career and personal life of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), the collection is primarily made up of two- and three-dimensional source material, the contents of the artists' studio, his record album collection, and his book collection and personal library. The collection also includes diaries and notes, financial and estate papers, exhibition materials, collected artifacts and ephemera, photographs, correspondence, and the papers of Robert Cornell (1910-1965) and Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), the artist's brother and mother.

Correspondence is with collectors, museums, galleries, artists, friends, family, charity organizations, admirers and those admired by Cornell, and World War II European pen pals. Discussions about the appreciation, donation, sale, purchase, and exhibition of Cornell's works are frequent, with the inclusion of shipping and loan documentation or notices of payment installments. Galleries and museums frequently request that Cornell agree to an exhibition, which he often declines, and fans request free works be mailed or affordable works be sold to them. With friends, artists, and those he admired, Cornell discussed topics that fascinate him, included bits of poetry or philosophical musings, sent clippings or a collaged letter, and occasionally discussed a project or work in process. After World War II, when so many were displaced by the war in Europe, Cornell answered ads for pen pals in the "Christian Science Monitor," often responding to requests for clothing or other goods, and sometimes exchanging many letters over several years. Family correspondence is with his mother, sisters, brother, and others, and often notes activities of the day, foods eaten, and general musings, as well as occasionally mentioning a project or artwork. Correspondents of note include Stan Brakhage, Betty Freeman, Charles Henri Ford, Allegra Kent, Yayoi Kusama, Roberto Matta, Marianne Moore, Octavio Paz, Sonia Sekula, Pavel Tchelitchew, Parker Tyler, Dorothea Tanning, and Betsy von Furstenberg, among others.

Cornell was often preoccupied with his thoughts, feelings, memories, a project or thematic "exploration," and jotted notes on seemingly any surface available. Notes and musings are on napkins, the backs of envelopes, newspaper clippings, and paper bags from record and magazine stores. Frequently, an observation would trigger a lengthy nostalgic moment, or a "feé," fairy-like child or girl, would capture his imagination and lead him to thoughts of 18th-century ballerinas and silent film stars. Cornell wrote longer diary notes, sometimes expanding on an earlier notation or emotion, and often wrote when he experienced trouble sleeping or woke early. Drafted letters to imaginary muses or admired individuals are interspersed among diaries, often revealing Cornell's yearnings to find emotional intimacy and human connection. Over time, Cornell revisited his notes and occasionally made further notations about renewed thoughts on a topic, dating the note with "revisited" or "reviewed." Notes are often written in a stream-of-consciousness style, for example, jumping from the mention of a record album or composer, to a ballerina of the same period, a note about a French poet, the memory of childhood, or an observation made earlier in the day, all in the space of a few lines. Notes about artistic processes or meanings behind works or images do occasionally emerge from the tangled, poetic notations. Notes also often provide insights into Cornell's internal emotional state and give clues about his intentions behind an artwork or a particular thematic fixation.

Financial materials document Cornell's professional and personal business activities, including the sale of artworks, annual expenses for supplies and household incidentals, payments and schedules for personal assistants, receipts for donations to charities and nonprofits, and tax documents. There is also information about who worked as assistants, or "helpers," in his later years and where Cornell purchased art supplies. Additionally, specific details are documented through receipts and invoices, such as what kind of paint he purchased. Estate records include preparations made for Cornell's artworks after his death, and clippings about other deceased artist's estates show that he thought often about such arrangements in his later years.

Exhibition files highlight several select solo exhibitions for Cornell, as well as preparations and planning for the "Robert Cornell: Memorial Exhibition" in honor of his brother in 1966. Also included are several early exhibition catalogs and announcements, including "Surréalisme" (January 9-29, 1932) and "Exhibition of Objects (Bibloquet) by Joseph Cornell" (December 6-31, 1939) at the Julien Levy Gallery, and "Romantic Museum: Portraits of Women, Constructions and Arrangements by Joseph Cornell" (December 1946) at the Hugo Gallery.

Film projects and collected film materials consist of files related to Cornell's various experimental film projects: "Aviary," "Cappuccino," "Centuries of June," "Fable for Fountains," "Nymphlight," "Serafina's Garden," and unrealized film scenario "Monsieur Phot." Files include film-making notes, correspondence, and photographs. Cornell's interest in film also led him to collect film-related materials, such as film stills, film posters, and screening programs. Scattered correspondence documents the interest other institutions and individuals had in purchasing and viewing his collection. Though most of his collected film stills and movie posters were donated to the Anthology Film Archives, film stills from "Escape Me Never" (1935) and "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928) are still within the collection, as well as film-screening programs for Cornell's collection of films.

Writing and design projects document Cornell's work authoring articles and designing issues of specialty dance magazine "Dance Index," and his layouts for popular magazines like "Good Housekeeping," "House and Garden," and "Mademoiselle." Other writing projects include brochures dedicated to opera singers Maria Malibran and Giulia Grisi, "Maria" and "Bel Canto Pet." Materials used for these brochures, such as copper photo engraving plates, are also found. Design work includes a series of Christmas cards created with The Museum of Modern Art as well as traced patterns ("textile tracings") and design clippings from Cornell's time working as a "textile designer" for Traphagen Commercial Textile Studio.

Cornell acquired troves of source material from bookstalls, antique stores, sporting good and department stores, hardware stores, and magazine and record shops. He kept boxes and files of material on admired individuals, such as actresses, artists, dancers, and singers, as well as on art projects or thematic "explorations." Files are on general topics such as American history, scientific phenomena, animals, plants, and humankind, as well as on series of artworks, such as "Castles," "Homage to the Romantic Ballet," and "Medici Slot Machines." Focused "exploration" projects include "Celestial Theatre," "Colombier," "GC 44," and "Switzerland," among others. Materials include photographs, photostats, maps, book fragments, autographed letters, notes, collage clippings and cutouts, collected prints and engravings, box and collage fragments, and scattered artifacts.

Collected ephemera includes large amounts of blank postcards and greeting cards, stamps, collected bus and train tickets, food labels and packaging, decals, and other materials. Artifacts are three-dimensional collected objects and source objects, which include found objects from the streets, dried flowers, and pieces of nature gathered from walks around his neighborhood. Cornell may have gathered materials because they inspired a memory or nostalgic feeling, or because they fit with a bin of other similar objects to select from for an artwork in progress.

Photographs found within the collection are of Cornell at work and as a child with family. Also found are assorted personal and family photographs, photographs of Cornell's attic and garage storage, and photographs of his Utopia Parkway house. Photographs of artwork include few installation photographs, in addition to photographs of Cornell's boxes and collages. Collected photographic materials include vintage photographs, such as tintypes, a cyanotype, stereoscopic glass slides, albumen prints, cabinet cards, and cartes-de-visite. Cornell also collected cased photographs, such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and one opalotype. Negatives and photostats were often produced from various prints and even other photographs and used in Cornell's boxes and collages. Images are of men and women, actors, authors, dancers, performers, well-known men and women, royalty, places, and artwork. Photographs of note include those by Hans Namuth of Willem and Lisa de Kooning and of Edward Hopper's bedroom; photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson; a photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron; photographs by Brassai; and a photogravure by Alfred Stieglitz from "Camerawork."

Also found in the collection are works of art by others, including a sketch by Pavel Tchelitchew, as well as artwork by Cornell, such as unfinished collages, Rorschach drawings or ink blots, and childhood artwork. Printed material includes assorted bulletins, flyers, exhibition materials for other artists, journals, and sent printed membership and charity materials. Magazines, including "View," are also included, and often have annotations by Cornell or a note to "cut" or "review" with page numbers. A large amount of magazine and newspaper clippings are in the collection, sometimes collected with a group of like material by Cornell, and at other times simply gathered in heaps. Occasional annotations are also found on the clippings.

