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Creator:

National Portrait Gallery  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2013-08-16T13:56:30.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Portraits  Search this

See more by:

NatlPortraitGallery

Data Source:

National Portrait Gallery

YouTube Channel:

NatlPortraitGallery

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_IxPq5lwKePs

Creator:

Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art  Search this

Names:

Art Institute of Chicago  Search this

Buffalo Fine Arts Academy  Search this

Corcoran Gallery of Art  Search this

Gallery of William Macbeth  Search this

M. Knoedler & Co.  Search this

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Alexander, John White, 1856-1915  Search this

Beatty, John W. (John Wesley), 1851-1924  Search this

Beaux, Cecilia, 1855-1942  Search this

Brush, George de Forest, 1855-1941  Search this

Chase, William Merritt, 1849-1916  Search this

Church, Samuel Harden  Search this

East, Alfred, Sir, 1849-1913  Search this

Hassam, Childe, 1859-1935  Search this

Homer, Winslow, 1836-1910  Search this

Saint-Gaudens, Homer, b. 1880  Search this

Thayer, Abbott Handerson, 1849-1921  Search this

Extent:

265.8 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Letterpress books

Museum records

Place:

Spain -- History -- Civil War, 1936-1939

Date:

1883-1962

bulk 1885-1962

Summary:

The records of the Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art measure 265.8 linear feet and date from 1883-1962, with the bulk of the material dating from 1885-1940. The collection includes extensive correspondence between the museum's founding director, John Beatty, and his successor, Homer Saint-Gaudens, with artists, dealers, galleries, collectors, museum directors, representatives abroad, shipping and insurance agents, and museum trustees. The collection also includes Department of Fine Arts interoffice memoranda and reports; loan exhibition files; Carnegie International planning, jury, shipping, and sale records; Department of Fine Arts letterpress copy books, and a copy of the original card catalog index to these records.

Scope and Contents:

The records of the Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art measure 265.8 linear feet and date from 1883-1962, with the bulk of the material dating from 1885-1940. The collection includes extensive correspondence between the museum's founding director, John Beatty, and his successor, Homer Saint-Gaudens, with artists, dealers, galleries, collectors, museum directors, representatives abroad, shipping and insurance agents, and museum trustees. The collection also includes Department of Fine Arts interoffice memoranda and reports; loan exhibition files; Carnegie International planning, jury, shipping, and sale records; Department of Fine Arts letterpress copy books, and a copy of the original card catalog index to these records.

This collection is a complete record of the museum's work, starting with the planning of the first loan exhibition in 1885 and ending with the cancellation of the International at the start of World War II in 1940. The museum's day-to-day relationships with all aspects of the contemporary art world are documented within the historical context of artists' reactions to World War I; the economic repercussions of the Great Depression on art sales and museum budgets; the ramifications of fascism on German, Italian, and European art; the impact of civil war on Spanish art; and the tensions introduced by the rise of 'radical' modernist art in Europe.

Correspondence (Series 1) is the largest series in the collection (152.5 linear feet) and is comprised of extensive correspondence between the Museum of Art and over 8700 correspondents, with over 3600 correspondents specifically related to art and artists.

Correspondents related to the art world include museum staff, artists, collectors, museums, galleries, dealers, shippers, insurance agencies, art directors, associations, societies, clubs, critics, press, and governments. These exchanges include general requests for information; requests related to the museum's exhibitions, including the International; letters regarding the museum's involvement in the events of other art organizations; loan, sales, and provenance information for specific works of art; and information regarding the events of other art organizations.

The correspondence of the museum's staff provides the greatest insight into understanding the museum's evolution into an international cultural institution. Both directors' correspondence touch on their personal opinions on art, their rationale behind policy decisions, and their understanding of the extent to which the museum's work was dependent on the good relations they maintained in the art world. Additionally, the extensive, opinionated correspondence between Saint-Gaudens' European agents and museum staff during the 1920s and 1930s provide a unique perspective on emerging art trends and the skill, growth, and personalities of individual artists.

The most prolific of the museum staff correspondents include museum directors John Beatty and Homer Saint-Gaudens, Board of Trustees president Samuel Harden Church, assistant director Edward Balken, and European agents Guillaume Lerolle , Ilario Neri, Arnold Palmer, Margaret Palmer, and Charlotte Weidler. Additional prominent staff members include Helen Beatty, Robert Harshe, Caroline Lapsley, Henry Jack Nash, John O'Connor, Charles Ramsey, George Shaw, George Sheers, August Zeller, and Fine Arts Committee members John Caldwell, William Frew, William Hyett, and John Porter.

The most prolific artist correspondents include John White Alexander, George Grey Barnard, Cecilia Beaux, Frank Benson, George de Forest Brush, William Merritt Chase, William Coffin, Bruce Crane, Andre Dauchez, Charles H. Davis, Alfred East, Ben Foster, Daniel Garber, Charles P. Gruppe, John Johansen, Johanna Hailman, John McLure Hamilton, Birge Harrison, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Laura Knight, John la Farge, Gaston la Touche, John Lavery, Henri le Sidaner, Jonas Lie, Hermon A. MacNeil, Antonio Mancini, Gari Melchers, Emile Menard, Henry R. Poore, Edward Redfield, W. Elmer Schofield, Leopold Seyffert, Lucien Simon, Eugene Speicher, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Robert Vonnoh, J. Alden Weir, Irving R. Wiles, and Ignacio Zuloaga. Other artists of note include: Edwin Austen Abbey, George Bellows, Edwin Blashfield, Frank Brangwyn, Mary Cassatt, Kenyon Cox, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Thomas Eakins, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Eastman Johnson, Rockwell Kent, Paul Manship, Henry Ranger, John Singer Sargent, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Edmund Tarbell, James McNeil Whistler, N.C. Wyeth, and Charles Morris Young.

Frequent museum collaborators include the Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Brooklyn Museum, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Cleveland Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Saint Louis Museum of Fine Arts, Toledo Museum of Art, and Worcester Art Museum.

Other prolific correspondents include collectors Chauncey Blair, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Lang Freer, George Hearn, Alexander Humphreys, Roy Hunt, Mrs. B.F. Jones, Burton Mansfield, Frank Nicola, Duncan Phillips, John Stevenson, and William Stimmel; dealers and galleries M. Knoedler, William Macbeth, Central Art Gallery, Charles A. Walker, C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, Downtown Gallery, Durand-Ruel and Sons, Ehrich Galleries, Ferargil Galleries, Frank Rehn, Frederick Keppel, Haseltine Art Gallery, R.C. Vose Galleries, and W. Scott Thurber Fine Arts; insurance agent Macomber Co.; and shippers Dicksee and Co., J.W. Hampton, P. Navel/R. Lerondelle, Stedman and Wilder, and W.S. Budworth and Son.

Correspondents not specifically related to the contemporary art world include businesses, educational institutions, libraries, and the general public. These exchanges detail the daily work of the museum, including the estimates and work orders of office suppliers, contractors, printers, and etc.; programming and research inquiries of k-12 and college/university institutions; acknowledgements of the receipt of Museum of Art publications; and general public inquiries regarding museum policies, exhibitions, and the permanent collection. Companies and institutions who worked particularly closely with the museum include Alden and Harlow (architects), Detroit Publishing Co., and Tiffany and Co.

Department of Fine Arts (Series 2) consists of art and artist lists, correspondence, memoranda, notes, and reports. These files were begun under John Beatty's tenure and streamlined under Homer Saint-Gaudens' directorship to track activities directly related to the museum's interoffice affairs. File headings continued under Saint-Gaudens focus on art considered and purchased for the permanent collection, employee records, exhibition proposals and loans, Fine Arts Committee minutes, museum programming, museum publications, press releases, requests for images, and requests for general information.

Under Saint-Gaudens, the Fine Arts Committee files contain voluminous impressions of contemporary European artists, which he composed during his annual studio tours of the continent in the early 1920s and late 1930s. These informal reports provide insight into the shaping of the International and include a running commentary on historical events of the time. The Fine Arts Committee files also document the artistic and budgetary compromises that were struck, particularly during the Great Depression and early run-up to World War II.

Exhibitions (Series 3) includes correspondence with collectors, museums, galleries, dealers, shippers, and many of the artists themselves. Additional documents include catalogs, lists, planning notes, and telegrams related to 185 traveling and loan exhibitions held at the Museum of Art from 1901 to 1940. Of these, over 100 are one-artist shows and 82 are group, survey, regional, or topical shows. The one-artist exhibitions tend to showcase contemporary artists of the time. Regional shows focused on American and European art, with two shows featuring the art of Canada and Mexico. Survey themes focused on animals, children, cities, gardens, landscapes, Old Masters, and portraitures. Many of the genre shows venture into art not typically collected by the Museum of Art, including architecture, crafts, engravings, figure studies, graphic arts, illustrations, miniatures, mural decorations, oriental rugs, prints, printed books, sculpture, small reliefs, stained glass, theater models, watercolors, and wood engravings.

The most important shows organized and curated by Museum of Art staff include the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), American Sculpture Show (1915, 1920), Applied Arts Show (1917), Original Illustrations Show (1921), Mexican Art Show (1929), Garden Club Show (1922), Industrial Art Show (1924), Pittsburgh Artists Show (1935), French Survey Show (1936), English Painting Survey Show (1937), American Paintings, Royal Academy Show (1938), and Survey of American Painting Show (1940).

Important one-artist shows include Abbot Handerson Thayer (1919), George de Forest Brush (1922), Frank W. Benson (1923), Rockwell Kent (1923, 1939), Anders Zorn (1924), John Lavery (1925), Paul Manship (1925), Mary Cassatt (1925), Laura Knight (1925), Edouard Manet (1932), Edward Hopper (1936), Winslow Homer (1922, 1936), Paul Cezanne (1936), Charles Burchfield (1937), and William Glackens (1938).

International (Series 4) is comprised of catalogs, correspondence, art and artist lists, itineraries, jury selection ballots, minutes, notes, and reports related to the planning, logistics, and promotion of the International Exhibition from 1895 to 1940. These documents were originally grouped and filed separately under John Beatty and were more rigorously streamlined under Homer Saint-Gaudens. The folder headings continued under Saint-Gaudens focus on art purchases, artists' invitations, artists' request for information, general exhibition planning, Foreign Advisory Committees, foreign governments, jury reception planning, loan requests, and touring logistics.

Letterpress books (Series 5) consist of 75 volumes that chronologically collect all of the Museum of Art's outgoing correspondence from 1896 to 1917. Volumes 1-8 contain the only copy of outgoing correspondence from 1896 to 1900. Duplicate copies of all outgoing correspondence dating from 1901 to 1917 were filed in Correspondence (Series 1) by museum staff.

Card catalogs (Series 6) also include three sets of catalogs created by the Museum of Art to track the outgoing and incoming correspondence contained in this collection. Set 1 (1895-1906) consists of the original cards. Set 2 (1907-1917) and Set 3 (1918-1940) consists of photocopies of the original cards that were merged together into one contiguous set.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into six series:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1883-1962, (Boxes 1-153, OV 267; 152.5 linear feet)

Series 2: Department of Fine Arts, 1896-1940, (Boxes 153-184, OV 268; 31.6 linear feet)

Series 3: Exhibitions, 1901-1940, (Boxes 184-204; 20 linear feet)

Series 4: International, 1895-1940, (Boxes 204-234, 265-266; 30.2 linear feet)

Series 5: Letterpress Books, 1900-1917, (Boxes 235-251; 17 linear feet)

Series 6: Card Catalogs, 1895-1940, (Box 252-264; 11 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

The Carnegie Institute Museum of Art was established in 1895 by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. One of the first modern contemporary art museums in the United States, its flagship exhibition, the Carnegie International, is recognized as the longest running contemporary exhibition of international art in North America and is the second oldest in the world.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was born in Dumfermline, Scotland and migrated to America with his family in 1848. Often regarded as the second-richest man in history behind John D. Rockerfeller, Carnegie built his industrialist fortunes in the steel industry and spent the remainder of his life in support of major philanthropic projects. By the age of 33, he had developed his personal philosophy of philanthropy, which saw it as the responsibility of the wealthy to foster educational opportunities and disseminate the ideals of high culture among all levels of society. In addition to establishing over 2500 free public libraries, in 1895, he provided the funds to build the Carnegie Institute, located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Carnegie Institute originally maintained three separate departments under the auspices of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.

