The papers of printmaker, etcher, and painter Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956) measure 4.6 linear feet and date from 1893 to 1986, with the bulk of the material dating from 1901 to 1940. Found within the papers are biographical materials; correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues; writings; five diaries; scattered personal business records; printed material; artwork; photographs; and artifacts.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of printmaker, etcher, and painter Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956) measure 4.6 linear feet and date from 1893 to 1986, with the bulk of the material dating from 1901 to 1940. Found within the papers are biographical materials; correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues; writings; five diaries; scattered personal business records; printed material; artwork; photographs; and artifacts.
Biographical material includes school report cards, address books, obituaries, membership certificates, and travel documents from Blanche Lazzell's travels abroad in Europe.
Correspondence is with family, friends, and colleagues. Family correspondence is predominately with Lazzell's sisters, and a lesser amount with her brother Rufus and other relatives. Well over one-half of the correspondence is with friends and colleagues, including Arthur Lee Post and John O' Connor, and one or more letters from Oliver Chaffee, Andrew Dasburg, Robert Henri, and Ralph M. Pearson, among others.
Writings include notebooks, essays, and notes. Notebooks are primarily class notes, including one from Lazzells's studies in France during her second trip to Europe, and another maintained as a record of artwork. Also found are essays,including one about Provincetown; notes; biographical sketches; and lists of exhibitions and artwork. Five diaries document the late 1890s and Lazzell's trips to Europe in 1912-1913 and 1923-1924.
Scattered personal business records consist of 3 expense account ledgers and one sales ledger. Printed Material includes guest books, news clippings, exhibition catalogs, exhibition announcements, magazines, brochures, and newsletters. Artwork includes pencil drawings and sketches, mostly from studies with the artist Albert Gleizes in Paris. Photographic material consists of photographs, slides, and one lantern slide. The photographs are of Blanche Lazzell with artists and friends, her studio and the harbor in Provincetown, artwork, and travels in Italy.
Artifacts include 2 metal signs and 1 paint palette in a metal case.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 9 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1894-1970 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1897-1965 (1.2 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 3: Writings, 1893-1969 (1.2 linear feet; Box 2-3)
Series 4: Diaries, 1896-1924 (0.1 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1894-1916 (0.1 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1899-1986 (1 linear feet; Box 3-4)
Series 7: Artwork, 1924-circa 1940 (0.1 linear feet; Box 4)
Series 8: Photographic Material, 1897-1956 (0.5 linear feet; Box 5-6)
Series 9: Artifacts, circa 1910-1956 (0.1 linear feet; Box 6)
Biographical / Historical:
Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956) was a printmaker, etcher, painter, and rug designer who worked primarily in Provincetown, Massachusetts and Morgantwon, West Virginia.
Nettie Blanche Lazzell was born in Maidsville, West Virginia, in 1878, the daughter of Mary Prudence Pope and Cornelius Carhart Lazzell. At some point during her childhood, Lazzell became partially deaf. When Lazzell was fifteen, she enrolled in the West Virginia Conference Seminary, now West Virginia Wesleyan College and graduated in 1898.
In 1899, Lazzell continued her studies at the South Carolina Co-educational Institute and graduated that same year. She later matriculated into the West Virginia University (1901-1905) where she took drawing and art history classes with William J. Leonard and earned a degree in fine arts. After graduation, Lazzell periodically studied at the university until 1909. Lazzell moved to New York City in 1907 and enrolled in the Art Students League of New York in 1908 where she studied under William Merritt Chase.
Lazzell travelled to Europe during the summer of 1912. After visiting several cities, Lazzell went to Paris and stayed beyond the tour to attend classes at the Académie Julian and the Académie Moderne where she studied with painter Charles Guérin.
Lazzell returned to the United States in the fall of 1913 and stayed in West Virginia with her sister Bessie. She held a solo exhibition of her sketches and paintings in 1914. Lazzell moved to the thriving art colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1915. There, she studied with Charles Webster Hawthorne, who founded the Cape Cod School of Art, and Oliver Chaffee, who taught her the technique for white-line woodcuts. Lazzell quickly adopted and excelled at making white-line woodblock prints, joined the Provincetown Printers, an art collective, and regularly exhibited with them.
n 1918, Lazzell converted an "old fish house" overlooking the Provincetown harbor into her studio and summer home. She planted a lush garden that became a tourist attraction where she often hosted teas and taught classes on painting and woodblock printing. The studio became her primary summer residence, though she often returned to Morgantown, West Virginia. Lazzell also visited other artist colonies during this time, including one in Woodstock, New York where she studied with Andrew Dasburg.
In 1919 Lazzell was featured in an exhibition at Touchstone Gallery in New York City. Later that year, the Provincetown Printers were featured at the Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition "Wood Block Prints in Color by American Artists". That show included Lazzell's depiction of the Monongahela River in Morgantown.
From 1923 to 1924, Lazzell travelled again to Europe and studied with Fernand Legér, André Lhote, and Albert Gleizes in Paris. Lazzell studied Cubism and took a class with Gleizes and her work became more abstract. When she returned to Provincetown, she had her studio rebuilt so it was more comfortable during the winter.
She continued to teach art at her studio and participate in exhibitions.
