The papers of photographer and art historian Nina Howell Starr measure 21.2 linear feet and date from circa 1933 to 1996. The papers contain research files about various art historical topics, museums and galleries, photography, and artists. There are extensive files documenting Starr's relationship as researcher, dealer, and friend of folk painter Minnie Evans. Additionally, the papers include biographical materials, writings, speeches, project files, printed material collected or authored by Starr, and hundreds of artistic and documentary photographs and negatives created by Starr depicting her travels, Minnie Evans' paintings, roadside folk art, and other topics.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of photographer and art historian Nina Howell Starr measure 21.2 linear feet and date from circa 1933 to 1996. The papers contain research files about various art historical topics, museums and galleries, photography, and artists. There are extensive files documenting Starr's relationship as researcher, dealer, and friend of folk painter Minnie Evans. Additionally, the papers include biographical materials, writings, speeches, project files, printed material collected or authored by Starr, and hundreds of artistic and documentary photographs and negatives created by Starr depicting her travels, Minnie Evans' paintings, roadside folk art, and other topics.
Biographical materials are scattered and include grant and publication applications, curriculum vitae, lists of artwork, and miscellany.
Starr's lectures, writings, and project files are arranged into one series. They include Starr's student writings, a notebook about Civil Rights, files documenting her work on a Florida public housing project, the Southern Regional Council, and the League of Women Voters. A few files of general writings and lectures mostly concern folk artist Minnie Evans and the exhibition Women Photograph Men, held at the International Women's Arts Festival in 1976.
Subject files on artists, art history topics, photographers and photography (including Starr's work), and on folk artist and friend Minne Evans comprise the bulk of the collection. The files are a mix of collated materials and primary sources created by Starr and others and many contain correspondence, notes, photographs, and a few sketches and orginal prints. Also included are materials related to professional and organizational groups in which Starr was involved, including the Professional Women's Photographers, Inc., the Photographic Historical Society of New York, and the Museum of American Folk Art; files on several of Starr's exhibitions; and files on artists that contain printed materials, correspondence, and photographs. The file on Ruth Starr Rose contains prints and drawings. There are also photographs taken by Stephanie Cohen. Particularly rich files are found for Stephanie Cohen; Van Deren Coke, Director of the George Eastman Company; Evelyn Daitz, Director of the Witkin Gallery; Henry DiSpirito; Walker Evans; the Fotofolio printing company; curator Henri Ghent; photographer Consuelo Kanaga and husband Wallace Putnam; Margot Starr Kernan; Lucy Lippard; Stanton Mac-Donald Wright; Sharon Arts Center; photographer Paul Strand; curator John Szarwarski; and photographer Jerry Uelsman.
The collection also documents the friendship between painter Minnie Evans and Starr, and Starr's business dealings on Evans' behalf. There is correspondence about and with Evans, several sound recordings of interviews conducted by Starr and others with Evans, many with transcripts, financial documents, publications about Evans including exhibition catalogs, clippings, journal articles and monographs, two posters, a scrapbook, and one sketch by Evans.
Printed material includes published articles, exhibition catalogs and announcements, and clippings about Starr.
Photographic materials are extensive and include photographs and slides taken by Starr of friends, family, artwork by Minnie Evans, events, exhibition openings, world travels, and folk art, especially roadside. Prominent artists and art historians photographed include: photographers Maggie Sherwood, Naomi Savage, Barbara Morgan, Linda Connor, Aaron Siskind, Consuelo Kanaga, Faith Ringgold, and Walker Evans; sculptors Louise Kruger and Helene Brandt; feminist and art historian Pat Mainardi; and curators Henri Ghent and John Szarkowski. Starr's artistic photographic work is also represented, and includes two silver gelatin prints of Minnie Evans, and subject studies on hands, people, and nature, among others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical material, 1954-circa 1990 (8 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Writings, Speeches and Projects, 1933-1995 (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Subject Files, circa 1939-1996 (8.3 linear feet; Boxes 2-10)
Series 4: Minnie Evans, 1962-1996 (3.7 linear feet; Boxes 10-13, 23, OV 24)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1936-1995 (2.7 linear feet; Boxes 13-16, 23)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1939-1993 (5.4 linear feet; Boxes 16-23, OV 24)
Biographical / Historical:
Nina Howell Starr (1903-2000) was a photographer, art dealer, and art historian who worked primarily in New York City. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1903 as Cornelia Margaret Howell, Starr attended Wellesley College and graduated from Barnard in 1926. Also in 1926, she married Nathan Comfort Starr, an English professor, and, over the years the couple lived in Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida, and New York City.