The Carnegie Institute was administered by a Board of Trustees selected by Carnegie, all prominent professional men of Pittsburgh. Within this group, eight men were selected to serve on the Museum of Art's Fine Arts Committee, which was initially granted the final say on gallery affairs. The first Fine Arts Committee was composed of two artists, Alfred Bryan Wall and Joseph Ryan Woodwell, and six businessmen. Among the latter group, John Caldwell, Henry Clay Frick, William Nimick Frew, and David Thompson Watson were also knowledgeable art patrons and collectors. Over time, the Fine Arts Committee's sway over gallery affairs would be measured by the dedication of its various members and tempered by the vision and authority of the Museum's directors, John Beatty and Homer Saint-Gaudens, and the Carnegie Institute Board of Trustees president, Samuel Harden Church.

From 1896 to 1921, John Wesley Beatty (1851-1924) served as the first director of the Museum of Art. A native Pittsburgher and an accomplished silver engraver, illustrator, and painter, Beatty attended the Royal Bavarian Academy in Munich and upon his return to America, made a living as an artist. He also taught at the Pittsburgh School of Design for Women and co-founded a small school of art with fellow local artist George Hetzel. In 1890, while serving as the secretary of the Pittsburgh Art Society, he became the primary organizer of a loan exhibition to be displayed at the opening of the Carnegie Free Library in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. In 1895, when the Carnegie Institute trustees began discussing the possibility of a similar loan exhibition for the opening of their new institution, Beatty was contacted and eventually enlisted to take on the task. Upon the success of that exhibition, he was invited to direct the gallery's affairs and served as the Museum of Art's director until his retirement.

Beatty was an enthusiastic supporter of Impressionism, Realism, Tonalism, Symbolism, and the critically acclaimed contemporary art of the 1890s. He also shared Carnegie's vision for the Museum of Art and believed in the educational and uplifting role aesthetic beauty could provide to the general public. Pursuant to the stated goals of Andrew Carnegie, under Beatty's direction the museum began to purchase important contemporary works to add to its chronological collection of "Old Masters of tomorrow" and almost immediately began planning the first of its Internationals.

The Internationals were viewed as the primary means of showcasing the Museum of Art's selection of the best in contemporary American and European painting, thereby elevating its role as an influential cultural institution on a national and international level. Juried monetary prizes would be awarded to the two best works by American artists, additional awards would be offered to artists of all nationalities, and the Museum of Art's purchases for the year would be selected from the exhibition. Certain artists and collectors were tapped to serve as unofficial representatives of the Museum of Art at home and abroad, among them John White Alexander, William Coffin, I.M. Gaugengigl, Walter Shirlaw, and Edmund Tarbell. Many of the most prominent Pittsburgh art collectors were also asked to lend works to the exhibition. While details of the jury and artist selection process, number of representatives, exhibition show dates, and amount and total number of prizes would change over the years, the planning template was set and would remain the same for future Internationals.

Beatty continued to rely on a stable of close friends and confidantes to help smooth over relations with artists, dealers, shipping agents, and galleries alike, relying heavily on John White Alexander and W. Elmer Schofield, in addition to artists Thomas Shields Clarke, Walter Gay, Robert Henri, Frank D. Millet, and critic Charles M. Kurtz. Over time, many of the artists who served on International juries or Foreign Advisory Committees also became reliable friends and advocates of the International, including Edwin Austen Abbey, Edmond Aman-Jean, Edwin Howland Blashfield, William Merritt Chase, Charles Cottet, Kenyon Cox, Charles Harold Davis, Alfred East, Ben Foster, Charles Hopkinson, John la Farge, Gari Melchers, Leonard Ochtman, Irving R. Wiles, and Robert W. Vonnoh.

From 1896 to 1921, the Museum of Art held twenty-one Internationals, with the only exceptions coming in 1906 (construction of the Hall of Architecture, Hall of Sculpture, and Bruce Galleries), 1915 (deference to the San Francisco Panama-Pacific International), and 1916-1919 (World War I). During these years, the scope and administration of the International slowly expanded, though not without growing pains. At the turn of the century, new modernist styles of art that were appearing in galleries across Europe had not yet entered major American museums and the Carnegie Museum of Art maintained this trend. The museum's generally conservative selection policies, combined with criticism regarding the timing of the exhibition and the jury selection process, led to increasingly tense relations with artists, and were only partially resolved by changes made to the format of the International. In spite of these challenges, the Carnegie International retained its reputation as a preeminent venue for contemporary art and awarded top prizes to John White Alexander, Cecilia Beaux, George W. Bellows, Frank W. Benson, Andre Dauchez, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, John Lavery, Henri le Sidaner, Edward W. Redfield, W. Elmer Schofield, Edmund C. Tarbell, Abbot Handerson Thayer, Dwight W. Tryon, and J. Alden Weir.

In addition to the International, Carnegie's mission of bringing cultural and educational opportunities to Pittsburgh was a central priority of the museum's daily operations. Beatty cultivated relationships with fellow museum directors, which allowed for the easy co-ordination and planning of traveling exhibitions benefiting the city. The museum developed educational programs for children and adults, including lectures, gallery talks, Saturday morning classes, fine art extension classes, guided tours, and outreach to local schools. As popular Pittsburgh art societies and clubs formed, the museum also provided meeting and exhibition spaces for groups such as the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, the Art Society of Pittsburgh, the Art Students League, the Garden Club of Allegheny County, and the Junior League.

After more than 25 years of service, Beatty made the decision to retire and put out an informal call for candidates. Being the right man at the right time, in 1921, Homer Schiff Saint-Gaudens (1880-1958) became the Museum of Art's second director.

The only child of American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his wife and artist, Augusta Fisher Homer, Saint-Gaudens frequently traveled abroad and grew up in the company of his parents' wide circle of friends, many of them artists, poets, writers, and performers who frequented the Cornish Artists' Colony. More intimate friends of the family included former students, assistants, and colleagues, the architect Stanford White, and successful artist-couples who resided near the family's Cornish, New Hampshire home, among them Louise and Kenyon Cox, Maria and Thomas Dewing, Florence and Everett Shinn, and Emma and Abbott Thayer.

Homer Saint-Gaudens attended the preparatory school Lawrenceville, graduated from Harvard in 1903, married the artist and suffragist Carlota Dolley (1884-1927) in 1905, and remarried to Mary Louise McBride (n.d.-1974) in 1929. He began his professional career as a journalist and worked as assistant editor of The Critic (1903) and managing editor of Metropolitan Magazine (1905). During those years, he was introduced to a number of the Ash Can school artists, wrote articles on contemporary art, and honed his abilities as a writer. In 1907, Saint-Gaudens took a break from professional editing and began a second career as the stage manager for Maude Adams, the most highly paid and successful stage actress of her day, with a yearly income of over one million dollars at the peak of her popularity. Working in theater and as Adams' manager for over ten years, Saint-Gaudens learned the ins and outs of event promotion and logistics, media coverage, and maintaining diplomatic relations through compromise, ideal skills he would later use in organizing the Carnegie Internationals.

With the United States' entry into World War I, Saint-Gaudens served as the chief of the U.S. Army's first camouflage unit and was awarded the Bronze Star. After his discharge, he managed Adams' 1918 final season and simultaneously helped his mother organize a major retrospective of his father's sculptures. While organizing a section of his father's work for the 1921 International, he was invited to step into the position of assistant director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, and was promoted to the directorship upon John Beatty's retirement.

Throughout his tenure, Saint-Gaudens was able to call upon long-standing family friendships with artists and art patrons to the museum's benefit. His connections to the art world can clearly be seen in his first major stand-alone exhibition, the Garden Club Show (1922). In this, he enlisted the aid of Elizabeth Alexander, wife of John White Alexander, and Johanna Hailman, artist and wife of John Hailman, who reached out to their circle of artists and art collecting friends in search of works appropriate for the show. Their efforts, combined with the relationships Beatty had established with museum directors, galleries, and dealers, as well as Saint-Gaudens' own friendships with Kenyon Cox, Thomas Dewing, Barry Faulkner, and Gari Melchers, resulted in an assemblage of 150 paintings of note. Coming immediately upon the heels of the 1922 International, the show was a resounding success. The exhibition's opening attracted over 300 delegates of the Garden Club of America and the entirety of Pittsburgh high society, settling any concerns regarding his leadership abilities.

As director of the Museum of Art, Saint-Gaudens instituted measures intended to streamline the Internationals and improve diplomatic relations with artists. Though the basic format of the juried exhibition remained the same, his solutions to the complaints many artists raised with the artist invitation, art selection, and jury systems reformed the International's reputation at a critical time. Though he was naturally inclined to appreciate the art and artists he had grown up with, Saint-Gaudens understood the immediate necessity of introducing modernist contemporary art into the museum's exhibitions and galleries. He circumvented the conservative Fine Arts Committee's resistance to the accolades of European modernists by choosing the tamest of the new 'radical' works. Eventually, he balanced the Internationals with a mix of conservative, moderate, and advanced works that appealed to a large range of audiences and increased the status and diversity of the Internationals.

To aid in his reformation of the International, Saint-Gaudens formalized a team of European agents who worked year round to scout artists' studios, recommend suitable art and artists, navigate local politics, arrange local transportation and logistics, and maintain cordial relations with artists abroad. In the spring, Saint-Gaudens would travel to Europe to meet with his agents in person, tour the most promising studios, and meet with artists personally. His team was headed by Guillaume Lerolle, who shared Saint-Gaudens' distinction of being the son of a well regarded national artist, Henry Lerolle. Like Saint-Gaudens, Lerolle was able and willing to call upon longstanding family friendships and networks on behalf of the Museum of Art. The other core members of the team were Ilario Neri (Italy), Arnold Palmer (England), Margaret Palmer (Spain), and Charlotte Weidler (Germany).

From 1922 to 1940, the Museum of Art held seventeen Internationals, with the exceptions coming in 1932 (Great Depression) and 1940 (World War II). After a brief period of change, growth, and experimentation in the early 1920s, the museum eventually settled on a routine of planning the Internationals, arranging for traveling exhibitions, and expanding upon the most popular of their educational programs. In addition to those programs put into place under Beatty's tenure, Saint-Gaudens paved the way for a revamped lecture series featuring visiting critics and traveled as a visiting lecturer himself.

During the 1930s, financial difficulties and increasing political tensions in Europe presented ample challenges to the diplomatic skills of Saint-Gaudens and his agents, and they found themselves increasingly forced to navigate through political minefields presented by the fascist ideologies of Germany and Italy, the chaos of the Spanish civil war, and the eventual outbreak of World War II in Europe. In spite of these challenges, under Saint-Gaudens' direction, the museum remained true to Andrew Carnegie's vision. The International was expanded to accept on average over sixty additional works of art, and at its peak, included art from twenty-one countries. Beginning in 1927, top prizes and recognition were awarded to Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Andre Derain, Raoul Dufy, Karl Hofer, Rockwell Kent, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Edouard Vuillard.