In addition to her woodblock prints, Lazzell also worked with batik, rug design, and hand-painted china. She was a member of numerous arts organizations such as the Société Anonyme, New York Society of Women Artists, Provincetown Art Association, the Sail Loft Club (a Provincetown women's art club), and the Society of Independent Artists. In 1934, Lazzell received a Federal Art Project grant through the Works Progress Administration and created a mural titled Justice for the Morgantown courthouse.
Lazzell died in Morgantown, West Virginia in 1956.
Separated Materials:
The papers were originally loaned for microfilming on reels 2988-2991 and most of them, but not all, were included in a later donation. The papers not included in the later donation are only available on microfilm.
Portions of the microfilmed material were retained by the donor.
Provenance:
The Blanche Lazzell papers were anonymously donated to the Archives of American Art in 1987, including most of the materials that had been earlier loaned for microfilming in 1983.
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.
Rights:
The Blanche Lazzell papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The Lena Gurr (1897-1992) papers date from 1908 to 1979 and measure 7.0 linear feet. Gurr was a painter and printmaker who studied under John sloan and Maurice Sterne at the Art Students League between 1920-1922. She also studied in France and married painter and photographer Joseph Biel in 1931. The papers document both Gurr and Biel's careers through correspondence, notes, art work, printed material, scrapbooks, and photographs. The collection offers researchers a valuable resource for studying the New York art community of the pre-war era.
Scope and Content Note:
The Lena Gurr papers date from 1908 to 1979 and measure 7.0 linear feet. The collection presents a good overview of Gurr's career as a painter and printmaker, and her relationship with her husband, painter Joseph Biel. Through biographical material, correspondence, notes, an interview with Lena Gurr, original artwork by Gurr and others, scrapbooks, printed material, photographs of Gurr, family, and friends, and photographs of artwork by Gurr and others, the collection offers researchers a valuable resource for studying the New York art community of the pre-war era.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight series. Material within each series is arranged chronologically.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1968, undated (box 1; 1 folder)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1921-1979, undated (boxes 1-4; 3.1 linear ft.)
Series 3: Notes, 1926-1972 (box 4; 4 folders)
Series 4: Interview, 1950 (box 4; 1 folder)
Series 5: Artwork, circa 1908-1951 (box 4; 36 folders)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, 1912-1948 (boxes 4-5, 8-11; 1.45 linear ft.)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1926-1978 (box 5; 21 folders)
Series 8: Photographs, 1912-1978 (boxes 5-7; 1.05 linear ft.)
Biographical Note:
Born October 27, 1897, in Brooklyn, New York, Lena Gurr was the daughter of Hyman and Ida (Gorodnick) Gurr. She attended the Maxwell Training School for Teachers from 1915 to 1917, then turned her energies toward art. She studied painting and printmaking at the Educational Alliance Art School in 1919, and at the Art Students League (1920-1922), where she was a student of John Sloan and Maurice Stern. She also studied art in Paris, Nice, and Mentone, France. Her first solo exhibition was in 1932 at the Brooklyn Museum.
On November 24, 1931, Gurr married painter and photographer Joseph Biel. He was born October 27, 1891 in Russia, studied at the Russian Academy in Paris, and at the Workman's College, Melbourne, Australia. He also established the first Jewish Library in Melbourne. Upon his arrival in the United States, he studied under George Grosz at the Art Students League. Biel died in April 1943 of a heart ailment.
Provenance:
The Lena Gurr papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Lena Gurr from 1966 to 1979.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Rights:
The Lena Gurr papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The papers of sculptor, painter and printmaker Worden Day (1916-1986) measure 3.5 linear feet and date from circa 1935-1992. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, scrapbooks, photographic material, sketchbooks, and audiovisual material.
There is a 1.0 linear foot additon, circa 1951-1992, donated in 2020 containing further papers of Worden Day.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of sculptor, painter and printmaker Worden Day (1916-1986) measure 3.5 linear feet and date from circa 1935-1992. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, scrapbooks, photographic material, sketchbooks, and audiovisual material.
Included are biographical material consisting of resumes and an address book. Correspondence is with colleagues, curators, and museum directors including Will Barnet, Carl Zigrosser, May Sarton, Dorothy Dehner, Louise Bourgeois, Sue Fuller, among others. Writings by Day are about sculpture and painting, among them four unpublished manuscripts "Pop Art as an American Cultural Phenomenon," "What is a Print," "The Found Dimension- Aspects in the Development of Modern American Sculpture," and "New Expressions of Woodcut," and reviews for exhibitions written by Day for Art News. Also found in the collection are printed materials; scrapbooks; photographs of Day, her works and photograph albums; and three sketchbooks. Audiovisual material is arranged with biographical material and includes a taped interview on audio cassette with Day and one reel of motion picture film (also available as digital files), "Printmakers," presented by United States Information Service, 1961, showing American printmakers Mauricio Lasansky, Day, Karl Schrag, Seong Moy and Gabor Petredi at work and students in the School of Graphic Arts at the State University of Iowa, founded by Lasansky. Also arranged with biographical material is a file relating to an exhibition on the work of painter Vaclav Vytlacil organized by Day in 1975 at the Montclair Art Museum containing correspondence; letter fragments from Alex Minewski; writings by Vytlacil regarding his career and work with Hans Hofmann; an audio cassette; photographs of Vytlacil, Hofmann teaching in Munich, Ed and Isabell Rupprecht, Ernest Thurn, Betty Foster, and Alice Fish at the Hofmann School of Fine Arts, Munich; and the exhibition catalog.
