Journal, ca. 1944-1946, containing notes and quotations on art, religion, love, some of it in French; and sketches, executed in an account book formerly kept by a William Hawkins, which has an entry as early as 1846. It was either purchased by or given to Graham and used as a sketchbook.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, collector; New York and Mexico. Born Ivan Gratsianovitch Dombrovski in Kiev, Russia. His birthday is listed as 27 December, 1886 but after 1917 Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar changing the date to 7 January, 1887. He moved to New York in 1920, changing his name to John Dabrowsky Graham. He was a central figure among American avant-garde artists, especially from the late 1920's-1940's.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1970 by Mrs. Gertrude Stein, owner of the Gertrude Stein Gallery, 998 Madison Ave., NYC. Presumably Stein acquired the notebooks in her work as an art dealer. Additional notebooks in the John Graham papers on microfilm at the Archives of American Art.
Restrictions:
Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Correspondence, writings, artwork, printed material, and motion picture film.
REEL D285: Correspondence discusses Grosser's artwork, his book THE PAINTER'S EYE, his parents, and includes a photocopy of a letter from Gertrude Stein authorizing the use of her plays LADIES VOICES and WHAT HAPPENED. Printed material includes clippings, exhibition announcements, catalogs, and a program from the play FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS by Gertrude Stein with scenery by Grosser. Other material consists of writings and scripts by Grosser.
REEL 370: Four undated letters from Grosser to his parents; newspaper clippings about his parents, 1940 and 1950; a list of Grosser's exhibitions, 1923-1962, and other biographical material; 5 photographs of Grosser (2 of the 5 are not filmed); articles by Grosser from the magazines, REALITY and THE NATION, 1953-1971; 10 sketchbooks containing pencil and ink drawings; and a book by Grosser, PAINTING IN PUBLIC, 1948 with annotations.
UNMICROFILMED MATERIAL: A resume, 5 sketchbooks containing pencil and ink drawings, slides of artwork, exhibition announcements, catalogs, clippings and postcards. Writings include a typescript and a final version of the film PAINTER'S PROGRESS with separate picture and soundtrack, and 2 autographed books by Grosser, CRITIC'S EYE and PAINTER'S PROGRESS.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, designer, critic, writer; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Material on reel D285 lent for microfilming 1966 by Maurice Grosser. Portions were subsequently donated by Grosser 1971 with additional material.
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.
Occupation:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Designers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The wasteland --The song of the old mother --Innisfree -- Coole and Ballylee --In memory of W.B Yeats --Still falls the rain --A refusal to mourn the death, by fire, of a child in London --Fern Hill --Turfsacks --Refugees --Poem to my son (To Juan at the winter solstice) --If I told him (A completed portrait of Picasso) --Epistle to be left in the earth --What if a much of a which of a wind --Sweet spring is your --What are years --Missing dates --I think continually of those --Seascape --Teterlestai --Birches --After apple-picking --The seafarer --The idea of order at Key West --The groundhog-- Moeurs contemporaines --Love calls us to the things of this world.
Track Information:
