Walt Kuhn, Kuhn family papers, and Armory Show records, 1859-1984, bulk 1900-1949

This series contains biographical documentation of Walt Kuhn, his wife and daugher, his father and mother, his in-laws, and their ancestors. Found in this series is a handwritten chronology containing notes on the Armory Show. Other types of material include additional biographical narratives and chronologies prepared by Walt Kuhn, Vera Kuhn, and others; identification cards, passports, death certificates and other official documents; obituaries; correspondence and notes on genaeology; published biographies; printed materials relating to Kuhn and Spier family homes; and medical records and correspondence. Artifacts include a framed dollar marked "first dollar earned by Walt Kuhn" and a medallion from art school.

Additional autobiographical writings can be found in Series 4.8: Notes and Writings. More obituaries of Walt Kuhn can be found in the 1949 clippings in Series 4.10: Printed Materials. Wills and documentation of family estates are in Series 4.7: Financial Records. Additional biographical information can be found in the audio recordings of Brenda Kuhn in Series 4.13: Audio Recordings.

Walt Kuhn traveled frequently throughout his life for weeks and months at a time, and while away he wrote lengthy letters almost daily, first to his parents from art school in France and Germany in 1901-1903, and from 1909 on to his wife and daughter. His candid and detailed letters to his family reveal otherwise hidden motives and feelings regarding events, career, art, politics, and personalities. Scattered letters to Walt from Vera and Brenda are interfiled chronologically in this subseries, and are especially revealing of Vera's involvement in her husband's career.

Occasionally, Kuhn writes from New York when Vera is out of town. Significantly, these occasions include the winter of 1911-1912, when he writes that "a new society" of artists is forming in reaction to the conservatism of the National Academy of Design, referring to the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, which would go on to mount the Armory Show of 1913. (For Kuhn's letters to his wife dealing directly with the Armory Show, dating from September 1912 to April 1913, see Series 1.1, Armory Show Correspondence, Organizer's Letters.) Other significant New York events described include Kit Kat Balls and Penguin Club events from 1914, 1917, and 1918.

Kuhn advised several important collectors of contemporary art, sometimes traveling with them to make purchases, and his letters home include descriptions of the collections and studios they visit. Collectors include Marie Harriman (especially 1931, see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files), John Quinn (1913, 1918, 1919, 1920), and Florida collectors Bert and Olive Taylor, Josephine and Ernest Kanzler, and Paul and Mary "Minna" Mellon (1945, 1947). Conversations with Mary and A. Conger Goodyear and Lillie P. Bliss about the formation of the Museum of Modern Art are related to Vera in letters from 1928 and 1929.

Kuhn's letters home reveal attitudes towards artists and other colleagues, as well as his many personal and professional prejudices. A painting trip to Paris in 1933 brings news of publisher Alfred Skira, and the artists Pablo Picasso, Demetrius Galanis, Man Ray, Cecil Howard, and Andre Derain. Letters from Ogonquit, ME, report on other artists who worked nearby, such as Edwin Booth "Ted" Grossman, Bernard Karfiol, John Laurent, John Carroll, Patsy Santo, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. From 1940 to 1942, a house on Lake Buel in Great Barrington, MA serves has a studio where Kuhn paints and tutors Mary Harriman Rumsey, Lily Emmet Cushing, and Harry Whitney, among others.

As designer and writer of vaudeville productions in the 1920s, Kuhn wrote home from the road about the politics and personalities of backstage life. Casts of his shows included performers Raymond Hitchcock and Lee Morse. During business trips for the Union Pacific railroad from 1936 to 1948, Kuhn wrote letters home about regional art and society circles throughout the Midwest and West. Significant Western contacts include artists Ralph Stackpole, Otis Oldfield, Rinaldo Cuneo, Edward Weston, critic Arthur Millier, collector Walter Arensburg, and film celebrities Cecil B. de Mille and Gary Cooper.

Kuhn's habit of writing to Vera when separated from her continued during his final illness and hospitalization in 1948 and 1949. Letters from this period are marked by his deteriorated mental state.

Illustrations are often found in Kuhn's letters, especially those written during painting trips to Paris, Maine, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Florida. Additional illustrated letters are filed with Artwork and with Photographs and Scrapbooks.

Photographs and photographic postcards are found throughout the series. Among them are photographs of the Gottlieb Reber estate in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1931; Arizona in 1928; and Florida in the 1940s. Many of the photographs mentioned in letters are filed in Series 4.11: Photographs and Scrapbooks.