There is a 1.0 linear foot additon, circa 1951-1992, donated in 2020 containing further papers of Worden Day.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as eight series
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1960-1986 (Box 1, FC6; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1953-1977 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 3: Writings, 1955-1985 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1949-1983 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1940-1984 (Boxes 1, 4; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographic Material, 1935-1986 (Boxes 2-3; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Sketchbooks, 1960-1986 (Boxes 3, 5; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 8: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1951-1992 (Box 7; 1.0 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Worden Day (1916-1986) was a sculptor, painter, printmaker and curator in Montclair, New Jersey. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Day graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 1934. She then moved to New York City, and over the next few decades, studied drawing with Maurice Sterne and George Grosz; drawing, painting, and printmaking with William Von Schlegell, Harry Sternberg, Hans Hofmann, Will Barnet, and Vaclav Vytlacil at the Art Students League; and etching with Stanley William Hayter at the New School for Social Research. After earning her M.A. from New York University in 1966, Day taught as an instructor and lecturer in color theory, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, design, collage, American art history, modern art theory, and women artists. Her written reviews and essays were featured in publications such as Art News, Art Voices, and Impressions, and she had solo exhibitions throughout the United States, including at the Smithsonian Institution, Baltimore Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, and Montclair Art Museum.
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the Archives of American Art from 1972-1983 by Worden Day. Additional material was donated in 2017 by Constance Duhamel, Day's friend. Additional material was donated in 2020 by the Maier Museum of Art at Randoph College via Constance Duhamel.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Worden Day papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
The papers of printmaker, illustrator, caricaturist, and writer Peggy Bacon measure 3.6 linear feet and date from 1893 to 1973, with the bulk of materials dating from 1900 to 1936. Much of the collection consists of family correspondence, although writings, photographs, artwork, and personal business records from Bacon's late career are also found.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of printmaker, illustrator, caricaturist, and writer Peggy Bacon measure 3.6 linear feet and date from 1893 to 1973, with the bulk of materials dating from 1900 to 1936. Much of the collection consists of family correspondence, although writings, photographs, artwork, and personal business records from Bacon's late career are also found.
Correspondence is found between Peggy Bacon and her parents, Elizabeth and Charles Roswell Bacon. Letters to her mother describe in detail her life as an art student and artist at the Art Students League; summer schools in Port Jefferson, Long Island and Provincetown, Massachusetts; the Woodstock artists' colony; and her early years in New York City. Letters from her husband, Alexander Brook, to her mother are also present. Letters to Bacon include letters from her early teacher Jonas Lie, and from friends and fellow artists Catherine Wiley, Dorothy Varian, Katherine Schmidt, Anne Rector Duffy, and others. Her parents' extensive correspondence includes letters to her father from the artists Jules Adler, Rudolph Bunner, Ira Remsen, and Charles Downing Lay.
The collection also contains Peggy Bacon's school reports and writing assignments, a marriage certificate, scattered poetry manuscripts and notes by Peggy Bacon, and fiction manuscripts by Charles Roswell Bacon. Personal business records date from the 1960s and 1970s and include publisher's royalty statements, gallery sales statements, and scattered business correspondence with Antoinette Kraushaar and other staff at the Kraushaar Galleries. Photographs depict Bacon and her family, friends, homes, and works of art. Artwork includes several original drawings and sketches by Bacon, as well as artwork by Alexander Brook, Charles Roswell Bacon, and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 7 series:
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1893-1913 (Box 1; 2 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1893-1939, 1969-1972 (Boxes 1-3; 3 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Business Records, 1897-1934, 1963-1972 (Box 4; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Writings, 1905-1920 (Boxes 4-5; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1905-1935, 1973 (Box 5; 3 folders)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1900-1963 (Box 5, OV 6; 4 folders)
Series 7: Artwork, undated (Box 5, OVs 6-8; 9 folders)
Biographical Note:
Peggy Bacon was born in 1895 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and grew up an only child after the death of two younger brothers in infancy. Her parents, Charles Roswell Bacon and Elizabeth Chase Bacon, had met at the Art Students League, where her father had studied with Robert Henri. Her father pursued a career in painting and writing until his suicide in 1913, and her mother painted miniatures.
A child of artists, Bacon began to draw at a very early age, and by age ten she was already earning money for her illustrations, drawings of literary characters made for dinner place cards. She did not attend school until 1909, when her parents sent her to a boarding school in Summit, New Jersey. She began her formal art training shortly after her father's death, enrolling in the School of Applied Arts for Women at the end of 1913. In the summer of 1914, she attended Jonas Lie's landscape class in Port Jefferson, Long Island, and continued private studies with him in New York City. Lie gave Bacon her first solo exhibition in 1915. From 1915 until 1920, she studied at the Art Students League under John Sloan, Kenneth Hayes Miller, George Bellows, Mahroni Young, and others. In the summers, she took classes first in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and then in Woodstock, New York, where she studied with Andrew Dasburg.
