The papers of muralist, painter, and teacher Barry Faulkner measure 2.82 linear feet and date from circa 1858-1973. Faulkner's career; his relationships with family, friends, and fellow-artists; and his thoughts on art and artists are documented in biographical materials, correspondence, writings, sketchbooks, five diaries, two photograph albums and photographs, and one scrapbook. Correspondents include family members, Witter Bynner, Ann and Eric Gugler, Leon Kroll, Isabel Manship, James Johnson Sweeney, Maxfield Parrish and others. An unprocessed addition to the collection dating 1942 includes a one page letter mounted on board from Maxfield Parrish to Barry Faulkner.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of muralist, painter, and teacher Barry Faulkner measure 2.82 linear feet and date from circa 1858-1973. Faulkner's career; his relationships with family, friends, and fellow-artists; and his thoughts on art and artists are documented in biographical materials, correspondence, writings, sketchbooks, five diaries, photograph albums and photographs, and one scrapbook. An unprocessed addition to the collection dating 1942 includes a one page letter mounted on board from Maxfield Parrish to Barry Faulkner.
Biographical materials include biographical sketches, awards, and records documenting Faulkner's military service. Also found are a list of medications, a list of Faulkner's writings, party guest lists, an address book, a calendar, and materials related to the posthumous publication of Sketches From an Artist's Life. Of special interest are oversized architectural drawings by Eric Gugler for Faulkner's Keene, New Hampshire house.
Correspondence includes letters from Faulkner's friends, family, fellow artists, and art organizations and institutions. Faulkner's correspondence with his parents document his 1900-1901 trip to Italy with the Thayer family. Of special interest is his correspondence with writer Witter Bynner about Faulkner's daily life in New Hampshire, his travels through Europe, his artistic practice and career, Bynner's writings, his opinions on artistic and literary works, and his service in World War One. Many of the letters to Bynner include sketches by Faulkner of Abbott Handerson Thayer, Rockwell Kent, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Homer Saint-Gaudens, George de Forest Brush, Kahlil Gibran, and Mark Twain. Additional correspondents include sculptor Frances Grimes, architect Eric Gugler, painter Leon Kroll, and museum director James Johnson Sweeney.
Faulkner's writings are about art, artists, and the New Hampshire art community. Found are essays on Gifford Beal, George de Forest Brush, James Earle Fraser, Harriet Hosmer, Paul Manship, Charles Adams Platt, Hiram Powers, Edward Willis Redfield, Joseph Lindon Smith, Mary Lawrence Tonetti, Mark Twain, Lawrence Grant White, and Mahonri Young. Other writings discuss Faulkner's mural commissions, various aspects of New Hampshire history, and the history of the Dublin and Cornish art colonies whose inhabitants included George de Forest Brush, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Abbott Handerson Thayer. Of special interest is a manuscript for Faulkner's posthumously published memoir Sketches From an Artist's Life, and an unpublished manuscript titled A Neighborhood of Artists about the history and culture of the Connecticut River Valley.
Four sketchbooks by Faulkner contain drawings of landscapes, city scenes, architecture, people, nature, and studies of artwork by others. Also found are two loose sketches.
Five diaries document Faulkner's 1922-1924 trip through Europe, Africa, and Asia including stops in France, Italy, Egypt, and Turkey. Diaries record Faulkner's thoughts on architecture, tourist sites, and travel amenities. Found is one diary from 1956 that discusses social events, the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, the MacDowell Colony of artists, and various artists including Gifford Beal, Maxfield Parrish, Paul Manship, and Eric Gugler.
The bulk of printed material consists of clippings which document published writings by Faulkner, obituaries and published rememberances of Faulkner, local events in Keene, New Hampshire, and reproductions of Faulkner's artwork. Also found are exhibition catalogs of other artists, an announcement of Faulklner's death from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a publication illustrated with reproductions of Faulkner's murals for the National Archives.