101 Eliot, T.S.; The Wasteland / T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot.
201 Yeats, William Butler; The Song of the Old Mother / W.B. (William Butler) Yeats.
202 Yeats, William Butler; Innisfree / W.B. (William Butler) Yeats.
203 Yeats, William Butler; Coole and Ballylee / W.B. (William Butler) Yeats.
204 Auden, W.H.; In Memory of W.B. Yeats / W.H. Auden.
205 Sitwell,Edith; Still Falls the Rain / Edith, Dame Sitwell.
206 Thomas, Dylan; A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Chid in London / Dylan Thomas.
207 Thomas, Dylan; Fern Hill / Dylan Thomas.
208 Macniece, Louis; Turfstacks / Louis Macniece.
209 Macniece, Louis; Refugees / Louis Macniece.
210 Graves, Robert; Poem to my son (To Juan at the Winter Solstice) / Robert Graves.
301 Stein, Gertrude; If I Told Him (A Complete Portrait of Picasso / Gertrude Stein.
302 MacLeish, Archibald; Epistle to be Left in the Earth / Archibald MacLeish.
303 Cummings, E.E.; what if a much of a which of a wind / Ebenezer Edson Cummings.
304 Cummings, E.E.; "sweet spring is your / Ebenezer Edson Cummings.
305 Moore, Marianne; What are Years / Marianne Moore.
306 Empson, William; Missing Dates / William Empson.
307 Spender, Stephen; I Think Continually of Those / Stephen Spender.
308 Spender, Stephen; Seascape / Stephen Spender.
309 Aiken, Conrad; Tetelestai / Conrad Aiken.
401 Frost; Robert; Birches / Robert Frost.
402 Frost, Robert; After Apple-picking / Robert Frost.
403 Wiliams, William Carlos; The Seafarer / William Carlos Williams.
404 Stevens, Wallace; The Idea of Order at Key West / Wallace Stevens.
405 Eberhart, Richard; The Groundhog / Richard Eberhart.
406 Bishop, Elizabeth; Manuelzinho / Elizabeth Bishop.
407 Wilbur, Richard; Love Calls Us to the Things of This World / Richard Wilbur.
Local Numbers:
FW-ASCH-LP-2269
Caedmon.2006
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
New York Caedmon 1957
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: New York, United States.
General:
Twenty-five poems, read by the authors, including T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Louis MacNeice, Robert Graves, Gertrude Stein, E.E. Cummings, Marianne Moore, Stephen Spender, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound and others.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for additional information.
The collection measures 20.8 linear feet, dates from 1885 to 1991 (bulk dates 1908-1986) and documents the career of lithographer, teacher, and painter Prentiss Taylor. The collection consists primarily of subject/correspondence files (circa 16 ft.), reflecting Prentiss' career as a lithographer and painter, his association with figures prominent in the Harlem Renaissance, notably Carl Van Vechten and Langston Hughes, his activities as president of the Society of Washington Printmakers and other art organizations, his work in art therapy treating mental illness, and his teaching position at American University. The subject files contain mostly correspondence, but many include photographs and printed material. Also included are biographical, financial, legal and printed material; several hundred photographs; notes and writings; sketchbooks, drawings and a few prints by Taylor; and scrapbooks dating from 1885-1956.
Scope and Content Note:
The collection measures 20.8 linear feet, dates from 1885 to 1991 (bulk dates 1908-1986) and documents the career of Harlem Renaissance lithographer, teacher, and painter Prentiss Taylor. The collection consists primarily of subject/correspondence files (circa 16 ft.), reflecting Prentiss' career as a lithographer and painter, his association with figures prominent in the Harlem Renaissance, notably Carl Van Vechten and Langston Hughes, his activities as president of the Society of Washington Printmakers and other art organizations, his work in art therapy treating mental illness, and his teaching position at American University. The subject files contain mostly correspondence, but many include photographs and printed material. Also included are biographical, financial, legal and printed material; several hundred photographs; notes and writings; sketchbooks, drawings and a few prints by Taylor; and scrapbooks dating from 1885-1956.
The Langston Hughes files contain photocopies of letters from Hughes, greeting cards, ten original photographs of Hughes, and an autographed card printed with Hughes' poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers. In addition, there is a contract between Hughes and Taylor, witnessed by Carl Van Vechten, forming the Golden Stair Press, through which many of Hughes' poems were printed with illustrations by Taylor. A rare edition of their first publication, The Negro Mother, is found here. Also found in this file is a 1932 final copy of Scottsboro Limited, another collaborative effort between Taylor and Hughes that focused on a case where nine black youths were falsely accused of raping two white women. The collection contains extensive correspondence about Taylor's lithograph of the same title and the printing of the publication. Other rare Harlem Renaissance publications found within Taylor's papers include Golden Stair Broadsides, Opportunity Journal of Negro Life, The Rebel Poet, and Eight Who Lie in the Death House, several of which were also illustrated by Taylor.