Bacon's circle was formed at the Art Students League, and the League's summer school in Woodstock. She met her husband, Alexander Brook, in Woodstock, and they were married in 1920. Both were active in the Woodstock Artists Association. Other artists in their close-knit group included Dorothea Schwarz (Greenbaum), Anne Rector (Duffy), Betty Burroughs (Woodhouse), Katherine Schmidt (Kuniyoshi Shubert), Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Molly Luce, Dorothy Varian, Edmund Duffy, Dick Dyer, David Morrison, and Andrew Dasburg. Many from this group were involved in the short-lived satirical magazine at the League called Bad News, published in 1918 with several of Bacon's earliest satirical drawings. Her first book, The True Philosopher and Other Cat Tales, was published in 1919. Brook and Bacon traveled to England in 1920, where their daughter Belinda was born. A son, Sandy, was born in Woodstock in 1922. In the early 1920s, Brook worked with Juliana Force at the Whitney Studio Club, and they were involved in the cultural life that sprang up around the gallery, which featured up-and-coming artists. For many years, Bacon and her family split their time between New York and Woodstock, and later summered in Cross River, NY. After divorcing Brook in 1940, Bacon spent summers in Ogunquit, Maine.
Though she initially thought of herself as a painter, she built her reputation on her drawings and prints, which often satirized the people around her in their natural habitats - artists in life classes, at dances, and in social situations, or a throng of people in a museum, on a city sidewalk, or a ship's deck. She became sought after for her illustrations and witty, topical verse in magazines such as Dial, Delineator, The New Yorker, New Republic, Fortune, and Vanity Fair. She helped to establish the American Print Makers, an artists' organization based in the Downtown Gallery which sought greater exhibition opportunities for printmakers. Bacon illustrated over sixty books, nineteen of which she also wrote, between 1919 and 1966, including many children's books and a successful mystery novel called The Inward Eye (1952). In 1933 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and used it to complete a collection of caricatures of art world figures called Off With Their Heads (1934), the success of which prompted a spate of commissions for caricatures. Bacon stopped making caricatures in 1935, but they include some of her best-known work.
Bacon exhibited frequently, in New York and in major museum exhibitions nationally, showing her prints, drawings, pastels, and watercolors. She had over thirty solo exhibitions at such venues as Montross Gallery, Alfred Stieglitz's Intimate Gallery, and the Downtown Gallery, and was represented by Rehn Galleries and later Kraushaar Galleries. Bacon also taught extensively in the 1930s and 1940s, at the Fieldston School, Art Students League, Hunter College, Temple University, the Corcoran Gallery, and other places. In the 1950s, she returned to painting. She made her last prints in 1955. In the early 1970s, Bacon's eyesight failed, and she eventually went to live with her son in Cape Porpoise, Maine. She died in 1987.
Related Material:
Among the other resources relating to Peggy Bacon in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Bacon, May 8, 1973; and letters to Bernice and Harry Lurie from Peggy Bacon, 1969-1977. Additional Peggy Bacon papers are available at Syracuse University.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Peggy Bacon in 1973 and Kraushaar Galleries in 2008.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
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.
This collection measures 7.7 linear feet, dates from circa 1870 to 1992, and documents the life and career of painter Ross Moffett and, to a lesser extent, the life and career of his wife, painter, lithographer, etcher, and illustrator, Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, artwork including sketchbooks, and printed material including published writings, newspaper clippings, press releases, and exhibition catalogs.
Scope and Content Note:
The Ross and Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett papers measure 7.7 linear feet and date from circa 1870 to 1992. Because Dorothy Moffett's papers were received separately they are filed together in Series 13. Series 1-12 deal primarily with the life and career of Ross Moffett. The collection documents Ross Moffett's participation in the Provincetown community as an artist and resident through correspondence, photographs, sketchbooks and printed material, including published writings, news clippings, press releases, and exhibition catalogs. The papers of Dorothy Moffett include family letters, photographs, a journal and original artwork providing scattered documentation of her life and career as an a printmaker and illustrator.
General correspondence primarily focuses on news and financial affairs of the Moffett family farm in Iowa. Also included are letters from Provincetown artist, Edwin Dickinson, and a small amount of correspondence with other artists, collectors and dealers.
Files documenting specific projects that Ross Moffett was involved with are arranged separately and include correspondence, printed material and photographs. Project files have been established for the following projects: the publication of Art in Narrow Streets, the Eisenhower mural, the Cape Cod National Seashore Park and the renovation of the Center Methodist Church.
The series of printed material, 1918-1992, relates to Ross Moffett's career as an artist and his general interest in art. Photographs primarily focus on scenes of Provincetown and include photographs of works of art by Provincetown artists. Also included are photographs of artwork by Moffett arranged chronologically, Moffett's studio in Provincetown, and installations at the Provincetown Art Association Galleries.
Artwork found in Series 10 and 11 includes drawings by Ross Moffett and 85 annotated sketchbooks, including four by Dorothy Moffett.
The collection also houses research notes and files written by Josephine Couch Del Deo in preparation of a biography of Ross Moffett. These annotations provide useful additional information about Moffett's life.
Papers of Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett include Gregory family letters, Dorothy's correspondence with her father, and letters from other family and friends. Also found are drawings, lithographs and etchings by Dorothy and photographs of her family and friends.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into thirteen series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1888-1965 (box 1; 1 folder)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1915-1972 (box 1; 0.6 linear ft)
Series 3: Financial Material, 1933-1971 (box 1; 2 folders)
Series 4: Notebook/Notes, undated (box 1; 2 folders)
Series 5: Projects, 1880-1969, undated (boxes 1-2; 1.2 linear ft.)