Photographs include formal and informal images of Faulkner throughout his life, and photographs of his family and friends, his studio, and reproductions of his artwork. Also included are two photograph albums, one of which contains photographs of Faulkner during his youth and one that contains photographs primarily from the 1930s of Faulkner's Keene, New Hampshire house, himself, and his friends and family.
The collection also includes a scrapbook prepared for Faulkner's seventieth birthday containing photographs, cards, telegrams, and placecards with hand drawn illustrations which show the "taste and characteristics" of Faulkner.
Series 2: Correspondence, 1900-1973 (Box 1; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1912-1966 (Boxes 1-2; 1.0 linear foot)
Series 4: Sketchbooks and Sketches, circa 1910s-1930s (Boxes 2-3; 8 folders)
Series 5: Diaries, 1922-1956 (Box 2; 6 folders)
Series 6: Printed Materials, circa 1858-1966 (Boxes 2-3; 8 folders)
Series 7: Photographs, 1892-1960s (Boxes 2-3; 15 folders)
Series 8: Scrapbook, 1951 (Box 3; 2 folders)
Biographical Note:
Francis Barrett Faulkner was born on July 12, 1881 in Keene, New Hampshire. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and went on to study at Harvard College. Around this same time, Faulkner began an apprenticeship with his cousin and painter Abbott Handerson Thayer and painter George de Forest Brush. He also met sculptors James Earle Fraser and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, both of whom became Faulkner's lifelong friends.
In 1901, Faulkner traveled to Italy for the first time with Thayer and his family. He returned to New York in 1902 and studied at the Art Students League and Chase School. He also completed illustration work for Century magazine.
In 1907, Faulkner won the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome. shortly thereafter, he left to study in Italy for three years, studying with George de Forest Brush and befriending sculptor Paul Manship. Upon his return in 1910, he started working on his first mural, commissioned by the wife of railroad executive E.H. Harriman. Having found his niche, Faulkner continued taking mural commissions until his career was interrupted by World War I and his service in the camouflage section of the army. Shortly after the war, he completed a mural for the marine headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
Between 1923-1924, Faulkner worked in collaboration with Eric Gugler and Paul Manship to create the American Academy in Rome war memorial. Also following the war, Faulkner completed murals for the Eastman School of Music in 1922, the Rockefeller Center in 1932, and the National Archives in 1936. That same year, Faulkner bought and refurbished a house named "The Bounty" in Keene, New Hampshire, and built a studio nearby. In 1930, he was elected as a trustee of the American Academy in Rome.
During the 1940s, Faulkner created murals for numerous public buildings and sites around New Hampshire including the Senate Chambers in Concord, the Elliot Community Hospital, Keene National Bank, and the Cheshire County Savings Bank in Keene. During his final decades, Faulkner wrote an unpublished manuscript on the history of art in the Connecticut River Valley entitled A Neighborhood of Artists, and his posthumously published memoirs, Sketches of an Artist's Life. Faulkner died in 1966, in Keene, New Hampshire.
Related Material:
Found in the Nancy Douglas Bowditch papers at the Archives of American Art is correspondence, photographs, and printed materials related to Barry Faulkner. The Library of Congress, Manuscript Division also holds a small collection of Barry Faulkner's papers. Additional correspondence from Faulkner is found in the papers of Witter Bynner at the University of New Mexico and at Harvard University.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Francis Faulkner, Barry Faulkner's nephew, in 1974. An addition to the collection was donated by Jocelyn Faulkner Bolle in 2014.
Restrictions:
The bulk of this collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
Rights:
The Barry Faulkner papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Diego Rivera at work on "Allegory of California," San Francisco Stock Exchange Luncheon Club, 1931 [photograph] / (photographed by Peter A. Juley & Son)
Diego Rivera at work on "Allegory of California," San Francisco Stock Exchange Luncheon Club, 1931 [photograph] / (photographed by Peter A. Juley & Son)
1 Microfilm reel (21 items on partial microfilm reel)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm reels
Place:
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
Date:
1933-1938
Scope and Contents:
This microfilm collection of the Kenneth Miller Adams papers consists of a letter, dated December 1933, from a Public Works of Art Project official on a routine matter, and a letter, dated May 1933, from Cecil H. Jones of the Treasury Relief Art Project in which Jones tells Adams he is trying to have him transferred to the WPA Federal Arts Project. Also included is correspondence, 1936-1937, with Edward Rowan and others of the Section of Fine Arts regarding Section mural competitions. This correspondence includes contracts for two murals painted by Adams – one in Goodland, Kansas (1936) depicting a scene with a figure and a buggy, and one in Deming, New Mexico (1937) entitled Mountains and Yucca. A photograph of each of the murals is also included.
Biographical / Historical:
Kenneth Miller Adams (1897-1966) was a painter, muralist, and lithographer in New Mexico. Born in Topeka, Kansas, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League before serving in World War I. In 1924 he moved to Taos, New Mexico and joined the Taos Society of Artists. In 1933 he worked for the Treasury Relief Art Project and the Public Works of Art Project. He moved to Albuquerque in 1938 and later taught at the University of New Mexico until he retired in 1963. Adams was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1961.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the oral history interview with Kenneth M. Adams, 1964 April 23 conducted by Sylvia Glidden Loomis.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1964 by Kenneth Miller Adams.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
The papers of sculptor Arnold Rönnebeck and painter Louise Emerson Ronnebeck measure 4.24 linear feet and date from 1884-2002. The collection contains biographical material, family and professional correspondence, sketches and drawings, writings, a scrapbook, and printed material. There are also numerous photographic prints, copy prints, negatives, and 7 glass plate negatives of the Rönnebecks and their artwork, travels, family, and friends, including Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Stieglitz, and Tony Luhan.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of sculptor Arnold Rönnebeck and painter Louise Emerson Ronnebeck measure 4.24 linear feet and date from 1884-2002. The collection contains biographical material, family and professional correspondence, sketches and drawings, writings, a scrapbook, and printed material. There are also numerous photographic prints, copy prints, negatives, and 7 glass plate negatives of the Rönnebecks and their artwork, travels, family, and friends, including Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Stieglitz, and Tony Luhan.
Biographical materials include articles on the Rönnebecks by Betsy Fahlman, curriculum vitae, and documentation on the Emerson family. Correspondence is primarily between Arnold Rönnebeck to Louise, and also includes letters in German to Arnold's sister Irmgard Rönnebeck. Among the professional and personal correspondence from friends and family to both of the Rönnebecks are letters from Kenneth Hayes Miller to Louise Ronnebeck.
Writings include essay drafts, notes, and poetry by the Rönnebecks, including Arnold Rönnebeck's "Paint-As-You-Go Plan." There is a scrapbook of clippings covering Louise Ronnebeck's work. Additional printed material includes Christmas cards, clippings, and exhibition announcements and catalogs of both the Rönnebecks' work. Artwork consists of drawings and sketches by Arnold Rönnebeck.
Photographic materials include photographs of the Rönnebecks and their travels to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, and Europe. The series also contains photos, copy prints, negatives, and 7 glass plate negatives of artist friends, and formal and informal documentation of their works of art and public and private art commissions.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1926-2002 (9 folders; Box 1, OV 7)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1909-1998 (0.6 linear feet; Box 1, 5)
Series 3: Writings, 1920-1944 (6 folders; Box 1, 5)
Series 4: Scrapbook, 1926-1966 (1 folder; Box 1)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1923-1999 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 6: Artwork, 1915-1950 (2 folders; Box 2, 5)
Series 7: Photographic Materials, 1884-1976 (2.6 linear feet; Box 2-6)
Biographical Note:
Sculptor Arnold Rönnebeck (1885-1947) was part of the "Stieglitz circle" and settled in Denver where he served as director of the Denver Art Museum from 1926-1931. Rönnebeck married Louise Emerson (1901-1980) in 1926. Emerson was a painter and muralist who worked on New Deal mural commissions in Colorado and Wyoming.
Arnold Rönnebeck was born in Nassau, Germany and was a noted sculptor and lithographer. From 1905 to 1907, Rönnebeck studied architecture at the Royal Art School in Berlin and spent a year studying sculpture in Munich. In 1908, he moved to Paris where he furthered his studies in sculpture under Aristede Maillol and Emile Bourdelle. From 1914 to 1918, Rönnebeck served as an officer in the German Imperial Army during World War I. In 1923, he emigrated to the United States where he became part of the Stieglitz circle.
In 1925, Rönnebeck visited Mabel Dodge Luhan at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico, where he met his future wife, the painter Louise Emerson, born Mary Louise Harrington Emerson in 1901. After their marriage, the Rönnebecks lived in Denver where Arnold Rönnebeck worked as director of the Denver Art Museum and continued to execute commissioned works, including bas reliefs, portrait busts, and sculptures. He died in Denver, Colorado in 1947. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Louise Emerson Ronnebeck continued to receive commissions for frescoes and murals in Colorado and Bermuda and died in Denver, Colorado in 1980.
Related Material:
Correspondence between Arnold Rönnebeck and Alfred Stieglitz and Marsden Hartley is located at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
Provenance:
The papers were donated in 2001 by Ursula Moore Works and Arnold Rönnebeck, the artists' daughter and son.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Arnold Rönnebeck and Louise Emerson Ronnebeck papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Arnold Rönnebeck and Louise Emerson Ronnebeck papers, 1884-2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
The collection measures 0.02 linear feet and includes 37 letters and postcards from sculptor Luis Jimenez to close friend and artist Rochelle "Shelly" Shicoff. The letters are personal in nature and Jimenez makes references to his ongoing studio processes, some specific works, and his presence at the 1991 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial exhibition.
Scope and Contents:
The collection measures 0.02 linear feet and includes 37 letters and postcards from sculptor Luis Jimenez to close friend and artist Rochelle "Shelly" Shicoff. The letters are personal in nature and Jimenez makes references to his ongoing studio processes, some specific works, and his presence at the 1991 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial exhibition.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as one series.
Series 1: Luis Jimenez letters to Rochelle "Shelly" Shicoff, 1981-1998 (Folder 1; 1 folder)
Biographical / Historical:
Rochelle Shicoff (1943- ) is an muralist, painter, and multi-media artist in Munson, Massachusetts and was a close friend of sculptor Luis A. Jimenez (1940-2006).
Provenance:
The letters were donated by Rochelle Shicoff in 2016.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Names:
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Extent:
2 Sound tape reels (Sound recordings, 5 in.)
46 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound tape reels
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1965 Jan. 5
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Joseph Vogel conducted 1965 Jan. 5, by Betty Hoag, for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project.
Biographical / Historical:
Muralist, lithographer; b. 1911; New York, N.Y. and New Mexico.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 41 min.
Unrelated interviews of Stanton Macdonald-Wright (9/16/64), and Leon Saulter (11/19/64 pt. 2) conducted by B. Hoag are also on one tape each.
Provenance:
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Names:
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Extent:
31 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1964 July 30
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Will Shuster conducted July 30, 1964, by Sylvia Loomis in Santa Fe, N.M., for the Archives of American Art.
Shuster tells of contracting tuberculosis as a soldier in WWI and moving to New Mexico to recuperate. He describes the artistic activity of Santa Fe and his involvement in the federal art projects, including painting scenes of Carlsbad Caverns. He recounts his role in developing and continuing the Santa Fe tradition of Zozobra, an effigy figure of gloom burned at the beginning of winter celebrations and once featured as an award-winning float in the Rose Bowl parade.
Biographical / Historical:
Will Shuster (1893-1969) was a mural painter from Santa Fe, N.M.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 58 min.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Extent:
26 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1963 November 13
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Olive Rush conducted 1963 November 13, by Sylvia Loomis, for the Archives of American Art.
Rush speaks of her family background and youth; her education at the Corcoran School of Art; her involvement with the Federal Art Project; working on murals for public buildings in Santa Fe and the southwest; and the public's perception of the Federal Art Project and its administration.