Works by Arthur B. Davies, Charles Hawthorne, Edward Hopper, Augustus John, Oskar Kokoschka, Leon Kroll, Ernest Lawson, and William Orpen were added to the museum's permanent collection. And, as under Beatty's tenure, many of the artists selected to serve on the Jury of Award became advocates and friends of the museum, including Emil Carlsen, Anto Carte, Bruce Crane, Charles C. Curran, Daniel Garber, Charles Hopkinson, Laura Knight, Jonas Lie, Julius Olsson, Leopold Seyffert, Lucien Simon, Eugene Speicher, Maurice Sterne, Gardner Symons, Horatio Walker, and Charles H. Woodbury.

The monumental task of establishing the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art and the Carnegie International has left an archival record that is unique and unparalleled in documenting its relations with every aspect of the contemporary art world from the turn of the century through the first forty years of the twentieth century.

Provenance:

The Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records were loaned for microfilming in 1966 and later donated to the Archives of American Art in 1972. A small addition of corrrespondence was donated in 2017 by Elizabeth Tufts Brown.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

The Carnegie Institute Museum of Art records 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:

Art -- Economic aspects  Search this

World War, 1914-1918  Search this

Art museums -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh  Search this

Depressions -- 1929  Search this

Art, Modern -- Exhibitions  Search this

Fascism  Search this

World War, 1939-1945  Search this

Museum directors  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Letterpress books

Museum records

Citation:

Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records, 1883-1962, bulk 1885-1940. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Brown Foundation. Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.carninst

See more items in:

Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-carninst

Creator:

Sturtevant, William C.  Search this

Names:

National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)  Search this

Six Nations  Search this

Extent:

220 Linear feet (The total extent of the collection is 191.41 linear feet (consisting of 473 document boxes and 2 record boxes) plus 254 sound recordings, 94 computer disks, 42 card file boxes, 85 oversize folders, 9 rolled items, 18 binder boxes, and 3 oversize boxes. Of the total extent, 4.79 linear feet (14 boxes) are restricted.)

Culture:

Indians of North America -- Southeast  Search this

Indians of North America -- Northeast  Search this

Indians of North America  Search this

Iroquois  Search this

Seminole  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Realia

Research

Notes

Office files

Theses

Slides (photographs)

Sound recordings

Exhibition catalogs

Field notes

Clippings

Correspondence

Photographs

Microfilms

Newsletters

Manuscripts

Memorandums

Articles

Card files

Books

Artifacts

Negatives

Date:

1952-2007

Summary:

This collection contains the professional papers of William Curtis Sturtevant and documents his activities as Curator of North American Ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History, his work as the editor-in-chief of the Handbook of North American Indians, his research among the Seminole and Iroquois people, and other professional activities. The collection is comprised of books, sound recordings, research and field notes, realia, artifacts, clippings, microfilm, negatives, slides, photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, memorandums, card files, exhibition catalogs, articles, and bibliographies.

Scope and Contents:

This collection contains the professional papers of William Curtis Sturtevant and documents his activities as Curator of North American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, his work as the editor-in-chief of the Handbook of North American Indians, his research among the Seminole and Iroquois people, and his involvement in various professional activities. The collection is comprised of research and field notes, sound recordings, realia, clippings, negatives, slides, prints, published and unpublished writings, correspondence, memorandums, conference papers and meeting notes, card files, exhibition catalogs, articles, bibliographies, student files such as class notes and papers from Sturtevant's years as an anthropology student, teaching materials including lecture notes and exams, daily planners, passports, military records, artwork including prints and lithographs, maps, and computer files.

The materials in this collection document Sturtevant's career as a preeminent North American ethnologist, museum curator, university professor, his role as General Editor of the Handbook of North American Indians, and his contributions to the field of Anthropology. From his early work with the Seminole Indians of Florida to his forays into Burma, and his decades-long study of how Native Americans have been depicted in artistic and popular culture, Sturtevant's diverse intellectual interests are represented in his research files. A copious note taker, Sturtevant captured his observations and opinions of everything from meetings with colleagues to museum exhibits. Sturtevant's commitment to the anthropological profession can be found in the notes and programs of the many conferences, symposiums, and lecture series he attended and at which he presented. He also held numerous leadership positions in various professional associations and sat on the board of directors/trustees for several cultural organizations including Survival International and the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation. Sturtevant was respected for his vast knowledge of indigenous peoples and he received a voluminous amount of correspondence from colleagues who often included copies of their papers and grant proposals. He kept many of these works, which, it appears he used as reference material. Sturtevant's own work is reflected in his writings; he published over 200 scholarly papers, articles, and books.

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.

Arrangement:

This collection is organized in 14 series: 1. Correspondence, 1951-2008; 2. Research Files, 1851, 1860s, 1880s, 1890, 1939-2006; 3. Writings, 1952-2006; 4. Professional Activities, 1952-2006; 5. Smithsonian, 1954-2008; 6. Handbook of North American Indians, 1971-2007; 7. Biographical Files, 1933-2007; 8. Student Files, 1944-1985; 9. Subject Files, 1902-2002; 10. Photographs, 1927-2004; 11. Artwork, 1699-1998; 12. Maps, 1949-1975; 13. Sound Recordings, 1950-2000; 14. Computer Files, 1987-2006.

Biographical/Historical note:

William C. Sturtevant (1926-2007), preeminent North American ethnologist, museum curator, and university professor, was best known for his contributions to Seminole ethnology, as curator of North American Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, and for his work as the general editor of the Handbook of North American Indians.

Sturtevant's passion for studying Native peoples began at a young age. In third grade "after a class on American Indians, he asked his father what kind of people study Indians, and his father replied, 'Anthropologists.' Sturtevant decided then that he would make anthropology his career" (Merrill 11). After graduating with honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 1949, Sturtevant went on to Yale University to complete his graduate work in anthropology. When it came time to decide on what area of North America he should focus his research, one of his faculty members at Yale, Irving Rouse, "suggested he consider the Seminoles of south Florida. By the end of his first fieldwork season, Sturtevant was convinced that the dearth of ethnographic information about these Seminoles and their status as one of the least acculturated of all North American Indian societies justified ethnographic research among them and offered the possibility of making an important contribution to North American ethnology" (Merrill 13). Sturtevant spent the summers of 1950 and 1951 conducting preliminary fieldwork among the Mikasuki-speaking Seminole and in 1952 he took up temporary residence at Big Cypress Reservation to undertake research for his dissertation, "The Mikasuki Seminole: Medical Beliefs and Practices." This work focused on Seminole medicine, but also included Sturtevant's analysis of Seminole worldview, religion, history, inter-ethnic relations, material culture, economy, kinship, language, and social organization.

In 1954, while he was finishing his dissertation, Sturtevant made the transition from student of anthropology to professional anthropologist. He was hired as an instructor in Yale's Anthropology Department and began his career in museum work as an assistant curator of anthropology at the Yale Peabody Museum. After receiving his PhD from Yale in 1955, Sturtevant moved on to the Smithsonian Institution, where he accepted a position as a research anthropologist at the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE). This position afforded Sturtevant the chance to continue to explore his many research interests in ways that a full time professorship or museum curatorship could not. Over the next ten years he studied the Catawba in South Carolina; the Seneca and Cayuga nations of the Iroquois League in New York, Oklahoma, and Ontario; continued his work with the Seminole; visited European museums to examine early ethnographic examples and possible European prototypes of eastern North American Indian material culture; and spent a year in Burma. In 1963, Sturtevant and his wife, Theda Maw, the daughter of a prominent Burmese family, took their three young children to Burma so that they could visit with Maw's family. Sturtevant took this as an opportunity to branch out from his Native American research and spent the year visiting neighborhoods in Rangoon and villages in the surrounding countryside, examining archival materials, studying the Burmese language, learning about Burmese clothing and other aspects of the culture, and taking photographs. He also collected 386 items of clothing and other objects for the Smithsonian.

When Sturtevant returned from Burma, he found the BAE had been dissolved. In 1965, he was transferred from the now-defunct BAE to the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), where he became curator of North American Ethnology, a position he held for the next forty-two years. During his tenure at NMNH Sturtevant oversaw all the North American ethnology collections, planned exhibitions, served on committees, and sponsored interns and fellows. One of Sturtevant's primary duties at NMNH was serving as the General Editor of the Handbook of North American Indians, "a major multi-volume reference work summarizing anthropological, linguistic, and historical knowledge about native peoples north of Mexico" (Jackson). Each volume was designed to represent a geographic or topical area of Americanist study. As General Editor, Sturtevant selected volume editors, chapter authors, oversaw office staff, and proofread manuscripts over the course of production.

Besides focusing on the Handbook, much of Sturtevant's time was taken up by responsibilities he held outside the Institution. Sturtevant was extremely involved in professional anthropological associations and held many leadership positions. Fresh out of graduate school, he began a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the Anthropological Society of Washington in 1957. He later became a member of the executive committee of the Florida Anthropological Society, served as book-review editor and associate editor of the American Anthropologist from 1962-1968, was a member of the American Anthropological Association's Committee on Anthropological Research in Museums and was both vice president and president of the committee once it became the Council for Museum Anthropology, was on the American Anthropological Association's Committee on Archives, served three terms on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation from 1976-1982 and was appointed to a fourth term between 1984 and 1986, and sat on the Board of Directors of Survival International from 1982-1988. He was President of the American Society for Ethnohistory, the American Ethnological Society, the American Anthropological Association, and the Anthropological Society of Washington. Sturtevant also taught classes at Johns Hopkins University as an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology, served as a consultant on exhibits at other museums, and reviewed manuscripts for scholarly publications.

Sturtevant remained active in the profession throughout his later years. After divorcing Theda Maw in 1986, he married Sally McLendon, a fellow anthropologist, in 1990 and they undertook several research projects together. Sturtevant was recognized for his dedication and contributions to the field of anthropology in 1996 when he was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters by Brown University, and in 2002 when his colleagues published a festschrift in his honor, Anthropology, History, and American Indians: Essays in Honor of William Curtis Sturtevant.

Sturtevant died on March 2, 2007 at the Collingswood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rockville, MD after suffering from emphysema.

Sources Consulted

Estrada, Louie. 2007. William C. Sturtevant; Expert on Indians. Washington Post, March 17. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031602273.html, accessed August 31, 2012.

Jackson, Jason Baird. 2007. William C. Sturtevant (1926-2007). http://museumanthropology.blogspot.com/2007/03/william-c-sturtevant-1926-2007.html, accessed August 31, 2012.