Series 6: Subject File, 1960-1968 (box 2; 1 folder)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1916-1992, undated (boxes 2-4, 7; 1.5 linear ft.)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1900-1975, undated (box 4; 15 folders)
Series 9: Slides of Art Association, Iowa Farmland and the Chrysler Museum, circa 1960, undated (box 4; 1 folder)
Series 10: Drawings, circa 1929-1934 (box 5; 1 folder)
Series 11: Sketchbooks, 1913-1969 (boxes 5-8; 2.5 linear ft.)
Series 12: Annotations/Item Descriptions by Josephine Couch Del Deo, undated (box 6; 2 folders)
Series 13: Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett Papers, circa 1870-1975 (boxes 9-11; 0.7 linear ft.)
Biographical Note:
Ross Moffett (1888-1971) was an important figure in the development of modernism in American Art after World War I. His paintings primarily depict the life and landscapes of the Provincetown, Massachusetts area. Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett is perhaps best known as a printmaker and illustrator of children's books and magazines.
Born in Iowa in 1888, Moffett trained at the Art Institute in Chicago and studied with Charles Hawthorne during the summer of 1913, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Moffett then studied at the Art Students League and returned to Provincetown in 1915, to establish himself as an artist. He was one of the founders of the Provincetown Art Association and a leading figure in the art colony for many years. In 1920, Moffett married artist Dorothy Lake Gregory in Brooklyn, New York. Dorothy studied at the Pratt Institute and with Robert Henri and George Bellows in New York, and then went to Provincetown to study with Hawthorne as well.
During the 1920's and 1930's, Ross Moffett's success increased steadily and he had his first one-man show at the Frank Rehn Gallery in New York and also at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1928. He served on several exhibition juries around the country during this time. Between 1936 and 1938, Moffett painted four murals in two Massachusetts post offices for the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Moffett received full membership to the National Academy of Design in 1942.
While Moffett's painting slowed somewhat during World War II he continued his involvement in the arts by maintaining the Provincetown Art Association. He taught briefly at the University of Miami in Ohio from 1932 to 1933, and returned to Provincetown to pursue painting full-time. In the 1950's, Moffett became interested in archaeology and even delivered a few lectures on the subject. During this time he continued to paint and his art reflected his preoccupation with the science of archaeology. In 1954, Moffett was one of two artists selected by the National Academy of Design to paint murals depicting President Dwight D. Eisenhower's life for the Eisenhower Memorial Museum in Abilene, Kansas. Moffett was chosen to portray Eisenhower's civilian life.
In 1960, Moffett became active in the movement to establish the 1400 acres known as the Province Lands as part of the Cape Cod National Seashore Park. After the park was established Moffett wrote and published a history of the first thirty-three years of the Provincetown Art Association in a book titled Art in Narrow Streets, 1964. He continued to serve as a juror for the Provincetown Art Association and was artist-in-residence for the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center in 1970.
Dorothy Moffett also pursued a successful career in art, and publishers such as Rand McNally used her illustrations for youth magazines and childrens books, such as the classic Green Fairy Book. Her work was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum, the National Academy, and the Brooklyn Museum, and her Alice in Wonderland series of lithographs was purchased for the permanent collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Though best known as a printmaker, Moffett also worked in oil.
Ross Moffett died of cancer on March 13, 1971.
Related Material:
Related resources in the Archives of American Art include a sound recording of a transcribed interview with Ross Moffett by Dorothy Seckler, August 27, 1962; and a sound recording of an untranscribed interview with Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett by Robert F. Brown, September 22, 1972.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel D80) including 150 letters relating to art organizations, museums, and government art projects, news clippings, records of the Provincetown Art Association, and the Emergency Committee for the Protection of Province Lands, and miscellaneous publications. Lent materials were returned to Ross Moffett and are now housed at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. This material is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Ross Moffett initally lent the Archives of American Art material for microfilming in 1962. The remainder of the collection was donated in 1974 by his widow, Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett (died 1975), via Ross Moffett's biographer, Josephine Del Deo, who turned the papers over in installments. Archaeological material and artifacts received with the papers were donated to the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Rights:
A portion of the Ross and Dorothy Lake Gregory Moffett papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
The papers of the painter, photographer, printmaker, and teacher Joseph Kaplan measure 4.5 linear feet and date from 1915-1977. The bulk of the collection consists of printed material, specifically exhibition catalogs. Also found are a large number of photographs taken of and by Kaplan. The papers also include biographical material, correspondence, personal business records, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of the painter, photographer, printmaker, and teacher Joseph Kaplan measure 4.5 linear feet and date from 1915-1977. The bulk of the collection consists of printed material, specifically exhibition catalogs. Also found are a large number of photographs taken of and by Kaplan. The papers also include biographical material, correspondence, personal business records, and artwork.
Biographical material contains a few of Kaplan's personal documents, a number of certificates and medals he recieved during his lifetime, a travel itinerary notebook, and a few hand-written notes.
Kaplan's correspondence is primarily from colleagues, art organizations, galleries, museums, and colleges and universities such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Academy of Design, and Audubon Artists, inc. Also found are letters from friends and colleagues such as Chaim Gross, Adolph Gottlieb, Raphael Soyer, Louis Lozowick, Milton Avery, and Sol Wilson, as well as a large number of letters to his wife Virginia written during his travels.