Biographical / Historical:
Olive Rush (1873-1966) was a painter and muralist in Santa Fe, N.M.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 29 min.
Provenance:
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
An interview of Peter Hurd conducted 1964 Mar. 28 by Sylvia Loomis for the Archives of American Art.
Biographical / Historical:
Muralist, painter, and writer; New Mexico; b. 1904; d. 1984 Hurd painted murals for the Section of Fine Arts during the Depression.
General:
Unrelated interviews of Mary Perry and Claire Laning (4/2/64) conducted by S. Loomis are also on this tape.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
An interview of Kenneth Miller Adams conducted 1964 April 23, by Sylvia Glidden Loomis, for the Archives of American Art.
Adams discusses his involvement with federal art projects in Taos, New Mexico, including easel painting and mural painting for the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) and the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). He describes the contracts and methods of TRAP; he recalls Gustave Baumann, George Biddle, Emil J. Bisttram, Raymond Jonson, Willard Nash, and other associated with the federal projects of the WPA. He also reflects on his role as artist-in-residence at the University of New Mexico.
Biographical / Historical:
Kenneth M. Adams (1897-1966) was a painter, mural painter, and educator from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 51 min.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
The papers of artist Michele Zackheim measure 2.3 linear feet and date from 1976 to 2012, bulk 1980-2000. The collection documents her career in the visual arts through correspondence, interviews, writings, project files, teaching files, printed material, and photographic material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of artist Michele Zackheim measure 2.3 linear feet and date from 1976 to 2012, bulk 1980-2000. The collection documents her career in the visual arts through correspondence, interviews, writings, project files, teaching files, printed material, and photographic material.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1986-2002 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Interviews, circa 1980s (0.1 linear foot; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, 1990-1991 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 4: Project Files, 1983-2012 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 5: Teaching Files, circa 1990-1991 (0.4 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1977-1998 (0.4 linear feet; Box 2-3)
Series 7: Photographic Material, 1976-circa 2000 (0.4 linear feet; Box 2-3)
Biographical / Historical:
Michele Zackheim (1941- ) is a writer and former visual artist in New York City working throughout the 1970s-1990s as a fresco muralist, installation artist, print-maker, and painter.
In the mid-1990s, Zackheim became a writer of biographical fiction. She currently teaches Creative Writing from a Visual Perspective at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Provenance:
Michele Zackheim donated her papers to the Archives in 2014.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Michele Zackheim papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945 -- New Mexico
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945 -- New Mexico
Date:
1936-1951
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence concerning Treasury Department art programs, including letters from Edward B. Rowan and Forbes Watson; information on mural competitions; Section of Fine Arts bulletins; and miscellaneous papers and printed material concerning Hurd's murals for the Section of Fine Arts in Texas and New Mexico.
Biographical / Historical:
Muralist, painter, and writer, New Mexico; b. 1904; d. 1984 Painted murals for the Section of Fine Arts during the Depression.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1964 by Peter Hurd.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Correspondence, undated and 1940-1983, with his wife Freda, his parents and friends, art dealers, clients for whom he did portraits, galleries, museums, publishers and others; writings and photocopies of writings, undated, 1972 and 1975, about art, his paintings and dreams; statements and receipts for sale of his works of art; loan agreements, shipping invoices and receipts, 1941-1977, for works borrowed for exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, Cerberus Gallery Inc., New York City, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Tennis Hall of Fame, Newport, Rhode Island, and New York WPA Artists, Inc.; 8 exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1939-1981; and an undated notation that Harari won the Emy Herzfeld Award for his painting BAROQUE PORTAL.
Also includes 2 photocopies of articles, 1 newspaper clipping and other printed material about Harari; 23 photographs of Harari, his friends, his studios in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France and in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York, and his works of art.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, cartoonist, muralist, commercial artist, educator; New York City. Born in Rochester, N.Y. Died July 19, 2000.
