Mid-America in the thirties : the regionalist art of Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood : an exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center, Dec. 10, 1965-Jan. 16, 1966
The papers of painter, muralist, and designer William E. L. Bunn measure 13.4 linear feet and date from 1863-2009. The collection documents Bunn's career as a painter, industrial designer, and his work on Treasury Department post office mural commissions through biographical material, scattered correspondence, project files, industrial design records, diaries and journals, writings and notes, printed material, photographs, and artwork. Also found are Bunn's papers regarding Grant Wood.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter, muralist, and designer William E. L. Bunn measure 13.4 linear feet and date from 1863-2009. The collection documents Bunn's career as a painter, industrial designer, and his work on Treasury Department post office mural commissions through biographical material, scattered correspondence, project files, industrial design records, diaries and journals, writings and notes, printed material, photographs, and artwork. Also found are Bunn's papers regarding Grant Wood.
Biographical material consists of certificates, school records, Bunn family genealogy records, an interview transcript, and an autobiographical file maintained by Bunn containing professional summaries, lists of works, one motion picture film reel of home movies, and other records. Correspondence documents exhibitions, awards, mural projects, and other commissions. Of note is correspondence with the General Services Administration, friend and fellow artist Lee Allen, and illustrated envelopes Bunn sent to his wife Annavene.
Project files contain photographs, notes, sketches, correspondence, and news clippings. Included is Bunn's notebook "Index to Projects" which provides additional information. Industrial design records include drawings and blueprints, employment records, photographs and publications, primarily from his work at Sheaffer Pen Company and Cuckler Steele Span Company.
Bunn's papers relating to Grant Wood include documentation from the Grant Wood Art Festival, as well as printed material, notes, and correspondence about Wood. Also found are photographs, including two photographs of Wood and photographs of his residence in Iowa City. Forty-one diaries and journals date from 1929-1951 and 1969-2003. Early diaries document art projects and school activities while he was a student at University of Iowa. Later journals document his work, travel, expenditures, and goals. Writings and notes include to-do lists, documentation on people Bunn knew, his artworks, lists of personal belongings, and topics of interest, such as astrology and steamboats. Also found are five notebooks on various subjects.
Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs, magazines, news clippings, and Treasury Department bulletins. Also found are announcements of mural competitions, postcards, and published images of steamboats. Photographs depict Bunn, his family, friends, and artwork. Additional photographs depict various subjects that were of interest to Bunn, including nature scenes, steamboats, airplanes, and bridges.
Artwork includes costume and theater designs created as part of William Bunn's thesis at University of Iowa. Also included are drawings and watercolors for potential art projects, as well as preliminary drawings and studies or technical drawings from his work as an industrial designer. Additionally, there are four sketchbooks, two of which include sketches and notes for the post office murals in Minden, Nebraska, and Hamburg, Iowa.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1910-2009 (Box 1, 12, FC 33; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1927-2006 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Project Files, circa 1925-2002 (Box 1-3, 12, OV 15-19, RD 31; 2.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Industrial Design Records, circa 1944-1977 (Box 3, 12, OV 20; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 5: Papers Relating to Grant Wood, 1935-2006 (Box 3-4, 12; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Diaries and Journals, 1929-2003 (Box 4-6; 2.2 linear feet)
Series 7: Writings and Notes, circa 1928-2004 (Box 6-7; 1.0 linear foot)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1896-2009 (Box 7-8, 12, OV 21; 1.4 linear feet)
Series 9: Photographs, 1863-1990s (Box 8-9, 13; 1.6 linear feet)
Series 10: Artwork, circa 1926-2004 (Box 9-11, 14, OVs 22-30, RD 32; 2.3 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
William E. L. Bunn (1910-2009) was a designer, muralist, and painter in Ft. Madison, Iowa and Ojai, California. Bunn was born in Muscatine, Iowa and received his B.A. in Graphic and Plastic Arts and an M.A. in Theater Design, both from the University of Iowa. In 1937 he was awarded a one-year post-graduate fellowship as an art intern for Grant Wood. From 1938 to 1942 he won four commissions from the Treasury Department to produce murals for Federal buildings. He also exhibited paintings, primarily depicting Mississippi River steamboats, at the National Academy of Design, Art Institute of Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and other group shows. Beginning in 1943 Bunn worked as an industrial designer at several companies including Sheaffer Pen Company (1946-1967) and Cuckler Steele Span Company (1967-1977). After his retirement, he and his wife, Annavene, moved to California, and he continued to paint. Bunn was also active in the Theosophical Society and had an interest in aviation.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by William E. L. Bunn in 1989 and in 2010 by Bunn's daughter, Chari Petrowski. In 1986 two sketchbooks and sketches were transferred with Bunn's permssion from the General Services Administration, which had received them from Bunn.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate copy requires advance notice.