Cornell's personal library and book collection includes over 2500 titles, ranging from fiction, poetry, and cinema, to history, science, and travel. Notable among the titles are "Baedeker's" travel guides that Cornell often sourced for his "Hotel" box series, as well as an influential publication by Max Ernst, "La Femme 100 têtes," which includes a typed letter and exhibition flyer tucked within. Books often have annotations, some fairly extensive, by Cornell, and assorted collected items, notes, and correspondence tucked between pages. Pages were often cut by Cornell, either to make photostats and use in a box, or to file with other thematic "explorations." A wide range of authors and topics provide insight into Cornell's interests and to ideas behind artwork and diary notes. Cornell's collection of record albums includes over 145 records. These contain inserted notes and clippings and are often referenced in diary notes Cornell made, noting a recent album or song listened to while at work in his studio.

The papers of Cornell's mother, Helen Storms Cornell, and his brother, Robert Cornell, are also included in the collection. Both lived with Cornell his whole life, spending the most time with him at their home at 3708 Utopia Parkway. Financial materials document shared responsibilities for billing, utilities, household fixes and chores, and expenditures, and Helen kept detailed financial records in a series of ledgers. Robert notes when he borrowed money from Cornell, or when he means to pay Cornell back for the purchase of a typewriter. Activities documented in diaries also occasionally cross paths with Cornell, noting his visitors or an exchange of letters continued after introductions through Cornell. Personal activities, such as Robert's interest in his train collection and his drawing projects and cartoon series, are also documented.

Arrangement:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center Collection is arranged into 15 series:

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1917-1972 (Boxes 1, 98, OV118; 0.9 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1813, 1934-circa 1973 (Boxes 1-8, 86; 6.5 linear feet)

Series 3: Diaries and Notes, 1940-1976 (Boxes 8-10, 98-99, 135, OV108, OV119; 3.5 linear feet)

Series 4: Personal Business and Estate Records, 1950-1978 (Boxes 10-14; 4.1 linear feet)

Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1932-1973 (Box 14; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 6: Film Projects and Collected Film Materials, circa 1924-1972 (Boxes 14-16, 100, 133; 1.6 linear feet)

Series 7: Writing and Design Projects, circa 1910s, 1936-1962 (Boxes 16-18, 86, 100, 131-132, OV109-OV111, OV120-OV122; 3.6 linear feet)

Series 8: Source Material, 1750-circa 1911, 1926-1972 (Boxes 19-49, 86-92, 96, 100-105, 126-130, 132-137, OV112-OV115, OV125; 42.2 linear feet)

Series 9: Artifacts and Ephemera, 1768, circa 1839-1972 (Boxes 49-52; 3.2 linear feet)

Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1800s-1972 (Boxes 52-56, 80-86, 93, 106, 128, 133, OV116, OV123-OV124; 7.5 linear feet)

Series 11: Artwork, circa 1810-1972 (Boxes 56-57, 107, OV117; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 12: Printed Material, 1855-1972 (Boxes 57-76, 94-96, 107; 16 linear feet)

Series 13: Book Collection and Personal Library, 1722-1980 (99.8 linear feet)

Series 14: Record Album Collection, circa 1925-1974 (3.2 linear feet)

Series 15: Cornell Family Papers, 1910-1980 (Boxes 77-79, 97, 107; 3.2 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was a self-taught assemblage and collage artist, and filmmaker, active in New York City. He was born in Nyack, New York on December 24, 1903, and died of heart failure at his home in Queens, New York on December 29, 1972. The oldest of four children, he was born Joseph I. Cornell to his mother, Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), and his father, Joseph I. Cornell (1875-1917). Cornell had two younger sisters, Elizabeth ("Betty") Cornell Benton (1905-2000) and Helen ("Sissy") Cornell Jagger (1906-2001), as well as one brother, Robert Cornell (1910-1965), who had cerebral palsy.

Cornell attended the Phillips Academy, a preparatory boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts, beginning shortly after his father's death in 1917. He attended for four years but did not receive a diploma, and soon began work as a textile salesman for the William Whitman Company in Manhattan. His work took him, by foot, through the city, visiting secondhand bookshops on Fourth Avenue, browsing music stores and magazine shops, and catching early shows at the Metropolitan Opera House. He would occasionally wait outside the stage doors for favorite singers and dancers to emerge, requesting signatures on photographs or bits of costumes.

Around 1926, Cornell joined the Christian Science Church, joined by his brother Robert shortly thereafter, and both continued to be lifelong members. Cornell kept a number of books in his personal library on Christian Science teachings and regularly subscribed to "The Christian Science Monitor."

After living in several rental houses in Bayside, New York, Cornell's mother purchased a house for the family in 1929 in Flushing, Queens. Cornell, along with his mother and brother, would live at 3708 Utopia Parkway, for the rest of their lives. His two sisters soon married and moved away, eventually settling in Westhampton, Long Island and in the poultry-farming business.

With no formal art training to speak of, Cornell's first work was a Max Ernst-inspired collage, "Untitled (Schooner)," created in 1931. He was especially inspired by Ernst's collage novel, "La Femme 100 têtes," published in 1929. French artist Odilon Redon was also among the few artists Cornell named as an influence on his art. His first sculptural works were small, cardboard pill boxes with bits of ephemera, costume adornments, and nature hidden inside. Cornell also created a series of glass bell jar works, placing small trinkets and Victorian-era-like compositions within. It was these early collages and bell jar works that were included in Cornell's debut exhibition, "Surréalisme" (January 9-29, 1932), a group show at the Julien Levy Gallery. Cornell designed the announcement for the show and exhibited alongside Max Ernst, Man Ray, Pierre Roy, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Atget, George Platt Lynes, Jean Cocteau, and Salvador Dalí. Months later, Cornell was invited to have his first solo show, "Objects by Joseph Cornell: Minutiae, Glass Bells, Shadow Boxes, Coups d'Oeil, Jouets Surréalistes" (November 26-December 30, 1932), also at the Julien Levy Gallery.

In 1932, after eleven years of work, Cornell was laid off from the William Whitman Company due to the Great Depression. Soon after, he took on more responsibility in the church, working part-time as an attendant in the Christian Science Reading Room in Great Neck, New York. Beginning in 1933, he taught Sunday school classes for three years and in 1935, became the Sunday school librarian. However, his religious activities and artistic ventures continued to remain separate.

In the early 1930s, Cornell progressed from movie lover to filmmaker. When Julien Levy began his New York Film Society in 1933, holding screenings of various experimental films in the gallery, Cornell began buying and collecting films and film stills in earnest. He set up a 16-millimeter projector in his home to screen favorites, such as those by Georges Méliès, D.W. Griffith, and Louis Feuillade. His collection quickly grew to over 2,500 film stills and several hundred films, and included silent era films, such as nature documentaries, goofy newsreels, travelogues, early cartoons, and slapstick comedies, as well as several feature films. In 1933, Cornell wrote a screenplay, or "scenario," entitled "Monsieur Phot." Between 1935 and 1937, Cornell also occasionally created publicity photomontages for Universal and Columbia studios. Of the nearly thirty films Cornell created, periods of activity can generally be separated into two areas: collage films of the late 1930s, consisting of combined elements from films in his own collection, and films he directed in the 1950s, which were collaborations with other filmmakers set in New York City. "Rose Hobart," Cornell's most celebrated collage film, was created and shown in the Julien Levy Gallery in 1936 and includes clipped footage from "East of Borneo." Later films were directed and filmed with cinematographers Stan Brakhage, Rudy Burckhardt, and Larry Jordan.

In 1934, Cornell began a job at the Traphagen Commercial Textile Studio as a "textile designer," a job he held for six years. Continuing to work at his kitchen table in the evenings, Cornell completed his first assemblage box construction, "Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)," in 1936. It was first exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art's show, "Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism" (December 9, 1936-January 17, 1937). This work was also the first to be acquired by a museum, purchased for $60.00 by the Wadsworth Atheneum in Massachusetts in 1938. Cornell's European debut was also in 1938, as one of three Americans represented in the "Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme" (January 17-Febuary 24, 1938) at the Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris, alongside Man Ray and Anne Clark.

