Nancy Holt Estate records, 1835, circa 1900-2014

Artist statements are primarily about Holt's individual projects and may duplicate or supplement those found in her project files. Writings on poems and sculpture also include versions of Holt's statements on individual works and projects, notes, and drafts, as well as quotations from other sources. Files also include answers to a questionnaire related to Holt's "Buried Poems," a copy of her 1977 essay on Sun Tunnels published in Art Forum, and a sound recording of a lecture delivered by Holt in 1987.

A folder entitled "Nancy's Writings, Early" includes a medical report from Holt's childhood, poetry (by Holt?), crossword work diagrams, and a March 15 1971 Bob Smithson and Bob Fiore conversation transcript. Desert quotes and writings include a notebook of Holt's with a draft of a letter to Dennis Wheeler and other notes and quotations related to the desert and Sun Tunnels, as well as loose sheets of quotations and photocopies of writings by others related to the desert.

Writings by others about Holt include draft manuscripts, some annotated by or accompanied by notes or responses from Holt. They include drafts by Baile Oakes who wrote and edited works on both Holt and Smithson. Writings by Ted Castle are primarily about subjects other than Holt but include a copy of a published article he wrote about her.

Calendars are a combination of day planner diaries, wall calendars, and small wallet-sized calendars with brief annotations documenting Holt's schedules and appointments. They complement other material in the series, and may provide chronological cross-references to the dated notebooks. The calendar for 1976 is not in the collection.

Notebooks are a primarily spiral-bound and many are dated by Holt on the front cover and are sequential. They contain a wide variety of information including journal entries, notes and small sketches related to current projects, many drafts of letters including to other artists, to do lists, names and addresses, records of phone calls, and everyday life notations such as recipes and lists. Later notebooks reveal Holt's growing interest in Buddhism, meditation, and dream journaling. One notebook contains childhood memories captured in a single sentence, one per page.

One of the earliest notebooks contains entries dating from 1970-1974 and consists primarily of journal entries which provide insight into Holt's ideas at the time, and her evolving sense of identity. She writes about her relationship with Robert Smithson, artist friends including Richard Serra, Carl Andre, and others, her spirituality, and her need for connection with other women in her growth as an artist, among many other things. Two of the notebooks are labeled as relating to the project 30 Below (1979) and the film Pine Barrens (1975), but many of Holt's projects, including Sun Tunnels (1976) are also documented to some extent in this series.