Provenance:
Donated 1983 by Hananiah Harari.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
United States. Dept. of the Treasury. Section of Fine Arts Search this
Extent:
6.3 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sketches
Diaries
Photographs
Date:
1879-1967
Summary:
The papers of Olive Rush measure 6.3 linear feet and date from 1879 to 1967. They contain correspondence, artwork, photographs, writings, and other personal papers documenting Rush's education and career as an illustrator, portraitist, muralist, painter, teacher, and promoter of Native American art.
Scope and Contents note:
The records of Olive Rush measure 6.3 linear feet and date from 1879 to 1967. They contain correspondence, artwork, photographs, writings, and other records that document her education and career as an illustrator, portraitist, muralist, painter, and promoter of Native American art.
Biographical materials include several narratives written by Rush and others, as well as a few items related to Delaware artist Ethel Pennewill Brown Leach, Rush's close friend and colleague. Correspondence spans Rush's education and career, and documents her early career in illustration, purchases and exhibitions of her work, her efforts to secure exhibitions for Native American artists, and her dealings with administrators of Federal Art Projects of the 1930s.
Writings include diaries from Rush's early years, including an especially detailed diary from her Santa Fe Indian School mural project in 1932. Also found are lectures, talks, essays, notebooks with technical experiments and aesthetic ideas, and loose notes for her FAP project at the New Mexico College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts.
Records of Rush's artwork include two record books, receipts for supplies and shipments, price lists, inventories, records of submissions, and a small number of similar records of artwork by Native American artists. Sketchbooks, loose sketches, and drawings by Rush span her entire career and include many studies and proposed designs for murals and frescoes.
Printed Materials consist of exhibition catalogs, clippings, and reproductions of artwork, especially illustration work from Rush's early career. Photographs include a class photograph from the Corcoran School of Art circa 1890 and many of Rush and her fellow artists in Wilmington, Delaware from around 1904 to 1910. Photographs of works of art document Rush's murals and frescoes in private homes, businesses, and public buildings.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged into seven series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1886-1966 (Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1889-1964 (Boxes 1-2, 8; 1.4 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1886-1962 (Box 2; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 4: Records of Artwork, 1904-1956 (Box 3; 8 folders)
Series 5: Artwork, 1896-1957 (Boxes 3-4, 7, OV 8-12; 1 linear foot)
Series 6: Printed Materials, 1879-1967 (Boxes 4-5, 7, OV 13; 1.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographs, circa 1890-1966 (Box 6; 0.4 linear feet)
Biographical/Historical note:
Olive Rush was born in Fairmount, Indiana in 1875 to a Quaker farm family of six children, and attended nearby Earlham College, a Quaker school with a studio art program. Encouraged by her teacher, Rush enrolled in the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1890, where she stayed for two years and achieved early recognition for her work. In 1893, Rush joined the Indiana delegation of artists to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
In 1894, she moved to New York City and continued her studies at the Art Students League with Henry Siddons Mowbray, John Twachtman, and Augustus St. Gaudens. She secured her first job as an illustrator with Harper and Brothers and quickly started doing additional illustration work for Good Housekeeping, Scribner's, The Delineator, Woman's Home Companion, Sunday Magazine and St. Nicholas Magazine. Rush also became a staff artist at the New York Tribune and illustrated several books.
In 1904, Rush sent an inquiry with samples of her work to master illustrator Howard Pyle, who had established what was then the only school of illustration in the country in Wilmington, Delaware. There he provided free instruction to a small number hand-picked artists culled from hundreds of applicants. Although Pyle did not admit women to his studio, he encouranged her to come and join the class for lectures and criticisms. Rush moved to Delaware later that year, joining a growing number of female illustrators there including Ethel Pennewill Brown (later Leach), Blanche Chloe Grant, Sarah Katherine Smith, and Harriet Roosevelt Richards, among others. Rush and her female colleagues lived together in a boarding house known as Tusculum, which became well-known as a gathering place for women artists.