Merrill, William L. 2002. William Curtis Sturtevant, Anthropologist. In Anthropology, History, and American Indians: Essays in Honor of William Curtis Sturtevant. William L. Merrill and Ives Goddard, eds. Pp. 11-36. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

1926 -- Born July 26 in Morristown, NJ

1944 -- Entered the University of California at Berkeley as a second-semester freshman

1944 -- Attended summer school at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City where he took courses on Mexican archaeology and South American ethnology

1945 -- Drafted into the United States Navy

1946 -- Received an honorable discharge from the Navy with the rank of pharmacist's mate third class and returned to UC Berkeley

1947 -- Attended the University of New Mexico's summer field school in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

1949 -- January: Received his Bachelor's degree with honors in anthropology from UC Berkeley

1949 -- Began graduate studies at Yale University

1950-1951 -- Spent the summers of 1950 and 1951 in Florida conducting fieldwork among the Mikasuki-speaking Seminole

1951 -- Conducted his first research study of the Iroquois, a classification of Seneca musical instruments, their construction and use, with Harold Conklin

1952 -- May: Moved to Big Cypress Reservation in Florida to conduct research for his dissertation. He focused on Seminole medicine, but also collected physical anthropological data such as blood-type frequencies, handedness, and color blindness

1952 -- July 26: Married Theda Maw

1954 -- Hired by Yale University as an instructor in the Department of Anthropology and as an assistant curator of anthropology in the Yale Peabody Museum

1955 -- Received PhD in anthropology from Yale University

1956 -- Joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) as a research anthropologist

1957 -- Began a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the Anthropological Society of Washington

1957 -- Traveled to Rock Hill, South Carolina to collect linguistic data from Sam Blue, the last member of the Catawba tribe to have maintained some proficiency in the Catawba language. While there, he made a small collection of Catawba pottery for the United States National Museum

1957-1958 -- Spent seven weeks continuing his research among the New York Seneca

1959 -- Returned to Florida to study Seminole ethnobotany. He also collected ethnographic materials, especially objects made for the tourist market, which he deposited in the United States National Museum

1959-1960 -- Member of the executive committee of the Florida Anthropological Society

1960 -- July and August: Visited 17 European museums to examine early ethnographic examples and possible European prototypes of eastern North American Indian material culture

1961-1962 -- Spent the summers of these years conducting ethnographic fieldwork among the Seneca-Cayuga in Oklahoma

1962 -- October: Visited the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada to conduct fieldwork among the Seneca and Cayuga there

1962-1968 -- Book-review editor and associate editor of the American Anthropologist

1963 -- October: Spent the year in Burma; visited neighborhoods in Rangoon and villages in the surrounding countryside, examined photographs in several archives, studied the Burmese language, and read extensively about the country's history and culture. Assembled notes on Burmese clothing and other aspects of the culture, took hundreds of photographs, and made a collection of 386 items of clothing and other objects for the Smithsonian

1964 -- Visited Inle Lake in the Southern Shan States southeast of Mandalay, where he examined local approaches to artificial island agriculture

1964-1981 -- Became a member of the American Anthropological Association's Committee on Anthropological Research in Museums, which became the Council for Museum Anthropology in 1974. Sturtevant was the Council's first vice president, serving two terms between 1974 and 1978, and was its president from 1978 to 1981

1965 -- Became curator of North American Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History after the dissolution of the BAE

1965-1966 -- President of the American Society for Ethnohistory

1966 -- Named the editor of the Handbook of North American Indians

1967-1968 -- Fulbright scholar and lecturer at Oxford University's Institute of Social Anthropology

1969 -- Began serving on the American Anthropological Association's Committee on Archives

1974-1989 -- Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University

1976-1982 -- Served three terms on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation and was appointed to a fourth term between 1984 and 1986

1977 -- President of the American Ethnological Society

1980-1981 -- President of the American Anthropological Association

1981 -- Spent part of the spring semester at the University of California Berkeley as a Regents Lecturer

1982-1988 -- Board of Directors of Survival International

1986 -- Divorced Theda Maw

1986-1987 -- Smithsonian Fellow at Oxford University's Worcester College

1990 -- Married Sally McLendon

1992 -- President of the Anthropological Society of Washington

1996 -- Awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters at Brown University

2007 -- Died March 2 in Rockville, MD

Related Materials:

Other materials relating to William C. Sturtevant at the National Anthropological Archives are included in the following collections:

Manuscript 4504

Manuscript 4595

Manuscript 4806

Manuscript 4821

Manuscript 4972

Manuscript 7045

Photo Lot 59

Photo Lot 79-51

Photo Lot 80-3

Photo Lot 81R

Photo Lot 86-68 (6)

Photo Lot 86-68 (7)

American Society for Ethnohistory records

Committee on Anthropological Research in Museum Records

Handbook of North American Indians records

Records of the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History

Gordon Davis Gibson Papers, Sound Recordings

SPC Se Powhatan Confederacy Mattapony BAE No # 01790700

DOE Oceania:Amer Poly:Hi:Hawaiian Helmet:Sturtevant 04913800

DOE Oceania:Amer Poly:Hi:Hawaiian Helmet:Sturtevant 04913900

DOE Oceania:Amer Poly:Hi:Hawaiian Helmet:Sturtevant 04914000

Negative MNH 1530

Negative MNH 1530 B

Sturtevant is listed as a correspondent in the following NAA collections:

Administrative file, 1949-1965, Records of the Bureau of American Ethnology

John Lawrence Angel Papers

James Henri Howard Papers

Donald Jayne Lehmer Papers

John Victor Murra Papers

Records of the Society for American Archaeology

Albert Clanton Spaulding Papers

Waldo Rudolph Wedel and Mildred Mott Wedel Papers

Copies of sound recordings made by William C. Sturtevant can be found at The California Language Archive at UC Berkeley in two collections, The William Sturtevant collection of Creek/Seminole sound recordings, which includes 31 minutes of Northern Muskogean linguistic field recordings from 1951, and The William Sturtevant collection of Mikasuki sound recordings, which includes 33 minutes of Mikasuki linguistic field recordings from 1951. Two sound tape reels of Seminole music Sturtevant recorded in Florida in 1951 can be found at Wesleyan University's World Music Archives. Folk songs on these recordings include "Scalping Sickness," "Bear Sickness with blowing," "Bear sickness without blowing," "Lullaby," "Feather Dance," "Snake Dance," and "Crazy Dance." Performers include Josie Billie, Lee Cypress, Harvey Jumper, Boy Jim, Charlie (Johnny?) Cypress, Little Tiger Tail, Billy Ossiola, and Charlie Billy Boy.

Separated Materials:

One video tape, "Seminole History and Tradition", was transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives. Series 2.2, Tukabahchee Plate: Glass negative of spectrogram from FBI (Box 135), removed for storage with other glass plate negatives.

Provenance:

These papers were transferred to the National Anthropological Archives by the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History.

Restrictions:

Files containing Sturtevant's students' grades have been restricted, as have his students' and colleagues' grant and fellowships applications. Restricted files were separated and placed at the end of their respective series in boxes 87, 264, 322, 389-394, 435-436, 448, 468, and 483. For preservation reasons, his computer files are also restricted. Seminole sound recordings are restricted. Access to the William C. Sturtevant Papers requires an apointment.

Rights:

Contact the repository for terms of use.

Topic:

Ethnology  Search this

Botany  Search this

Anthropology  Search this

Archaeology  Search this

History  Search this

Linguistics  Search this

Genre/Form:

Realia

Research

Notes

Office files

Theses

Slides (photographs)

Sound recordings

Exhibition catalogs

Field notes

Clippings

Correspondence

Photographs

Microfilms

Newsletters

Manuscripts

Memorandums

Articles

Card files

Books

Artifacts

Negatives

Citation:

William C. Sturtevant papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Sponsor:

The papers of William C. Sturtevant were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Dr. Ives Goddard. Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.

Identifier:

NAA.2008-24

See more items in:

William C. Sturtevant papers

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-2008-24

Creator:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Names:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Anacostia Neighborhood Museum  Search this

Extent:

12 Linear feet

392 Sound recordings (50 open reel 1/4" sound recordings ; 5 microcassette sound recordings ; 337 audio cassette sound recordings)

266 Video recordings (1 Super 8 film reel ; 152 open reel 1/2" video recordings ; 3 U-matic 3/4" video recordings ; 110 VHS 1/2" video recordings)

Culture:

African American  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Museum records

Place:

Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)

Date:

1967-1989

Scope and Contents note:

This collection contains video and audio recordings of events, talks, and ceremonies hosted at or by the Anacostia Community Museum. It also contains audiovisual PR materials for the museum and its events. The collection includes recordings of a wide array of events, including the opening of the Anacostia Community Museum, award and dedication ceremonies, and documentation of on- and off-site events and talks, such as recordings of lectures and sermons delivered by founding Museum Director John Kinard.

General:

Many of the video recordings originally recorded onto 1/2" open reel were transferred to VHS in 1990.

Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.

Genre/Form:

Museum records

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Citation:

Anacostia Community Museum Programs and Projects, 1967-1989, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

ACMA.09-023

See more items in:

Museum Events, Programs, and Projects, 1967-1989

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-acma-09-023

Creator:

American Art Research Council  Search this

Names:

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

Force, Juliana, 1876-1948  Search this

Extent:

3 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

1935-1956

bulk 1942-1947

Summary:

The records of the American Art Research Council, a cooperative research group headquartered at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, measure 3 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1956. The records include Chairman Juliana Force's correspondence, administrative correspondence, advisory committee files, miscellaneous administrative files, scattered financial records, and printed materials.

Scope and Contents:

The records of the American Art Research Council, a cooperative research group headquartered at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, measure 3 linear feet and date from 1935 to 1956. The records include Chairman Juliana Force's correspondence, administrative correspondence, advisory committee files, miscellaneous administrative files, scattered financial records, and printed materials.

Correspondence consists of Chairman Juliana Force's correspondence with museums, curators, and others, in addition to general AARC correspondence on various subjects. The Advisory Committee series consists of correspondence, lists, reports, and meeting minutes.

Administrative records include assorted material such as reports on paintings owned by private individuals and art centers, correspondence and drafts on a special issue of Art in America, a bibliography, and surveys. Survey files consist of survey responses and indexes of results for several surveys conducted by the AARC.

Financial records consist of assorted material such as contribution records, ledgers, bank statements, and cancelled checks. Printed materials include clippings, academic journals, bulletins, and press releases.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 5 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1942-1947 (1 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Advisory Committee, 1942-1947 (0.2 linear feet; Box 2)

Series 3: Administrative Records, 1935-1950 (0.9 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)

Series 4: Financial Records, 1942-1956 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 3-4)

Series 5: Printed Material, 1942-1947 (0.2 linear feet; Box 5)

Biographical / Historical:

The American Art Research Council (AARC) was founded in 1942 when the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City proposed that museums across the country establish a collaborative centralized organization for American art research. In April 1942, directors and representatives of 15 prominent museums met and founded the AARC.

Headquartered in and administered by the Whitney Museum, the AARC broadened its scope to include staff from over 30 museums and universities across the country. The organization formed a Committee on Research consisting of experts and scholars of American art that authenticated art, shared research records about artists, and conducted multiple surveys on various subjects. The AARC also facilitated researchers by sharing their information in catalogs and publications.

Provenance:

The American Art Research Council records were donated by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1978 as part of a larger donation of museum records.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Facility.

Rights:

The American Art Research Council records 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:

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Citation:

American Art Research Council records, 1935-1956. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.amerartr

See more items in:

American Art Research Council records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-amerartr

Creator:

Finch College. Museum of Art  Search this

Varian, Elayne H.  Search this

Names:

Acconci, Vito, 1940-  Search this

Anderson, David K., 1935-  Search this

Benglis, Lynda, 1941-  Search this

Benyon, Margaret, 1940-  Search this

Bochner, Mel, 1940-  Search this

Brooks, James, 1906-1992  Search this

Castelli, Leo  Search this

Chase, Doris, 1923-  Search this

Cross, Lloyd G.  Search this

Davis, Douglas  Search this

Dwan, Virginia  Search this

Feigen, Richard L., 1930-  Search this

Glimcher, Arnold B.  Search this

Gottlieb, Adolph, 1903-1974  Search this

Graham, Dan, 1942-  Search this

Hollander, Irwin  Search this

Insley, Will, 1929-2011  Search this

Jackson, Martha Kellogg  Search this

Janis, Sidney, 1896-1989  Search this

Kirby, Michael  Search this

Levine, Les, 1935-  Search this

Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997  Search this

Mazur, Michael, 1935-2009  Search this

Meyer, Ursula, 1915-  Search this

Nauman, Bruce, 1941-  Search this

O'Doherty, Brian  Search this

Parsons, Betty  Search this

Richter, Hans, 1888-1976  Search this

Siegelaub, Seth, 1941-  Search this

Smith, Tony, 1912-1980  Search this

Sonfist, Alan  Search this

Weiner, Sam  Search this

Wise, Howard  Search this

Extent:

20.9 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Transcripts

Interviews

Photographs

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Museum records

Date:

1943-1975

bulk 1964-1975

Summary:

The exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art measure 20.9 linear feet and date from 1943 to 1975, with the bulk of records dating from the period its galleries were in operation, from 1964 to 1975. Over two-thirds of the collection consists of exhibition files, which contain a wide range of documentation including artist files, checklists, correspondence, writings, photographs, interviews, numerous films and videos, artist statements, printed materials, and other records. Also found within the collection are administrative records of the museum, artist files, and papers of the Contemporary Wing's director and curator, Elayne Varian, which were produced outside of her work at Finch College.