Prentiss Taylor's long association with Langston Hughes and other figures of the Harlem Renaissance stemmed from his early friendship with Carl Van Vechten. Taylor's papers contain correspondence with Van Vechten, autographed copies of Van Vechten's booklets, and numerous photographs of notable Harlem Renaissance figures, many taken by Van Vechten, including Zora Neale Hurston, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Eugene O'Neill, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Paul Robeson, and many others. Also found are period photographs of Charleston, South Carolina and Harlem street scenes.
95 letters from Rachel Field, 75 letters from Langston Hughes, 3 letters from Armin Landeck, 46 letters from Josephine Pinckney, 1 letter from Gertrude Stein, 7 letters from Alice B. Toklas, 1 postcard from Mark Van Doren, and 25 letters from Carl Van Vechten are photocopies. Originals of the Hughes and Toklas letters are located at the Yale University Library. Location of the remaining original letters are unknown.
The Prentiss Taylor papers offer researchers insight into the rich cultural documentation of the Harlem Renaissance and the development of twentieth-century printmaking as an American fine art.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into ten series. The largest series housing Subject Files is arranged alphabetically, primarily by name of correspondent, maintaining Taylor's original arrangement. The remaining series are arranged in chronological order. Oversized material from various series has been housed in Box 21 (Sol) and OV 22 and is noted in the Series Description/Container Listing Section at the appropriate folder title with see also/see references.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1918-1985, undated (Box 1; 6 folders)
Series 2: Miscellaneous Receipts, 1929-1986, undated (Box 1; 11 folders)
Series 3: Insurance Records, 1960-1976 (Box 1; 1 folder)
Series 4: Notes, 1921-1984, undated (Box 1; 18 folders)
Series 5: Writings, 1924-1971, undated (Box 1-2; 51 folders)
Series 6: Art Work, 1916-1975, undated (Box 2; 14 folders)
Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1885-1956 (Box 2, 21; 10 folders)
Series 9: Photographs, 1908-1984, undated (Box 3, 23-24; 1.1 linear feet)
Series 10: Subject Files, 1885-1991, undated (Box 3-21, OV 22; 18.0 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Prentiss Taylor was born in 1907 at the Washington, D. C. residence of his maternal grandmother, his birth assisted by his grandmother's cook, affectionately known as Cookie Belle.
In the 1920s, Taylor studied painting with Charles W. Hawthorne in Provincetown, but turned to lithography in the late 1920s to early 1930s during his enrollment at the Art Students League in New York City. He received further training in that medium at the George C. Miller workshop in New York. During this period, he also designed costumes for the American-Oriental Revue. Taylor worked primarily in the printmaking medium for the rest of his life, experimenting with various techniques and compositions and ultimately achieving a status as one this country's great lithographers. Taylor depicted mostly realistic and narrative scenes of subjects and themes that reflected his personal interests in music, architecture, religion and social justice.
During his time in New York, Taylor developed close friendships with poet Langston Hughes and writer Carl Van Vechten. He collaborated with Hughes in the formation of the Golden Stair Press to produce publications reflecting the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. Taylor created a number of prints and illustration for the press and its publications.
After returning to Washington, D.C., Taylor's work was included in exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. He was represented by the Franz Bader Gallery in Washington, D.C., and by the Bethesda Art Gallery in Maryland. In 1942, Taylor was elected President of the Society of Washington Printmakers, a position he held for thirty-four years. He also worked as an art therapist for more than thirty years and taught oil painting at American University from 1955-1975.
Prentiss Taylor died October 7, 1991 in Washington, D.C.
Related Material:
Prentiss Taylor papers are also located at the Yale University Library.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel 1392) including three notebooks detailing Taylor's lithographs, a gift and sales notebook, a guestbook, exhibition announcements, and a brochure. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Prentiss Taylor lent the Archives of American Art material for microfilming in 1978. Papers were donated in 1978 and 1984 by Taylor, and in 1992 and 2004 by his companion, Roderick S. Quiroz, for the estate of Prentiss Taylor.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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.
