Leon Kroll papers, circa 1900-1988

Correspondence is the largest series within the collection and contains both Kroll's personal and professional correspondence. There is correspondence with many fellow New York and European artists, including members of the social realist and ashcan schools of painting and artists he met on his travels and participation in national and international art organizations and committees. There is also correspondence with students and publishers, requests for Kroll to teach, lecture, or write articles, and business correspondence regarding exhibitions, sales, donations, and commissions. A small amount of correspondence is in French.

Artists that Kroll corresponded with include John Taylor Arms, Gifford Beal, George Bellows, Edwin Blashfield, George Biddle, Isabel Bishop, Marc Chagall, Arthur Covey, Randall Davey, Sonia Delaunay, Edwin Dickinson, Barry Faulkner, Ernest Fiene, Joseph Floch, William Glackens, Ellen Day Hale, Samuel Halpert, Robert Henri, Joseph Hirsch, Robert and Edward Hopper, Berthe Koch, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Richard Lahey, Paul Manship, Ezio Martinelli, William McKillop, Gari Melchers, Hobart Nichols, Henry Schnakenberg, John Sloan, Raphael Soyer, Eugene Speicher, Maurice Sterne, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Hutton Webster, Esther Williams, Hamilton Wolf, and Andrew Wyeth, among many others.

Kroll also corresponded with many art historians and critics, curators, and gallery owners, such as Arthur Byne, Alfred Churchill, Frank Rehn, and Louis Stern, and several art patrons and collectors such as J. S. Carpenter, Etta Cone, Aldus Higgins, Julius Lempert, and Carl Weeks.

A large amount of the correspondence found here is Leon Kroll's professional correspondence with arts organizations, clubs, and committees in which he participated. These include the American Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Gravers; Artists Equity Association; Municipal Art Committee of New York; National Academy of Design; and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and many others. These files may contain copies of letters between other members, press releases, printed material, meeting minutes, or memos Kroll sent to members. Also found is correspondence with arts administrators regarding federal government art projects and funding, including Edward Bruce, Forbes Watson, and Edward Rowan.

A significant amount of family correspondence, particularly from Leon Kroll to his sister Tess Pergament and mother Harriet Kroll are found in the 2019 additions.

In general, letters are filed alphabetically by person or corporate name. Names with five or more letters are filed in their own folders, and the remainder of correspondence is filed in miscellaneous files. Selected correspondents whose names do not appear in headings are indicated in a note following the folder heading. Some correspondence with individuals may also be filed according to the name of the organization with which they were associated. Where they exist, Kroll's outgoing letters are interfiled with incoming letters.

This series has been scanned in its entirety except for the 2019 addition.