Significant enclosures include letters from Charles Sheeler in 1922 and 1924, an exhibition catalog and floorplan for a Montross Gallery exhibition of 1914, and an original print of a nude by Kuhn, sent in 1918. Other enclosures were separated and may be filed elsewhere in the Kuhn Family Papers.

Correspondence in this series is primarily between Walt Kuhn and his professional and personal contacts and spans his entire career. Correspondents include family members, fellow artists, students, dealers, museum and gallery staff, collectors, friends, fans, critics and colleagues. Copies of outgoing correspondence are often present and are interfiled chronologically. Also included is scattered correspondence of Vera and Brenda Kuhn, and correspondence written after Kuhn died that documents his family's efforts to exhibit, sell, and donate his work.

The content of the correspondence ranges from personal and candid to purely transactional. Artists, collectors, dealers, and critics involved in the creation of significant works of art and collections in the early 20th century are represented. An alphabetical index of selected correspondents in this series is provided in the appendix. Another resource for accessing correspondence are the card files in Series 4.8: Notes and Writings, where correspondence with various contacts was indexed by the Kuhns and filed alphabetically by name.

In 1938, Walt and Vera Kuhn wrote and self-published the pamphlet, "The Story of the Armory Show" and sent it gratis to hundreds of interested parties. Among the correspondence from that year are many heartfelt reponses from fellow artists and other witnesses to the 1913 event, including Charles Sheeler, William Glackens, Stuart Davis, André Derain, Henri Roché, Walter Pach, and J.H. du Bois to name just a few.

Kuhn regularly instructed students through the mail with lengthy letters about painting techniques and methods. San Francisco painter Otis Oldfield is represented by over 100 lengthy letters in this subseries. Kuhn's letters to Oldfield, returned at Kuhn's request in 1945 for a publication project that was never realized, are interfiled. Other correspondence students include Patsy Santo, Frank di Gioia, Watson Bidwell, John Bernhardt, John Laurent, Goldie Paley, and Eric Lundgren. See the appendix for dates.

Types of material include letters (sometimes illustrated), postcards, invitations, announcements, and Christmas cards, which are sometimes made of original artwork. Enclosures are often found, such as photographs, clippings, tracings of art work, writings, receipts, passes and membership cards. Some letters indicate enclosures that were previously separated and can be found in other series.

Significant writings enclosed with correspondence include an early vaudeville script written by Kuhn and his friend, Archibald Macnab (1923); drafts of articles about Kuhn by the poet Genevieve Taggard (1931), critic Alan Burroughs (1930), and patron Eloise Spaeth (1950); and an unpublished history of the 1913 Armory Show by Paul Bird (1938). Photographs and photographic postcards are also found throughout the series. Included are photo postcards from Spain and France (1925), and from Arizona and California (1928); and photographs related to Kuhn's work for the Union Pacific Railroad Company (1936, 1938).

Additional correspondence can be found throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for details.

See Appendix for a list of selected correspondents in Series 4.3.

This series contains a variety of materials relating to exhibitions and sales of Walt Kuhn's artwork between 1920 and 1958. Files for the Harriman and Durand-Ruel galleries also document selected exhibits of other artists and other activities of these galleries.

Documentation for exhibitions that took place in the 1920s is sparse; included are catalogs, announcements, inventories, and receipts for exhibitions at M. de Zayas Gallery, Montross Gallery, Beaux Arts Galerie, Grand Central Art Galleries, M. Knoedler and Co., the Arts Club of Chicago, Albert Roullier Galleries, and Anderson Galleries.

From 1930 onwards, exhibitions are more thoroughly documented. Records of exhibitions typically include announcements, marked catalogs, guest lists, diagrams showing the arrangement of art work in the galleries, letters detailing the production of the show or responding to the show, press coverage, and summary documents showing attendance figures and sales. For some exhibitions, there are also photographs and guest books.

Because of Kuhn's long relationship with the Marie Harriman Gallery, files contain a variety of unique materials. Included is correspondence concerning exhibits of André Derain, Pablo Picasso, and Demetrius Galanis in the early 1930s. Also found are detailed regional reports on museums and private collectors throughout the United States and their relative interest in modern art. Other items include vouchers for sales of Kuhn's artwork, a 1931 cartoon by Kuhn of himself with Marie Harriman in Europe; a photographic portrait of Harriman by Berenice Abbott and another by Underwood and Underwood; and a transcript of a 1931 radio address given by Marie Harriman.

The series is arranged by gallery or exhibition in rough chronological order. The Western Traveling Exhibition files are further broken down by venue and arranged in the order in which the exhibition traveled.

