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Peter Blume papers

Creator:
Blume, Peter, 1906-1992  Search this
Names:
American Academy of Arts and Letters  Search this
American Artists' Congress  Search this
Boston College  Search this
Connecticut Council of the Arts  Search this
Askew, R. Kirk (Ralph Kirk), 1903-1974  Search this
Barr, Alfred H., Jr., 1902-1981  Search this
Blankenhorn, Heber, 1884-1956  Search this
Blume, Grace  Search this
Boursa, Harry  Search this
Burke, Kenneth, 1897-  Search this
Cowley, Malcolm, 1898-  Search this
De Vries, Peter, 1910-1993  Search this
Eisenstaedt, Alfred  Search this
Getlein, Frank  Search this
Godsoe, Robert  Search this
Hirsch, Joseph, 1910-1981  Search this
Kelly, Michael A.  Search this
Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005  Search this
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this
Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987  Search this
Trapp, Frank  Search this
Extent:
7.6 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Travel diaries
Sound recordings
Interviews
Drawings
Photographs
Prints
Transcriptions
Lectures
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Date:
1870-2001
Summary:
The papers of New York and Connecticut painter Peter Blume date from 1870 to 2001 and measure 7.6 linear feet. Found are biographical materials; correspondence with family, friends, colleagues, galleries and institutions, and writers; writings on art by Blume and others; subject files regarding organizations, works of art, exhibitions, and reference files; personal business records; printed material; two scrapbooks; photographs of Blume, family, friends, and works of art; extensive artwork; and material relating to Blume's wife's family, the Cratons.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York and Connecticut painter Peter Blume date from 1870 to 2001 and measure 7.6 linear feet. Found are biographical materials; correspondence with family, friends, colleagues, galleries and institutions, and writers; writings on art by Blume and others; subject files regarding organizations, works of art, exhibitions, and reference files; personal business records; printed material; two scrapbooks; photographs of Blume, family, friends, and works of art; extensive artwork; and material relating to Blume's wife's family, the Cratons.

Biographical materials include an award, obituaries, a travel itinerary, and sound recordings and transcripts of interviews of Peter Blume by Alfred H. Barr, Boston College, Harry Boursa, and Visionary Company Magazine.

Correspondence is professional and personal. Letters are from friends, family, artists, writers, galleries, and institutions. Notable correspondents include Kirk Askew, Malcolm Cowley, Peter DeVries, Joseph Hirsch, and Frank A. Trapp, among others. Also found is Grace Blume's correspondence which includes letters to and from Peter Blume and letters from Grace to her family members and friends. The bulk of Grace Blume's correspondence concerns her travels with Blume.

Writings and notes by Blume include a travel journal, lists of works of art, lectures, talks and other writings on art, artists, and friends. Writings by others include theses and scholarly papers about Blume, and include writings by Heber Blankenhorn, Kenneth Burke, Malcolm Cowley, Robert Ulrich Godsoe, Frank Getlein, Michael A. Kelly, and Frank A. Trapp. Also found is criticism on The Rock by school children.

Blume's subject files cover the American Academy of Arts and Letters, American Artists Congress, Heber Blankenhorn, works of art by Blume, exhibitions, and the Connecticut Council on the Arts. Also found are reference files consisting of photographs of artwork by others and clippings.

Personal business and financial records consist of business correspondence with galleries and museums; sales and consignment records; scattered price lists; and receipts and invoices relating to the building and running of Blume's house in Connecticut.

Printed materials include clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs for solo and group shows, magazines featuring articles about Blume, posters, and reproductions of works of art.

Scrapbooks include a fragment of a scrapbook from 1942-1944 and a clippings scrapbook from 1934-1939.

Photographs include portraits and snapshots of Peter Blume, Grace Blume, family, friends, travel, parties, pets, homes, landscapes, exhibitions, and works of art. There are also photos of the Askews, the Blankenhorns, the Cowleys, Alfred Eisenstaedt, the Holstens, the Josephsons, Arthur Miller, Georgia O'Keeffe, the Sobys, and Raphael Soyer.