Scope and Contents:

The exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art measure 20.9 linear feet and date from 1943 to 1975, with the bulk of records dating from the period its galleries were in operation, from 1964 to 1975. Over two-thirds of the collection consists of exhibition files, which contain a wide range of documentation including artist files, checklists, correspondence, writings, photographs, interviews, numerous films and videos, artist statements, printed materials, and other records. Also found within the collection are administrative records of the museum, artist files, and papers of the Contemporary Wing's director and curator, Elayne Varian, which were produced outside of her work at Finch College.

Administrative records include records relating to the general operation of the Contemporary Wing concerning fundraising, professional associations, budget, contact information for artists, donors, and lenders to exhibitions. Also found are records of the permanent collection of artworks acquired by the museum between 1964 and 1975 from contemporary artists and collectors of contemporary art.

Artist files contain basic biographical information on over 150 contemporary artists, with scattered correspondence, photographs, technical information about artworks, artist statements, and other writings. Artist files also include an incomplete run of artist questionnaires gathered by the New York Arts Calendar Annual for 1964.

Elayne Varian's personal papers include curatorial records, a course schedule and syllabus related to her teaching activities, and various writings. Curatorial projects documented in Varian's papers include three programs produced outside of Finch College, including a juried show at the New York State Fair in 1967, a film series at Everson Museum of Syracuse University, and an exhibition at Guild Hall in East Hampton in 1973. Several of Varian's writing projects involved interviews, which are also found in this series in the form of sound recordings and transcripts. Interview-based writing projects include individual profiles on Brian O'Doherty and Babette Newberger, and interviews conducted for an article on the artist-dealer relationship published in Art in America (January 1970). Dealers interviewed for the latter project include Leo Castelli, Virginia Dwan, John Gibson, Richard Feigen, Arnold Glimcher, Fred Mueller, Martha Jackson, Sidney Janis, Betty Parsons, Seth Siegelaub, and Howard Wise. Artists interviewed include Roy Lichtenstein, Adolph Gottlieb, and Charles Ross.

Exhibition files, comprising the bulk of the collection, document exhibitions held in the Contemporary Wing during its existence from 1964 to 1975. Types of records found in the series include exhibition catalogs, correspondence, loan agreements, lists, contact information, insurance valuations of artworks, photographs, biographical information on artists, clippings, posters, press releases, and other publicity materials. In addition to the rich textual and photographic records found for exhibitions, numerous audiovisual recordings are also found, some of which were made in preparation for an exhibition, some document mounted exhibitions, and others are artworks themselves or components of artworks exhibited in the galleries. Interviews with artists, dealers, and others involved in exhibitions include Alan Sonfist, Mel Bochner, Hans Richter, Ruth Richards, James Brooks and Janet Katz, Margaret Benyon, Irwin Hollander (transcript only), David Anderson, Doris Chase, Will Insley, Michael Kirby, Les Levine, Ursula Meyer, Brian O'Doherty, Charles Ross, Tony Smith, Douglas Davis, Jane Davis, Russ Connor, Les Levine, Michael Mazur, Paul Gedeohn, and physicists Lloyd G. Cross, Allyn Z. Lite, and Gerald Thomas Bern Pethick. Video artworks, recordings of performances, or components of multimedia artworks are found by artists Vito Acconci, Kathy Dillon, Douglas Davis, Dan Graham, Les Levine, Bruce Nauman, Michael Netter, Eric Siegel, and Robert Whitman. A film of the Art in Process: The Visual Development of a Structure (1966) exhibition is found, and video recordings of artists Lynda Benglis, Michael Singer, and Sam Wiener form as part of the documentation for the Projected Art: Artists at Work (1971) exhibition.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 4 series.

Series 1: Administrative Records, 1950-1975 (2 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 22, OV 23)

Series 2: Artist Files, 1958-1975 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 3-4, 22, OV 23, FC 27-28)

Series 3: Elayne Varian Personal Papers, 1965-1970 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 5-6)

Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1943-1975 (14.9 linear feet; Boxes 6-22, OV 24-25, FC 26)

Biographical / Historical:

The Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art, later called simply the "Contemporary Wing," was established in 1964 by the president of Finch College, Roland De Marco, as an extension the Finch College Museum of Art in New York City.

Its mission was to educate art history students at the Manhattan women's college who were interested in working with contemporary art. DeMarco, himself an art collector, hired Elayne Varian as director and curator of the contemporary wing. DeMarco met Varian in the New York office of the prominent international art dealership Duveen Brothers, where she had worked since the mid-1940s, most recently as an art dealer. Varian received her art education in Chicago, where she studied art history and education at the University of Chicago, and took classes in film at the Bauhaus and in fine art the Art Institute of Chicago. Sensitive to emerging art movements in galleries and studios around the city of New York, as the contemporary wing's curator, Varian quickly established a reputation for thoughtfully conceived, cutting-edge exhibitions which were consistently well-received by the press.

Under Varian, the Contemporary Wing carried out a dual mission of showing work of living artists and educating students and the public about the artwork and museum work in general. Varian used the galleries to provide practical training to students interested in a gallery or museum career throughout its existence. For several years, she also maintained an assistantship position for post-graduate museum professionals to gain experience in the field, many of whom went on to careers in museums across New York State.

The Contemporary Wing's best-known exhibitions formed a series of six shows called Art in Process, held between 1965 and 1972. Each of the Art in Process shows took a different medium, including painting, sculpture, collage, conceptual art, installation art, and serial art, and brought the process of art-making into the gallery with the artworks in various ways. For example, for Art in Process V (1972), the show about installation art, the galleries were open to the public for the entire process of its installation, allowing visitors to watch the works take shape. Another show entitled Documentation (1968) exhibited artworks with documentation such as artist's notes, sales records, and conservation records, bringing to light the value of record-keeping in the visual arts. Two exhibitions entitled Projected Art were also innovative, with the first (1966-1967) bringing experimental films from the cinema to the galleries, and the second (1971) showing artists' processes via footage and slides of artists working. Another show, Artists' Videotape Performances (1971), involved both screening of and creation of works in the gallery using a range of experiments with recent video technology. The museum also participated in an experimental broadcast of an artwork entitled Talk Out! by Douglas Davis, in which a telephone in the gallery allowed visitors to participate in its creation while it was broadcast live from Syracuse, NY. Other exhibitions that showcased experimentation in art included N-Dimensional Space (1970), on holography in art, Destruction Art(1968), on destructive actions being incorporated into contemporary art-making, and Schemata 7 (1967), a show about the use of environments in contemporary art, whose working title was "Walk-in Sculpture."

Other popular exhibitions at the Contemporary Wing included shows on Art Deco (1970) and Art Nouveau (1969). Several shows mined the private collections of prominent contemporary art collectors including Martha Jackson, Betty Parsons, George Rickey, Paul Magriel, Jacques Kaplan, Josephine and Philip Bruno, and Carlo F. Bilotti. A number of exhibitions featured contemporary art from overseas including Art from Belgium (1965), Art from Finland (1973), Seven Swedish Painters (1965), and Art in Jewelry (1966), which featured mainly international jewelry artists. Retrospective exhibitions of Hans Richter, Hugo Weber, and James Brooks were also held.

Hundreds of contemporary artists were shown at the Contemporary Wing in the eleven years of its existence, including many who came to be leading figures in contemporary art, and some who already were, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Mel Bochner, Eva Hesse, Lynda Benglis, Bruce Nauman, Robert Morris, Lawrence Weiner, Robert Smithson, Sol Le Witt, Dan Flavin, Philip Pearlstein, and Yayoi Kusama, to name just a few.

The Contemporary Wing and the entire Finch College Museum of Art shut its doors in 1975, when Finch College closed due to lack of funds. The permanent collection was sold at that time, and the proceeds were used to pay Finch College employee salaries. Elayne Varian went on to the position of curator of contemporary art at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. She died in 1987.

Related Materials:

Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with curator Elayne Varian conducted by Paul Cummings, May 2, 1975.

Provenance:

The Archives of American Art acquired these records from the Finch College Museum of Art after it closed permanently in June 1975.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.

Rights:

The Exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art 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.

Occupation:

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

Museum administrators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

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

Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

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

Gallery directors  Search this

Gallery owners  Search this

Genre/Form:

Transcripts

Interviews

Photographs

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Museum records

Citation:

Exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art, 1943-1975. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program. Funding for the digitization of two motion picture films was provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee, and for the remaining sound and video recordings from the Smithsonian's Collection Care Pool Fund. Funding for the digitization of the collection, not including audiovisual materials, was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.finccoll

See more items in:

Exhibition records of the Contemporary Study Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-finccoll

Creator:

Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art  Search this

Subject:

East, Alfred, Sir  Search this

Church, Samuel Harden  Search this

Chase, William Merritt  Search this

Homer, Winslow  Search this

Hassam, Childe  Search this

Saint-Gaudens, Homer  Search this

Thayer, Abbott Handerson  Search this

Beatty, John W. (John Wesley)  Search this

Alexander, John White  Search this

Beaux, Cecilia  Search this

Brush, George de Forest  Search this

M. Knoedler & Co.  Search this

Gallery of William Macbeth  Search this

Corcoran Gallery of Art  Search this

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Art Institute of Chicago  Search this

Buffalo Fine Arts Academy  Search this

Type:

Photographs

Letterpress books

Museum records

Place:

Spain -- History -- Civil War, 1936-1939

Topic:

Art -- Economic aspects  Search this

World War, 1914-1918  Search this

Art museums -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh  Search this

Depressions -- 1929  Search this

Art, Modern -- Exhibitions  Search this

Fascism  Search this

World War, 1939-1945  Search this

Museum directors  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7343

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209496

AAA_collcode_carninst

Theme:

Communities, Organizations, Museums

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_209496

Collection Creator:

Museum of Craft and Folk Art  Search this

Extent:

1 Videocassettes (Betacam)

Container:

Box 25, Folder 15

Type:

Archival materials

Videocassettes (betacam)

Date:

circa 1985-circa 1995

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. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.

Collection Rights:

The Museum of Craft and Folk Art records 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.

Collection Citation:

Museum of Craft and Folk Art records, 1970-2012. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Museum of Craft and Folk Art records

Museum of Craft and Folk Art records / Series 4: Museum of Craft and Folk Art Publications

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-musecraf-ref412

Creator:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Names:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Anacostia Neighborhood Museum  Search this

Collection Creator:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Extent:

9.5 Linear feet

167 Video recordings (VHS, 1/2")

1 Video recording (Betacam)

3 Video recordings (BetacamSP)

6 Video recordings (miniDV)

66 Sound recordings (audio cassette)

Culture:

African American  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Video recordings

Sound recordings

Museum records

Place:

Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)

Date:

1967-2008

bulk 1990s

Scope and Contents:

This collection contains audiovisual documentation of educational programs, lectures, and events held by Anacostia Community Museum's Education Department between the years 1968 and 2008, with most of the recordings being created in the 1990s. It includes audio and video recordings of workshops, lectures, and other educational events held both on- and off-site and serves as documentation of the Education Department's work over the years.

Collection Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.

