Lilian Swann Saarinen papers, circa 1909-1977

Biographical material consists of résumés and biographical sketches written by Saarinen, and a 1951 blueprint of the Eero Saarinen and Associates office building in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, labeled "July/54 Kiln data."

Series is scanned in entirety.

Saarinen's correspondence files document her personal life and career. Incoming letters form the bulk of the series, but are interspersed with outgoing letters, often in the form of drafts handwritten by Saarinen. Personal correspondence includes letters written between Lilian and Eero Saarinen, which provide insight into their relationship during the 1940s and early 1950s, and their decision to divorce in 1953. These letters also reference professional projects, including Eero Saarinen's involvement in the design of the Antioch College residence halls. Other letters describe Saarinen's planning meetings for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and enclose sketches of his preliminary ideas for the project.

Many letters from Susan Hammond, Saarinen's mother, chronicle events in the Swann and Sedgwick families. Hammond frequently enclosed letters sent to her by others about Saarinen in her letters to Saarinen. Family correspondence includes letters from Saarinen's son, Eric, her sister Lucy Livingston Schwartz, letters from other members of the Swann family, and a letter from her cousin, Edie Sedgwick.

Letters which document Saarinen's professional life include correspondence with publishers and publications such as Child Life, for which Saarinen provided illustrations; Interiors regarding the publication of an article by Saarinen about her and her work; Otava Publishing Company, including the 1956 contract for the Finnish edition of Who Am I?; Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., relating to the original publication of Who Am I? in 1946; and Rutgers University Press regarding Saarinen's proposed jacket design for the cover of A Short Chronology of American History 1492-1950 (1952) by Irving S. and Nell M. Kull. Additional correspondence relating to Saarinen's writings can be found in Series 3: Writings and Notes.

Also found is correspondence with Caresse Crosby regarding the consignment of Saarinen's artwork to Gump's and other galleries in the 1940s, and referencing Crosby's Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly, for which Saarinen provided illustrations. Correspondence with Alan D. Gruskin of Midtown Galleries, who Saarinen contracted to represent her nationally from 1943-1948, includes Saarinen's sketches for her 1944 exhibition at G Place Gallery in Washington D. C., under the direction of Caresse Crosby.

The series includes substantial correspondence with other artists and architects, many of whom were personal friends of Saarinen, including Merle Armitage, Walter Baermann, Alexander Calder, Charles and Ray Eames, Carl Koch, Henry Kreis, Carl Milles, Laszlo and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Robert Venturi, and Harry Weese. Also found is correspondence with the design firm Knoll Associates, Cranbrook Academy of Art directors and artists Soltan Sepeshy, Maija Grotell and Marianne Strengell, six letters from Loja Saarinen, and a telegram from Eliel Saarinen.

The bulk of the correspondence relating to Saarinen's sculpture commissions can be found in Series 5: Project Files, but related correspondence is scattered throughout this series.

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically. Correspondents who are represented by four or more items are housed in named files; all others are housed in general files for the corresponding letter of the alphabet.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Writings and notes document the writing and publication of Saarinen's Picture Book Zoo and Who Am I?, as well as Saarinen's ideas in draft, typescript and sketch form for other publications such as "Animals and War Machines," a proposed follow-up to Who Am I? titled "Who Helps Who?" and other children's writings such as "Susie Sing All Day" and "What Is Mine?" Documentation consists of correspondence with publishers, drafts and typsecripts of texts, original artwork including preliminary sketches, photos of artwork, and book layouts.

Also found are school writings from the 1920s-1930s; typescripts and handwritten drafts of Saarinen's memories of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Eliel Saarinen, and the Saarinen family; and miscellaneous writings which include "Sculpture by American Soldiers" in which Saarinen drew on her 1945 experience teaching convalescent soldiers.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Saarinen was a prolific journal writer and her diaries are in bound volume and loose leaf form. Bound diary volumes from 1930/1931 to 1942 document her life from her "coming out year" and continue through the early years of her marriage to Eero Saarinen. Her 1939 diary opens in Florence, Italy, in August 1939, days before Germany's invasion of Poland, and describes the tenuous situation the newlyweds found themselves in and their difficulties finding passage back to the United States. The diary labeled 1936 and 1937 also contains a series of entries for 1958-1959. Written on the page at the front of the 1939 December-1942 January is the inscription: "Diary-Cranbrook from Sept 1939 To:" and "The new Mrs. E. E. Saarinen!" but any original pages that existed from September-November are missing. The months August-October 1939 are included in the previous diary.