At the end of 1939, Cornell began corresponding with poet Charles Henri Ford, founder of avant-garde magazine "View," Pavel Tchelitchew, and Parker Tyler. After his "Soap Bubble Sets," this period saw the development of Cornell's homages to singers and actresses, including "Untitled (Fortune-Telling Parrot for Carmen Miranda)," the destroyed "Garbo (Greta Garbo in the Legendary Film 'The Crystal Mask,' c. 1845)," and "Dressing Room for Gilles." He also began using photostats of art reproduction prints, as with the print of Jean Antoine-Watteau's painting, "Pierrot" (circa 1719), used in his "Gilles" box.

In the 1940s, the Romantic ballet emerged as Cornell's new topic of interest. Through his friend Pavel Tchelitchew, Cornell was introduced to the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet founders, Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. Cornell collected dance memorabilia and had a great love of the Romantic ballet. His favorite dancers were primarily ballerinas of the nineteenth century, including Fanny Cerrito, Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler, Lucille Grahn, and Carlotta Grisi. Cornell's "Homage to the Romantic Ballet" works largely took the shape of jewel-box style wooden boxes with glass overlays and included bits of velvet, tulle, sequins, crystals, and chiffon, occasionally collected from dancers themselves. His most well-known work of this series is "Taglioni's Jewel Casket" (1940). Cornell also admired several living ballet dancers, including Tamara Toumanova, Zizi Jeanmaire, and Allegra Kent, who would all make their way into Cornell's box works and/or collages. Collecting for the "exploration," "Portrait of Ondine," Cornell's cased portfolio dedication to Fanny Cerrito and her role in the ballet "Ondine," began in the 1940s, though not completed until around 1960.

In late 1940, Cornell quit his job at Traphagen to concentrate on freelance commercial magazine design and editorial work during the day and his artwork at night. That same year, Charles Henri Ford started "View" magazine to promote Surrealists and Neo-Romantics in New York City and often asked Cornell to contribute. Published in the December 1941-January 1942 issue, one of his early contributions was a collage dedication to stage actress Hedy Lamarr: "Enchanted Wanderer: Excerpt from a Journey Album for Hedy Lamarr" (1941). Along with writing the accompanying text, he created a photomontage of Lamarr with her face overlaying the painted portrait of a Renaissance boy by Italian painter Giorgione. Peggy Guggenheim, at the advice of Marcel Duchamp, purchased multiple Cornell works prior to opening her new gallery, Art of This Century. Cornell also befriended Roberto Matta Echaurren, another Surrealist living in exile, who introduced him to Robert Motherwell.

After deciding to fully dedicate his time to his art in early 1940, he set up a studio in his basement. Complete with floor-to-ceiling wooden shelving, he kept his large collection of boxed source material stacked with handwritten labels in cardboard boxes. Themed folders of materials such as "Stamps" or "Maps" were kept in stacks and works in progress and finished works were stored in the basement, garage, and attic. Entering a renewed period of productivity, Cornell embarked on many new and important box projects in 1942. One of the first boxes created in his new basement studio, and the first of the "Penny Arcade" or "Medici Slot Machine" series, was "Medici Slot Machine" (1942), which includes a photostat of "Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa" (1557) by Sofonisba Anguissola. Another work from this time is the first of his "Castle" or "Palace" series, "Setting for a Fairy Tale" (1942), which uses a photostat of a French building from Jacques Androuet du Cerceau's book, "Les Plus excellents bastiments de France" (1576). "Untitled (Pharmacy)" (circa 1942) was the first of his "Pharmacy" series and included twenty-two apothecary jars. Cornell tended to work in series and created thirteen "Palace" boxes between 1942 and 1951, and ultimately created six "Pharmacy" works.

In 1943, Cornell began working at an electronics company, the Allied Control Company, Inc., to do his part to contribute to the defense effort during the war. He also sent correspondence and care packages to displaced Europeans, who listed their needs in "The Christian Science Monitor." Influenced by World War II, one of his strongest works to emerge in 1943 was "Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery." Another notable work to come out of this period, "The Crystal Cage (Portrait of Berenice)," was an excerpt from one of his album "explorations" that was published in the January 1943 issue of "View."

Cornell left his job at Allied Control in 1944, but soon began working at the Garden Centre in Flushing, owned by a fellow Christian Scientist. Cornell was often nostalgic for this time in his life, devoting an entire "exploration" of material fondly remembered as "GC 44." He rode a bicycle to work and enjoyed collecting trips gathering dried grasses, driftwood, shells, and other relics of nature on the same bicycle as he rode through the streets of Queens. During this time, he continued to tend to his projects for "Dance Index," a magazine founded in 1942 by Lincoln Kirstein, but taken over by Donald Windham in 1944. Cornell designed several covers for the magazine and was given control of the entire summer 1944 issue, which he devoted to the Romantic ballet. He also devoted a special 1945 issue to Hans Christian Andersen, making great use of the New York Public Library Picture Collection.

Throughout the 1940s, Cornell continued to support himself with commercial design work for magazines like "Vogue," "Good Housekeeping," "Harper's Bazaar," "Town & Country," and "Mademoiselle." In 1946, after thirteen years at the Julien Levy Gallery, he joined the Hugo Gallery. In December 1946, Cornell's solo exhibition, "Romantic Museum at the Hugo Gallery: Portraits of Women by Joseph Cornell," celebrated his favorite movie stars, singers, and ballet dancers, and included his work created for the show, "Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall)." Cornell's "Greta Garbo" box, as well as "Souvenir for Singleton," an homage to Jennifer Jones and her role in the film "Love Letters," were also included in the show. In late 1948, his West Coast debut was in the exhibition, "Objects by Joseph Cornell," held at the Copley Gallery. The end of the 1940s saw the final issue of "View" magazine in 1947, the closure of the Julien Levy Gallery in April 1949, and Cornell's departure from the Hugo Gallery after his last show in November 1949.

In late 1949, Cornell joined the Charles Egan Gallery, known primarily for showing Abstract Expressionists. At this time, Cornell was working on a new series of boxes known as his "Aviary" works, most of which include a white-painted box with cutouts of birds mounted on wood. Though he had worked on bird-related boxes before, including an "Owl" series in the mid-1940s, his "Fortune Telling Parrot" (1939), and "Object 1941" (1941), these newer works were stripped of French elements and left "clean and abstract" by design. His first show at the Egan Gallery, "Aviary by Joseph Cornell" (December 7, 1949-January 7, 1950), included twenty-six "Aviary" works, nearly all created in 1949. Donald Windham agreed to write the foreword for the exhibition catalog, a single folded sheet, and Cornell gave him one of the boxes in the show, "Cockatoo: Keepsake Parakeet," in appreciation. Through the Egan Gallery, Cornell became friends with a new group of artists, including Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov, and Willem de Kooning. Cornell also held two screenings of a selection of his collected films at Subjects of the Artist, an art school founded by Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, David Hare, and William Baziotes.

In 1950, Cornell's second show at the Egan Gallery, "Night Songs and Other New Work" (December 1, 1950-January 13, 1951), introduced his new "Observatory" series. These works are largely defined by stark, whitewashed spaces with astronomical charts and constellations replacing colorful birds. The Museum of Modern Art purchased its first Cornell work from this show in early 1951, "Central Park Carrousel, in Memoriam" (1950).

For three months in 1951, Cornell was beset by various ailments and had trouble finding the energy to create new work. He worried more for his aging mother and the health of his brother. After a monthlong vacation with his sisters in Westhampton, he returned with renewed interest in Emily Dickinson's poetry. His whitewashed boxes took on a new form in his newest "Dovecote" series, using grids and circular cutouts. The works then transformed into homages to Dickinson, notably "Toward the Blue Peninsula: For Emily Dickinson" (circa 1953), and then to his "Hotel" series. Cornell's "Hotel" boxes include photostats of vintage European ads for hotels collected from vintage travel guides, especially "Baedeker's," adhered to the back walls of the boxes. Another new series of work, his "Juan Gris" series, was dedicated to Cubist artist Juan Gris. Between 1953 and the mid-1960s, Cornell created at least fifteen "Juan Gris" boxes, which often include a cutout of a white cockatoo in a Cubist-collage habitat. Cornell's third and last show at Egan Gallery, "Night Voyage" (February 10-March 28, 1953), included some of these newest works. After leaving Egan Gallery, his work was introduced to Chicago collectors in a solo show at the Frumkin Gallery, "Joseph Cornell: 10 Years of His Art" (April 10-May 7, 1953), which included nearly thirty pieces. Cornell's first museum retrospective was this same show held at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (July 12-August 30, 1953).