Topic:

Museums  Search this

Genre/Form:

Museum records

Video recordings

Sound recordings

Citation:

ACM Education Department Programs Audiovisual Records 1967-2008, Record Group 09-007.7, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

ACMA.09-023, Series ACMA 09-007.7

See more items in:

Museum Events, Programs, and Projects, 1967-1989

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-acma-09-023-ref1553

Extent:

855.72 Gigabytes (96 MP3's; 19 QuickTime Movies, 12.3 GBs of Audio Interviews 843.42 GBs of Video Interviews )

Culture:

Hispanic Americans  Search this

Chinese Americans  Search this

African Americans  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Gigabytes

Interviews

Oral histories (document genres)

Place:

Washington Metropolitan Area

Chinatown (Washington, D.C.)

Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)

Barry Farms (Washington, D.C.)

Shaw (Washington, D.C.)

Columbia Heights (Washington, D.C.)

Adams Morgan (Washington, D.C.)

Mount Pleasant (Washington, D.C.)

Chevy Chase (Md.)

Brookland (Washington, D.C.)

Deanwood (northeast Washington, D.C.)

Capitol Hill (Washington, D.C.)

Foggy Bottom (Washington, D.C.)

Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)

Baltimore (Md.)

Southwest (Washington, D.C.)

Date:

2016-2018

Summary:

The oral histories in this collection were conducted as part of the research for an exhibition exploring the history of neighborhood change and civic activism in the nation's capital. Focused on the dynamic histories of six DC neighborhoods—Adams Morgan, Anacostia, Brookland, Chinatown, Shaw and Southwest—the exhibition recounted the story of these communities through the eyes of the Washingtonians who helped shape and reshape the city in extraordinary ways. The exhibit was organized by the Anacostia Community Museum and curated by Samir Meghelli. The audio and video interviews were conducted between 2016-2018.

Scope and Contents:

In the early twenty-first century, as Washington, DC was experiencing rapid population growth, mounting tensions over gentrification, and persistent inequality, the Anacostia Community Museum's "A Right to the City" exhibition explored the history of neighborhood change and civic activism in the nation's capital. Focused on the dynamic histories of six DC neighborhoods—Adams Morgan, Anacostia, Brookland, Chinatown, Shaw and Southwest—the exhibition recounted the story of these communities through the eyes of the Washingtonians who helped shape and reshape the city in extraordinary ways: through their fights for quality public education, healthy and green urban spaces, equitable development and transportation, and a genuinely democratic approach to city planning. The oral histories that comprise this collection were conducted as part of the research for the exhibition. The audio and video interviews were conducted between 2016-2018.

Provenance:

"A Right to the City" Exhibition were created by the Anacostia Community Museum. Records of "A Right to the City" Exhibition were created by the Anacostia Community Museum.

Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Museum exhibits  Search this

Neighborhoods -- Washington, D.C. -- History  Search this

Gentrification  Search this

City planning  Search this

Urban renewal  Search this

Urban policy  Search this

Activism  Search this

Housing policy  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews -- 21st century

Oral histories (document genres)

Citation:

"A Right to the City" Exhibition Records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

ACMA.03-119

See more items in:

A Right to the City Exhibition Records

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-acma-03-119

Collection Creator:

Junkin, Hattie Meyers, 1896-1985  Search this

Container:

Box 4, Folder 16

Type:

Archival materials

Text

Date:

1931-08

Collection Restrictions:

No restrictions on access

Collection Rights:

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.

See more items in:

Hattie Meyers Junkin Papers

Hattie Meyers Junkin Papers / Series 3: General materials of Hattie Meyers Junkin

Archival Repository:

National Air and Space Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nasm-xxxx-0171-ref129

Creator:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Names:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Anacostia Neighborhood Museum  Search this

Extent:

3 Linear feet

7 Sound recordings (7 audio cassette sound recordings)

59 Video recordings (29 open reel 1/2" video recordings ; 30 VHS 1/2" video recordings)

Culture:

African American  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Conferences

Museum records

Place:

Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)

Date:

1973-1992

bulk 1976-1976

Scope and Contents note:

This collection contains video and audio recordings of conference sessions and seminars held at, hosted by, or attended by personnel of the Anacostia Community Museum. It includes recordings from the years 1973-1992, with the majority being created in 1976. Notable conferences documented in the collection include the First Annual Black History Museums Seminar in 1976, the Black Records Conference, and the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum's Sixth Anniversary Seminar.

Provenance:

Many of the video recordings originally recorded onto 1/2" open reel were transferred to VHS in 1990.

Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.

Genre/Form:

Conferences

Museum records

Sound recordings

Citation:

Conference Recordings, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

ACMA.AV09-021

See more items in:

Conference Recordings

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-acma-av09-021

Creator:

Trovato, Joseph S., 1912-1983  Search this

Names:

Armory Show (1913: New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Armory Show 50th anniversary exhibition (1963 : Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute)  Search this

Association of American Painters and Sculptors (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Hamilton College (Clinton, N.Y.)  Search this

Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. Museum of Art  Search this

Burchfield, Charles Ephraim, 1893-1967  Search this

Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968  Search this

Soby, James Thrall, 1906-1979  Search this

Extent:

3.8 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on one reel))

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Date:

[ca. 1945-1980]

Scope and Contents:

Research material for the 50th anniversary exhibition of the Armory Show and other exhibitions curated by Trovato; correspondence; writings; sound and video recordings; and printed material.

REEL 2018: Papers mainly relating to the Armory Show-50th Anniversary Exhibition arranged by Trovato for the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, in February 1963. The Armory Show (International Exhibition of Modern Art) was originally organized by the American Painters and Sculptors, 1913. Included are: correspondence; research notes; lists of Armory Show artists with their birth and death dates and the 1963 locations of the works they exhibited in the Armory Show; loan forms; exhibition catalogs; newspaper and magazine clippings; and photos. Also included are exhibition catalogs with introductions written by Trovato and catalogs for exhibitions of his work.

ADDITION: Correspondence; lecture notes; Hamilton College and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute files containing correspondence, installation photographs and sketches, lectures, and printed material; a video recording, narrated by Trovato, for the exhibition, "Olympics in Art" (l980); a sound recording (reel-to-reel and dup.cassette) of Trovato, Marcel Duchamp and James T. Soby discussing the "Armory Show of l913 Revisited" (l963); wallpaper samples designed by Charles Burchfield; and clippings.

Biographical / Historical:

Painter and museum administrator; Clinton, N.Y.

Other Title:

Armory Show - 50th anniversary exhibition.

Provenance:

Material on reel 2018 lent for microfilming 1980 by Joseph S. Trovato, and all except exhibition catalogs subsequently donated 1981 and 1991 with unmicrofilmed material by Trovato's widow, Mrs. Ruth O. Trovato. [Official museum records of the 50th anniversary exhibition were also donated in 1965 and 1981 by the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute and are described separately.] Additional material is expected including photographs of Trovato and his work, exhibition material, painting records, Edward Root research file, Munson-Williams-Proctor files, and printed material.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Occupation:

Museum administrators  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- Clinton  Search this

Topic:

Art -- Exhibitions  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Identifier:

AAA.trovjose

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-trovjose

Creator:

Lyme Historical Society  Search this

Subject:

Cole, Alphaeus Philemon  Search this

Dessar, Louis Paul  Search this

DuMond, Frank Vincent  Search this

Foote, Will Howe  Search this

Goodman, William O.  Search this

Hassam, Childe  Search this

Heming, Arthur  Search this

Hoffman, Harry L.  Search this

Howe, William Henry  Search this

Metcalf, Willard Leroy  Search this

Poore, Henry Rankin  Search this

Ranger, Henry Ward  Search this

Talcott, Allen Butler  Search this

Vezin, Charles  Search this

Vonnoh, Robert William  Search this

Voorhees, Clark G. (Clark Greenwood)  Search this

Weiland, James  Search this

Wilson, Ellen Axson  Search this

Wilson, Woodrow  Search this

Griswold, Florence  Search this

Lyme Art Association (Old Lyme, Conn.)  Search this

Type:

Interviews

Scrapbooks

Sketchbooks

Topic:

Artist colonies -- Connecticut -- Old Lyme  Search this

Painting, American  Search this

Impressionism (Art) -- United States  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)11015

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)215055

AAA_collcode_lymehist

Theme:

Diaries

Sketches & Sketchbooks

Communities, Organizations, Museums

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_215055

Creator:

Lyme Historical Society  Search this

Names:

Lyme Art Association (Old Lyme, Conn.)  Search this

Cole, Alphaeus Philemon, 1876-1988  Search this

Dessar, Louis Paul, 1867-1952  Search this

DuMond, Frank Vincent, 1865-1951  Search this

Foote, Will Howe, 1874-1965  Search this

Goodman, William O., 1849-1936  Search this

Griswold, Florence, 1850-1937  Search this

Hassam, Childe, 1859-1935  Search this

Heming, Arthur, 1871-1940  Search this

Hoffman, Harry L., 1874-1966  Search this

Howe, William Henry, 1846-1929  Search this

Metcalf, Willard Leroy, 1858-1925  Search this

Poore, Henry Rankin, 1859-1940  Search this

Ranger, Henry Ward, 1858-1916  Search this

Talcott, Allen Butler, 1867-1908  Search this

Vezin, Charles, 1858-1942  Search this

Vonnoh, Robert William, 1858-1933  Search this

Voorhees, Clark G. (Clark Greenwood), 1871-1933  Search this

Weiland, James, b. 1872  Search this

Wilson, Ellen Axson  Search this

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924  Search this

Extent:

4 Microfilm reels

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Microfilm reels

Interviews

Scrapbooks

Sketchbooks

Date:

[undated] and 1882-1986

Scope and Contents:

Selected material from the Lyme Historical Society's Lyme Art Colony Archives relating primarily to the activities of the Lyme Art Association and Lyme Art Colony (4.0 ft.) and including Florence Griswold's personal papers (0.4 ft.)

REELS 4678-4680: Included are: constitution, by-laws, minutes of the "Lyme Exhibition," 1911-1914, and the Lyme Art Association and Artists' Committee; account books containing treasurer's reports, minutes of annual and artists' committee meetings, expenses, sales, cash assets, and other information; letters from members; files, chiefly on artists, containing letters, a few photographs, writings on the Griswold House, exhibition catalogs, and summaries of conversations and interviews about Griswold and the art colony, conducted in 1954 by a Society staff member;

photographs of artists, the Florence Griswold House, and an exhibition; 4 scrapbooks of clippings, 1933-1940, and a scrapbook about William Henry Howe, ca.1880-1930; notebook of James Weiland chiefly on painting technique; diaries of Clark Voorhees, 1890-1905; a Robert Vonnoh sketchbook; specifications for the Lyme Art Association Gallery; list of locations of artists' work; directions for gilding by Griswold; "Wilson's Return," an account of President Woodrow Wilson's return visit to Lyme; an album containing information on Alphaeus P. Cole's career compiled in 1986; an autograph book, "Ghosts of My Friends," 1909-1914 containing signatures;

exhibition catalogs, announcements and posters; and articles, 1902-1966, regarding the Lyme Art Colony and artists Childe Hassam, Henry Ward Ranger and Louis Dessar.

Also, spliced to end of reel 4680 are additional photographs of artists, exhibition installations, and a photograph album. Included are: Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Charles Vezin, Harry Hoffman, William Henry Howe, Henry Ward Ranger, Will Howe Foote, Frank Vincent DuMond, William O. Goodman and his wife at a ceremony marking his retirement as President of the Association, Florence Griswold, and others; interior and exterior views of the Griswold House; art works; the first exhibition of the Association in the "new" gallery, summer, 1921, and an exhibition in 1926; and an album, "Illustrated Lecture on Wild Animals of New England," containing photos of Howe, Foote, Metcalf, Allen Talcott, Arthur Heming, and others, and the Griswold House.

Artists represented in the artists' files include Thomas Ball, Martin Borgord, William Chadwick, Bruce Crane, Charles H. Davis, Elizabeth Ebert, Will Howe Foote, Harry L. Hoffman, Richard F. Maynard, Henry Rankin Poore, Gregory Smith, Nelson White, and Margaret H. Wright (contains letters from W.Bicknell and Chauncey Ryder).