Artwork by Peter Blume includes completed drawings, sketches, doodles, prints, and preliminary drawings for many of his works. Of note are extensive sketches of heads, and preliminary drawings for Recollection of the Flood.

Craton family papers consist of geneological material relating to Grace Blume's brother, James Craton and his wife Catherine Sears Craton. Found are vital records; military records for James and Marshall Craton; correspondence; scattered financial records; clippings; and family photographs.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1950-1992 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1926-1992 (1.8 linear feet; Box 1-3)

Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1929-1986 (0.5 linear feet; Box 3, 9)

Series 4: Subject Files, circa 1930-1988 (0.5 linear feet; Box 3-4)

Series 5: Personal Business and Financial Records, 1934-1983 (0.6 linear feet; Box 4, 9)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1930-1990 (0.7 linear feet; Box 4-5, 9, OV 15-16)

Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1934-1944 (3 folders; Box 5)

Series 8: Photographs, 1917-circa 1980 (1.1 linear feet; Box 5-6, 9)

Series 9: Artwork, 1932-1984 (2.0 linear feet; Box 6-9, OV 10-14)

Series 10: Craton Family Papers, 1870-2001 (0.2 linear feet; Box 6)
Biographical / Historical:
Russian-born painter and sculptor Peter Blume (1906-1992) was active in New York and Connecticut. His style combined American and European traditions with folk art and surrealism.

Peter Blume was born Piotr Sorek-Sabel in 1906 in Smorgon, Russia. With his family, he emigrated to the United States in 1911 and settled in New York City. Blume studied at the Educational Alliance and the Art Students League in New York. Influenced by folk art, Precisionism, Cubism, and Surrealism, Blume combined European and American painting tradition to create his own style. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1932 and travelled to Italy.

In 1934, Blume's South of Scranton (1931) won the first prize at the Carnegie International Exhibition. Later, he exhibited The Eternal City (1937) at the Julian Levy Galleries in Manhattan. With the Section of Painting and Sculpture of the Treasury Department, Blume completed two post office murals in New York and Pennsylvania. Blume was a member of the National Academy of Design and was active with the American Academy in Rome.

Peter Blume married Grace "Ebie" Douglas Craton in 1931. The couple built their home in Sherman, Connecticut. The Blumes travelled the world and kept close relationships with family and friends, such as Ann and Heber Blankenhorn, Malcolm Cowley, and Ned and Nancy Holsten.

Peter Blume died in Connecticut in 1992.
Related Materials:
Also in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Peter Blume conducted on August 16th, 1983 to May 23rd, 1984 by Robert F. Brown.
Provenance:
The Peter Blume papers were donated by in 1993 by Grace Blume, Peter Blume's widow. Additional papers were donated by Catherine Weiss, Jamie Vance, and Leigh Butler in 2010.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Genre/Form:
Travel diaries
Sound recordings
Interviews
Drawings
Photographs
Prints
Transcriptions
Lectures
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Citation:
Peter Blume papers, 1870-2001. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.blumpete
See more items in:
Peter Blume papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw933972ecf-c1f9-47e8-940f-e0373959c592
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-blumpete
Online Media:

Correspondence

Collection Creator:
McCausland, Elizabeth, 1899-1965  Search this
Extent:
2.9 Linear feet (Boxes 2-5)
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1923-1960
Scope and Contents note:
Series consists primarily of McCausland's professional and, to a lesser extent, personal correspondence, which includes general, artist, and some family correspondence. Correspondence typically consists of letters to and copies of letters from McCausland, along with enclosures (such as clippings and other printed material; contracts, agreements, and other business and financial papers; and proposals and manuscripts) and related material (such as notes, illustrations, and writings). Correspondents include artists, art organizations, museums, curators, editors, publishers, scholars, research institutions, her agent (Mary Squire Abbot), friends, and her mother, Belle Noble McCausland. Correspondence largely documents McCausland's various professional activities as an art critic, art historian, and freelance writer, and her relationships with various figures of the art and publishing worlds before, during, and immediately after the Second World War.