As New York City continued to change, Cornell grew more nostalgic for the city he had explored since the 1920s. The impending closure of the Third Avenue El train prompted him to dream up a film project to capture its last days, resulting in "Gnir Rednow," a reworking of Stan Brakhage's 1955, "Wonder Ring." During this time, Cornell joined the Stable Gallery, run by Eleanor Ward, interacting often with Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Joan Mitchell, remaining there until the end of the 1950s. His astronomy-themed exhibition, "Winter Night Skies" (December 12, 1955-January 13, 1956), included his "Night Skies" series of work with celestial chart fragments, Greek mythological figures, and paint-splattered "windows" representative of star-filled night skies. In 1956, he became aware of ballerina Allegra Kent, and began a series of work devoted to her, the first of which was "Via Parmigianino (Villa Allegra)" (1956), which included a photostat of a painting by Parmigianino, "The Madonna of the Long Neck" (circa 1540). In late 1957, after two years, Cornell had his last show at Stable Gallery, "Joseph Cornell: Selected Works" (December 2-31, 1957), consisting of a series of "Sand Fountain" boxes and "Space Object" or "Celestial Navigation" works. The "Sand Fountain" boxes included different colors of sand meant to flow within, often from the tops into cordial glasses. His "Celestial Navigations" included galaxy-like compositions set within the boxes, with rolling, painted cork balls, metal rings, and constellation charts, sometimes hovering over cordial glasses or clay pipes. This last Stable Gallery show earned him his first published profile, written by Howard Griffin for the December 1957 issue of "Art News." Also in 1957, he won the Kohnstamm Prize for Construction at the Art Institute of Chicago's 62rd Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture.

Towards the end of the 1950s, Cornell spent less time creating new bodies of work, and focused more on revisiting previous series and reviewing piles of collected source material. In 1959, Cornell returned to making collages, frequently sourcing popular magazines. In December 1959, Cornell was awarded $1,500 for his "Orion" collage, entered in the Art Institute of Chicago's "63rd American Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture." Also in December, he was offered a show at Bennington College in Vermont, which he titled, "Bonitas Solstitialis: Selected Works by Joseph Cornell and an exploration of the Colombier" (November 20-December 15, 1959). The show included one of his newest "explorations" of collected material related to "colombier," or pigeon houses.

By 1962, Cornell was working diligently on new collages, using Masonite boards and colorful magazine clippings. He also began creating collages using nude images interspersed with constellation clippings or hazy blue dyes. As in previous decades and art movements, Cornell became acquainted with new artists, spending less time in the city and more time hosting visitors at his Utopia Parkway home. Visitors included artists Walter De Maria, Robert Whitman, Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, and Robert Indiana. Tony Curtis also became a frequent visitor and friend, introduced by Richard Feigen in 1964. The early 1960s was also the first time Cornell put out an advertisement for assistants in the "Long Island Star-Journal," employing a number of young men and women who helped organize clippings and run errands. Cornell also met Joyce Hunter, a young runaway waitress at a city coffee shop, who would occupy his thoughts and diary notes for the next several years. When she was murdered at the end of 1964, Cornell paid for her funeral. He went on to make several "Penny Arcade" collages in memoriam to her, including, "Penny Arcade (re-autumnal)" (1964).

In 1964, Cornell began friendships with several women including artist Carolee Schneeman, who was his first assistant in the early 1960s. He also met artist Yayoi Kusama through art dealer Gertrude Stein. After becoming friends, she visited him often and they exchanged letters and notes. As he did with other artist friends, Cornell supported her by purchasing several of her early watercolor paintings, and they stayed connected until his death in 1972.

Cornell's life greatly changed in 1965 with the death of his brother, Robert. By this time, his mother lived with his sister in Long Island, and Cornell was alone in the Utopia Parkway house for the first time. He exchanged frequent letters and phone calls with his mother and devoted much time to thinking about Robert and Joyce, often aligning them in his diary notations. Cornell also created a series of collages dedicated to his brother's memory, incorporating photostats of Robert's hundreds of drawings into Cornell's work, as with the later collage, "The Heart on the Sleeve" (1972). Cornell's "Time Transfixed" series of collages were also dedications to Robert's memory, referencing Magritte and Robert's love of trains. He mounted an exhibition, "Robert Cornell: Memorial Exhibition" (January 4-29, 1966), at the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, where he showed Robert's artwork alongside his newly created collage dedications.

After Robert's death, Cornell relied more heavily on assistants, going through many part-time "helpers." In October 1966, Cornell's mother died, adding her to his constant thoughts and diaries. Though he was still grieving, he was given two major retrospectives in 1967. The first was at the Pasadena Art Museum, put on by James Demetrion and Walter Hopps, "An Exhibiton of Works by Joseph Cornell" (January 9-February 11, 1967). The second retrospective was at the Guggenheim Museum just three months later, "Joseph Cornell" (May 4-June 35, 1967), organized by Diane Waldman. After these shows, he was highlighted in the December 15, 1967 issue of "Life" in the article, "The Enigmatic Bachelor of Utopia Parkway."

In 1968, Cornell was given an "award of merit," which included a medal and $1,000, by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He was also given a medal and $1,000 by the Brandeis University Creative Arts Awards in the painting category, along with an exhibition. Days later, "The New York Times" announced Cornell the winner, along with Donald Judd, of India's first Triennale of Contemporary World Art. The Brandeis exhibition, "Boxes and Collages by Joseph Cornell" (May 20-June 23, 1968), was organized by William Seitz and concentrated on Cornell's more recent 1960s collages. Cornell was also included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's hundredth anniversary show, "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940 to 1970" (October 18, 1969-February 1, 1970), where twenty-two of Cornell's boxes were shown in their own gallery. At the end of 1970, Cornell was given a solo show at the Metropolitan, "Collages by Joseph Cornell" (December 10, 1970-January 24, 1971), which included forty-five of his newest collages.

Now preferring to stay closer to his home in Flushing, Cornell was more interested in sharing his art with young adults and children, than an adult audience. He hosted a group of high school students, sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's education department, at his home in conjunction with his collage show (1970-1971). He also showed his work in the art department of Queens College of the City University of New York. Cornell still hosted visitors on occasion, having Yoko Ono and John Lennon at his home at least once. Leila Hadley, Betsy von Furstenberg, and Anne Jackson also made frequent visits. With his deteriorating health, Cornell worried about what would happen to his work after his death and hired lawyer Harry Torczyner to help him plan his estate and get his affairs in order.

In 1972, Cornell had a show at the Cooper Union, a college in New York, specifically for children. He displayed his boxes and collages at child-height and had cherry soda and brownies at the opening reception on February 10. He then held a show at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, also for children: "Children's Preview of the Exhibition of Joseph Cornell – Collages and Boxes (April 18-June 17, 1972). In the winter of 1972, at the request of the Phoenix House drug treatment and prevention program, Cornell contributed to a charity project compiling limited-edition lithographic prints for a portfolio, which included artists like David Hockney, James Rosenquist, and Ellsworth Kelly.

On December 29, 1972, a week after turning sixty-nine, Cornell died of heart failure at his home. He was cremated and interred near the graves of his mother, father, and brother, overlooking the Hudson River in Nyack, New York.

Works Cited:

1. Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. "Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination." New Haven, Connecticut and London: Yale University Press, 2007. Exhibition Catalog.

2. McShine, Kynaston. "Joseph Cornell." New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980.

3. San Francisco Cinematheque and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Joseph Cornell: Films." 2007. Exhibition Program. (Presented in conjunction with SFMOMA's exhibition of "Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination").

4. Schaffner, Ingrid and Lisa Jacobs. "Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery." Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The MIT Press, 1998.

5. Solomon, Deborah. "Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell." New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

Separated Materials:

The Smithsonian Archives of American Art houses the Joseph Cornell papers, 1804-1986, bulk 1939-1972.