Additional materials relating to the galleries and exhibitions named in this series can be found elsewhere in the collection. Exhibitions before 1920 are discussed in some detail in Walt Kuhn Letters to Family from those years. Additional exhibition catalogs and announcements are found in Printed Materials, and correspondence with galleries exists in General Correspondence. See individual series descriptions for more details.

See the Index for a list of selected correspondents from series 4.3 General Correspondence with cross-references to this series and 4.5: Provenance Files.

The Kuhns kept meticulous records of Walt Kuhn's art work. Their original file folders contain detailed annotations about paintings and sculptures, along with art reproductions, tracings, and other documentation. Annotations include information such as the model used for the work; where the work was created, exhibited, reproduced, and sold; and critical response. Some of the files also contain correspondence, clippings, exhibition catalogs, announcements, and bills of sale. Tempera paintings, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs are documented in a bound ledger filed at the end of this series.

Occasionally files contain other unique documentation. The unusually thick file for "Still Life with Red Bananas," for example, contains printed materials related to a controversy over the 1946 international exhibition of the State Department's collection of modern art, which was cancelled in response to conservative reaction. The collection was sold as "surplus" by the War Assets Administration, and the public outcry that ensued is documented in clippings in this file.

In addition to photographs of works of art, photographs in this series include publicity photographs of Edna St. Vincent de Millay standing before the painting "Mario" in her home and other installation views. Original sketches can be found in the files for Lahr's portrait and the paintings "Zuleika," "Absolom's House," "Beach Scene," "Green Apples with Gray Curtain," "Interior," and "Maternity." Miscellanous tracings and watercolor sketches of paintings whose original file folders are not present are filed at the end of this series.

Files are arranged alphabetically by the the artwork's title or by a key word in the title, grouping files for clown paintings, girl paintings, pine tree paintings, etc. This arrangement has been preserved, although it is idiosyncratic. Files for individual works have been grouped together in general alphabetical files. Large files are filed and listed individually. Execution dates of artwork for some files are provided in parentheses after the file headings and should not be confused with record dates.

Original files are very brittle and have torn edges and missing fragments. Microfilm of the collection made in 1965 may show the file before such damage occurred (reels D242A-D242B). Additional material related to the provenance of Kuhn's artwork is filed in Financial Records and elsewhere in the collection. See individual series descriptions for more details. A record book documenting Vera Kuhn's art jewelry is in Photographs and Scrapbooks.

See the Index for a list of selected correspondents from 4.3 General Correspondence with cross-references to this series and 4.4: Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files.

Although the bulk of the Walt Kuhn Family Papers are related to Walt Kuhn's artwork and career as a painter, items in this series document Kuhn's other creative projects in theater, motion pictures, and graphic and interior design.

In the 1920s, Kuhn designed and staged several vaudeville acts or "satirical ballets," which were performed in New York, Chicago, Atlantic City, and elsewhere. Included in this series are scripts, notebooks, sketches and drawings of costumes and stage sets, receipts, contracts, music, programs, a photograph, and a scrapbook. Notebooks contain sketches and production notes, contact information for theater people, and receipts signed by performers, among other notes. Scrapbooks contain clippings, programs, and one watercolor costume drawing. Other early theatrical writings and photographs can be found in Kit Kat Club and Penguin Club Records, and Kuhn describes his theater experience in detail in Walt Kuhn Letters to Family.

In 1939, Kuhn wrote and directed a silent, educational motion picture film called "Walt Kuhn's Adventures in Art - Learning to See." Kuhn gave lectures with the film from 1939 to as late as 1947. Papers related to this project include drafts of scripts, notes, and visual materials used in the film, including intertitles, photographs and a collage. Drafts for another film, apparently never made, are also filed with scripts. Items relating to copyright of these projects are filed with Financial Records.

From 1936 until 1943, Kuhn was employed by the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad Company through his connection with Averell Harriman, husband of Marie Harriman and UP's Chairman of the Board. He designed and decorated club cars and lounges for Streamliner trains, designed posters and brochures, and consulted for other projects. Kuhn's historically-themed club cars, "The Frontier Shack" and "The Little Nugget" involved two of his favorite historical themes, the old west and early stage comedians. Kuhn also designed graphics for UP's Sun Valley Lodge in 1937. Documents related to UP include blueprints, sketches, a poster, research notes, source materials, publicity, photographs, correspondence, pamphlets, tickets, sample materials, and notes. Related materials are filed in General Correspondence and Photographs and Scrapbooks.

Theater and Motion Picture files are arranged by type of material, and UP files are arranged by project.