Personal business records concern Kaplan's art sales, loans, exhibition notifications, and his involvment in the WPA. His artwork is documented in price lists and inventory lists. Some of the material consists of routine transactions not necessarily related to Kaplan's work, including bank records, an address list, and income and expense reports.
Printed Material includes news clippings, exhibition catalogs, exhibition annoucenments, and invitations for Kaplan shows. There are a few published copies and page proofs of Kaplan's commerical artwork.
Artwork includes four Kaplan etchings, three of which are metal plates and one linoleum block. Also included are a few unidentified pen and pencil sketches.
Photographs depict Kaplan, mainly later in his life, and his family. Also found are four of Virginia Kaplan's photograph albums containing images of her and friends from early adulthood. Photographs of Kaplan's friends and colleagues include images of Aya and Eitaro Ishigaki, Chaim Gross, Raphael Soyer, William Gropper, and Joseph De Martini. Also included are photographs taken by Kaplan of New York City, his travels, and artist demonstrations. There are also a large number of photographs of Kaplan's artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1919-1975 (Box 1, 5, OV 7; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1929-circa 1975 (Box 1, OV 7; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Business Records, circa 1920-1977 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1915-1975 (Box 1, 2, 3, OV 7; 2.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Artwork, circa 1940-circa 1960 (Box 3, 5; 2 folders)
Series 6: Photographic Material, 1917-circa 1975 (Box 4, 6, OV 7; 1.3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Joseph Kaplan (1900-1980) was a painter, printmaker, photographer, and teacher who worked primarly in New York and Provincetown. He was most active in the 1940s through the 1950s. Earlier in his career he worked on several WPA Federal Art Projects and Treasury Relief Art Projects.
Joseph Kaplan was born in Minsk, Russia and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1888 at the age of 12. He married Virginia Haber in 1927 and they had no children.
Kaplan studied at the Eductional Alliance Art School and the Art Students League. He went to Provincetown in the mid-twenties as a student of Charles W. Hawthorne with whom he previously studied with at the National Academy of Design. Afterwards he revisited Provincetown intermittently and began to regard the Cape as his summer studio, working there each summer since 1948.
In 1948 he won the first of many gold medals from the Audubon Artists at the National Academy of Design for a marine painting. He was also the first recipient of the John J. Newman Memorial Medal, given by the National Society of Painters in Casein for his Wellfleet, Low Tide. The Shore Studios in Provincetown, the Harry Salpeter Gallery and then Krasner Gallery in New York City represented Kaplan's artwork.
Kaplan predominantly worked in watercolor and oil paint, depicting landscapes and seascapes, and becoming acclaimed as a Colorist and Romanticist. He occasionally painted figures and, as he gained recognition, he traveled extensively in search for subjects. In 1968 Kaplan recieved a grant from Chapelbrook Foundation to live and work for a year in Mexico.
Kaplan's work was included frequently in group exhibitions and he participated in more then 30 major shows in his lifetime. Throughout his career he was a member of many art organizations including Artists League of America, Audubon Artists, Provincetown Art Association, and Cape Cod Art Association. He was continually active in the art life in Provincetown serving as board members, trustees, and judges. He also occasionally taught at art schools including the American Artist School and John Reed Club, and taught a number of private pupils.
Joseph Kaplan died on February 28th, 1980 at the age of 79 in Brewster, Massachusetts.
Separated Materials:
307 nitrate negatives donated to the Archives of American Art with the Joseph Kaplan papers have been removed and are stored in off-site storage. Negatives were duplicated onto safety based film and only select prints were made.
Provenance:
The Joseph Kaplan papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Marilyn Kearney in 1981.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Joseph Kaplan papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
Photographers -- Massachusetts -- Provincetown Search this
The papers of artist Michael Mazur measure 22.2 linear feet and 22.83 gigabytes, and date from circa 1936 to 2016, documenting a studio and exhibition practice in addition to teaching and activism activities in both paper and digital formats in the following series: biographical materials, correspondence, studio records, gallery records, project records, affiliations, exhibition records, writings, printed materials, photographic materials, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of artist Michael Mazur measure 22.2 linear feet and 22.83 gigabytes, and date from circa 1936 to 2016, documenting a studio and exhibition practice in addition to teaching and activism activities.
Biographical materials include documents related to Mazur's early education, trips to Europe, and development as an artist, as well as biographies, degrees and awards, with some materials in digital formats.
Correspondence is primarily professional in nature with institutions and fellow artists, including letters requesting Mazur's participation in exhibitions and other projects. Also included are extensive correspondence advocating for ecological preservation of the Massachusetts Cape Cod where Mazur had a home in Provincetown. Earlier correspondence includes letters with family members and friends. Some correspondence is digital.
Studio records include artwork inventories and documents regarding donations, appraisal and tax deduction information, as well as the artist's website. Gallery records contain correspondence and business documents with various commercial art galleries, including artwork images, mailing lists, price lists and guest books. Project records document various commissions and collaborations including perhaps Mazur's longest ongoing project, artwork, publications and exhibitions engaging with Dante's Inferno. Many of Mazur's professional records are in digital format.
