Packard, Emmy Lou, b. 1914 d. 1998
Muralist, Painter, PrintmakerSan Francisco, Calif. (Show Bio)
Emmy Lou Packard papers, 1900-1990
9.4 linear ft. (microfilmed on 9 microfilm reels).
Reel(s): 5812-5820
Biographical materials, correspondence, project files, subject files, financial records, notes, writings, exhibition files, scrapbooks, photographs, and printed material documenting the career of painter, printmaker, muralist, and sculptor Emmy Lou Packard. Also found are correspondence files, notes, writings, printed materials, and personal photographs documenting Packard's close and personal friendship with muralist Diego Rivera and painter Frida Kahlo.
Biographical materials include resumes and personal forms and certificates. Correspondence is primarily with family, colleagues, and organizations discussing personal relationships and political and art events in the San Francisco area. Correspondents include Anton Refregier, songwriter Malvina Reynolds, composer John Edmunds, the American Civil Liberties Union, and numerous others. There is one letter from Dorothea Lange in this series.
Personal business records found within the papers include real estate and rent records, insurance records, price lists for art work, consignment records, and miscellaneous receipts. There is an interview transcript of an interview with Packard for the Radical Elders Oral History Project. The papers include a series of notebooks/diaries, address lists, and other notes, as well as typescripts and additional writings by Packard and others. Exhibition and project files for many of Packard's commissioned projects are also found within the collection, including her files for the restoration of Anton Refregier's Rincon Annex Post Office mural in San Francisco and the Coit Tower murals in San Francisco. Many of the project files contain correspondence, reports, contracts, printed material, photographs, and art work. Additional art work consists of original drawings and prints by Packard and others not directly associated with projects.
The papers also include photographs of Packard, her family, residences, artwork, friends, and colleagues, including Cesar Chavez, Juan O'Gorman, Malvina Reynolds, Charles Safford, Ralph Stackpole, and Tennessee Williams. Two scrapbooks are found as well as additional printed materials such as clippings and exhibition announcements and catalogs.
Packard's reference files and personal documents documenting her professional and close personal relationship with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are arranged into a separate series and include her research for a planned, but unpublished book on the two artists, personal letters between Packard and the couple, as well as several interesting photographs. Also found in this series are notes, writings, and printed materials relating to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and other Mexican artists, such as Juan O'Gorman, Covarrubius, and Pablo O'Higgins.
Donated from 1985-1988 by Emmy Lou Packard.
How to Use this Collection
- Patrons must use microfilm copy.
- Microfilm reels 5812-5820 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
- Please read the Finding Aid for more detailed information on this collection.
- Selected images of documents in this collection are online.
- For more information on using resources at the Archives of American Art, please visit our Ask Us page
Also in the Archives:
