Ben Shahn papers, 1879-1990, bulk 1933-1970
Shahn, Ben,
b. 1898
d. 1969
Painter, Photographer, Printmaker, Illustrator
N.Y.; N.J.
Collection size: 24.3 linear ft. (on 33 microfilm reels)
Collection Summary: Biographical material, letters, project files, business records, notes, writings, art work, source files, interview transcripts, audio-visual material, printed material, photographs, and artifacts.
REEL D10: Miscellaneous items, including a letter from Ben Shahn to Joseph Hirshhorn, February 6, 1958, concerning the Archives of American Art's microfilming project, and an undated pamphlet, "I Sing of a Maiden," illustrated by Shahn.
REELS D143-D148: Letters, 1933-1963, primarily to Shahn, from publishers, art organizations, galleries, and colleagues, among them Leonard Baskin, Alexander Calder, Joseph Hirsch, Clifford Odets, Robert Osborn, Robert Rauschenberg, Diego Rivera, Selden Rodman, David Alfaro Siqueiros, James Thrall Soby, Raphael Soyer, and William Carlos Williams. Also, lists of works, some priced; writings, including essays, poems, and typescripts; printed material, 1956-1961, such as clippings, exhibition catalogs, and press releases; an interview transcript, 1960; and a photograph, 1955, of Shahn's residence in Truro, Massachusetts.
REEL N70-6: Writings, 1949-1966, including addresses and essays by Shahn; 7 royalty statements; and 3 letters from publishers, 1965-1966.
REELS 133-135: Letters received, 1946-1969, from publishers, art organizations, and colleagues, including Alexander Calder, Leo Lionni, Archibald MacLeish, Robert Osborn, and Jerome Robbins. One from David Alfaro Siqueiros, 1968, contains photographs of Siqueiros, his wife, and his art works. Printed material, 1936-1968, includes clippings, exhibition catalogs, brochures, and miscellaneous announcements; 2 biographical accounts, poems, typescripts of reviews, and an etching.
REELS 5006-5027: Biographical material, 1924-1984, includes biographical sketches for Ben and Bernarda Shahn, a passport for Shahn and his first wife, Tillie, membership cards, award certificates, and a birth certificate for Jonathan Shahn. Letters, 1929-1990, are from Shahn's children, publishers, art organizations including the International Graphics Society and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, schools including Famous Artists Schools and the Skowhegan School, galleries including Downtown Gallery, and colleagues, notably Leonard Baskin, Alexander Calder, Walker Evans, Fred Friendly, George Nakashima, Robert Osborn, Rudy Pozzatti, and Jerome Robbins, and one letter each from Montgomery Clift, Rennie Davis, Dong Kingman, Dorothea Lange, Pablo Picasso, and Pete Seeger. The collection also contains a Christmas card in the form of a sock printed with a Christmas greeting.
Project files, 1933-1975, contain letters, notes, printed material, and photographs concerning 23 of Shahn's commissions, including a proposed movie about the "Greenbelt" community, murals for the Jersey Homesteads Community Center, and for the S.S. SHALOM, a set design for Jerome Robbins' "New York Export--Opus Jazz," and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial designed by Jonathan Shahn and the Ben Shahn grave monument designed by Bernarda Shahn. Legal documents, 1879-1988, consist of indenture papers for members of the Nettlefold family, and divorce papers concerning Tillie Shahn. Financial records include banking, tax, social security, and medical records, loan agreements, consignment records, and miscellaneous receipts.
Writings, 1935-1988, are by Shahn and by others, including Alan Dugan, W. H. Ferry, Theodore Gusten, and John Bartlow Martin, and 3 play scripts by Thornton Wilder. Included in the Notes series are an engagement calendar, an address book, 3 notebooks, lists, and reports and minutes of meetings of various organizations.
Art works, 1952-1970, consist of a sketchbook and 17 unbound sketches by Shahn, and drawings and prints by others, including Shahn's children and Stefan Martin.
Source files, 1919-1964, contain printed material and photographs relating to topics depicted by Shahn in his art work, such as children, dams, farm strikes, industry, war workers, women, Louis Armstrong (contains 79 photographs concerning the musician's 1956 visit to the Gold Coast), Thomas Edison, Sidney Hillman, Thomas J. Mooney, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Notable in both "Campaign 1944," and "Women in Politics" are photographs of Dorothy Parker, and in files entitled "dust," "farming,", "miners," "slums," "war," and "workers" photographs by Shahn, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon, and Marion Post Wolcott.
Interview transcripts, 1943-1968, from 10 radio, television, and motion picture interviews of Shahn. Audio-visual material, 1959-1968, consists of a reel of 16mm motion picture film, transferred to VHS, from the BBC-TV program "Monitor", and 3 reels of audio tape interviews of Shahn by Tony Schwartz and Arlene Francis. Printed material, 1910-1988, includes clippings, 14 issues of Art Forum, exhibition announcements and catalogs, press releases, prospectuses, brochures, pamphlets, publications illustrated by Shahn and by others, and reproductions of art work.
Photographs, ca. 1900-1969, are of family members including Bernarda Shahn; friends and colleagues, including Alexander Calder, Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins, Charles Sheeler, David Smith, and William Zorach; a photograph taken by Dorothea Lange of a cinderblock wall painted with the words "Croc Ice Cold Pop" inscribed Hello Ben, Dorothea Lange, made in St. George, Utah, 1956; photographs of works of art by Shahn and others; and photographs taken by Shahn for the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s.
Biographical/Historical Note: Ben Shahn (1898-1969) was a painter, printmaker, and photographer from Roosevelt, N.J. Shahn immigrated from Lithuania to the United States in 1906. He apprenticed as a lithographer, 1913-1917, and studied at the National Academy of Design from 1919 to 1922. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in 1930. Shahn took photographs of rural areas for the Farm Security Administration between 1935 and 1938. During the 1940s, he made posters for the Office of War Information.
Material on reel N70-6 lent for microfilming 1969 by Shahn's widow, Bernarda Bryson Shahn. All other materials donated by her, 1967-1991. Material on reels 5006-5027 microfilmed in 1995 with funding provided in part by a grant from the Sarah I. Schieffelin Residuary Trust.
Funding for the preservation and transfer of motion picture film provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
How to Use this Collection
- Microfilm reels D143-D148, N70-6, 133-135, and 5006-5027 available for use at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
- Collection is CLOSED for processing and scanning.
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