Provenance:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection was donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by Joseph Cornell's sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth Cornell Benton and John A. Benton, in 1978, which prompted the creation of the Joseph Cornell Study Center. Additional materials were donated in installments by the artist's estate, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, from 1985 to 1997. Elizabeth and John A. Benton originally donated 66 linear feet of three-dimensional and non-textual source material and 50 linear feet of books to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, which were subsequently transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Joseph Cornell Study Center in 1994 and 1995.

Restrictions:

Access to the collection requires an advanced appointment. Contact collection staff at least two weeks prior to preferred date, at AmericanArtCornellStudy@si.edu.

Series 9: Artifacts and Ephemera, Series 13: Personal Library and Book Collection, and Series 14: Record Album Collection, are still undergoing processing and preservation and may not be available for research use. Record albums are unavailable for playback. Contact collection staff for full lists of publications and record albums.

Rights:

Unpublished materials are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Occupation:

Collagists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Assemblage (Art)  Search this

Assemblage artists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Found objects (Art)  Search this

Works of art  Search this

Celebrities  Search this

Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographic photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 1900-1950

Photographs -- 1860-1870 -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver albumen -- Cartes-de-visite

Photographs -- Daguerreotypes -- 1840-1860

Citation:

Joseph Cornell Study Center collection, 1750-1980, bulk 1930-1972. Joseph Cornell Study Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was generously provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

Identifier:

SAAM.JCSC.1

See more items in:

Joseph Cornell Study Center Collection

Archival Repository:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Research and Scholars Center

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ih7d97fc249-474d-41bf-953d-5305df1e4c06

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-saam-jcsc-1

Former owner:

McKenzie, Betty  Search this

McKenzie, Robert  Search this

Provenance:

Connecticut Valley Garden Club  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Garden of Bill Noble (Norwich, Vermont)

United States of America -- Vermont -- Windsor County -- Norwich

Scope and Contents:

The folder includes worksheets, site plans, and additional information, including some plant names.

General:

Located on a 19th-century Vermont farmstead, this garden has been under development since 1991 and is centered around a Greek Revival farmhouse, barn, and barn foundations on 22 acres of terraced lawns, field and woodland. The garden is focused on two acres and possesses a variety of plants not commonly encountered in Vermont gardens, including old-fashioned varieties collected from historic gardens and newer plants from other regions of the country being assessed for garden worthiness in Vermont. The main flower garden consists of four rectangular beds planted as a mixed border with deciduous shrubs, roses, herbaceous perennials, and self-sown annuals. This flower garden opens up westerly onto a lawn bordered by a 70-foot-long stone foundation wall. This border is planted for foliage interest to contrast with the floral display of the main flower garden. A rock garden with troughs is situated on the terrace above the walls in the remains of a former dairy barn, with the deteriorated cement floors providing ideal growing space for a variety of rock and alpine plants. A moss garden lies next to the former dairy in the footprint of a former stable, while the Silver and Gold border, named for the eponymous shrubby dogwood, is a transition from the foundation gardens to a field, with paths mowed into the tall grass. Other areas of interest include a vegetable garden east of the flower garden, borders of shade loving plants, an aster border, banks of native roses; and a slope of fall and winter interest with conifers, evergreen groundcovers and grasses.

March 1, 2008, is the only date indicated for all of the slides, although they appear to have been taken at various times of the year, possibly during 2007.

Persons associated with the site include Betty and Robert McKenzie (former owners, 1924-1990).

Related Materials:

Garden of Bill Noble related holdings consist of 1 folder (15 35 mm. slides (photographs))

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- Vermont -- Norwich  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File VT011

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Vermont

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb65db46ad0-9f25-4f06-8f44-35e4a90117c9

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref11358

Former owner:

Hite, Isaac, Jr  Search this

Hunnewell, F. W. (Francis Welles)  Search this

Brumback family  Search this

Restoration landscape architect:

Favretti, Rudy J.  Search this

Owner:

National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States  Search this

Creator:

Garden Club of Virginia  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Belle Grove (Middletown, Virginia)

United States of America -- Virginia -- Frederick County -- Middletown

Scope and Contents:

The folder includes worksheets and photocopies of articles about the property.

General:

Major Isaac Hite Jr., who fought with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and his first wife Eleanor (Nelly) Conway Madison, a sister of President James Madison, built the Federal style house beginning in 1794, using limestone quarried on the 483 acre property. The landscape plan included groves of trees for shade and was influenced by the less formal 18th century English gardens that complement rather than contrast with the natural setting. The fields would have been planted in grain for livestock, including cattle and Merino sheep. During Hite's lifetime the property was expanded to 7,500 acres and included a distillery and several mills. The house has a south façade of dressed limestone, and is in the pavilion style favored by Thomas Jefferson. There are several outbuildings. The only records of the garden show light foundation plantings around the house and a latticework fence.

During the Civil War, Belle Grove Plantation was the setting of the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, in which Union General Philip Sheridan defeated Confederate General Jubal Early.

The Brumback family owned the property from 1907 to 1929. Francis Welles Hunnewell purchased the property in 1929 and bequeathed it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1964.

In 1983, the Garden Club of Virginia voted to restore the gardens at Belle Grove Plantation, using funds raised in their annual garden walks. The gardens were restored to the style of circa 1820. University of Connecticut Professor Emeritus Rudy J. Favretti (Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects) designed the restoration. Restoration included pruning the trees to restore light to the house and open the view of the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains and replacing the large foundation plantings including diseased boxwoods with low-growing plants. In addition, an overgrown herb garden was converted to a demonstration garden comprised of plants used in cooking, medicine and commerce in the 19th century, with restored latticework fencing on three sides and post and rail fencing on the fourth side.

Belle Grove Plantation, now 283 acres, is operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and open to the public. Sites on the grounds include the ice house, old hall, dairy, smokehouse, blacksmiths shop, demonstration garden, slave cemetery, and agricultural fields. There is also a library of local, architectural, crafts and agricultural history, and an artifacts collection.

Persons associated with the property include Major Isaac Hite (former owner, 1794-1836) and descendents of the Hite family, the Brumback family (former owner, 1907-1929), Francis Welles Hunnewell (former owner, 1929), Rudy J. Favretti (1983, restoration landscape architect) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (owner, 1964-present)

Related Materials:

Belle Grove Plantation related holdings consist of 2 folders (1 3 x 4 in. lantern slide and 3 35mm slides)

See also the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

See others in:

Hollerith Collection, ca. 1970?

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- Virginia -- Middletown  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File VA094

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Virginia

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb6a1c3d45f-f402-49e6-afa3-7d7766b16b38

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref18856

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb653f5a4fa-71fe-4259-ab23-a33248a801d5

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref32850

Photographer:

Mellinger, Claire  Search this

Owner:

Harris, Leslie  Search this

Landscape designer:

Kline, Tony  Search this

Heilbron, Jon  Search this

Provenance:

Albemarle Garden Club  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Digital images

Place:

United States of America -- Virginia -- Albemarle County -- Charlottesville

Leslie Harris Garden (Charlottesville, Virginia)

Scope and Contents:

10 digital images (2020).

General:

The Leslie Harris Garden is located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Established in 2014, the 0.8-acre property features a woodland garden with stream and fish pond.

Approaching the house, five Hinoki False Cypress, (Chamaecyparis obtusa), a weeping ornamental cherry, two crab apple trees, and several Ilex crenata hedges are viewed on the east side of the front entrance. On the west side, a holly hedge (Ilex cornuta) lines a low stone wall that stretches the entire length of the house providing a backdrop to Azalea 'Girard's Pleasant White' and Hydrangea 'Little Lime.' Spring bulbs, self-sowing columbine (Aquilegia), Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis), and in summer Caladium complete the row of plants along the stone wall.

A curving gravel path inlaid with flagstones connects the front door to the garage area. On either side of the path are perennials including Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium dubium 'Little Joe'), Echinacea purpurea, Rudbeckia maxima, Sedum Autumn Joy (Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'), various lilies, spring bulbs, fall asters, and Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle.' Nearby evergreens and trees are pruned in shapes of balls and lollipops.

