Washburn Gallery records, 1906-2017, bulk 1971-2010

Administrative records date from 1965-2011 and document the administrative and business operations of the gallery including building rentals, audits, insurance, and fraud and theft claims. Services sought by the gallery are also documented here and include advertising, conservation, framing, photography, and printing. Gallery guest books contain names and signatures of visitors to the gallery from the mid-1980s to mid-2000s. Several files relate to Washburn's business related travel. Additionally, one folder contains drafts of writings by Washburn for lectures and articles chronicling the history of the gallery and her involvement in the art world.

This series contains primarily correspondence arranged either by name of correspondent or topic, however, a few topical files containing no correspondence are also filed here. Material dates from 1919-2016, with the bulk of the correspondence dating from 1971-2005. Correspondence pertains to the gallery's operation, promotion of its artists, research related to artworks, exhibitions, loans, sales, acquisitions, consignments, and publication requests and is with collectors, dealers, consultants, authors, journalists, curators, auction houses, as well as other colleagues. Invoices, checklists, inventories, photographs and slides, digital images, and printed material are found enclosed with the correspondence. One file contains copies of outgoing mail from the gallery. Material that dates prior to the Gallery's founding is predominantly printed material. A bulk of the correspondence in this collection pertaining to specific artists is arranged in the Artist Files series.

Artist files comprise the bulk of the collection at 31.5 linear feet and 4.081 gigabytes, and date from 1906-2017, bulk 1971-2011. Included here is correspondence, appraisals, financial statements, sales records, inventories, loan agreements, consignments forms, photographic material, printed material, writings, digital videos, digital images, and a few interview transcripts related to Washburn Gallery's stable of artists and those they exhibited. Frequent topics include sales, exhibitions at other institutions, special projects and commissions, conservation, and estate matters. Correspondence is with collectors, dealers, authors, journalists, curators, other colleagues as well as the heirs and executors of artists' estates. With the exception of Ronald Bladen and Bruce Kurland, correspondence with the artists is rare. Many artists have several files of photographic material detailing their works, and in some cases, photographs of the artist. Many artists also have several files containing printed material related to their career, including exhibition announcements, catalogs, press clippings, and newspapers and magazine articles. Some folders contain copies of original material produced in the early to mid-twentieth century. Material that dates prior to the Gallery's founding includes collected printed material and research relating to provenance.

The artist files reflect the gallery's stable of artists over the decades, as well as artists they exhibited, but did not represent. Significant documentation pertains to James Abbe, Richard Baker, Richard Benson, Ronald Bladen, Norman Bluhm, James Brooks, Byron Browne, Rosalind Bengelsdorf Browne, Patrick Henry Bruce, Arthur B. Carles, Nicolas Carone, Henry Church, Marjorie Content, Stuart Davis, Victor de Grailly, Elaine de Kooning, Burgoyne Diller, Arthur Dove, Fritz Glarner, Arshile Gorky, Marsden Hartley, Martin J. Heade, Edward Hicks, John William and John Henry Hill, Lewis Hine, Harry Holtzman, Bill Jensen, Joshua Johnson (Johnston), Gerome Kamrowski, Alice Trumbull Mason, Richard McDermott Miller, Gwynn Murrill, Louise Nevelson, Costantino Nivola, John Opper, Ray Parker, Ammi Phillips, Jackson Pollock, Robert Reed, T. Addison Richards, Gilbert Rohde, Alvin Ross, Mark Rothko, Morgan Russell, Anne Ryan, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Rolph Scarlett, Charles Shaw, David Smith, Leon Polk Smith, Myron Stout, Paul Strand, George Sugarman, Antonio Tàpies, and Jack Youngerman.

Files are arranged alphabetically by artist name. For artists with multiple folders, general correspondence is filed first, with subsequent folders arranged alphabetically by topic or material type.