Oral history interview with Philip Fletcher Bell, circa 1963

Collection Information

Size: Transcript: 18 pages

Format: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 53 min.

Summary: An interview of Philip Fletcher Bell conducted circa 1963, by Harlan Phillips, for the Archives of American Art.

Bell speaks of a mural painting project he ran for the Federal Art Project; his work as a director of a children's art center in Washington, D.C.; how students were chosen for the center; how the center was administered; some of the projects that were done by the center; and his philosophies of teaching drawing and art to children.

Biographical/Historical Note

Philip Fletcher Bell (1907-1964) was an art administrator and painter from Washington, D.C.

Provenance

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 3418 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Philip Fletcher Bell, circa 1963. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.