REEL 4599: Material (0.2 ft.) from the Florence Griswold papers, 1896-1938, includes a biographical note; a posthumous certificate from the American Artists Professional League honoring Griswold; correspondence with artists and others; estate documents and a copy of her will; "The Saga of Florence Griswold's Harp" by Clarence T. Hubbard, an account of the formation of the Colony; postcards showing Griswold and art work in the house by Childe Hassam, William Henry Howe and Henry R. Poore; and obituaries.

Correspondents included in Griswold's papers are George Ainslie, Frank Bicknell, Charles Bittinger, William Chadwick, E.H. Clement, Lewis Cohen, Frank DuMond, Schumacker Duncan, Charles Ebert, Will Howe Foote, Frank B. Gay, Charles L. Goodwin, Walter Griffin, Childe Hassam, Arthur Heming, Harry L. Hoffman, William Henry Howe, William H. Hyde, Lydia Longacre, Willard Metcalf, Curtis Moyer, Henry R. Poore, William S. Robinson, Edith and Edward Rook, Allen B. Talcott, Charles Vezin, Robert and Bessie Vonnoh, Everett Warner, and Ellen and Woodrow Wilson.

Biographical / Historical:

The Lyme Art Association was established in 1914 as an outgrowth of the Lyme Art Colony, in Old Lyme, Conn. In 1921, a summer art gallery was built to house its exhibitions. Henry Ward Ranger is the artist credited with discovering Old Lyme as a painters' haven in 1899, encouraging a few artists to come the following summer. Florence Griswold's summer boarding house became a center for artists who came to Lyme over the years; Griswold even acted as an agent for some of the artists. Gradually membership expanded and the number of exhibitions increased. Ranger and some of his colleagues painted in the Barbizon style, but Impressionism also gained favor there partially due to Childe Hassam's presence in Old Lyme from 1903 onwards.

Other Title:

Lyme Art Colony Archives

Provenance:

Lent for microfilming 1992 and 1993 by the Lyme Historical Society, Florence Griswold Museum. Records are maintained as the Lyme Art Colony Archives. Arrangement of the photographs was devised by the lender and has been maintained.

Restrictions:

The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.

Occupation:

Painters -- Connecticut -- Old Lyme  Search this

Topic:

Artist colonies -- Connecticut -- Old Lyme  Search this

Painting, American  Search this

Impressionism (Art) -- United States  Search this

Genre/Form:

Interviews

Scrapbooks

Sketchbooks

Identifier:

AAA.lymehist

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-lymehist

Creator:

Macbeth Gallery  Search this

Names:

Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943  Search this

Homer, Winslow, 1836-1910  Search this

Macbeth, Robert W. (Robert Walker), 1884-1940  Search this

Macbeth, William, 1851-1917  Search this

McIntyre, Robert G. (Robert George), b. 1885  Search this

Stuart, Gilbert, 1755-1828  Search this

Weir, Robert Walter, 1803-1889  Search this

Extent:

131.6 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Daguerreotypes

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Date:

1947-1948

1838-1968

bulk 1892-1953

Summary:

The Macbeth Gallery records provide almost complete coverage of the gallery's operations from its inception in 1892 to its closing in 1953. Through extensive correspondence files, financial and inventory records, printed material, scrapbooks, reference and research material, and photographs of artists and works of art, the records document all aspects of the gallery's activities, charting William Macbeth's initial intention to lease his store "for the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures" through over sixty years of success as a major New York firm devoted to American art. The collection measures 131.6 linear feet and dates from 1838 to 1968 with the bulk of the material dating from 1892 to 1953.

Scope and Content Note:

The Macbeth Gallery records provide almost complete coverage of the gallery's operations from its inception in 1892 to its closing in 1953. The records document all aspects of the gallery's activities, charting William Macbeth's initial intention to lease his store "for the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures" through over sixty years of success as a major New York firm devoted to American art. The collection measures 131.6 linear feet and dates from 1838 to 1968 with the bulk of the material dating from 1892 to 1953.

The gallery's correspondence files form the core of the collection and illuminate most aspects of American art history: the creation and sale of works of art, the development of reputations, the rise of museums and art societies, change and resistance to change in the art market, and the evolution of taste. Ninety-five feet of correspondence house substantial and informative letters from dozens of important American painters and sculptors, including older artists and younger contemporaries of the gallery in its later years. There are also letters from collectors, curators, other galleries, and critics.

The financial files found in the collection offer insight into the changing economic climate in which the gallery operated. They include information ranging from the details of individual sales and the market for individual artists, to consignment activities and artist commissions, to overviews of annual sales. This information is augmented by the firm's inventory records and the photographs of artwork with their accompanying records of paintings sold. The inventory records provide details of all works of art handled by the gallery, both sold and unsold, and the buyers who purchased them; the photographs of artwork include images of artwork sold with accompanying sales information.

The highlight of the gallery's printed material is the publication Art Notes. Although published only until 1930, Art Notes provides an excellent and detailed view of the gallery's exhibition schedule and the relationship of the gallery owners with many of the artists whose work they handled. It was a house organ that also provided a running commentary on events in the art world. The gallery's 19 fragile scrapbooks, maintained throughout the firm's history, provide further coverage of activities through exhibition catalogs and related news clippings. Printed material from other sources provides a frame of reference for activities in the art world from the mid-19th to the mid-20th-centuries and includes an almost complete run of the rare and important pre-Civil War art publication The Crayon.

Reference files record the interest which the gallery owners took in the work of early portrait painters and in later artists such as George Inness and Winslow Homer. Together with the immense volume of correspondence with buyers and sellers of paintings by the great portraitists and the Hudson River School found in the gallery's correspondence files, these records are still useful sources of information today and underscore the deep interest that the Macbeths and Robert McIntyre took in 18th and 19th-century American art.

The photographs of artists found here are a treasure trove of images of some of the major figures of the 19th and 20th-centuries. There are photographs of artists such as Chester Beach, Emil Carlsen, Charles Melville Dewey, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, George Inness, Maurice Prendergast, and Julian Alden Weir, many of them original prints and the majority of them autographed.

With the exception of the "The Eight" and a few of their contemporaries, an important aspect of art history, the modernist movement, is generally represented in the Macbeth Gallery records only in a negative form as the three successive proprietors of the gallery showed very little interest in this area. Nevertheless, the collection is a highly significant source of information on many of the major and minor figures in American art in the period after 1890.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into eight series:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1838-1968 (Box 1-95, 163-164, OV 165; 96.2 linear feet)

Series 2: Financial and Shipping Records, 1892-1956 (Box 96-110; 11.8 linear feet)

Series 3: Inventory Records, 1892-circa 1957 (Box 111-113; 3.0 linear feet)

Series 4: Printed Material, 1838-1963 (Box 114-119, 162; 5.0 linear feet)

Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1892-1952 (Box 120-130; 3.3 linear feet)

Series 6: Reference Files, 1839-1959 (Box 131-132; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 7: Miscellaneous Files, 1912-1956 (Box 133-134; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 8: Photographs, circa 1880-circa 1968 (Box 135-161; 12.1 linear feet)

Historical Note:

The Macbeth Gallery was established in 1892 by William Macbeth, a Scotch-Irish immigrant who had spent ten years with the print dealer Frederick Keppel before he opened his doors to the art-buying public at 237 Fifth Avenue in New York. Despite the prevailing interest in foreign art at that time, particularly in that of the Barbizon and Dutch schools, Macbeth was determined to dedicate his gallery to "the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures, both in oil and water colors."

Although some of the gallery's earliest exhibitions were of work by European artists, the business soon became the only gallery in continuous operation to keep American art permanently on display. In the January 1917 issue of Art Notes, Macbeth recounts those early days remembering that "The opening of my gallery......was a rash venture under the existing conditions, and disaster was freely predicted." Nevertheless, he struggled through the financial crisis of 1893 and persisted with his devotion to American art; slowly the market for his pictures grew more amenable.

Macbeth moved to more spacious quarters at 450 Fifth Avenue in 1906 and two years later undertook what was to become the major event in the gallery's early history: the 1908 exhibition of "The Eight," featuring work by Arthur B. Davies, Willam J. Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan. "The Eight" were an unlikely combination of social realists, visionaries and impressionists eager to challenge the dominating influence of the National Academy. The exhibition received an immense amount of publicity and instantly entered into art history as a successful assault on tradition.

Despite the splash that the exhibition made and its implications for the future of American art, nothing that the gallery did subsequently indicated that Macbeth intended to capitalize on its significance. It is true that Macbeth supported many artists later considered leaders in American art when the public would pay no attention to them because of their modernist tendencies; Arthur B. Davies, Paul Dougherty, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, and F. Ballard Williams all held their first exhibitions at his gallery. Nevertheless, neither Macbeth nor the gallery's two successive proprietors, Robert G. McIntyre (William's nephew) and Robert Macbeth (William's son), who joined the gallery in 1903 and 1906 respectively, ever developed a true interest in modern art. The November 1930 issue of Art Notes summarizes their collective disdain for modernism, stating: "We believe that, by and large, modern art is amusing. We are heretical enough to believe that much of it was started for the amusement of its creators and that no one was more surprised than they when it was taken seriously by a certain audience to whom the bizarre and the unintelligible always makes an appeal." So while the Macbeths and McIntyre cetainly championed American artists and insisted they deserved as much recognition as the Europeans, their deepest and most abiding interest was undoubtedly the established artists of the 18th and 19th-centuries and those of the early 20th-century who continued in a more conservative style. Artists such as Emil Carlsen, Charles Harold Davis, Frederick C. Frieseke, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, Chauncey F. Ryder, Abbot Handerson Thayer, J. Francis Murphy, A. H. Wyant were the gallery's bread and butter.

When William Macbeth died in 1917 Robert Macbeth took up the reins with the assistance of Robert G. McIntyre . Although they incorporated the business as William Macbeth, Inc., in 1918 the gallery continued to be known, as it always would be, simply as Macbeth Gallery. Macbeth and McIntyre continued to show work in the same vein as the elder Macbeth. They concentrated primarily on oil paintings at this time, having found by the 1920s that "oils are all that our gallery owners will buy," though they also exhibited an occasional group of watercolors and pastels in addition to bronzes and other sculpture by contemporary American artists such as Chester Beach and Janet Scudder.

Of the early American painters the Macbeths and McIntyre were particularly interested in colonial portraits and miniatures, especially those painted by prominent artists in the latter part of the eighteenth century such as John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully and John Trumbull. In its early years the gallery also handled the work of a few prominent American etchers including Frank W. Benson, Emil Fuchs, Daniel Garber, Childe Hassam and Chauncey F. Ryder. The print department was generally discontinued, however, in the late 1930s although the gallery continued to show prints by contemporaries such as Stow Wengenroth.

In 1924 relative prosperity allowed the gallery to move uptown to 15 East Fifty-seventh Street. When the 1930s brought new financial hardship for the gallery Macbeth and McIntyre took a variety of approaches to boosting sales. In 1930 they decided to hold only group exhibitions throughout the season to the exclusion of one-man shows, and also held some special exhibitions of paintings priced at a hundred dollars each in the hope that they could tempt those "willing to take advantage of a rare chance to secure representative examples of good art at a most attractive price." A move to smaller quarters at 15 East Fifty-seventh Street in 1935 was made with the intention of concentrating their efforts on the work of fewer contemporary artists, while continuing to handle the work of the older Americans they had long supported.

When Macbeth died suddenly and unexpectedly in August 1940 following an operation for appendicitis, McIntyre continued to run the gallery with the assistance of Hazel Lewis. During the 1940s McIntyre and Lewis showed primarily contemporary art in a wide range of media including oil, watercolor, pastel, drawing and sculpture, while continuing, as always, to show the occasional group of 19th-century Americans. The great success of the gallery's later years was undeniably Andrew Wyeth whose first exhibition, held at Macbeth Gallery in 1937, resulted in the sale of all twenty-two paintings cataloged.

