Claire Falkenstein papers, circa 1914-1997, bulk 1940-1990

Biographical files include resumes, interviews, address books, awards, calendars, legal and travel documents, scrapbooks, and additional "biography files" compiled by Falkenstein. While other series provide specific information about Falkenstein's life and career, material in this series offers users a good overview of the highlights of her career as an artist and teacher.

Biographical Materials are arranged into three subseries:

• 1.1: General Biographical Files, 1934-1997
• 1.2: Scrapbooks, 1943-1982
• 1.3: "Biography Files," 1943-1982

There is extensive correspondence with friends, family, galleries, clients, museums, collectors, and writers. The files contain original incoming correspondence and duplicate copies of outgoing correspondence, some with several drafts. Correspondence concerns many family, personal, and art-related topics and work, including upcoming exhibitions, commissions, art news, and her life and work in Paris. Correspondence with family members includes her husband Richard McCarthy and sister Helen Bickle. Correspondence with her husband offers details about her life in Paris from 1951 to 1960. Correspondence with her friend Myrtle Wolf is particularly extensive. Some letters contain enclosures, such as photographs, clippings, and nnouncements. Correspondence with clients, for both public and private commissions, may also include contracts, invoices, and expense reports, and should be consulted with the commission files which also contain correspondence. Additional correspondence is also found in the personal and business records series and the exhibitions series.

Additional named correspondents include Carla Accardi, Jean Arp, Anne Baxter, Jae Carmichael, Olive Cowell, Zoe Dusanne, Garrett Eckbo, Sam Francis, Ray Green, Peggy Guggenheim, Katharine Kuh, Frank Lobdell, Sybil Moholy-Nagy, Grace Morley, Berto Morucchio, May O'Donnell, Joanna and Gifford Philips, Ken Sawyer, Gertrude Shurr, Darthea Spayer, Clyfford and Pat Still, Michel Tapie, Antonio Tapies, Allan Temko, Mark Tobey, June Wayne, Wilhelm Wessel, Frans Wildenhain, among many others.

Gallery and museum correspondence is with Anderson Gallery, Bolles Gallery, Coos Art Museum, Galerie Anderson-Mayer (Paris), Galerie Stadler (Paris), Gallery Mayer (Paris), Jack Rutberg Fine Arts (Los Angeles), Los Angeles Museum of Art, Malvina Miller (New York), Martha Jackson Gallery (New York), Otto Seligman Gallery, Polly Friedlander Gallery, and the San Francisco Museum of Art, among many others. This series also contains postcards and Christmas cards.

Outgoing letters are arranged first in chronological order, followed by incoming letters arranged alphabetically by name correspondent. Miscellaneous files for each letter of the alphabet contain single letters from each correspondent. Christmas cards and postcards are arranged at the end of the series.

Personal and business records contain a wide variety of material documenting Falkenstein's business, financial, legal, professional, and personal transactions. Files are found for sales and prices of artwork, artwork inventories, smaller jewelry commissions, speaking engagements, her extensive work as a juror, her business with galleries, legal affairs and contracts, expenses, records of arts organizations to which she belonged, conferences, grants and fellowships, studio and house renovations, her Paris studio and Paris expenses, travel, donations, loans and consignments, conservation, art shipping, insurance, and taxes. The records provide detailed information on her business relationships with several galleries. The renovation files document Falkenstein's conversion of her house into a living space with working studio. Oversized visitor's logs contain comments from visitors to Falkenstein's studio in Venice, California.

The files are arranged alphabetically by subject and folder contents are arranged chronologically.

Falkenstein maintained comprehensive documentation of her exhibitions from her first exhibition in the 1930s to the last one at the Merging One Gallery in 1996. Files include both a chronological record and individual record for nearly all of her exhibitions. Found with the files are correspondence, photographs, loan and shipping records, catalogs, announcements, clippings, articles, and other records.

The files for exhibitions at the Fresno Art Museum, Martha Jackson Gallery and Jack Rutberg Fine Art Gallery are particularly rich and often personal. Correspondence within the files is particularly interesting as it often provides her own and sometimes her friends' reviews.

The files are arranged first by general exhibitions in chronological order and then alphabetically by individual exhibition. There is some duplication between the two groups of files. Within each folder, contents are arranged chronologically by date. Most of the photographs related to exhibitions are found in the Photographs Series.

Commission files document nearly all of Falkenstein's public and private large-scale projects and often contain a visual record of the work, as well as correspondence, design notes, contracts, and expense reports. The files are arranged by general commission files, followed by individual projects, both public and private. The general commission files contain documentation on requests for commission work that was not completed, commission submissions that were not accepted, and publicity material.

Individual commission project files provide rich documentation on Falkenstein's many commissioned art works, with particular emphasis on the World War II murals; Peggy Guggenheim gates in Venice; the screens, windows and doors at St. Basils Church in Los Angeles; the fountain at California Federal Savings and Loan; and sculptures at California State University, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. These detailed files include correspondence, contracts, expense estimates and reports, invoices, designs, sketches, and photographs.

The bulk of the photographs of commissions are found in the Photograph series. Also, most of Falkenstein's jewelry design commissions are found in the Personal and Business Records series. Additional correspondence and other materials related to commissions are found in the Correspondence series and Personal and Business Records.

The files are arranged first by general commissions in chronological order and then alphabetically by individual commissions. Within each folder, contents are arranged chronologically by date.