This series contains records of the Kuhn family's financial assets and transactions. Types of material include account books, correspondence, legal documents, bills, and receipts. Sales of artwork are documented in Accounts of Moneys Received, Accounts of Paintings Sold, and to a lesser extent, Bills and Receipts. Also among the bills and receipts are insurance policies, travel expenses, lithography and publication expenses, and receipts for the shipment, framing, and photography of art works. Documents from the Walt Kuhn estate include a detailed appraisal made late in 1949 after his death, which lists several hundred works of art in his studio and on loan in various museums, among other property. A copy of the appraisal is annotated with notes of sales up to 1955.

The file on Copyrights contains correspondence and copyright registration certificates for Kuhn's theater acts, publications and motion picture. Copyright information about Kuhn's translations of 1912 are filed with those publications in Armory Show Records. Information included in tax returns includes payments made to Kuhn's models, who are named as employees. Other files document more personal financial transactions. Notebooks filed under Assets summarize information about savings, mortgages, stocks, bonds, and other property.

One folder labeled "Receipts for artwork sold" includes receipts from Montross Gallery for artwork by Kuhn including: two etchings; a decoration sold to John Quinn in 1920; and four oil paintings sold to L. P. Bliss in 1922. The folder also includes a list of prints and drawings by Kuhn sold by E. Weyhe in 1924.

This series contains writings by Walt Kuhn, his family, and others, and notes relating to Kuhn's contacts, publications, artwork, and other activities. Types of material include index card files, address books, notebooks, manuscripts, typescripts, clippings, correspondence, and photographs.

Card Files containing the Kuhns' scrupulous notes about people make up the bulk of this series. The files were kept in three separate alphabetical files with overlapping dates. They contain contact information, anecdotal details about shared meals, cocktail parties, or excursions, and cross-references to correspondence. Attachments such as clippings, correspondence, photographs, exhibition catalogs, and social announcements are common. Photographs and artwork found among the cards have been removed to separate folders, including images of Alan Burroughs, Sadakichi Hartmann, and Patsy Santo, and watercolor drawings by Lewis Barrington and Jean Oberlé. The original arrangement of the card file is idiosyncratic.

Notes on Artwork include a list of Kuhn's artwork which sold at the auction of John Quinn's art collection in February 1927; many lists of artwork compiled for exhibition, shipping, and inventory; and detailed descriptions of early artwork written by Kuhn.

Walt Kuhn's Notes and Notebooks include travel notes from Europe, the Western United States, and Maine, with a few sketches. Vera Kuhn's travel writings recount family trips to Nova Scotia from 1909 to 1912, and a trip to Europe in 1925.

Miscellaneous Personal Notes range from shopping lists and recipes to more significant notes such as those about he disposition of artwork after Kuhn's death. Collection Notes are notes about the family papers written on envelopes. The items once contained by the envelopes were separated from their contents during initial processing and are now filed throughout the Walt Kuhn Family Papers.

Other writings include manuscripts and visual materials from lectures given by Kuhn and Alfred Barr in 1934 about modern art collecting. Two articles about Kuhn published in Collier's in the 1940s are also filed here, along with related correspondence including letters from actress Dorothy Stickney, writer H.L.Mencken, and a number of Kuhn's former models. Photographs taken for the Collier's articles are filed with Photographs and Scrapbooks.

Miscellaneous Writings by Walt Kuhn include an autobiographical essay and writings on modern art and artists. Kuhn's writings from the period of his final illness and hospitalization are also filed here. Writings about Kuhn include manuscripts by Alan Burroughs, Jeanne Robert Foster, Blanche Matthias, and Frank E. Washburn Freund. Also included are typewritten copies of published essays about Kuhn's work.

Additional writings by Walt Kuhn are in Armory Show Records, Kit Kat Club and Penguin Club Records, and Other Projects. Significant writing about his artwork and techniques can also be found in his outgoing correspondence.

This series contains books, pamphlets, clippings, magazines, exhibition catalogs, invitations, announcements, art reproductions, programs, postcards, blueprints, and other printed ephemera gathered by Walt Kuhn and his family throughout their lives. Copies of published works by Walt Kuhn are filed here, as well as publications by friends and associates, including inscribed copies of works by Constantin Brancusi, Edwin Bjorkman, Frank Crowninshield, and Alice Garrett.

Exhibition Catalogs are found for Kuhn and other artists. Catalogs are occasionally annotated with reactions to artwork or other notes. For Kuhn catalogs marked with prices and/or buyers, see 4.4: S elected Gallery and Exhibition Files. For catalogs of the Armory Show, see Armory Show Records.