In 1963, at the age of 60, Starr received the first M.F.A. in photography granted by the University of Florida. Starr exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions, including Magic Lantern (Photographer's Gallery, London, 1976), and the Strength of Women (Witken Gallery, 1991), and numerous shows featuring photographs of outsider art. Her "New Yorker" project became an exhibition in 2016. Her work is owned by several prominent museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography.
As art historian, self-proclaimed critic, and civil rights and feminist advocate, Starr lectured widely, wrote articles and letters to editors, and corresponded with many notable art world figures. She became especially interested in outsider and folk art. Starr met outsider artist Minnie Evans in 1962 and became Evans' lifelong friend, advocate, and representative dealer. She wrote about Evans and introduced Evans' works to galleries and other exhibition spaces in New York, including the Whitney Museum, where she guest-curated an exhibition of Evans' work in 1975.
Starr was an active member of professional organizations including the Photographic Historical Society of New York, Professional Women's Photographers, Inc., and the Museum of American Folk Art where she served on the Advisory Committee.
Nina Howell Starr died in 2000 in Connecticut at the age of 97.
Provenance:
The Nina Howell Starr papers were donated by Nina Howell Starr in 1996.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference 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.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Personal and professional records including correspondence, writings, notes, printed material, subject files, photograph album, and diaries relating to Zigrosser's work as an authority on prints and printmaking and his personal relationships with artists.
Included are: correspondence with family and with over 900 printmakers, painters, sculptors, acquaintances, friends, associates, organizations, museums, publishers, and magazines; general correspondence, notes, clippings, and manuscripts pertaining to The Modern School Magazine; files of correspondence from Zigrosser's work at: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1932-1971; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, 1946-1971, including correspondence with Frank Lloyd Wright concerning the Guggenheim Memorial Museum; Print Council of America, 1954-1971, regarding exhibitions, council meetings and other matters; and the Tamarind Workshop, 1960-1971.
Of particular interest is material relating to the 1913 Armory Show, including Zigrosser's annotated catalog, notes and sketches. Also included are speeches and notes, 1930-1968; manuscripts for lectures and unpublished materials; memorabilia; a photo album of sculpture by John B. Flannagan; art work, including prints and drawings by Karig Nalbandian, prints by Rockwell Kent, and oversized works of art on paper by Mabel Dwight, Wanda Gag and Kent; family photograph album; journals and pamphlets (covers only); and diaries, 1916-1971, discussing personal and professional events such as art openings, conversations and activities with Rockwell Kent, Alfred Stieglitz, and Georgia O'Keeffe, among others.
Among the correspondents are: the American Artists Group, John Taylor Arms, Art in America magazine, Art Institute of Chicago, Alfred Barr, E. Boyd, Charles Burchfield, Alexander Calder, Fitz Roy Carrington, Federico Castellon, Ed Colker, Howard N. Cook, Crown Publishers, Adolf Dehn, Caroline Durieux, John Bernard Flannagan, Andre Girard, Stanley William Hayter, Edward Hopper, Victoria Hutson Huntley, Independent Citizens Committee for the Arts, Sciences and Professions, R. Sturgis Ingersoll, Frederick Keppel, Rockwell Kent, Fiske Kimball, Misch Kohn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Julius Lankes, Mauricico Lasansky, Merritt Mauzey, Kneeland McNulty, James A. Michener, Marian Mitchell,
Museum of Non-Objective Painting (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Karnig Nalbandian, Dorothy Norman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Walter Pach, Harold Paris, Print Club (Philadelphia), Diego Rivera, Ruth Starr Rose, Arnold Ronnebeck, Lessing J. Rosenwald, Andre Ruellan, Carl Oscar Schniewind, Roderick Seidenberg, William Spratling, Benton Spruance, Alfred Stieglitz, Harry Sternberg, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Kuei Teng, U.S. Office of War Information, Curt Valentin, Heinz Warneke, Edward Weston, Weyhe Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, Harry Wickey, and Adja Yunkers.
Biographical / Historical:
Print curator; Philadelphia, Pa.; d. 1975. Graduated Columbia University in literature. Worked with prints in New York City at Keppel and Co. and Weyhe Gallery; print curator at Philadelphia Museum of Art 1940-1963; author of books on prints and art works.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming, 1991, by the University of Pennsylvania Special Collections Department, Van Pelt Library. Zigrosser donated the papers to the University in 1972. Portions of the papers not microfilmed include research files, manuscript materials for published work, family records, and journals.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from the Curator of Manuscripts, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