Around the back of the are walking trails through a woodland garden containing a variety of understory plants selected for their colorful waves of blooms throughout the growing season. A stream is fed by recirculating pump from a small fish pond 75 yards east of the spring house where the water flow begins. Adjacent to the pond is a small circular terrace bordered with Buxus 'Morris Dwarf.'

A small kitchen garden adjacent to the house features cloches used to protect the plants from wildlife. Also nearby is a small knot garden created from boxwoods which the owner transplanted from her former Connecticut garden.

Persons associated with the garden design include: Leslie Harris (designer and horticulturist, 2012- ), Tony Kline (water feature/Earth Tones Inc., 2016),a and Jon Heilbron (wall construction, 2016).

Tony Kline designed the waterfall and bridge.Jon Heilbrun designed the gate and wall.

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- Virginia -- Charlottesville  Search this

Woodland gardens  Search this

Bridges  Search this

Pools  Search this

Streams  Search this

Genre/Form:

Digital images

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File VA548

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Virginia

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb6b8f13d14-062c-4204-b4b5-1032929b79c3

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref33286

Creator:

Lockwood, W. A., Mrs.  Search this

Bulkley, Jonathan Mrs  Search this

Stewart, John A. Mrs  Search this

Sloan, Samuel Mrs  Search this

Lynch, John H. Mrs  Search this

duPont, Pierre Mrs  Search this

Morse, Robert C. Mrs  Search this

Williams, Percy C. Mrs  Search this

Thomas, James R. Mrs  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

Canada -- Alberta -- Lake Louise

Canada -- Alberta -- Canadian Rockies

Canada -- Alberta

General:

The 1930 Annual Meeting of the Garden Club of America (GCA) took place in Seattle, Washington, in July, with pre-meeting tours to the Northwest United States and Canada. Before the annual meeting, GCA members toured Banff and Lake Louise in Alberta, and Victoria in British Columbia. After the meeting GCA members went on tours of Mount Rainier, Tacoma, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, and Yellowstone National Park.

The nine glass slides of the Canadian Rockies and Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada in this series appear to have been commercially produced by the Victor Animatograph Corporation in Davenport, Iowa. It is unlikely that their source images were taken during the GCA trip.

Persons associated with the trip include: Mrs. W. A. Lockwood, President; Mrs. Jonathan Bulkley, Vice President, New York; Mrs. John A. Stewart, Jr., Ex-President, New York; Mrs. Samuel Sloan, Ex-President, New York; Mrs. John Lynch, Secretary, Connecticut; Mrs. Pierre duPont, Director, Delaware;Mrs. Robert C. Morse, Director, Boston, Mass.; Mrs. Percy C. Williams, Connecticut; and Mrs. James R. Thomas, Director, West Virgina.

Related Materials:

Canadian Rockies related holdings consist of 1 folder (9 lantern slides)

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File CAN010

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 2: International Garden Images / Canada

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb62a197234-5c23-4887-affd-d2c52058f632

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref4153

Artist:

Giacomo Manzu, Italian, b. Bergamo, 1908–1991  Search this

Medium:

Bronze

Dimensions:

52 1/4 x 38 5/8 x 10 1/8 in. (132.7 x 98.1 x 25.7 cm)

Type:

Sculpture/relief

Date:

(1942/probably cast 1948-1961)

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966

Accession Number:

66.3293

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py2d916119a-324c-4cb1-8e7e-80d3633acf5c

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_66.3293

Slide manufacturer:

Van Altena, Edward  Search this

Former owner:

Upson, Stephen  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Extent:

1 Photograph (lantern slide, hand-colored, 3.25 x 4 in.)

Type:

Archival materials

Photographs

Lantern slides

Place:

Upson-Howard Place (Lexington, Georgia)

United States of America -- Georgia -- Oglethorpe County -- Lexington

Date:

[between 1914 and 1949?]

General:

The Upson-Howard place was laid out in the 1820's and has a decidely New England atmosphere, for Stephen Upson came from Connecticut. The five and a half acres are enclosed by a four foot stone wall of semi-dressed stone blocks, laid without morter. A stone wall of this type is very unusual in Georgia.

Mount reads: "Edward Van Altena."

Historic plate number: "68."

Historic plate caption: "Georgia, Stone wall, [illeg]."

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Gardens -- Georgia -- Lexington  Search this

Walls, stone  Search this

Trees  Search this

Driveways  Search this

Houses  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, Item GA003001

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Georgia / GA003: Lexington -- Upson-Howard Place

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb6a43fb046-d536-4118-8bd3-9662436414ba

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref23824

Slide manufacturer:

Van Altena, Edward  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Extent:

1 Photograph (lantern slide, hand-colored, 3.25 x 4 in.)

Type:

Archival materials

Photographs

Lantern slides

Place:

Clapboard Ridge (Greenwich, Connecticut)

United States of America -- Connecticut -- Fairfield County -- Greenwich

Date:

[between 1914 and 1949?]

General:

Massive dry-laid cut stone wall c. 1822, characteristic of Fairfield County, Connecticut is surmounted by an eight foot box hedge and is attached to an iron gate.

Mount reads: "Edward Van Altena."

Historic plate number: "33."

Historic plate caption: "[illegible] Greenwich, Ct."

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Walls, stone  Search this

Hedges  Search this

Box  Search this

Gardens -- Connecticut -- Greenwich  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, Item CT003001

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Connecticut / CT003: Greenwich -- Clapboard Ridge

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb62bf0c2cf-8616-43dd-a14f-9831768deeec

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref21927

Slide manufacturer:

Van Altena, Edward  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Extent:

1 Photograph (lantern slide, hand-colored, 3.25 x 4 in.)

Type:

Archival materials

Photographs

Lantern slides

Place:

Thaddeus Burr Homestead (Fairfield, Connecticut)

United States of America -- Connecticut -- Fairfield County -- Fairfield

Date:

[between 1914 and 1932?]

General:

Number 29 excerpt from a historic slide lecture script by Alice Lockwood, "The garden's main path as it approaches the house, planted with flowers suited to its history, is shown in the first year."

Mount reads: "Edward Van Altena."

Historic plate number: "29."

Historic plate caption: "Thadeus Burr Fairfield, Conn."

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Walkways, grass  Search this

Garden borders  Search this

Flowering shrubs  Search this

Houses  Search this

Gardens -- Connecticut -- Fairfield  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, Item CT001001

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Connecticut / CT001: Fairfield -- Thaddeus Burr Homestead

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb6bc265953-6595-4067-be45-d5b0f36b9cc2

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref21778

Slide manufacturer:

Van Altena, Edward  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Extent:

1 Photograph (lantern slide, hand-colored, 3.25 x 4 in.)

Type:

Archival materials

Photographs

Lantern slides

Place:

Thaddeus Burr Homestead (Fairfield, Connecticut)

United States of America -- Connecticut -- Fairfield County -- Fairfield

Date:

[between 1914 and 1932?]

General:

Number 30 excerpted from a historic slide lecture script by Alice Lockwood, "The path from the house terrace with one of the beautiful elms in the foreground and the fine old hedge in the distance. These pictures record the garden as they were in the time of the late Mrs. De Ver Werner, who cared greatly for hte history of the old garden."

Mount reads: "Edward Van Altena."

Historic plate number: "30."

Historic plate caption: "Thadeus Burr Fairfield, Conn."

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Walkways  Search this

Elm  Search this

Hedges  Search this

Driveways  Search this

Gardens -- Connecticut -- Fairfield  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, Item CT001002

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Connecticut / CT001: Fairfield -- Thaddeus Burr Homestead

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb60c6b6b1e-5e66-47ae-a860-84d38e5f52dc

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref21779

Slide manufacturer:

Van Altena, Edward  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Extent:

1 Photograph (lantern slide, hand-colored, 3.25 x 4 in.)

Type:

Archival materials

Photographs

Lantern slides

Place:

Greene Garden (New Haven, Connecticut)

United States of America -- Connecticut -- New Haven County -- New Haven

Date:

[between 1914 and 1949?]