Clippings document Kuhn artwork and exhibitions, art institutions, art trends, collectors, other artists, Kuhn's other projects with the Union Pacific and theater, published life events of people known to the Kuhn's, articles written by friends, Walt Kuhn obituaries, and other miscellany. A significant portion of the clippings filed here are duplicated in other series.

Many of the periodicals in this series contain reproductions of Kuhn's artwork. Promotional Ephemera for Kuhn's publications, lectures, and other appearances are also filed here, along with circus programs and posters, and mailings on a range of subjects. Other printed materials are scattered throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for details.

This series contains original drawings, sketches, and prints created by Walt Kuhn. See also Series 4.11: Photographs and Scrapbooks, for addtional artwork in scrapbooks.

Cartoons include bird cartoons published in Life and in the book A Little Bird Told Me (1908, see Printed Materials), personal cartoons by Vera and Walt Kuhn depicting themselves, and one sketch of the Kuhns attributed to the cartoonist Oscar Edward Cesare. Two sketchbooks from Kuhn's trips to the Western United States are found, as well as Kuhn family Christmas cards, with Walt Kuhn's linotype prints of western scenes. Kuhn's ongoing interest in the circus is seen in his notes, sketches, and ink drawings of clown acts from 1941, accompanied by a short essay by Kuhn entitled "Plan to Revitalize the Clown and Fun Problem of the Circus." Folders containing miscellaneous artwork include rough sketches and designs, as well as finished drawings and cartoons, mostly undated. Also found are three of Kuhn's copper printing plates, entitled "Man in Leotard," "Woman in Slip and Feathered Hat," and "Woman in Slip and Large Hat."

Illustrated letters, sketches, and cartoons are scattered throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for more details. Copies of artwork in this series are marked as such and filed alongside originals. Reproductions of additional artwork are filed in Provenance Files and Photographs and Scrapbooks.

This series contains individual photographs, notes, photograph albums, and scrapbooks of photographs and other materials, which depict Walt Kuhn, his family, friends and colleagues, homes and studios, art school, travel in the U.S. and Europe, works of art, and other miscellany.

Among the persons pictured are Walt, Vera, and Brenda Kuhn, LaSalle Spier, John Quinn, Frederick James Gregg, George Overbury "Pop" Hart, Gus Mager, William and Edith Glackens and family, Pablo Picasso, Cecil Howard, Jo Davidson, W. Averell and Marie Harriman, Gary Cooper, Otis Oldfield, Lily Cushing Emmet, Patsy Santo, and many of Kuhn's models. Also included are portraits of Kuhn by Frederic D. Pangborn and Edward Weston.

Scrapbooks (Volumes 5, 6, and 7) contain photographs, illustrated letters by Walt and Vera Kuhn, postcards to Vera's parents, real photo postcards, reproductions of early artwork of Walt Kuhn, and other ephemera. Illustrations depict Kit Kat Balls, the 23rd St. studio, and Fort Lee, NJ among other subjects. Many of the people and places depicted in albums and scrapbooks are also depicted in individual photographs, which are arranged within broad subject headings.

Selected subjects are noted in the inventory list, below. Additional photographs are scattered throughout the collection. Additional scrapbooks can be found among Armory Show Records, Kit Kat Club and Penguin Club Records, and Other Projects. Additional illustrated letters are found in Armory Show Records, Walt Kuhn Letters to Family, and Artwork. Refer to individual series descriptions for more details.

This series consists of 8 audio reels and 1 audio cassette. Reels 1 to 7 were made by Brenda Kuhn (1911-1993), daughter of Walt Kuhn, as she went through her father's papers from March to November, 1965, on the eve of their accession to the archives. In her recordings, she makes specific reference to letters, artwork, photographs, and other documents found in the Armory Show Records and Walt Kuhn Family Papers. In some cases, Brenda is able to provide witness accounts of persons and events documented in the papers. However, her comments often stray far afield of the papers and art historical figures known to her as she muses on the activities of her own life and her vocation as promoter of her father's work. On reel 6, side 2 she interviews Grace Jones Sarka, wife of Charles Sarka and friend of Walt Kuhn during his early years as an artist in New York.

On reel 8, Brenda Kuhn's recollections are guided by Garnett McCoy, curator at the Archives of American Art, who interviews her about Walt Kuhn, the Kuhn family, and their contemporaries. Selected subjects on reels 1 to 8 are listed with the box inventory. All reels were recorded on both sides at a speed of 1 7/8 inches per second unless otherwise noted.

The audio cassette was recorded on "Walt Kuhn Day" at Kuhn House in Cape Neddick, ME on the 50th anniversary of Walt Kuhn's death in 1969.