Loose diary entries, beginning around circa 1934 and continuing to 1953, with scattered additional entries in the 1950s-1970s, focus primarily on Saarinen's marriage to Eero Saarinen. They document in depth her emotional struggles as a working mother attempting to forge her own artistic identity, maintain a healthy family environment for her children, and support Eero Saarinen's growing international success, while not allowing that to stymie her own artistic ambitions. These folders include many handwritten notes and drafts of "letters" to Eero Saarinen which are journalistic in nature and include dream journals, "writings and ravings just before wedding," and notes found with her diaries.

Saarinen's engagement calendars are heavily annotated with notes documenting her professional appointments, progress on works of art and commissions, and Saarinen's leisure activities.

Some of the diary entries within volumes are not strictly chronological and often do not occur in a linear fashion.

The bulk of this series has been scanned with the exception of blank pages of diaries and unannotated pages of engagement calendars.

Project files document Saarinen's work on a variety of commissions including those for book cover designs, federal government buildings, post offices, schools and playgrounds (particularly the Crow Island School reliefs), companies such as KLM (then Royal Dutch Airlines), businesses such as Toffenetti's restaurant in Chicago, and private clients, including sister-in-law, Pipsan Saarinen. The majority of the projects documented here resulted in fully realized commissions for Saarinen, although several represent ideas and proposals.

Project files typically contain any and all of the following: correspondence and notes, many preliminary sketches, plans and blueprints, and photographs of artwork and project sites, with the bulk of the material being in the form of sketches. Sketches are primarily in graphite, although some are hand-colored with ink and/or paint.

Crow Island school sketches are arranged alphabetically by subject, primarily animals.

Project files are arranged alphabetically by name of project.

Series is scanned in entirety.

This series consists of three folders relating to a course Saarinen taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Cambridge Art Center entitled "The Language of Clay." Found are correspondence and memoranda, course descriptions, notes, and student rosters.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Series consists of invoices and receipts for supplies and other art-related expenses, records of book royalties for Who Am I? from Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., and miscellaneous receipts. Also found are records documenting exhibition related expenses, and two catalogs for 1944 and 1956 Saarinen exhibitions, marked with prices.

The bulk of this series has been scanned with the exception of routine financial records such as receipts.

Series includes announcements and catalogs for two Saarinen exhibitions, as well as some for other artists, many of which are annotated with comments by Saarinen stating her opinion of the artist featured. Also found are copies of a book jacket for The Americans: A New History of the People of the United States (Little Brown and Company, 1963) by Oscar Handlin, the jacket design for which includes a photo of a brass eagle by Saarinen.

Printed material also includes a group of reference files of clippings, primarily featuring photos of animals, arranged alphabetically by animal, some news clippings about Saarinen and the Saarinen family, and a folder of news articles on miscellaneous subjects of interest to Saarinen.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Series includes a family scrapbook of clippings about Saarinen's father, Dr. Arthur Swann, concerning his bee cures for rheumatism, as well as his marriage to Saarinen's mother, Susan Sedgwick.

The Saarinen scrapbook compiles letters, telegrams, news clippings, announcements and other printed material documenting Saarinen's career from 1935-1974.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Artwork consists of Saarinen's sketches in graphite, crayon, ink, pastel, and watercolor that did not appear to be arranged as part of her project files. It includes early sketches dating from her childhood to her college years, and subsequent sketches from the 1940s-1960s, and illustrates her early and developing interest in animal subjects.

Sketches are primarily of animals such as eagles, lions and other cats (including the Jungle Book character Bagheera), horses, Pekingese dogs, pelicans, and squirrels. Also found are sketches of various other animals including buffalo, bulls, calves, cats, dogs, goats, lambs, and pigs; anatomy and figure sketches; and a series of sketches executed on a trip to Mexico in 1938.

One folder consists of six colored sketches of a Cambridge house by Mary L. Provost.

Series is scanned in entirety.

Photos of Saarinen and others include a negative of a photograph of Saarinen, possibly with Eero Saarinen, included with a 1977 letter of transmittal; a group photograph including Lilian, Eero and Eliel Saarinen with the model for the Detroit Civic Center; and a photo of an unidentified woman on a city street.

Photos of artwork by Saarinen include animal sculpture, head and figure sculpture, wood carvings, and Saarinen's Mowgli and Bagheera sculpture. Also found are photos by Betty Cooper of Saarinen's 1944 exhibition at G Place Gallery.

Series is scanned in entirety with the exception of blank versos of photographs and duplicates.