A source book of antiques and jewelry designs, containing over 3800 engravings of Victorian Americana, including jewelry, silverware, clocks, cutlery, glassware, musical instruments, etc., etc., etc., by Clarence P. Hornung
The papers of designer, silversmith, and educator Hans Christensen measure 12.3 linear feet and date from 1924 to 1989 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1955 to 1983. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, writings and notes, personal business records, teaching files for the Rochester Institute of Technology, printed and broadcast materials, artwork, photographic materials, and sound and video recordings.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of designer, silversmith, and educator Hans Christensen measure 12.3 linear feet and date from 1924 to 1989 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1955 to 1983. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, writings and notes, personal business records, teaching files for the Rochester Institute of Technology, printed and broadcast materials, artwork, photographic materials, and sound and video recordings.
Biographical materials include address books, card files, 27 appointment books, awards and certificates, official documents from Denmark, interviews, legal records, and records of his memorial service. Correspondence is with Christensen's mother and wife, colleagues, the International Institute of Arts and Letters, the National Rochester Society, and others. Writings consist of Christensen's essays on hollow ware and RIT; lectures at the Memorial Art Galleries, Women's Council, and the American Craft Council; and notes and a notebook on an array of subjects. Writings by others are by Eileen Quinn and a student paper.
Personal business records are divided into general, activities, and commission files that pertain to Christensen's career outside of teaching. Teaching files include alumni files, contracts, correspondence, course outlines, records for the International Trade Fair of Rennes, grievance committee files, a financial ledger, meeting records, program information, reports, studio floor plan, and student files.
Printed materials include a broadcast recording, a scrapbook, booklets, business cards, clippings, and exhibition material that mainly feature Christensen and his work. Artwork consists of one sketchbook, a portfolio, and numerous sketches and templates. Photographic materials include photographs, negatives, and slides of Christensen, his first and second wives, Betten and Els, and home life, his family in Denmark, travel, students and colleagues, and works of art. Unidentified sound recordings consist of 17 sound cassettes.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as nine series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1924-1983 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 1, 2, 13, OV 15)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1949-1986 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1952-1982 (0.4 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1953-1983 (3.5 linear feet; Boxes 3-6, 13, OVs 16-17)
Series 5: Teaching Files, 1954-1983 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 6-8, 13, OV 16)
Series 6: Printed and Broadcast Materials, 1950s-1989 (2.2 linear feet; Boxes 8-9, 14, OV 15)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1970s (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 9, 13-14, OVs 15-24)
Series 8: Photographic Materials, circa 1940-1983 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 9-11, 13, OV 25)
Series 9: Unidentified Sound Recordings, circa 1960s-1970s (0.4 linear feet; Box 12)
Biographical / Historical:
Hans Christensen (1924-1983) was a designer, silversmith, and educator in Rochester, N.Y.
Christensen was born to Holger and Valborg Christensen in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he also lived with his brother Per. Christensen attended the School for Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen and in Oslo, Norway. He began his career working for renowned Danish silversmith, Georg Jensen. In 1952, Christensen made his first visit to the United States representing Jensen's works at an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. He emigrated to the United States in 1954 and began his professorship of metalsmithing and jewelry at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). At RIT, he held the Charlotte Fredericks Mowris Professorship in Contemporary Crafts and was posthumously awarded the Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Over the span of his career, Christensen completed numerous commissions including works for the Vatican, royal families of Europe and Iran, RIT, Xerox, and others. He was a member of the International Institute of Arts and Letters in Switzerland, the College of Fellows of the American Crafts Council, the Society of North American Goldsmiths, and the Nathaniel Rochester Society.
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview and slide presentation with Hans Christensen conducted by Robert Brown for the Archives of American Art from December 11, 1981 to December 3, 1982.
Provenance:
The Hans Christensen papers were donated in 1982 by Christensen and in 1984, 1988-1992 by his widow, Elisabeth Christensen.
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 copies requires advance notice.
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.
Collection Citation:
Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of the collection was funded by the Getty Grant Program; digitization of the collection was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Letter written by Charles Lang Freer to his friend and business associate Frank Hecker (1846-1927) while Freer was traveling in Europe and Asia between September 1894 and August 1895. This was Freer's first travel in Asia, and while he was not purchasing works of fine art in large numbers, the cultural encounters he made during this trip deepened his interest in Asia's artistic heritage. Freer's stops included Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, China and Japan. Freer also stayed in Italy and France, spending time with James McNeill Whistler in Paris.
Arrangement:
Organized chronologically.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 02.1Hecker.travel2
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Charles Lang Freer Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Dwight Blaney papers, circa 1883-1944, circa 1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Kington, L. Brent (Louis Brent), 1934-2013 Search this
Extent:
(box 1-3; 1.6 linear ft.)
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1956-2005, undated
Scope and Contents note:
This series provides subject access to records concerning specific aspects of Kington's career. As in Series 1, the majority of the records found here are correspondence and researchers should note that supplementary material relating to any of these subjects may be found in Series 1.
Three folders of material relating to Kintgon's education at Cranbrook Academy of Art contain photographs of artwork by Kington including images of a commission for the Detroit auto show, furniture designs, silverware, and jewelry. Of particular note are several color sketches of jewelry designs done by Kington during his time at Cranbrook.
The series documents Kington's involvement with various professional organizations such as the American Craft Council (ACC), and the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG). ACC records include information regarding annual award ceremonies and symposiums, and various awards bestowed on Kington by the organization. SNAG records including minutes of the forming executive committee meetings and information about the founding of the society and annual conferences.
Kington's career as an educator is also documented here through records of arrangements for his conference presentations, his activities as a juror and a visiting artist at various institutions and craft schools, and his administrative and faculty duties as a professor at Southern Illinois University. The folder concerning the Penland School of Crafts, in which Kington participated in 1971, includes Kington's answers to a questionnaire which provide insight into his attitudes towards such opportunities to work alongside other artists.
Letters to Kington from SIU alumni, such as Elizabeth Y. Akamatsu, Phillip Baldwin, Jan Brooks, Harlan W. Butt, Stephen Miller, Noellyn Popos, Rachelle Thiewes and Claudia Widdis, can also be found in this series in addition to postcards from Phillip Baldwin, Robert Ebendorf, Glen Gardner, Paula Garrett, Mary Lee Hu, Arthur Johns, Liza Littlefield, Kris Patzlaff, Sarah Perkins, Mary Ann and Sam Scherr, Jim Wallace and others.
Consignments and sales of Kington's work at galleries such as J.J. Klejman, and The Sculptors Gallery, as well as his relationships with Lee Nordness Galleries, Gilman Galleries, and Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery during the 1960s, are also documented here. Records relating to Lee Nordness Galleries concern the gallery's interest in Kington's works as Nordness expanded his interest in contemporary American objects by "master craftsmen." This material also deals briefly with Kington's representation in the Objects USA crafts exhibition which opened at the Smithsonian Institution in 1969. Records relating to the Theo Portnoy Gallery document Kington's exhibition, The Weathervane: A Kinetic Form (1978), as well as other consignments and sales through the gallery from 1977 to 1981.
Files are arranged alphabetically by subject using the basic arrangement supplied by Kington. In some cases, files have been further broken down and subject headings have been adapted for clarification and ease of access.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
L. Brent Kington papers, 1944-2012. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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.
Collection Citation:
Francis Patrick Garvan papers, 1867, 1912-1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Polly Thayer (Starr) papers, 1846-2008, bulk 1921-2008. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust
