Correspondence, printed material, photographs, business records and a diary.
REEL 103: Clippings, 1929-1932, on exhibitions and activities of the Little Gallery, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, directed by Rowan (microfilm title: Little Gallery).
REEL 1208: Photographs used to publicize exhibitions at the Little Gallery, including 183 photographs of works of art, the Little Gallery Junior Art Club, Grant Wood, and William Herbert Dunton at work.
REEL D141-D142: Correspondence; a diary; business records of the Little Gallery, the Stone City Art Colony and Art School, and the Section of Fine Arts; photographs, including two of The Little Gallery, five of the Stone City Colony and Art School, six of Rowan and three of his paintings, and two photos showing Grant Wood, David McCosh, Arnold Pyle, Adrian Dornbush, and Marvin Cone; and catalogs, clippings and publications, including "A Report on Iowa Art Under Public Works of Art Jan. 20, 1934, under the direction of Grant Wood" containing reproductions of work, several clippings, a 2 p. report "three weeks after the beginning of work" and 2 p. typed "Notes" signed by Wood with a photograph attached.
Among the correspondents are Oscar Bluemner, Chaim Gross, Waldo Peirce, Henry Varnum Poor, Eleanor Roosevelt, Forbes Watson, and Grant Wood.
Biographical / Historical:
Gallery director, painter, sculptor, teacher; Falls Church, Va. and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Founder and director of The Little Gallery, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1928-1934. The gallery was concerned with promoting education in the community. Because of his success with the Little Gallery, in 1931 he was chosen by the American Federation of Arts to be the director of a new experimental art center in Cedar Rapids. Rowan was affiliated with the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard before going to Cedar Rapids and served as Chief, Public Buildings Administration, 1930's-1940's.
Other Title:
Little Gallery records (microfilm title, reel 103)
Provenance:
Donated by Mrs. Edward Rowan, 1963.
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:
Gallery directors -- Iowa -- Cedar Rapids Search this
The papers of King Vidor measure 2.1 linear feet and include correspondence, printed material, and a variety of materials related to the documentary Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth (1980) written and directed by Vidor, including production notes, photographs, and motion picture film.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of King Vidor measure 2.1 linear feet and include correspondence, printed material, and a variety of materials related to the documentary Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth (1980) written and directed by Vidor, including production notes, photographs, and motion picture film.
Correspondence is mainly between Vidor and multiple galleries and artists whose artworks Vidor collected, and includes single letters from artists Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and Andrew Wyeth. Lengthy correspondence with Associated American Artists is found among other correspondence with galleries. Loan requests from museums borrowing from Vidor's painting collection, and image requests for reproduction rights for paintings owned by Vidor from various publishers are also found, as well as a few sheets of notes related to valuation of paintings.
Printed material includes exhibition catalogs for Millard Sheets and Diego Rivera, clippings on a variety of subjects, including a long article about his film project Metaphor published in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and periodicals with articles about the artist Grant Wood.
Scattered slides are mostly of unidentified artwork.
Material related to Metaphor, Vidor's film project with Andrew Wyeth include photographs of Wyeth and Vidor in Pennsylvania, stills from Vidor's 1925 film The Big Parade, and a still from Metaphor. Production notes include detailed footage and edit notes as well as typescripts of draft narration. Some production notes are arranged as a group, and others are arranged with documentation of the original film containers in which they were found. Motion picture film found in the collection includes a print of the final version of the film, edit master film material (A and B rolls), outtakes, and trims.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 4 series. Digital photographs of original film containers are filed in Series 4.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1941-1982 (Box 1, 1 folder)
Series 2: Printed Material, 1936-1980 (Box 1, 3 folders)
Series 3: Slides, 1964 (1 folder; Box 1)
Series 4: -- Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth -- (1980), 1976-1980 (1.9 linear feet; Box 1, FC 1-17)
Biographical / Historical:
King Vidor was an American film director whose prolific career began in 1913, during the silent era, and continued through 1959 when he stopped directing large scale film projects. In addition to his prolific film career, Vidor was an avid collector of American Art who owned works by Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, among others.
Vidor's final film, Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth (1980), is a documentary in which he and Wyeth discuss the impact of Vidor's most celebrated film of the silent era, The Big Parade, on Wyeth's painting. The project began when Wyeth wrote a lengthy letter to Vidor crediting his film, which Wyeth claimed to have watched over a hundred times, with having had a direct impact on the compositions of his paintings, which he only noticed after the fact when his wife, Betsy, pointed it out to him.