General:

Mount reads: "Edward Van Altena."

Historic plate number: "31."

Historic plate caption: "Capt. Greene. New Haven, Conn."

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Fences  Search this

Stairs  Search this

Gates  Search this

Terraces (land forms)  Search this

Houses  Search this

Gardens -- Connecticut -- New Haven  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, Item CT002001

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Connecticut / CT002: New Haven -- Greene Garden

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb6af205a20-42f8-4b30-8b40-ada696f243c3

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref22499

Slide manufacturer:

Van Altena, Edward  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Extent:

1 Photograph (lantern slide, 3.25 x 4 in.)

Type:

Archival materials

Photographs

Lantern slides

Place:

Connecticut -- New Haven

Greene Garden (New Haven, Connecticut)

United States of America -- Connecticut -- New Haven County -- New Haven

Date:

[between 1914 and 1949?]

General:

Mount reads: "Edward Van Altena."

Historic plate number: "32."

Historic plate caption: "Plan. Capt. Greene. New Haven, Conn."

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Topic:

Planting plans  Search this

Gardens -- Connecticut -- New Haven  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lantern slides

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, Item CT002002

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Connecticut / CT002: New Haven -- Greene Garden

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb64a92441e-0c4e-48ff-915d-f0e570c428d3

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref22500

Artist:

Carlotta Corpron, American, b. Blue Earth, Minnesota, 1901–1988  Search this

Medium:

Gelatin silver photograph

Dimensions:

image: 19 7/8 × 16 in. (50.5 × 40.6 cm)

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1945-1946

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Herbert Lust, 2019

Accession Number:

2019.022

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

On View:

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), 3rd Floor

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py2f1de009d-7e7e-4a33-a586-459fbe377ee2

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_2019.022

Artist:

Judy Dater, American, b. Los Angeles, California, 1941  Search this

Medium:

Gelatin silver photograph

Dimensions:

sheet: 9 15/16 × 7 15/16 in. (25.2 × 20.2 cm) mount: 18 × 14 in. (45.7 × 35.6 cm) image: 9 15/16 × 7 15/16 in. (25.2 × 20.2 cm)

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1974

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Herbert Lust, 2019

Accession Number:

2019.088

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

On View:

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), 3rd Floor

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py293b5a6fe-ecb5-48ef-a9c4-4240e9c50ff7

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_2019.088

Artist:

Carlotta Corpron, American, b. Blue Earth, Minnesota, 1901–1988  Search this

Medium:

Gelatin silver photograph

Dimensions:

(mat): 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm) image: 13 1/2 × 10 1/2 in. (34.3 × 26.7 cm)

Type:

Photograph

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Herbert Lust, 2019

Accession Number:

2019.094

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

On View:

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), 3rd Floor

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py2fc6f747b-d208-48df-9894-3f5d722ca378

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_2019.094

Artist:

Joan Mitchell, American, b. Chicago, Illinois, 1926–1992  Search this

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

110 1/4 × 204 3/4 in. (280 × 520.1 cm)

Type:

Painting

Date:

1973

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David T. Workman, 1975

Accession Number:

75.20

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

School:

Abstract Expressionism (Second Generation)

On View:

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), 3rd Floor

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py2b742002a-9a46-4d25-aff1-979a50e54daa

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_75.20

Artist:

Eva Hesse, American, b. Hamburg, Germany, 1936–1970  Search this

Medium:

Acrylic, polyurethane, papier-mâché, rope, and net

Dimensions:

sphere: 16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm) diam.; rope: approx. 154 in. (391 cm) long

Type:

Sculpture

Date:

(1966)

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 1988

Accession Number:

88.24

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

School:

American Post-Minimal Sculpture

On View:

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), 3rd Floor

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py25215d8fd-5cfb-4009-9866-4ec71dac392f

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_88.24

Creator:

Black, Julian, Mrs.  Search this

Black, Julian (boxing manager)  Search this

Names:

Jacobs, Mike  Search this

Louis, Joe, 1914-1981  Search this

Roxborough, John  Search this

Extent:

109 Volumes

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Volumes

Scrapbooks

Clippings

Date:

1935-1944

Summary:

The collection consists of 109 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings assembled by Julian Black, manager of Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. They document Louis's career from 1935 to 1944.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists of 109 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings assembled by Julian Black, manager of Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. They document Louis's career from 1935 to 1944. Louis became one of America's most celebrated sports figures both for his extraordinary boxing skills and for his role as a symbol of national pride, especially in his bouts with the German champion Max Schmeling. His national respect and international prominence stood in ironic contrast to the nation's legal and social practices of racial segregation.

Joe Louis's manager, Julian Black, assembled three sets of scrapbooks to document Louis's career. This collection consists of ninety-two volumes from Black's set, sixteen volumes from a similar but not identical set of scrapbooks assembled for Louis, and one oversize miscellaneous volume.

The third set of scrapbooks belonged to John W. Roxborough, Joe's manager or co-manager from 1933 to 1948. It is held by the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. This set contains ninety-four volumes covering the period 1935 to November 1941. Part of this collection has been microfilmed. Although the numbering of the volumes in each of the three sets is different it appears that each set has the same information.

The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings from throughout the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1944 and articles from Ring magazine. This collection documents Joe Louis's fights from June 25, 1935, through 1944, including championship fights from June 22, 1937, through September 29, 1941. (The Steve Ketchel fight on January 11, 1937, in Buffalo is not represented. See the scrapbook volume listing at the end of this guide.)

The scrapbooks were assembled with great care using high-quality binding and paper. The clippings are neatly mounted and show great attention to detail. All clippings are identified by the name of the paper; the day of the week and the date; and the author, artist, or photographer. Clippings include full-length articles and brief sketches, cartoons, photographs, and records and statistics of the boxers. The clippings are grouped in volumes by each of Louis's fights and then arranged chronologically.

Hundreds of major and minor newspapers throughout the United States and Canada are represented in the scrapbooks. Coverage extends from very large metropolitan dailies to small-town newspapers. Among the newspapers represented are titles as diverse as: Akron Beacon Journal; Daily Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia; Shreveport Times; Tribune Tulsa; and the Worchester Daily Telegraph.

While these scrapbooks are about the Joe Louis fights, there is a wealth of material on many other people connected with boxing in this period, including all of Joe Louis's opponents, his trainer, his managers, his promoter Mike Jacobs, and most of the sports reporters and writers of the time. Anyone of any importance connected with boxing during this period can be found in the pages of these volumes. There are also retrospective articles on earlier boxers and historical fights.

The two sets of scrapbooks in this collection are numbered separately: the Julian Black Scrapbooks, Volumes 1-92; and the Joe Louis Scrapbooks, Volumes 17-20, 52-58, 61-63, and 71 and 72. Although much of the same material is found in both sets, there are sufficient differences in content and in physical condition of the volumes. The container list indicates the relationship between the two sets. The 109th volume consists of an oversize miscellaneous scrapbook of random news clippings, 1941-1944, of later Louis matches.

Arrangement:

The collection is divided into two series. Clippings arranged chronologically in scrapbooks, grouped in volumes.

Series 1: Julian Black Volumes, 1935-1941

Series 2: Joe Louis Volumes, 1936-1940

Biographical note:

Joe Louis Barrow, the seventh child of Monroe and Lily Barrow, was born May 13, 1914 in a cabin in the cotton fields of Lexington, Alabama. While Joe was still a young boy, his father suffered a mental breakdown and later died in the Searcy State Hospital near mobile, Alabama. His mother later married Pat Brooks, a widower with many children of his own, and the combined family moved to Detroit when Joe was ten.

After an introduction to boxing and lessons by his friend Thurston McKinney, Joe tried his luck at competition. The Brewster East Side Gymnasium became a second home for him. At sixteen he entered his first amateur tournament.

Joe Louis was an outstanding amateur. He lost only four decisions in fifty-four fights, and forty-one of his wins were by a knockout. Joe fought his last amateur fight on April 13, 1934, in St. Louis.