General correspondence relates to articles and reviews that McCausland wrote for the Springfield Republican; to freelance articles she wrote over the years for various publications, including ones for Parnassus, The New Republic, and Magazine of Art, as well as yearly articles for various encyclopedias (such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, and Collier Encyclopedia); and to various book projects, including Changing New York (1939), Careers in the Arts (1950), and ones on the artists E. L. Henry, George Inness, and Alfred H. Maurer. General correspondence also relates to her teaching job at Sarah Lawrence College and other courses taught; to various editing projects, including photo-editing Carl Sandburg's Poems of the Midwest and the planned book Art and Advertising; her work as a research consultant on the American Processional exhibition and book, and on other exhibitions; and her involvement in various art and social organization, as well as her participation in various conferences. General correspondence largely documents McCausland's tireless efforts to drum up work, and to fund (through various grants and fellowships) and carry out her many research and writing projects.

Correspondence from particular artists, including Arthur Dove, Louis Eilshemius, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Alfred Stieglitz, was maintained by McCausland in files separate from general correspondence. Artist correspondence documents her relationships with these artists - particularly well-documented are her relationships with Dove and Stieglitz - and the artists' reactions to her reviews of their shows. Files of artist correspondence also include some of McCausland's own notes on her feelings about or relationship with particular artists.

Family correspondence consists almost entirely of letters and copies of letters from McCausland to her mother, Belle Noble McCausland. These seem to have originated from the scrapbook kept by McCausland's mother which can be found amongst personal papers.

See Appendix for a list of notable correspondents from Series 2
Arrangement note:
General correspondence is arranged in rough chronological order. Within individual yearly files, McCausland often grouped together letters to and from a particular correspondent; this existing organization has for the most part been maintained. Selected artist correspondence and family correspondence are arranged in files at the end of the series. Correspondence can also be found amongst research and writing files.
Appendix: Notable Correspondents from Series 2:
List represents only a selection of correspondents from general correspondence.

A. A. Wynn Inc.: 1951

ACA Gallery: 1941, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947

Abbot, Mary Squire (McIntosh and Otis Company): 1941, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1958

Abbott, Berenice: 1934

Adams, Charles: 1938, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952

Adams, Harriet Dyer: 1946

Adelphi College: 1953

Adlow, Dorothy ( -- Christian Science Monitor -- ): 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954

Albany Institute of History and Art: 1946, 1947

Aldrich, Adolf: 1945

American Academy of Arts and Sciences: 1946, 1947

American Artist Magazine -- : 1952

American Artists Congress: 1938, 1939, 1942

American Artists Group: 1939, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950

American Association of University Women: 1951

American Federation of Arts: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1956

American Museum of Natural History: 1944

American Newspaper Guild: 1942

American Philosophical Society: 1947

Anderson, Mrs. Sherwood (Eleanor): 1949

Antiques -- : 1955

Arden, Elizabeth: 1937

Arnason, H. Harvard (Walker Art Center): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954

Art Digest -- : 1951

Art in America -- (see also Jean Lipman): 1957

Art Institute of Chicago: 1945, 1947

Art of this Century: 1944

Artists for Victory: 1944

Artists Equity Association: 1956

Artists League of America: 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945

Artists Society for National Defense: 1941

Associated American Artists: 1940

Baltimore Museum of Art: 1953

Bard College: 1953

Barnes, Djuna: 1951

Barr, Alfred H.: 1939, 1944, 1947, 1951

Barr, Norman: 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945

Baumann, Gustave: 1946

Baur, John I. H.: 1939, 1942, 1946

Beam, Lura: 1945, 1958

Beard, Mary: 1938, 1939, 1944

Benn, Ben: 1951

Bennington School of the Arts: 1940

Berkshire Museum: 1939, 1940

Biddle, George: 1947

The Bobbs-Merrill Company: 1944

Bourke-White, Margaret (letter to Berenice Abbott): 1940

Brewster, William F.: 1954, 1955

The Brooklyn Museum: 1943, 1945, 1948, 1954

Brown, Milton: 1945

Buchholz Gallery: 1941, 1943

Butler, Joseph (Butler Institute of Art): 1954, 1955

Cahill, Holger: 1937, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1950

Carter, Clarence H.: 1945, 1946

Cinema -- : 1947

Clarke, Bert: 1950

Constantine, Mildred: 1939, 1941, 1942

Cook, Waldo Leland: 1949

Cooper Union: 1949, 1952

Cooper Union Art School: 1947, 1948

Corcoran Gallery of Art: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951

Cowdrey, Mary Bartlett (Smith College Museum of Art): 1943, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954