When Wyeth contacted Vidor for permission to use clips from The Big Parade in a documentary project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to accompany a 1976 exhibition of these works, Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth: Kuerners and Olsons, instead of lending his film to that effort, Vidor went to Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania to film Wyeth himself. Together, the two set out to make a documentary telling the story of the aesthetic relationship between their work, with Vidor directing. The film was completed in 1980 but was never commercially released.
Vidor died in 1982.
Related Materials:
There is an oral history interview with King Vidor held by Columbia University.
Provenance:
Donated 1985 by the King Vidor Trust.
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.
Correspondence with and/or relating to artists John Singer Sargent, Walt Kuhn, Grant Wood, George A. Curtis, Anne Marie Jauss, and others. Approximately 300 items.
Relating to Kuhn are 29 letters from Brenda Kuhn, daughter of Walt Kuhn, 1971-1980, primarily dealing with Gaston's articles on the vandalization of her father's "Little Nugget" club car which he designed and built in 1937 for the streamliner "City of Los Angeles" and which traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles; ca. 50 letters from George A. Curtis and several articles and catalogs about him; ca. 60 letters from Anne Marie Jauss, mostly from N.J., 1971-1989, along with photos of her work, and an obituary, 1991. Other letters include: one from Grant Wood's sister, Nan Wood Graham, referring to Grant Wood's portrait of Henry Wallace for the cover of Time magazine (1940); several from historian Thomas B. Brumbaugh; two from Wynn Chamberlain from the Edwin Hewitt Gallery; two from Alexander Archipenko, one from Vivian Nichols regarding the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, one from Katrina Fischer, daughter of Anton Otto Fischer, and one from Karl Kup.
Biographical / Historical:
Gallery director, art historian; New York, N.Y. and Los Angeles, Calif. Born 1928. Died 2002.
Provenance:
Donated by Godfrey O. Gaston.
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.
Eleven letters from Thomas Hart Benton, Adolph Dehn, Reginald Marsh, and Grant Wood; two illustrated letters from John Steuart Curry; brief writings by Reginald Marsh about himself, Benton and Wood; and a fourteen-page, handwritten response by Benton in answer to a questionnaire sent by Engle.
Biographical / Historical:
Editor; Madison, Wisconsin and Stockton, California. As a staff writer and editor of a small, World War II era periodical, Ms. Engle contacted several prominent contemporary artists as subjects for articles.
Provenance:
Donated 1981 by Margaret D. Engle.
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.
Correspondence of director Wilbur D. Peat. Many of the letters are from well-known artists of the 1920s and 1930s relating to their contributions to an exhibition of American paintings which Peat was assembling in 1932-1933. [Microfilm title: The Herron Museum of Art]
Correspondents include: Dewey Albinson, A. S. Baylinson, Wenona Day Bell, Thomas H. Benton, George Biddle, Peter Blume, Ernest Blumenschein, C. Curry Bohm, Adolphe Borie, George H. Borst, Robert Brackman, Samuel Brecher, Alexander Brook, Charles E. Burchfield, Varaldo J. Carian, Mrs. E. F. Carpenter, John Carroll, Nicolai Cikovsky, Antonio Cirino, Charles Val Clear, Max B. Cohen, John S. Curry, Randall Davey, Charles H. Davis, Edwin Dickinson, Paul Dougherty, Susan M. Eakins, Henry S. Eddy, Virginia B. Evans, Jerry Farnsworth, Ernest Fiene, John K. Fitzpatrick, John F. Folinsbee, Anton P. Fabrick, Charlotte Gailor, Daniel Garber, Robert F. Gilder, William J. Glackens, John R. Grabach, Charles T. Greener, Charles P. Gruppe,
Eugene Higgins, Edward Hopper, Bernard A. Hunger, Henry G. Keller, Fanny M. King, Georgina Klitgaard, Leon Kroll, Max Kuehne, Georges La Chance, Luigi Lucioni, Reginald Marsh, Henry E. Mattson, Henry Lee McFee, Miriam McKinnie, Clarence Millet, Ross E. Moffett, Francis Mora, Frederick Mulhaupt, Jerome Myers, Watson Nayland, Warren Newcombe, Waldo Peirce, Van Dearing Perrine, Robert Philipp, Abraham Phillips (Tromka), Majorie Phillips, Paul A. Plaschke, Edward Redfield, Doel Reed, Charles Rosen, Edward B. Rowan, Olive Rush, Chauncey Ryder, Eugene F. Savage, Henry Schnakenberg, Zoltan Sepeshy, Edward Sewall, Leopold Seyffert, Nan Sheets, Simka Simkhovitch, Clyde J. Singer, Judson Smith,
Eugene Speicher, Francis Speight, Maurice Sterne, Alfred Stieglitz (letter written on the back of Peat's letter to Georgia O'Keeffe and written for her), Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, Ferdinand E. Warren, Frederick Judd Waugh, Max Weber, Lois Wilcox, Arnold Wiltz, Grant Wood, and Harold Holmes Wrenn.