The Affiliations series includes faculty appointments as well as ongoing board service for Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and other professional advising and project participation, including a Tamarind Lithography Workshop Fellowship in 1968. Many of the Fine Arts Work Center documents are digital.
Exhibition records document select exhibitions including Mazur's traveling print retrospective. In addition to correspondence and documents and agreements, select digital installation images and documents are also included.
The Writings series includes various essays, letters to the editor, and lectures by Mazur including student work, as well as essays and films discussing the artist's career and contributions, many in digital form. Also included are Mazur's journals kept for the entirety of his career.
Printed materials include exhibition announcements, catalogs and press, select published journals (some of which include contributions by Mazur), and publications for which Mazur has provided the cover artwork.
Photographic materials are both print and digital in nature and capture the breadth of Mazur's art production, organized by medium, genre, artwork series, subject and time period. The arrangement of digital photographs reflects the categories represented on the artist's website archive.
Artwork includes drawings, sketchbooks and watercolor pads, as well as artwork by others including a photographic portrait portfolio of Mazur by Brigitte Durer. Computer study images and source material in digital formats, are also included.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1953-2006 (0.5 Linear Feet: Boxes 1, 21; 0.014 Gigabytes: ER001-ER002)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1940-2011 (3.8 Linear Feet: Boxes 1-4, 21, OV23; 0.008 Gigabytes: ER003)
Series 3 : Studio Records, circa 1962-2009 (1 Linear Feet: Box 5; 0.082 Gigabytes: ER004-ER006)
Series 4: Gallery Records, circa 1967-2009 (2 Linear Feet: Boxes 6-7; 0.028 Gigabytes: ER007-ER009)
Series 5: Project Records, circa 1983-2008 (1.3 Linear Feet: Boxes 8-9; 0.3 Gigabytes: ER010-ER015)
Series 6: Affiliations, circa 1966-2008 (0.7 Linear Feet: Box 9; 0.101 Gigabytes: ER016-ER019)
Series 7: Exhibition Records, circa 1958-2008 (0.7 Linear Feet: Box 10; 1.07 Gigabytes: ER020-ER032)
Series 8: Writings, circa 1952-2009 (2.7 Linear Feet: Boxes 10-13; 4.75 Gigabytes: ER033-ER052)
Series 9: Printed Material, circa 1945-2016 (2.1 Linear Feet: Boxes 13-15; 0.114 Gigabytes: ER053-ER054)
Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1936-2016 (5.9 Linear Feet: Boxes 15-22, OV25-28; 14.26 Gigabytes: ER055-ER114)
Series 11: Artwork, circa 1941-2009 (0.4 Linear Feet: Boxes 20, 22; 2.1 Gigabytes: ER115-ER116)
Biographical / Historical:
Michael Mazur (1935-2009) was a prolific printmaker, painter, draughtsman, sculptor, and educator in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who beyond working across media, treated an equally diverse set of subjects in abstract and figurative traditions.
As a child in New York City's Upper East Side Mazur received an early art education at the Bronx's Horace Mann School. He received a bachelor's degree from Amherst College, as well as a bachelor's and master's degrees at the Yale School of Art. Mazur has held teaching positions at Rhode Island School of Design and Brandeis University, as well as a recurring visiting artist position at Harvard University's Carpenter Center. While attending Yale Mazur met his wife, poet Gail Mazur.
Mazur's work is held in museums and private collections throughout the world and has been exhibited widely at institutions including MoMA, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2000 the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston launched a retrospective of Michael Mazur's prints traveling to various institutions including the the Minneapolis Art Institute and Stanford's Cantor Center. On the occasion of the show Hudson Hills Press published The Prints of Michael Mazur including a catalogue raisonné. A notable collaboration in Mazur's career drew from his career-long fascination with Dante. In 1993, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published
The Inferno of Dante, translated by Robert Pinsky and illustrated with reproductions of monotypes by Michael Mazur. Later Mazur published an editioned suite of forty-one etchings, which was shown in various locations in Italy and throughout the United States.
In addition to their home in Cambridge, Michael and Gail maintained a home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they were deeply involved in the artistic community including the Fine Arts Work Center, as well as environmental issues impacting the region of Cape Cod. He is survived by his wife and his two children Kathe and Dan.
Provenance:
Papers were lent for microfilming 1977 and 1998 by Michael Mazur. Material on microfilm and additional papers donated 2018 by Gail Mazur, Michael Mazur's widow.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
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.
This series consists of the business and personal correspondence of Edith Gregor Halpert and the Downtown Gallery. For the most part, this series is general business correspondence concerning routine activities of the Downtown Gallery, including the American Folk Art Gallery and the Daylight Gallery, both operated by the Downtown Gallery on the same premises. Included are correspondence with clients, employees, other galleries, and colleagues concerning sales, loans, purchases, appraisals, and so forth; arrangements for shipping, framing, photography, reproduction permissions, and insurance; and gallery housekeeping and improvements, ordering of supplies, and other administrative concerns.
Also included is personal correspondence of Edith Gregor Halpert. There are letters and greeting cards from nieces, nephews, and other relatives; correspondence with longtime friends, including some who were art collectors, museum curators, or museum directors; and correspondence concerning upkeep and improvement of her Newtown, Connecticut, country home and entertaining there.
See Appendix A for a list of selected correspondents from Series 1
Arrangement note:
Letters (with enclosures) are arranged chronologically, with those of the same date alphabetized by name of correspondent; undated material is arranged alphabetically, followed by unidentified correspondents and letters bearing illegible signatures.