John Roxborough had encouraged Louis as an amateur and became his manager when Joe turned pro. Roxborough hired Jack Blackburn, a boxer himself, to coach and train the young Joe Louis. At this time Roxborough also teamed up with Julian Black of Chicago in a business venture that carried over into the management of Joe Louis.

Joe's professional debut took place in Bacon's Arena in Chicago on July 4, 1934. He decisively defeated Jack Kracken for a fifty-dollar purse. Only four of his first twenty-seven foes lasted all fifteen rounds.

As Joe Louis worked his way up the ladder as a contender for the heavyweight championship he acquired the nickname the "Brown Bomber." On May 14, 1935, one day after his twenty-first birthday, the young pugilist signed a ten-year contract with Julian Black. The contract stipulated that fifty percent of Joe Louis's gross earnings from boxing contests, exhibitions, movies, and radio would go to Julian Black. Jack Blackburn, the trainer, was paid from Joe's portion of the money. John Roxborough, the other manager, claimed "to have a contract for twenty-five percent of Louis's gross earnings for an indefinite period."

The newly organized 20th Century Sporting Club, with Mike Jacobs as promoter, operated in competition with Madison Square Garden. The club signed the promising young boxer to an exclusive contract. Joe's first appearance in a New York ring took place at Yankee Stadium on June 25, 1935, against Primo Carnera. Joe KO'd Carnera in the sixth round. On September 24, 1935, also at Yankee Stadium, Joe knocked out Max Baer in the fourth round.

After winning twenty-seven straight fights, including twenty-three KO's, Louis was the heir apparent to James J. Braddock's heavyweight title. On June 19, 1936 he battled max Schmeling, the former champ who was considered washed up. Schmeling surprised everyone by punishing and then finishing Louis off with a twelfth-round knockout.

A year later, in his thirty-sixth professional fight, Joe Louis won the heavyweight crown at twenty three years of age by defeating Jim Braddock in Chicago in eight rounds. Braddock fought Louis to avoid a fight with Max Schmeling and the possible loss of the title to a German. Braddock, however, insisted on a percentage of Louis's future purses. It is generally believed he received ten percent of all Joe's earnings over a period of fifteen years.

After defeating two easy opponents, Louis met max Schmeling in a dramatic rematch on June 22, 1938. Like Jesse Owens in the Berlin Olympic Games, Louis symbolized American democracy versus an increasingly menacing Nazi Germany. The irony of a black hero representing a racially segregated society in a symbolic battle between freedom and oppression was not lost on all Americans and, although Louis himself was not a political activist, his example added fuel to the movement for racial equality and civil rights. Louis defeated Schmeling in two minutes and four seconds of the first round.

In the following years promoter Jacobs searched for opponents for Louis. After defeating five former champions - Carnera, Baer, Sharkey, Braddock, and Schmeling-the pickings were slim. on January 25, 1939, Joe "squared-off" with the first Black to fight him professionally -- John Henry Lewis (great-great nephew of Tom Molineaux, the first of America's Black heavyweight champions). Lewis was the light-heavyweight champion of the world and a natural 175 "pounder." He and Joe were close personal friends outside of the ring. Nevertheless, Joe totally outclassed Lewis in the ring.

Joe Louis defended his title twenty times before World War II interrupted his career. He was eventually classified 1-A and inducted into the Army. During the winter of 1941-1942 he staged bouts for the Navy and Army. The service relief fund received $75,000 from the purse of each fight. While in the service the Brown Bomber traveled extensively, giving boxing exhibitions and refereeing bouts. For his service on behalf of the armed forces, he received a citation from the United States government.

Louis retired an undefeated champion March 1, 1949. He came out of retirement and lost a fifteen-round decision to Ezzard Charles on September 27, 1950 at Yankee Stadium. He won eight more fights from the end of 1950 until the fall of 1951. However, on October 26, 1951, Louis lost by a knockout in the eighth round to Rocky Marciano. He retired for good after this comeback attempt. For many years after he retired, Joe had income tax problems and other financial problem. He also underwent a brief stay in a Denver psychiatric hospital. Joe Louis died in 1981.

Joe Louis Heavyweight Championship Fights, 1937-1950:

1937 June 22 -- Joe Louis knocked out James J. Braddock, 8 rounds, Chicago.

1937 August 30 -- Joe Louis defeated TOUT Farr, 15 rounds, decision, New York City.

1937 August 30 -- Joe Louis defeated TOUT Farr, 15 rounds, decision, New York City.

1938 February 23 -- Joe Louis knocked Out Nathan Mann, 3 rounds, New York City.

1938 April 1 -- Joe Louis knocked out Harry Thomas, 5 rounds, New York city.

1938 June 22 -- Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling, one round,, New York City.

1939 January 25 -- Joe Louis knocked out John H. Lewis, one round, New York City.

1939 April 17 -- Joe Louis knocked out Jack Roper, one round, Los Angeles.

1939 June 28 -- Joe Louis knocked out Tony Galento, 4 rounds, New York city.

1939 September 30 -- Joe Louis knocked out Bob Pastor, 11 rounds, Detroit, Michigan.

1940 February 9 -- Joe Louis defeated Arturo Godoy, 15 rounds,decision, New York City.

1940 March 29 -- Joe Louis knocked out John Paychek, 2 rounds, New York city.

1940 June 20 -- Joe Louis knocked out Arturo Godoy, 8 rounds, New York city.

1940 Decenber 16 -- Joe Louis knocked out Al McCoy, 6 rounds, Boston.

1941 January 31 -- Joe Louis knocked Out Red Burman, 5 rounds, New York city.

1941 February 17 -- Joe Louis knocked out Gus Dorazio, 2 rounds, Philadelphia.

1941 March 21 -- Joe Louis knocked out Abe Simon, 13 rounds, Detroit, Michigan.

1941 April 8 -- Joe Louis knocked out Tony musto, 9 rounds, St. Louis, Misssouri.

1941 May 23 -- Joe Louis beat Buddy Baer, 7 rounds, Washington, D.C., on a disqualification.

1941 June 18 -- Joe Louis knocked out Billy Conn, 13 rounds, New York city.

1941 September 29 -- Joe Louis knocked out Lou Nova, 6 rounds, New York city.

1942 January 9 -- Joe Louis knocked out Buddy Baer, one round,, New York City.

1942 March 27 -- Joe Louis knocked out Abe Simon, 6 rounds, New York city.

1946 June 19 -- Joe Louis knocked out Billy Conn, 8 rounds, New York city.

1946 September 13 -- Joe Louis knocked out Tami Mauriello, one round, New York City.

1947 December 5 -- Joe Louis defeated Joe Walcott in a 15-round bout by a split decision, New York city.

1948 June 25 -- Joe Louis knocked out Joe Walcott 11 rounds, New York city.

1950 September 27 -- Ezzard Charles defeated Joe Louis in latter's attempted comeback, 15 rounds, New York City.

Provenance:

This collection was donated by Mrs. Julian Black in two installments to the Division of Community Life (now the Division of Home and Community Life), National Museum of American History: twenty-two volumes in 1976 and eighty-seven volumes in 1977.

Restrictions:

Due to fragility of the scrapbook volumes, researchers must use the microfiche version located in the Smithsonian Libraries, American History branch. Request call number mfc 000887. See repository for more details.

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.

Topic:

African American athletes  Search this

Boxers (Sports) -- 1930-1950  Search this

Sports -- 1930-1950  Search this

Boxing  Search this

Genre/Form:

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Clippings -- 1930-1950

Citation:

Julian Black Scrapbooks of Joe Louis, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0002

See more items in:

Julian Black Scrapbooks of Joe Louis

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8ead88d28-e45e-4ed0-b6a0-d67c4571230c

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0002

Artist:

Carlotta Corpron, American, b. Blue Earth, Minnesota, 1901–1988  Search this

Medium:

Gelatin silver photograph

Dimensions:

sheet: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)

Type:

Photograph

Date:

1945-1946

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Herbert Lust, 2021

Accession Number:

2021.155

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py2312dbca4-b953-4a2a-80c0-d0616b38726e

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_2021.155