Werner Drewes papers, 1838-2015, bulk 1890-1990

Included here are Drewes' 1923, 1926 and 1932 passports, his student record from the Bahaus School of Design signed by Mies van der Rohe and Wassily Kandinsky, some military papers, resumes and biographical notes, and an incomplete transcript of an interview with Drewes.

Also found is information relating to Drewes' family history, including family trees, a coat of arms, family letters and notebooks, and a book of handwritten poetry belonging to Drewes' mother. Much of this material is in German.

Some of the material in this series was labeled with green and yellow stickers as the "G" and "Y" series. Material is arranged alphabetically by folder title.

Found in this series are letters from Maria Drewes and other family members, and artists and art dealers including Josef Albers, Edward Boccia, Alexander Calder, Howard Dearstyne, Bourgoyne Diller, Katherine S. Dreier, Perle Fine, Adolph Gottlieb, Herbert Grainick, Jean Helion, Carl Holty, Wassily Kandinsky, Gerhard Marcks, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Hans Moller, Abraham Rattner, Richard York Gallery, Kurt Roesch, Karl Schrag, Albert Urban, and others. Some individual correspondents have named files, while others are included in the "General" files.

General correspondence and general business correspondence include correspondence with art galleries, and art institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, and relate primarily to loans, sales, and exhibitions of artwork.

Correspondence relating to the Drewes' estate includes an appraisal report by Karen Holtzman for Drewes' artwork and correspondence between family members, including Harald and Wolfram Drewes, and inventories of artwork.

One folder relates to a 1974 exhibition in Turkey and Greece, and includes photographs and publicity material from the exhibition. A folder of correspondence labeled with a "Y" series of yellow stickers includes letters from T. Lux Feininger, Clark Fitzgerald, Karl Schrag, and Swedish artists Jan and Pia Thunholm.

Greeting cards consist of hand made cards sent to Drewes by artists including Gerhard Marcks, Karl Schrag and others.

Folders are arranged alphabetically by folder title.

Series includes a biographical essay, a German diary, with translation, documenting Drewes' time in Europe from 1918-1920, a 1922 "love letter" to Drewes' first wife Margaret written in a bound notebook in verse form with a translation from the German, and notes on Drewes' trips to Europe from the 1960s-1980s.

General notes on design and diagrams of class problems appear to have been written by Drewes' during his tenure at Washington University.

Writings by others include two essays on Drewes.

Some of the material in this series is labeled with "G" and "Y" stickers as the green and yellow series.

Series contains inventory records of artwork maintained by Drewes throughout his career from the early 1900s-1980s. Catalogs document artwork by genre and may record any or all of the following: the date of execution, title and assigned number, a sketch of the artwork with descriptive notes such as subject and dimensions, and sales information where applicable. In some cases photos of artwork are affixed beside the sketch. A series of copies of some of the catalogs, compiled from the originals in the 1980s, is also included here.

Index cards, which document artwork arranged by number, contain similar information but are accompanied in many cases by photographs, and negatives, of artwork rather than sketches.

The bulk of the catalogs and index cards are labeled with blue stickers as the "B" series; two folders contain "T" series index cards. All material is arranged in alpha-numerical order according to these labels.

Three scrapbooks include fragments of a clippings scrapbook about Drewes from the 1920s-1930s, a scrapbook compilied for Drewes' memorial service, and a scrapbook of photos of artwork and clippings compiled by Rosamund Frost.

Announcements and catalogs are for Drewes' one-man shows as well as exhibitions and events in which Drewes participated.

Other announcements and catalogs include catalogs listing sales information for Drewes' artwork and announcements and catalogs for other artists.

Clippings are generally about Drewes and his exhibitions. Also found are 3 children's books published in Germany, one of which was a gift to Drewes as a child.

The bulk of Drewes' sketchbooks and groups of loose sketches, are dated and titled by subject or genre, and contain primarily pencil and ink sketches, with some crayon and watercolor sketches. Many are labeled with red stickers as the "R" series.

Also found are 10 folders of Drewes' prints made for holiday greeting cards. An additional folder contains cards made for Maria Drewes.

Two folders contain artwork by others, including family members.

The bulk of the material is labeled with "R" stickers as the red series and is arranged in numerical sequence.

Series includes photographs of Drewes, including studio, portrait, family, exhibition and travel photographs. Also found are many photographs, negatives, and transparencies, as well as 8 glass negatives of works of art by Drewes. Many photographs of works of art have corresponding negatives affixed to the back of the photos.

One series of photographis was labeled with black labels and numbered as the "BK" series. This material is arranged in alpha-numerical sequence at the end of the series under the folder grouping "Works of Art in Labeled Series." Other "BK" photographs are arranged alphabetially by folder title with assigned numbers indicated in parentheses.

Glass plate negatives have been digitized.

Papers provide scattered documentation of Maria Drewes' marriage to Werner Drewes and her career as a jewelry professor and desginer. Correspondence relating to her work prior to her marriage to Drewes, includes her 1957 teaching certificate and letters of reference from the City Art Museum of St. Louis, as well as family letters and diaries primarily documenting European travels during the 1960s-1980s. Also found are notes, a scrapbook and photographs of Maria Drewes' jewelry designs.