10 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 13 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scrapbooks
Date:
1910-1964
Scope and Contents:
Photographs, correspondence, exhibition materials, sketchbooks, diaries, scrapbooks, slides, and an untranscribed interview.
REEL NDA 14: Photographs of Jonson's murals for the Public Works of Art Project in Albuquerque, N.M. and a chart showing the relative sizes of the murals.
REELS RJ 1-RJ 10: Biographical data; correspondence with family members, artists, and others, including Josef Albers, Emil Bisttram, Albert Bloch, Sheldon Cheney, Andrew Dasburg, Elaine de Kooning, Hilaire Hiler, Beatrice S. Levy, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Eliot O'Hara, Georgia O'Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Cady Wells, Jean Xceron, and others; diaries, 1919-1926, with sketches; notebooks; scrapbooks; lectures; photographs; and exhibition records.
REEL 76: Catalogs; photographs; slides and schedule of exhibits, 1922-1962, of the Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico; and photographs of Jonson.
UNMICROFILMED: Photocopies of correspondence with administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project in New Mexico and the Treasury Section of Fine Arts regarding the design and execution of murals by Jonson and Willard Nash for the Library of the University of New Mexico; an untranscribed tape of an interview of Jonson conducted by Ed Garman, undated; and two color charts, one a color circle and the other showing the main colors Jonson used, both used by Jonson to illustrate a lecture delivered at the Chili Club, December 6, 1948 [lecture is on reel RJ 9, fr. 6343-6346.]
Biographical / Historical:
Painter; Albuquerque, N.M. Painted murals for the WPA Federal Art Project and other New Deal art programs. He taught at the University of New Mexico where the Jonson Gallery was erected in his honor, housing the most complete permanent collection of Jonson's work.
Related Materials:
Raymond Jonson papers also at Syracuse University.
Provenance:
Material on reels RJ 1-10 was lent for microilming by Jonson c/o the Jonson Gallery, 1964-1965; all other material donated, 1966-1975, by Jonson and his brother Arthur, through the gallery.
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.
An exhibition catalog of 200 American watercolors with a foreword by Edward Bruce and a listing of each artist and the title of his work. The paintings were chosen by a jury including Charles Burchfield, John Marin, Eliot O'Hara, and Buk Ulreich. They were then bought by the U.S. government and hung in the Carville, Louisiana, Marine Hospital.
Biographical / Historical:
Established 1934 under the Treasury Department as the Section of Painting and Sculpture. Name changed to Section of Fine Arts in 1938. In 1939, the Federal Works Agency was established and set up the Public Buildings Administration, which combined the Treasury Department's Public Buildings Branch and the Branch of Public Buildings of the National Park Service. The Section's function was to decorate new federal buildings. Unlike the other New Deal art agencies, it was not a relief project, but awarded contracts through a juried system of competition.
Provenance:
Provenance unknown.
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.
2.5 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 1 reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1930-[ca. 1959]
Scope and Contents:
Scrapbooks on artists.
REEL 832: Seven scrapbooks, ca. 1930-1950, compiled by autograph collector Jerome Milkman on artists Lyonel Feininger, Jimmy Ernst, Antonio Frasconi, William Morris Hunt, Christopher Pearse Cranch, David Smith, and Jack Tworkov. Scrapbooks contain clippings, catalogs, and photographs. Also contained are 14 letters and postcards signed by the artists, and one letter by William Hunt's wife Rosamond Pier Hunt, about the watercolorist Eliot O'Hara.
UNMICROFILMED: Scrapbooks, 1930-1950, containing autographs, autograph letters, clippings, and cartoons of 281 cartoonists, and 187 sculptors and illustrators.
Biographical / Historical:
Autograph collector; New York, N.Y. Milkman amassed large collection of artists' autograph letters and printed reproductions of their work. Most of the material was sold at auction.
Provenance:
Material on reel 832 was purchased 1968 by the Archives of American Art from Jerome Milkman; unmicrofilmed material donated 1976 by Evelyn M. Sultan, daughter of Milkman.
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.
An interview of Tyrus Wong conducted 1965 January 30, by Betty Hoag, for the Archives of American Art.
Wong discusses making a film for grade schools and UCLA, which was produced by Eliot O'Hara, where he demonstrated Oriental painting techniques and Joe Jones demonstrated American techniques; working as an illustrator for Republic Studio; designing pottery plates for Greenfield Pottery, Gabriel Pottery in Pasadena; illustrations for the Western Art Review magazine; covers for the Los Angeles Times Home Section 1954 & 1955; text and illustrations for Watercolor Portraits, 1949; designing ads for various magazines; and doing watercolors, lithographs, and murals for the WPA, including the Santa Monica Library. Wong recalls Surasawa, Dorothy Jeakins, Nick Berganti, Hideo Dati, Benjy Ocobo, Carl Winter, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Jerre Murry, Steven LaVerne Dunwell, George Stanley, Gordon Newell, and Frank Buck.
Biographical / Historical:
Tyrus Wong (1910-2016) was a Chinese American painter, designer, illustrator, and printmaker based in California.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 48 min.
Only the second half of this interview was successfully recorded.
Provenance:
Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Herman Maril (1908-1986) was a painter and printmaker from Baltimore, Maryland.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