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.
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; 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
United States of America -- Iowa -- Linn County -- Cedar Rapids
Scope and Contents:
The folders include a worksheet, a garden plan, a detailed narrative description of the property and garden, a plant list, geological survey, copies of articles on Grant Wood, and photocopies of articles about the garden.
General:
The gardens at Pleasant Hill were inspired by the early architecture of the area and the designs of regionalist painter, Grant Wood. The residence was constructed in 1932 to reflect the architectural history of Iowa, using original structral elements from other houses and antique furniture. On December 20, 1989, the home was designated as a National Historic Site. At the entrance to the garden, Grant Wood designed a grape arbor. Stones from a quarry near Stone City, Iowa and a grist mill stone were incorporated into garden seats. The owner chose species of flowers and trees that are either indigenous to the zone or have proven successful through the harsh Iowa winters, producing a continuous show of color in summer, spring, and fall.
Persons and firms associated with the property and garden include: Bruce McKay (architect, designer, builder, 1932-?); Grant Wood (artist, 1933); and Mrs. E. W. Spence (landscape architect).
Related Materials:
Pleasant Hill related holdings consist of 2 folders (4 35 mm. slides)
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
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.
Grant Wood. Grant Wood letter to Edward B. Rowan, 1934 Feb. 6. Edward Beatty Rowan papers, 1929-1946. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The Grant Wood papers measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1983. Included are three newspaper obituaries for Grant Wood and six letters to art educator, Zenobia Ness, discussing his exhibition plans, paintings, Stone City Art Colony, and the Federal Public Works of Art Projects. The collection also contains two letters, including a Stone City brochure, to Walter Pritchard Eaton, Professor of Drama at Yale University. Also found are writings, newspaper clippings containing articles on Wood, and other printed material. Photographs in the collection, some of which are signed, are of Wood in his studio and at the Artist Camp at Stone City, and various works of art.
Scope and Contents:
The Grant Wood papers measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1930 to 1983. Included are three newspaper obituaries for Grant Wood and six letters to art educator, Zenobia Ness, discussing his exhibition plans, paintings, Stone City Art Colony, and the Federal Public Works of Art Projects. The collection also contains two letters, including a Stone City brochure, to Walter Pritchard Eaton, Professor of Drama at Yale University. Also found are writings, newspaper clippings containing articles on Wood, and other printed material. Photographs in the collection, some of which are signed, are of Wood in his studio and at the Artist Camp at Stone City, and various works of art.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection, items are categorized into one series consisting of eight folders. Items are arranged chronologically within each folder.
Biographical / Historical:
Grant Wood was born near Anamosa, Iowa, in 1891. In 1901 he moved with his family to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he developed an interest in art, and participated in the Cedar Rapids Art Association. He attended the Minneapolis School of Design and Handicraft as well as the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood taught art in Cedar Rapids public schools, and became an active member of the Iowa art community, promoting local artists and public art projects. In 1932, he and fellow artists founded the Stone City Art Colony. The colony only lasted two years, and in 1933 he became an art professor at the University of Iowa, where he would continue to teach until his death. Wood also served as spokesman for the concept of Regionalism in art and lectured throughout the United States. In 1934 he was appointed director of the Federal Public Works of Art Projects for Iowa, and organized artists for public mural projects. Grant Wood died in 1942, at the age of 51.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art holds several additional small collections related to the Grant Wood papers, including a thesis by Kenneth Goldberg entitled, "The Paintings of Grant Wood," microfilmed on reel 420; the Marian S. Mayer research material on Grant Wood, partially microfilmed on reels 863-864; and Return from Bohemia, a typescript of the beginning of an autobiography written by Grant Wood and microfilmed on reel D24.
Eighteen scrapbooks and albums of news clippings, post cards, letters, snapshots, sketches and related ephemera on Grant Wood assembled over a period of 40 years by Nan Wood Graham, Grant Wood's sister, are located at the Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa. Thirteen of the scrapbooks have been digitized and are available online as the University of Iowa Libraries' Figge Art Museum Grant Wood Digital Collection. The Figge's archive also contains several hundred artifacts related to Grant Wood.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Zelia Mitchell, a friend of the Ness family, in 1984 and was microfilmed upon receipt. The two letters to Eaton, with the enclosed Stone City Art Colony brochure, were donated by Charles E. Feinberg, 1955-1962, and also microfilmed.
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.
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.
