Nancy Spero papers, 1940s-2009

Series houses personal and professional correspondence and is with museums, art dealers, art organizations, groups representing political and social issues of interest to Spero, artists, and others. The files provide scattered documentation of topics including exhibitions, projects, publications, travel, and fundraising, which are explored further, particularly in Series 5-7.

Of note in this series is correspondence with writers and art scholars who wrote about Spero and reviewed her work in various contexts, including monographs, exhibition reviews, and catalog essays. These include art curators, critics, and historians Susanne Altmann, Deborah Frizzell, Lucy Lippard, and Sylvère Lotringer, and cultural theorist and curator of the first British retrospective of Spero's work, Jon Bird. Also found are files for poet Clayton Eshelman for whose publications Spero provided illustrations, and correspondence with artists including Dottie Attie, Judy Chicago, and Ana Mendieta. There are several substantive letters written from Mendieta in Iowa where she was teaching and from Rome discussing her work, her family, and personal relationships.

Personal correspondence with family and friends includes general news, invitations to a variety of social events, greeting cards, drawings by grandchildren, and letters and printed material about family life and the professional achievements of Spero's sons Paul, Philip, and Stephen Golub.

Chronological correspondence includes letters from people whose names are illegible or for whom only a first name is given, personal greetings, well wishes, and postcards of a more personal than professional nature.

Correspondence was originally arranged chronologically. The bulk of the series was rearranged alphabetically by name of correspondent to facilitate access. Correspondents for whom 5 or more items exist are identified by named files. Other correspondence is housed in general files according to the first letter of the last name of the individual or name of organization. Cards, such as greeting cards and postcards, remain in loose chronological order.

Additional professional correspondence can be found throughout other series, particularly Series 5-7.