Although subsequent Wyeth exhibitions were also successful, McIntyre struggled financially throughout the 1940s and periodically considered liquidating the company. Although "vitally interested" in contemporary art by people such as Robert Brackman, Jay Connaway, Carl Gaertner, James Lechay, Herbert Meyer and Ogden M. Pleissner he found that, for the most part, it did not pay. McIntyre continued operations until 1953 when he decided that doing so for profit was not only a financial burden but also ran contrary to his desire to spend more time devoted to his first love, early American art. When the lease expired on 11 East Fifty-seventh Street in April 1953 McIntyre did not renew it. After closing the gallery's doors he sold art from his New York apartment and from his home in Dorset, Vermont. He officially dissolved William Macbeth, Inc., in 1957.

The history of the Macbeth Gallery is a long and distinguished one with each successive proprietor making a significant contribution to art in America. William Macbeth helped establish an audience and a market for American art when few were willing to give it serious consideration. Robert Macbeth continued to cement the gallery's reputation as one of the leading firms in New York and was instrumental in organizing the American Art Dealers Association. Robert G. McIntyre claimed in a letter to Lloyd Goodrich, dated 22 June 1945, that the thing of which he was most proud was "the share I have had in the formation of the collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art, at Andover, Massacusetts." McIntyre was widely respected in the art community as a dealer, as an adviser to curators, and as a scholar whose research and book on Martin Johnson Heade helped "rediscover" an important American artist. One of his most significant and lasting contributions to the history of art in America, however, was undoubtedly his gift of the gallery's historical records to the Archives of American Art.

Related Material:

Among the holdings of the Archives of American are a small collection of scattered Robert McIntyre's papers and 9 items of William Macbeth's papers. Macbeth Gallery exhibition catalogs are also available in the American Art Exhibition Catalog collection and the Brooklyn Museum Records, both loaned and microfilmed collections.

An extensive collection of Macbeth Gallery exhibition catalogs are also held by the Frick Art Reference Library and the Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Provenance:

The bulk of the Macbeth Gallery records were donated and microfilmed in several installments between 1955 and 1966 by Robert G. McIntyre and Estate. Additional Macbeth Gallery printed material was donated by Phoebe C. and William Macbeth II, grandchildren of William Macbeth, in 1974.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Fragile original scrapbooks are closed to researchers.

Rights:

The Macbeth Gallery records 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:

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

Eight (Group of American artists)  Search this

Art directors -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Artists -- United States  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Daguerreotypes

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Citation:

Macbeth Gallery records, 1838-1968, bulk 1892 to 1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Grant Program. Digitization of the scrapbooks was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee. Correspondence, financial and shipping records, inventory records, and printed material were digitized with funding provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.

Identifier:

AAA.macbgall

See more items in:

Macbeth Gallery records

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-macbgall

Extent:

1 Sound recording ((1 data disk DVD-R digital, 24-bit 96kHz WAV.)))

1 Sound recording ((1 sound disk CD-R (00:40:15). digital, 16-bit 44.1 KhZ))

1 Sound recording ((1 sound cassette (00:40:15)))

Container:

Box 1, Tape n/a

Type:

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Scope and Contents note:

An interview of Charles Burr conducted in 1975 for the Anacostia Oral History Project through the Center for Anacostia Studies and the Anacostia Community Museum.; Recording of a women reading Charles Burr's "Index of History of Anacostia." The writing discusses various subdivisions of the area and how/when/by whom things were built. It cites descriptions and surveys of the area dating back to the early 1800s.

Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.

Collection Citation:

Anacostia Oral History Project, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in:

Anacostia Oral History Project

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-acma-09-006-ref207

Extent:

1 Sound recording ((1 sound cassette (00:53:17)))

1 Sound recording ((1 sound disk CD-R (00:53:17). digital, 16-bit 44.1 KhZ))

1 Sound recording ((1 data disk DVD-R digital, 24-bit 96kHz WAV.)))

Container:

Box 2, Tape n/a

Type:

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Scope and Contents note:

Side 1: Anacostia 1891 Star Paper "Roadside Sketches";

Side 2: History - Anacostia 1800-1939, Washingtonian Clippings. A recording for the Anacostia Oral History Project through the Center for Anacostia Studies and the Anacostia Community Museum.; Recording of a woman reading an article titled "Changes in recent years – The beginning of Anacostia – The Neighboring settlement of Hillsdale – Where Frederick Douglass Lives – Picturesque things from the Hills" from the Anacostia Star Paper from Saturday Dec. 5, 1891.

Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.

Collection Citation:

Anacostia Oral History Project, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in:

Anacostia Oral History Project

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-acma-09-006-ref227

Creator:

Anacostia Neighborhood Museum  Search this

Smithsonian Institution. Traveling Exhibition Service  Search this

Names:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Anacostia Neighborhood Museum  Search this

Brooks, Gwendolyn, 1917-2000  Search this

Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins, 1825-1911  Search this

Parks, Rosa, 1913-2005  Search this

Truth, Sojourner, d. 1883  Search this

Tubman, Harriet, 1820?-1913  Search this

Walker, Maggie Lena, 1867-1934  Search this

Wells-Barnett, Ida B., 1862-1931  Search this

Collection Creator:

Smithsonian Institution. Traveling Exhibition Service  Search this

Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Extent:

3 Sound recordings (open reel, 1/4 inch)

Culture:

African American  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Narration

Music

Place:

Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)

Washington (D.C.)

United States

Date:

1984

Scope and Contents:

Narrator, for the Sketches from Life slide show, provides biographical vignettes of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Rosa Parks, Maggie Lena Walker, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Narration and music. Part of Black Women: Achievements Against the Odds Audiovisual Records. AV00310, AV003315, AV003383-1: same content. AV003315-1: narration until 001130, followed by static and beeps. AV003315-2: narration begins at 001234, preceded by static and beeps. AV003310: dated 19841031. AV003315 and AV003383: undated.

Biographical / Historical:

Photographs, artifacts, a slide show, and films form the exhibition - Black women: Achievements Against the Odds - that examines the contributions of 113 American black women in such areas as government, education, fine arts, civil rights, medicine, law, and industry. The women represent the world-famous as well as the little-known and include poet Phillis Wheatley, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Patricia Roberts Harris, educator Nannie Helen Burroughs, the first female editor-in-chief of the Boston University Law Review Clara Burrill Bruce, author Maya Angelou, sculptor Edmonia Lewis, and businesswoman Eartha M.M. White. The exhibition was created and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service; and it was on display at Anacostia Neighborhood Museum from February 8, 1976 - January 2, 1977 and October 21, 1984 - June 30, 1985.

Local Numbers:

ACMA AV003315-1

ACMA AV003315-2

ACMA AV003383-1

General:

Title transcribed from physical asset.

Series Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.

Topic:

African Americans  Search this

African American women  Search this

Women  Search this

Abolitionists  Search this

African American abolitionists  Search this

Human Rights  Search this

Women's rights  Search this

Civil rights  Search this

Museum exhibits  Search this

Traveling exhibitions  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Narration

Music

Citation:

Sketches from Life Slide Show for the Black Women Exhibit, Exhibition Records AV03-028, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

ACMA.03-028, Item ACMA AV003310-1

See more items in:

Black women: achievements against the odds exhibition records

Black women: achievements against the odds exhibition records / Series ACMA AV03-028: Black Women: Achievements Against the Odds Audiovisual Records

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-acma-03-028-ref659

Creator:

Lerner, Abram  Search this

Names:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden  Search this

Hirshhorn, Joseph H.  Search this

Extent:

2.3 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sketchbooks

Sound recordings

Radio programs

Lectures

Date:

circa 1930-2006

Summary:

The papers of art historian, curator and painter, Abram Lerner measure 2.3 linear feet and date from circa 1930 to 2006. The collection is comprised primarily of documents related to Lerner's tenure at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, including the years leading up to the museum's opening in 1974. Also included are professional files and correspondence following Abram Lerner's departure from the museum in 1984, as well as exhibition files, photographic materials and watercolor and sketchbooks reflecting his career as an artist.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of art historian, curator and painter, Abram Lerner measure 2.3 linear feet and date from circa 1930 to 2006. The collection is comprised primarily of documents related to Lerner's tenure at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, including the years leading up to the museum's opening in 1974. Also included are professional files and correspondence following Abram Lerner's departure from the museum in 1984, as well as exhibition files, photographic materials and watercolor and sketchbooks reflecting his career as an artist.

Correspondence is primarily professional in nature and includes correspondents James T. Demetrion and Joseph and Olga Hirshhorn, as well as artists Philip Evergood, Walter Rosenblum and Raphael Soyer. Also included are notebooks with outgoing hand-written drafts from after his tenure with the museum, from 1991 to 2003. Writings include primarily lectures and tours related to the Hirshhorn collection and modern sculpture and painting, in addition to some early student and creative work, an interview with Lerner, and writings by others including an artist statement for Lerner written by Milton W. Brown. Some lectures are represented by audio recordings on sound cassette.

The professional files series includes an 1958 exhibition file related to Lerner's painting career, files related to the Hirshhorn bequest exhibition and a Henry Moore exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum, records regarding an unpublished manuscript tentatively titled 50 Sculptors, as well as advisory roles and other professional materials including a planner from 1983. Printed material includes materials reserved for a scrapbook, especially regarding the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, various memorabilia and published audio recordings including an Acoustiguide and a Channel 13 program regarding David Smith. Photographic material includes photographs of Abram Lerner, Joseph Hirshhorn and the Hirshhorn Museum building, staff, artwork, and events during his tenure. Also included are numerous photographs of Raphael Soyer portrait paintings. Artwork includes two watercolor and sketchbooks from circa 1940 and 1954.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged as six series:

Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1935-2004 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Writings, circa 1930-1984 (0.6 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 3: Professional Files, circa 1958-2006 (0.5 linear feet; Box 2)

Series 4: Printed Material , circa 1933-1999 (0.2 linear feet; Box 2)

Series 5: Photographic Material, circa 1950-1999 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 2, 3)

Series 6: Artwork, circa 1940-1959 (0.2 linear feet; Boxes 2, 3)

Biographical / Historical:

Abram Lerner (1913-2007) was an art historian, curator, and painter in Washington, DC. Born to Russian immigrants in New York City, Lerner received a bachelor's degree in art history from New York University in 1934. Lerner worked as an apprentice muralist in the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and after pursued a career as an exhibiting artist through the 1950s. In 1955 while working as a director at an art gallery he met Joseph Hirshhorn, who he came to work for on his art collection. Eventually this relationship led to Lerner becoming the founding director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Park, Smithsonian Institution, in 1974. After ten years as director Lerner retired to his seasonal home in Southampton, NY in 1984. He lived there with his wife Pauline, who he was married to from 1943, until she passed away in 2003. Lerner passed away from heart failure in his home in Canaan, CT in 2007.

Related Materials:

Also found at the Archives of American art is an oral history interview with Abram Lerner, 1975 Dec. 9-1976 Jan. 27, conducted by Paul Cummings. The Smithsonian Institution Archives maintains the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Papers, circa 1926-1982, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Archive is maintained by the curatorial department of the museum.

Provenance:

Donated 2018 by Aline Libassi, Abram Lerner's daughter.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of audio visual recordings with no duplicate copy requires advance notice.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Occupation:

Museum curators -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Museum directors -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Painters -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sketchbooks

Sound recordings

Radio programs

Lectures

Citation:

Abram Lerner Papers, circa 1930-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

AAA.lernabra

See more items in:

Abram Lerner papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-lernabra