Prentiss Taylor papers, 1885-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the digitization of the microfilm of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Funding for the conservation of Prentiss Taylor's photograph album, 1929-1939, was provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Collection includes over 200 replies (160 of which comprise the book) to Mrs. Moore's letter requesting a quotation or a bit of poetry important to the recipient; a copy of her book, "Famous Personalities and Their Philosophies," and materials relating to the speeches both Mrs. Moore and her daughter gave about this collection of letters, such as notes, clippings, etc.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents a book written by Mildred Moore entitled Famous Personalities and Their Philosophies, published in 1940 by the Bookwalter Ball Greathouse Printing Co., Indianapolis. The collection encompasses over 200 replies (160 of which are included in the book) to Mrs. Moore's letter requesting a quotation or a bit of poetry important to them. Also included are a copy of her book, Famous personalities and Their Philosophies, and materials relating to the speeches both Mrs. Moore and her daughter gave about this collection of letters.
2
Series 1 of the collection, the letters received in response to Mrs. Moore's inquiry, has been classified by occupation of the respondent and then arranged alphabetically by name within that classification. Apparently selected at random, the people she contacted were drawn from a wide variety of occupations and interests and include actors, athletes, community leaders, physicians, politicians, royalty, and many others. They are as diverse in background as Babe Ruth and the Prince of Wales, Huey Long and Winston Churchill. Most of the responses are signed by the individuals to whom Mrs. Moore's letter was addressed. Some of these have value as autographs, for example, Helen Keller, Marie of Roumania, and Adolph Hitler.
Series 2 is the book itself, arranged alphabetically with a page devoted to each personality. On each page are brief comments by Mrs. Moore about the person, and his or her favorite quotation and its source. When a second page has been devoted to an individual it is a reproduction of the handwritten response to Mrs. Moore's request (16 out of 160 entries). Sources of the quotations range through the centuries from Confucius to several people alive at the time of the book's publication (1940), but most frequently quoted are the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.
The material in series 3 is devoted largely to notes of Mary Lou White (Mrs. Moore's daughter) relating to the many speeches she made to women's clubs, fraternal organizations, and similar groups concerning her mother's collection, her publicity and that of her mother. There are also a few references to Elizabeth Wenger, who, according to Mary Lou White's notes, was repeating Mildred Moore's endeavor with respect to a later generation.
Series 4 contains replies to a letter requesting a favorite quotation sent to residents of Fort Wayne by Mrs. Moore. Most of these are dated 1932 1933. They have been arranged alphabetically by respondent.
The correspondents include Babe Ruth, the Prince of Wales, Winston Churchill, Huey Long, Helen Keller, Marie of Romania, and Adolf Hitler, and others, such as those listed below.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into four series.
Series 1: Responses to Mildred Moore's letter to famous personalities
Series 2: Publication developed from responses to letter to famous people (book)
Series 3: Development of speeches by Mary Lou White (notes)
Series 4: Responses to letters to prominent Fort Wayne area residents
Biographical / Historical:
Mildred Moore, the pen name for Mildred Galloway, later Mrs. Forest L. Moore, was born on a farm outside Cromwell, Indiana. She read constantly as a child and often wrote verse to express her feelings. Prior to November 13, 1930, when she began writing a column called "This, That And The Other" for the Cromwell Advance, a Fort Wayne newspaper, and one in Waterloo, Indiana, she had worked for several years as a secretary and bookkeeper for the Fort Wayne YMCA.
In 1931, having become interested in what motivated people and in their philosophies, Mildred Moore began to write to famous people seemingly selected at random requesting a quotation or a bit of verse that had been important to them and the development of their philosophy. The resultant book, Famous Personalities and Their Philosophies, includes 160 responses to over 200 letters to people with some claim to fame during the 1930s. Interestingly, the rate of response and acquiescence was very high with few refusals. A few indicated no favorite verse or quotation.
Mildred Moore made speeches about her collection of letters to several hundred groups in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Her daughter, Mary Lou White (Mrs. Charles F. White), also spoke to numerous groups about the letters after her mother's death.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Charles F. White, 1991, April 26.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Probable copyright restrictions on some material in this collection.
