McMahon, Audrey, 1890-1981
Arts administrator
Size: Transcript: 41 p.
Format: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 21 min.
Summary: An interview of Audrey McMahon conducted 1964 Nov. 18, by Harlan Phillips, for the Archives of American Art.
McMahon speaks of her pre-Federal Art Project experiences; her early involvement with the WPA; how it functioned; and political problems with the WPA. She recalls Juliana Force, Edward Bruce, Holger Cahill.
Audry McMahon (1900?-1981) served under Holger Cahill as Regional Director of the WPA Federal Art Project for New York and New Jersey from 1935-1939.
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Transcript: microfilm reel 4210 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Audrey McMahon, 1964 Nov. 18. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