Rush traveled to Europe in 1910, embarking on a period of intense study and travel which would mark a steady transition from illustration to painting. She studied at Newlyn in Cornwall, England and then in France with the American impressionist Richard E. Miller. She returned to Wilmington in 1911, where she moved into Pyle's studio with Ethel Pennewill Brown. Rush bounced to New York, Boston, and back to France, where she lived for a time with fellow artists Alice Schille, Ethel Pennewill Brown, and Orville Houghton Peets. Her reputation grew, and she began to exhibit regularly in major national and regional juried exhibitions including the Carnegie, Pennsylvania Academy, and Corcoran annual exhibitions, as well as the Hoosier Salon.
In 1914, Rush made her first trip to Arizona and New Mexico. Passing through Santa Fe on her return trip, Rush made contact with the artists community at the Museum of New Mexico, where she secured an impromptu solo exhibition after showing her new work, inspired by the landscape of the Southwest. She made Santa Fe her permanent home in 1920 in an adobe cottage on Canyon Road, which became a main thoroughfare of the Santa Fe artists' community.
Rush began to experiment with fresco painting, and developed her own techniques suitable to the local climate. She became a sought-after muralist and was asked to create frescoes for many private homes and businesses. In her painting, she often depicted the Native American dances and ceremonies she attended. She exhibited these paintings around the country, including with the Society of Independent Artists in New York, and in the Corcoran Annual Juried exhibition, where Mrs. Herbert Hoover and Duncan Phillips both purchased her work.
In 1932, Rush was hired to teach at the Santa Fe Indian School. Rush's enthusiastic work in the 1930s with the young pueblo artists is credited with helping to bring about a flourishing of Native American visual art in New Mexico. Rush continued to work with native artists throughout her life, and many of her associates went on to gain national reputations, including Harrison Begay, Awa-Tsireh, Pop Chalee, Pablita Valerde, and Ha-So-De (Narciso Abeyta).
From 1934 to 1939, Rush executed murals for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Rush's federal art projects included murals for the Santa Fe Public Library (1934), the Biology Building of the New Mexico Agricultural College (1935), the Pawhuska, Oklahoma Post Office (1938), and the Florence, Colorado Post Office (1939). Rush was also asked to join the Advisory Committee on Indian Art created by the PWAP in 1934, to help administer a segment of the program aimed at employing Native American artists.
In her later years, Rush's artwork became increasingly experimental, incorporating the ideas of Chinese painting, Native American art, and her contemporaries, the modernists, especially Wassily Kandinsky. She continued painting and exhibiting until 1964, when illness prohibited her from working. She died in 1966, leaving her home and studio to the Santa Fe Society of Friends.
Sources consulted for this biography include Olive Rush: A Hoosier Artist in New Mexico (1992) by Stanley L. Cuba, and Almost Forgotten: Delaware Women Artists and Arts Patrons 1900-1950 (2002) by Janice Haynes Gilmore.
Related Archival Materials note:
The Archives of American Art holds a brief oral history interview with Olive Rush concerning her involvement with Federal Art Projects.
Separated Materials note:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel SW4) including scrapbooks, photographs, clippings, and exhibition catalogs. Most of this material was later donated, but some items remain with the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Olive Rush donated the bulk of her papers to the Archives of American Art in 1963 and 1964. Additional exhibition catalogs and photographs were added to the collection upon her death in 1966. An anonymous donation of diaries, sketchbooks, and a photograph was received by the Archives in 1970. Also in 1970, the Olive Rush Memorial Studio lent papers for microfilming. Many, but not all, of the loaned materials were later donated.
Restrictions:
The bulk of the collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not digitized requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Olive Rush papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Women painters -- New Mexico -- Santa Fe Search this
New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Extent:
19 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1963 October 17
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Emil J. Bisttram conducted by Sylvia Loomis on 1963 October 17 for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project.
Bisttram speaks of his family background; first coming to Taos; his involvement with the Federal Art Project (FAP); his FAP murals; problems with the FAP; the effect of the FAP on public interest in art; and Taos as an art community.
Biographical / Historical:
Emil Bisttram (1895-1976) was a mural painter in Taos, New Mexico.
General:
Originally recorded 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav files. Duration is 42 min.
Provenance:
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
