United States. Work Projects Administration Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
Extent:
4.4 Linear feet ((on 12 microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945
Date:
1935-1942
Scope and Contents:
Records documenting activities of the Survey to inventory portraits in America done before 1860 in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Included are research documents; correspondence; interoffice memoranda; survey manuals; press releases; clippings; photographs of works of art; short biographies of sitters and artists; ca. 15,000 of the original survey cards; first drafts of checklists and catalogs; and lists of portraits received too late to be included in the final version of the catalog.
Biographical / Historical:
The Historical Records Survey (HRS) had its origins in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civil Works Administration. In 1935 it came under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project and eventually was designated as an independent program under Federal Project No. One. The projects, ideally suited for white collar workers, employed individuals to survey, classify and collect historical records. One program of the HRS was to document American portraits (sculpture, prints and paintings) done before 1860.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming by the Massachusetts State Library, A. Hunter Rineer, State Librarian, Boston, Mass., 1977.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
REEL N736: Five volumes of the Sunday art pages of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1922-1935.
REELS 3094-3096: Biographical data; correspondence with Samuel Reyburn, President of Lord and Taylor, concerning an exhibition of modern French decorative art; letters from Eugene Speicher and others and one from Rockwell Kent, 1946, discussing his relationship with Robert Henri; a transcript from the New York School Art League broadcast "Meet the Artist" in which Read discusses portrait painting; notes, lectures and articles; 4 scrapbooks containing biographical data, letters, exhibition invitations and catalogs from Portraits, Inc. and other galleries, clippings, her articles for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Smith College memorabilia and photographs; photographs of portraits, Read, her friends and family; and lecture announcements.
Biographical / Historical:
Art critic for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and gallery director of Portraits, Inc., Portrait Center of America, New York, N.Y.
Related Materials:
Materials of Helen Appleton Read, 1922-1972, are also located at Smith College.
Provenance:
Material on reels 3094-3096 donated by Helen Read Trent, Read's daughter, 1975. Scrapbooks on reel N736 lent for microfilming by Helen Appleton Read, 1967. Read subsequently donated them to Smith College.
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.
Occupation:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Gallery directors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