Box numbers provided in the Container Listing are approximate.
Appendix A: List of Selected Correspondents in Series 1:
Names and titles indicated in this list are those that appear on the letters. Where appropriate, terms have been standardized and cross-referencing provided. Because filing is not always consistent, researchers are advised to check both the name of an individual and the institution that he or she represented.
Abate Associates, Inc., 1956
Abbot and Land, 1965
Abbot, B. Vincent, 1944
Abbot, Bernice, 1957
Abbot, John E., 1945, 1948
Abbot Laboratories, 1950, 1952
ABC Employment Agency, 1951
Richard Abel and Co., Inc., 1968
Abendroth, Robert W., 1966-1967
Abercrombie and Fitch Co., 1962
Abilene Museum of Fine Arts, undated, 1949, 1954
Abingdon Square Painters, 1965
Abraham and Straus, 1930, 1960, 1965-1966, 1968
Abraham, Mae C., 1965
Abrahamsen, Mrs. David, 1962
Abramowitz, M., 1958
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1958-1960, 1965-1966, 1968-1969
"HemisFair '68," 1968 (see also: "International Exposition, HemisFair '68")
Hemmenway, Catherine C., 1961
Hemmingsen, R. V., 1963
Hemmingson, Victoria, 1965
Henderson, Hanford, 1960
Henderson, Priscilla A. B. (Mrs. A. I.), 1934-1955
Henderson, Ray, 1956
Hendrick, Mrs. James Pomeroy, 1961
Heninger, Helen, undated, 1963, 1969
Henquet, Roger, 1948, 1965
Henri, Robert, 1926-1927
Henry, David T., 1964
Henry, Helen (Mrs. Charles), undated, 1949
Henry, James F., 1958
Henry Street Settlement, 1958, 1962-1963
Hentschel, R. A. A., 1951-1954
Hepburn, Katharine, 1952
Herbert, Elmer, 1962
Herbert, James D., 1962
Herider, Ed. L., 1961
Heritage Gallery, 1960, 1964
Herman, Stanley, 1964
Herman, Vic, 1968
Herring, Audrey L., 1964
Herrington, Nell Ray (Mrs. A. W. S.), 1962, 1965
John Herron Art Institute, undated, 1934, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1957-1958, 1962-1964, 1967 (see also: Art Association of Indianapolis; Art School of the John Herron Art Institute)
Hertslet, G. Gordon, 1962, 1966
Hertz, Richard C., 1965
Hertzberg, Stuart E., 1967-1968
Heschel, Mrs. Abraham, 1961
Hess, Elaine Marie, 1965
Hess, Mrs. Thomas B., 1954
Hetzel, Margaret deL. (Mrs. Joseph L.), 1948
Hewitt, Ada M., 1953
Edwin Hewitt Gallery, 1953
Heydenryk, Henry, 1954, 1960, 1964
Heynick, Carla Marian, 1965
Hickok, M., 1958
Hiddens, Mrs. Earl, 1952
Hiersoux, Arne, 1966
Hi Fi/Stereo Review, 1960
High Museum of Art, 1950, 1955, 1961-1962, 1965-1968 (see also: Atlanta Art Association; Atlanta Art Association and High Museum of Art)
Highway Antique Shop, 1954
R. Hill and Son, Ltd., 1960
Hill, Ralph Nading, 1952, 1962
Hille, Elise B., undated
Hille and Curran, 1954
Hilleman, Alex L., 1956
Hiller, Paula, 1962
Hilles, Mrs. Frederick W., 1956
Hillman, Mrs. Joel, II., 1960
Hillside Hospital Clinic, 1949, 1953
Hillstrom, Richard L., 1958, 1962, 1964-1965
Hilltop Theatre, Incorporated, 1952
Hilsenrath, Yakov R., 1965
Hilson, Catherine [Katy] and/or John S., undated, 1958-1959, 1961-1966
Himel, Irving, 1963
Himmelsfarb, Samuel, 1955
Hines, Felrath, 1961
Hinkhouse, Inc., 1960, 1964
Hirsch, B., 1961
Hirsch, E. W., 1954
Hirschberg, J. Cotter, 1956
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., 1958, 1960, 1963-1965, 1968
Hirschland, Dr. and/or Mrs. F. H., undated, 1959
Hirschland, Paul Michael, 1945
Hirschburg, Mrs. Roy, undated
S. A. Hirsh Manufacturing Co., 1966
Hirshberg, Henrietta, 1961
Hirshhorn, Mrs. Arthur, 1960
Hirshhorn, Joseph H., 1946, 1948, 1951-1954, 1956, 1960, 1963, 1965
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Collection, 1959-1960, 1962-1963, 1965-1966
[incomplete; without signature], undated, 1953, 1961, 1967, 1968
Collection Restrictions:
The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via the Archives of American Art website.
Collection Rights:
The Downtown Gallery records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. 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. Prior to publishing information regarding sales transactions, researchers are responsible for obtaining written permission from both artist and purchaser involved. If it cannot be established after a reasonable search whether an artist or purchaser is living, it can be assumed that the information may be published sixty years after the date of sale.
Collection Citation:
Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing, microfilming and digitization of the microfilm of this collection was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