Biographical / Historical:
The John Herron Art Institute became the Indianapolis Museum of Art ca. 1969-1970. Peat was director 1929-1965.
Other Title:
Herron Museum of Art [microfilm title, reel D131]
Provenance:
Donated 1962 by the John Herron Museum of Art.
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.
An interview of Albert Christ-Janer conducted by Dorothy Seckler 1964 March 21 for the Archives of American Art.
Christ-Janer speaks of the regionalist movement in painting in the 1930s, of Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood; teaching at the Cranbrook Academy of Design; and he recalls Jackson Pollock.
Biographical / Historical:
Albert Christ-Janer (1910-1973) was a painter, printmaker, museum director, educator, and writer in Athens, Georgia.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 21 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Restrictions:
Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Painters -- Georgia -- Athens -- Interviews Search this
Correspondence; writings; notes; estate lists; contracts; photographs of works of art; exhibition catalogs; clippings; miscellaneous printed material.
REEL 925: Correspondence with artists, 1954-1968, concerning Benton's purchase and background of their works; and writings by Benton on Soviet art.
REEL 3134: A 13-page, incomplete, typescript, 1955, "Reginald Marsh as I Remember Him," by Benton. He writes of working with Marsh on the YALE RECORD and collecting Marsh's paintings.
REEL 4073: Correspondence, 1940-1983, with artists; typescripts on Marsh; writing by Jack Levine "How the Witches' Sabbath was Painted";
photographs and lists of works of art; a notebook "Works of Art on Loan to the William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut" from Benton's estate; a notebook "Painting Contracts" between artists, galleries, and Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.; notebook "Sold," containing data on the sale of Reginald Marsh's work;
printed material on Rockwell Kent, Thomas Hart Benton, Benton's collection, and others; photocopies of 2 portions of Ivan Albright's sketchbooks; a notebook "Britannica Painting Exhibitions Manual of Procedure"; a 2 p. typescript "The Story of My Portrait" by Grant Wood's sister Nan Wood Graham; 3 illustrated notebooks by Ivan Albright; and a sketchbook by Reginald Marsh containing 33 figure sketches.
Correspondents include Ivan Albright, Thomas Hart Benton, George Biddle, Isabel Bishop, Aaron Bohrod, Salvador Dali, Abner Dean, Koren Der Harootian, Jimmy Ernst, Milton Hebald, Joseph Hirsch, Ben Johnson, Rockwell Kent, Frank Kleinholz, Jack Levine, Reginald Marsh, Henry Varnum Poor, James N. Rosenberg, Hella Moravic Sachs, and Orest G. Vereisky.
Biographical / Historical:
Art collector, politician; Chicago, Ill. Publisher of ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, Vice-President of the University of Chicago, Congressman from Connecticut, and an avid collector of American art. Benton and Reginald Marsh were classmates and collaborated respectively as editor and illustrator for the Yale newspaper. During the Depression, Benton provided Marsh with a monthly stipend for which he received a monthly painting. When he became chairman of the board of ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, Benton collected contemporary American painting to Americanize BRITANNICA's British image.
Provenance:
Material on reel 925 and 3134 donated by Benton 1968. His family donated and lent additional material 1985-1986, including originals of some letters which were originally donated as photocopies.
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.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- United States Search this
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- History -- United States Search this
Biographical material; an interview with Benton concerning his Truman Library mural; correspondence, including many illustrated letters to his parents written while he was in school, studying in Paris, and in the Navy in Virginia; a letter from Thomas Craven and one from Stanton Macdonald-Wright; manuscripts, including "An American in Art," "An Artist in America," "Death of Grant Wood," "American Regionalism," "Life in Paris," "The Intimate Story," "Politics," and notes on Jackson Pollock; notes and notebooks containing writings; a handwritten manuscript of his speech at the dedication of his Truman Library mural; a few sketches and plates of his illustration for TOM SAWYER; a catalog, printed articles by Benton, and clippings; research material; and a photograph of Benton.
Biographical / Historical:
American regionalist painter; Kansas City, Mo.
Provenance:
Lent 1980 by Benton Testamentary Trusts, Lyman Field, trustee.
Restrictions:
ACCESS RESTRICTED; written permission required.
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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:
Grant Wood papers, 1930-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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:
Grant Wood papers, 1930-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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:
Grant Wood papers, 1930-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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:
Grant Wood papers, 1930-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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:
Grant Wood papers, 1930-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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:
Grant Wood papers, 1930-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
