United Office and Professional Workers of America Search this
Extent:
340 Items ((on partial microfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945 -- New York (N.Y.)
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945 -- New York (N.Y.)
Date:
1937-1941
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence; mimeographed letters; bulletins; pamphlets; press releases; form letters; minutes; newsletters; and other printed materials relating to artists's organizations and unions in New York City, particularly United American Artists, United Office and Professional Workers of America, and the Federal Art Project.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, printmaker; Queens, New York. Graham appears to have been involved as an activist for greater federal support for the arts. She painted for the Federal Art Project.
Provenance:
The relation of the lender, Lew Greenfield, to F. Wynn Graham is uncertain.
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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art and state -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
National Society of Mural Painters (New York, N.Y.) Search this
Extent:
80 Items ((on partial microfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945 -- New York (N.Y.)
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945 -- New York (N.Y.)
Date:
1934-1940
Scope and Contents:
Official correspondence consisting mainly of letters received by Norman while he was president of the Society of Mural Painters and chairman of the Committee on Mural Painting for the Fine Arts Federation of New York; membership lists; agenda; press releases; newsletters; and clippings relating to the National Society of Mural Painters and the Federal Art Project in New York City.
Biographical / Historical:
Mural and portrait painter, London, England and New York City. Painted murals for the Federal Art Project of the Work Projects Administration.
Provenance:
The lender, Geoffrey Norman, lent his papers for microfilming.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
The papers of Holger Cahill (1887-1960) date from 1910 to 1993, with the bulk of the material dating from 1910-1960, and measure 15.8 linear feet. The collection offers researchers fairly comprehensive documentation of Cahill's directorship of the Works Progress/Projects Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) in addition to series documenting his work as a writer and art critic. Material includes correspondence, reports, artist files, scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Holger Cahill (1887-1960) date from 1910 to 1993, bulk 1910-1960, and measure 15.8 linear feet. The collection offers researchers fairly comprehensive documentation of Cahill's directorship of the FAP in addition to series documenting his work as a writer and art critic. FAP records include national and state administrative reports, records of community art centers, photographic documentation of state activities, artist files, divisional records about teaching, crafts, murals, and poster work, files concerning the Index of American Design, scrapbooks, and printed material.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into nine series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material and Personal Papers, 1931-1988 (Box 1; 19 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence Files, 1922-1979, 1993 (Boxes 1-2; 1.5 linear ft.)
Series 3: Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, 1934-1970 (Boxes 2-14, 18, MMs009; 10.75 linear ft.)
Series 4: Writings, Lectures and Speeches, 1916-1960 (Boxes 14-15, 18; 1.0 linear ft.)
Series 5: Minutes of Meetings and Panel Discussions, Non-FAP, 1939-1947 (Box 15; 5 folders)
Series 6: Notes and Research Material, 1935-1970 (Boxes 15-16; 0.25 linear ft.)
Series 7: Artwork, undated (Boxes 16, 18; 2 folders)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1910-1985 (Boxes 16-17; 1.8 linear ft.)
Series 9: Photographs, circa 1917-1960 (Box 17; 6 folders)
Biographical Note:
Holger Cahill was born Sveinn Kristjan Bjarnarson in Iceland in a small valley near the Arctic Circle, on January 13, 1887. His parents, Bjorn Jonson and Vigdis Bjarnadottir, immigrated to the United States from Iceland sometime later in the 1880s. In 1904, his father deserted the family, forcing Sveinn to be separated from his mother and sister to work on a farm in North Dakota. He ran away and wandered from job to job until settling in an orphanage in western Canada, where he attended school and became a voracious reader.
As a young man, he worked at many different jobs and attended night school. While working on a freighter, he visited Hong Kong, beginning his life-long interest in the Orient. Returning to New York City, he eventually became a newspaper reporter, continued his studies at New York University, and changed his name to Edgar Holger Cahill. In 1919 he married Katherine Gridley of Detroit. Their daughter, Jane Ann, was born in 1922, but the couple divorced in 1927.
Cahill met John Sloan circa 1920, and they shared a residence. Cahill also wrote publicity (until 1928) for the Society of Independent Artists, through which he made many friends in the arts. From 1922 to 1931, he worked under John Cotton Dana at the Newark Museum, where he received his basic experience in museum work, organizing the first large exhibitions of folk art.
From 1932 to 1935, he was the director of exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. In 1935, Cahill was appointed director of the Works Progress/Projects Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP), until its end in June 1943. In 1938, Cahill organized a countrywide exhibition "American Art Today" for the New York World's Fair. He also married MoMa curator Dorothy Canning Miller in that year.
Profane Earth, Cahill's first novel, was published in 1927, followed by monographs on Pop Hart and Max Weber, miscellaneous short stories, and a biography of Frederick Townsend Ward, entitled A Yankee Adventurer: The Story of Ward and the Taiping Rebellion. Following the end of the Federal Art Project, Cahill wrote two novels, Look South to the Polar Star (1947) and The Shadow of My Hand (1956).
Holger Cahill died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in July 1960.
Provenance:
The Holger Cahill papers were donated to the Archives of American Art through a series of gifts by Cahill's widow, Dorothy C. Miller, between 1964 and 1995.
Restrictions:
The microfilm of this collection has been digitized and is available online via the Archives of American Art 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.
Correspondence, mostly with Roy Stryker, Chief of the Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration. Stryker gives Delano his field assignments as a traveling photographer; discusses FSA policy, photographic techniques; his own philosophy about the work; change in budget and focus because of defense emphases; the war; subjects to photograph; activities of other personnel; and personal matters.
Biographical / Historical:
Illustrator, photographer; New York, N.Y. Born 1914. Delano was a photographer for the Farm Security Administration photography project which documented urban and rural America during the Depression.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1965 by Jack Delano.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American Art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
1.8 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 2 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Sketchbooks
Date:
1920-1982
Scope and Contents:
Biographical material, interviews, printed materials, writings, correspondence, art work, and photographs.
REEL 290: Eleven scripts for radio programs on the Index of American Design, broadcast in New York throughout 1940. Interviewees include: Rothschild, Holger Cahill, director of the WPA-FAP; Edith Halpert, director of American Folk Art Gallery; Katherine Coffey, curator of Newark Museum; Alice Winchester, editor of "Antiques"; and Theodore Starr.
REEL NDA 15: Press releases; pamphlet on permanent art programs; Index of American Design papers; a report concerning government art programs; memorandum to Gustave Von Groschwitz outlining a plan for new subject matter for FAP artists; and "Report to the Sculptors of the Federal Art Project" by Girolamo Piccoli.[Report to the sculptors...under microfilm title Girolamo Piccoli]
UNMICROFILMED: Writings on art and on the Index of American Design; radio scripts for the series "The American Artists" sponsored by Artists Equity, 1953; clippings, 1936-1982; a nearly complete set of his newsletter, THE PRAGMATIST IN ART, 1964-1978; material on Kenneth Hayes Miller; resumes, school transcripts and memorabilia; photographs of Rothschild and of his sculpture; correspondence concerning THE PRAGMATIST IN ART (1964-1978), The Index of American Design (1968-1973), his research on Miller (1964-1977) and other publications, his work for Artists Equity, and other matters; a sketchbook; and a drawing. Among the correspondents are Samuel Kramer, editor of "The Shipyard Worker," Peppino Mangravite, Katherine Schmidt Shubert, Betty Burroughs Woodhouse, and critics Rudolf Arnheim, John Canaday and Donald Kuspit.
Biographical / Historical:
Lincoln Rothschild (1902-1983) was a cculptor and writer in New York, N.Y. Rothschild was the director of the New York Unit of the Index of American Design, 1937-1940. He taught at Columbia University and Adelphi College, 1946-1950 and was the National Executive Director for Artists' Equity Association, 1951-57. He was the author of SCULPTURE THROUGH THE AGES (1942) TO KEEP ART ALIVE-KENNETH HAYES MILLER, AMERICAN PAINTER 1876-1956 (1974), FORMS AND THEIR MEANINGS IN WESTERN ART (1976) and numerous articles.
Other Title:
Girolamo Piccoli [microfilm title]
Provenance:
Material on reel NDA15 donated by Rothschild, 1964; remainder donated 1987 by his widow, Elisabeth Rothschild.
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.
Papers relating to Block's involvement as a supervisor in the WPA Federal Art Project New York City office and as a member of the Artists Congress.
Frames 825-889: Photographs of murals in New York City, many unidentified, and photographs of strike and picketing by Artists' Union [microfilm title WPA-FAP, New York].
Frames 1013-1300: Correspondence and memoranda regarding rejection of murals for the Harlem Hospital by black artists, and charges of racism and segregation in the FAP; memos and reports by Block on the Index of American Design in New York City, including a roster of master artists on the Index; memos relating to cutbacks and quotas on the FAP; memos from the Supervisors Association of the FAP; Artists Congress report to membership, November 1936; issues of AMERICAN ARTIST; Index of American Design exhibition catalogs; and other printed material.
Biographical / Historical:
Administrator, Federal Art Project; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1965 by Louis Block.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.) Search this
United States. Federal Emergency Relief Administration Search this
United States. Work Projects Administration Search this
United States. Works Progress Administration Search this
Extent:
1,500 Items ((on 2 microfilm reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945
Date:
1934-1950
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence and records regarding the Index of American Design, Federal Art Project, Federal Recreation Project, National Symphony Orchestra Summer Concerts, Washington Summer Concerts Association; New York World's Fair, National Fact Finders Exhibition, Federal Writer's Project, Federal Music Project, Federal Theater Project, and the movement for permanent government art programs.
Biographical / Historical:
Administrator for the Section of Professional and non-Manual Projects of Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), Washington, D.C. Became publicist for the Information Service of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). FERA was the forerunner of the WPA.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming by Nina Perera Collier.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Arts administrators -- Washington (D.C.) Search this