Crawley, Lawrence: 1950

Crehan, Hubert ( -- Art Digest -- ): 1953

Crichlow, Ernest: 1941

Curran, Charles: 1942

D'Harnoncourt, Rene: 1947

Daura, Pierre: 1949, 1951, 1954

Detroit Institute of Arts: 1945

Devree, Howard: 1949

Diamond (Rotkin), Adele: 1941

Donato, Louis: 1939

Dows, Olin: 1942

Eames, Charles: 1950, 1951

Estler, William C.: 1944

Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors: 1946

Fitch, George: 1955

Fitch, James: 1940

Fortune Magazine -- : 1946

Francis, Robert: 1940, 1942, 1943

Frick Art Reference Library: 1944, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1958

Friedman, William: 1939

Fuerstenberg, Eugenia Maurer: 1950, 1951

Fulton, W. Joseph (University of Chicago): 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959

G. P. Putnam's Sons: 1937

Genauer, Emily: 1947

George Walter Vincent Art Museum (Cordelia Sargent Pond): 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948

Gibran, Khalil: 1928

Gilbert, Dorothy: 1950

Godsoe, Robert Ulrich: 1951

Golden, Samuel (see also American Artists Group): 1946

Goodrich, Lloyd: 1942, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952

Goodwin, Phillip L.: 1943

Gottlieb, Harry: 1944

Griffin, Maude: 1953

Graham, Martha: 1934, 1942

Grossman, Sid: 1938

Gwathmey, Robert: 1945

Harcourt, Brace and Company: 1947, 1949

Harper and Brothers: 1951

Hayes, Bartlett (Addison Gallery of Art): 1942, 1945, 1947

Hess, Thomas ( -- Art News -- ): 1950

Hope, Henry (University of Indiana): 1949, 1950

International Fine Arts Council: 1950

Irvine, Rosalind: 1952

J. B. Lippincott Company: 1951, 1952

Jacques Seligmann and Company: 1938

James, Rebecca Salsbury: 1951

Javitz, Romana: 1946, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955

Jewell, Edward Alden: 1946, 1947

John Day Company: 1950, 1951, 1955

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953

Jones, Howard Mumford (Harvard University): 1947

Kauffer, E. McKnight: 1946

Kent, Rockwell: 1945, 1946

Kirstein, Lincoln: 1941, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947

Kish, Maurice: 1945

Kistler, Aline: 1941

Knight Publishers Inc.: 1938

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo: 1945

Landon, Edward: 1939

Lange, Dorothea: 1945

Larkin, Oliver: 1943, 1944, 1949

Leeper, John and Blanche (see also Corcoran Gallery of Art): 1950, 1951, 1954

Leighton, George: 1945

Lerner, Abe (see also World Publishing Company): 1950, 1951

Lipman, Jean: 1945, 1946, 1947, 1952

Lipton, Norman C. ( -- Good Photography -- ): 1941, 1942, 1943

Longman, Lester: 1940

MacMahon, Audrey (see also -- Parnassus -- ): 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1942

The MacMillan Company: 1943, 1947, 1949, 1950

Magazine of Art -- : 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947

Magriel, Paul: 1954

Maurer, Alfred L.: 1951

Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1943, 1947, 1955

Miller, Dorothy: 1950, 1951

Milwaukee Art Institute: 1948

Minicam Photography -- : 1941, 1943, 1944

Modernage Furniture Corp.: 1945

More, Herman (Whitney Museum of American Art): 1954

Morton, Phillip: 1951, 1952

Mount Holyoke College: 1943

Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute: 1956

Museum of Modern Art: 1934, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945

