Bernard J. Reis papers, circa 1913-1983

This series contains scattered biographical material and family papers. Found here are a biographical essay written by Reis, a birthday "report" given to him by friends and coworkers, and a caricature of Reis by Abe Birnbaum. Also included are clippings and correspondence associated with Rebecca Reis's 1963 cookbook, The Unharried Hostess, clippings and exhibition announcements regarding the art career of their daughter, Barbara Reis Poe, and memorabilia from tours of the Reis house and art collection.

Reis's correspondence is with friends, colleagues, art associations, museums, and galleries. Also found are letters sent to Rebecca Reis after Bernard's death. Researchers should note that additional letters of significance are located in Art of This Century and Peggy Guggenheim Foundation records, Mark Rothko Estate papers, and the "Letters from Artists" scrapbook.

Of note is correspondence with friends and artists, including Marc Chagall, William Congdon, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, and Laurence Vail, as well as other notable members of the art world, such as Sir Herbert Read. This series also contains correspondence from art organizations, art associations, museums, and galleries, including the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Fogg Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Walters Art Gallery.

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by last name. Persons with three or fewer pieces of correspondence are filed in the miscellaneous folders, which are also arranged alphabetically.

This series contains documentation of Reis's professional career, including copies of Walter De Maria and William Randolph Hearst's correspondence, a file on Cambridge art gallery Kettle's Yard, miscellaneous legal documents and reports, and Marlborough Gallery records from Reis's time as the New York director.

Also found are copies of wills drawn up by Reis. Included are the wills of Edward Albee, Willem de Kooning, Alexander Eliot, Jane Winslow Eliot, Peggy Guggenheim, Adele M. Hatfield, William R.H. Hatfield, Josephine Johnson, Lester Johnson, Ludwig L. Lawrence, Conrad Marca-Relli, Edward Meneeley, Ray Parker, Beverly Pepper, Curtis G. Pepper, James Donald Prendergast, Abraham Rattner, Esther Rattner, Man Ray, Larry Rivers, and Albert Vanderburg.

This series includes documentation of Reis's friendship with Peggy Guggenheim, his involvement with her gallery, Art of This Century, and with the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation. It is comprised of Art of This Century accountant's reports, an essay by Art of This Century architect Frederick J. Kiesler, papers concerning Art of This Century exhibitions and films, a catalog of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Peggy Guggenheim Foundation dissolution documents, foundation meeting minutes, papers concerning the transfer of the foundation's holdings to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, papers referencing gifts to museums, and news and magazine clippings. Also found are correspondence between Peggy Guggenheim and Bernard and Rebecca Reis, correspondence between Peggy Guggenheim and her son, Sindbad Vail, and assorted financial correspondence.

This series contains incorporation documents, by-laws, meeting minutes, and treasurer's reports for the Mark Rothko Foundation, bills, receipts, contracts, financial reports, inventories, sales records, papers concerning the Mary Alice "Mell" Rothko Estate, medical, insurance, and social security records, tax documents for the estate and Rothko family, news and magazine clippings, and two mixed media scrapbooks. Also found in this series are Mark Rothko's correspondence, correspondence regarding the Rothko Chapel and gift to the Tate Gallery, and general estate correspondence. Of note are papers related to the Rothko trial, including appendix, briefs, the court's ruling, exhibits, injunction opposition and motion to stay documents, memoranda and notes, and a transcript of Rebecca Reis's testimony.

Printed material consists of exhibition announcements and catalogs, including a folder of catalogs from Marc Chagall's exhibitions. Also found are copies of articles by Reis, news and magazine clippings, printed materials regarding Marc Chagall, and miscellaneous printed material, such as festival schedules and book excerpts.

Photographs depict Bernard Reis, the Reis home and collection, and Reis with his wife Rebecca and friends, many of whom were well-known figures in the art world. Included are photographs of Reis at art conferences, exhibition openings, and meeting President Lyndon B. Johnson. Of note are photographs of Bernard and Rebecca Reis's trips to Italy and to Peggy Guggenheim's Palazzo in Venice.