Museum of the City of New York: 1958

N.W. Ayer and Son: 1945, 1946, 1950

The Nation -- : 1940, 1955

National Gallery of Art: 1944, 1945

National Maritime Union: 1945

Navas, Elizabeth: 1952, 1953, 1954

Neuberger, Roy: 1952

The New American Library -- : 1955, 1956

The New Republic -- : 1944, 1947

The New School for Social Research: 1945

The New York Herald Tribune -- : 1945, 1947

New York Historical Society: 1943

New York Public Library: 1943, 1955, 1956

New York State Museum: 1949

The New York Times -- : 1940

Newark Museum: 1944

Newhall, Beaumont: 1944

Newhall, Nancy: 1945

Norman, Dorothy: 1934, 1937, 1938, 1940

Old Print Shop: 1945

Olmsted, Anna Wetherill (Syracuse Museum of Art): 1950

Opportunity -- : 1943, 1944, 1945

Ossorio, Alfonso: 1953

P. F. Collier and Son Corp.: 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958

Pach, Walter: 1955

Parnassus -- : 1939

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art: 1951

Pepsi-Cola Company: 1944, 1945

Philadelphia Art Alliance: 1946

Pierre Matisse Gallery: 1938, 1939

Popular Photography -- : 1943

Portland Art Museum: 1940

Porter, Eliot: 1954

Printer's Ink (Carl Weiss): 1951

Railway Express Agency: 1949

Rivera, Diego: 1949

Rogers, John C.: 1941

Roosevelt, Eleanor: 1944

Rosenblum, Walter: 1944

Rothschild, Lincoln: 1937, 1942, 1945, 1946, 1949

Royce, William: 1933, 1934, 1935, 1942, 1958

Rukeyser, Muriel: 1941, 1950



San Francisco Chronicle -- : 1951, 1953

Sarah Lawrence College: 1942, 1943, 1944

Saturday Evening Post -- : 1946

Schlesinger, Arthur: 1943

School Art League of New York City: 1953, 1954

Schwimmer, Rosika: 1933, 1935, 1943

Sculpture's Guild: 1938, 1940, 1941

Segy, Ladislaw: 1943

Shelter -- : 1939

Sloan, John: 1951

Smith College Museum of Art: 1939, 1954

Soby, James Thrall: 1935, 1946, 1951

Social Science Research Council: 1948

Springfield Museum of Fine Art: 1938, 1940, 1941

Standard Oil: 1946

Stein, Gertrude: 1934

Sterling, Charles (Department of Painting, The Louvre): 1951

Strand, Paul: 1942

Survey Associates -- : 1938, 1939

Sweeney, James John: 1954, 1955, 1956

Thornton, Russell (see also Corcoran Gallery of Art): 1951, 1952, 1953

Time Magazine -- : 1945

Toklas, Alice B.: 1949

Traphagen School of Fashion: 1957

U.S. Camera -- : 1940

University of Chicago Library: 1951

University of Minnesota: 1951

University of Nebraska: 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957

Vanderbilt, Paul (Library of Congress): 1950

Vogue Magazine -- : 1953

Vose, Robert C.: 1945

Wade, Henry: 1954

Walker Art Center: 1946, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951

Walker, Hudson: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952

Ward, Lynd: 1942, 1945, 1947



Western Photography -- : 1946

Weston, Edward: 1943

Weyhe Gallery: 1940, 1951

Wheaton College: 1955

Wheeler, Monroe: 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945

Whitney Museum of American Art: 1946, 1947, 1951

Wichita Art Association: 1947

Williams, Hermann Warner (see also Corcoran Gallery of Art): 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954

Wilson, Sol: 1945

Worcester Art Museum: 1943, 1945

World Publishing Company: 1946, 1949, 1950, 1955

Yale University Art Gallery: 1949

Yale University Library: 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954

Young, Art: 1941

Young Artists Guild: 1948
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Elizabeth McCausland papers, 1838-1995, bulk 1920-1960. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.mccaeliz, Series 2
See more items in:
Elizabeth McCausland papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9c5d24e2b-e768-46c3-ad9f-cdb7e238e691
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-aaa-mccaeliz-ref60

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