Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Archives related to: Winston, Lydia, 1897-1989

titleBarnett and Lydia Winston Malbin papers, 1940-1973.
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionCorrespondence from artists, museum directors and dealers, largely relating to the Malbins' collecting activities, and the role of their collection as a resource for students in art history, music and poetry programs. Also included are photographs of the Malbin house, designed by Lydia Malbin's father, Albert Kahn; and photographs and catalogs of their collection.

Biographical and Historical Note
Art collectors. Birmingham, Michigan.
extent200 items (on 1 microfilm reel). reel 569
formatsCorrespondence Catalogs Photographs
accessPatrons must use microfilm copy.
record sourcehttp://www.siris.si.edu/
acquisition informationLent for microfilming 1973 by Dr. and Mrs. Barnett Malbin.
updated03/16/2023 10:29:54
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titleLydia and Harry Lewis Winston papers, 1900-1965 and [undated].
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionArt collectors; Birmingham, Michigan. The collection is mainly focused on the Futurists and their successors.

Records of the Winston collection of contemporary American and European art; and a copy of the catalog of the Winston collection.

REELS D214-D221: Correspondence with museums, dealers and artists; a card file on artists in the Winston collection, giving biographical and bibliographic information; photographs; exhibition catalogs; clippings; and articles on the artists. Among the correspondents are Alexander Calder, Josef Albers, Alfred Stieglitz, Giacomo Balla, and Umberto Boccioni.

REEL 3482: A copy of the catalog of the Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston Collection, 152 p.
extent7.0 linear ft. (on 9 microfilm reels) reels D214-D221 & 3482
formatsCorrespondence Photographs Catalogs Ephemera
accessPatrons must use microfilm copy.
record sourcehttp://www.siris.si.edu/
acquisition informationMaterial on reels D214-D221 lent for microfilming 1966; material on reel 3482 donated 1973 by Lydia Winston Malbin. Reels D214-D221: Originals returned to Lydia Winston Malbin after microfilming.
updated12/07/2018 10:44:41
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titleLydia Winston interview, 1976, April 14.
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionInterview of Lydia Winston Malbin conducted by Paul Cummings, April 14, 1976.
extent1 sound tape reel.
formatsSound Recording
accessUntranscribed; use requires an appointment.
record sourcehttp://www.siris.si.edu/
acquisition informationThis interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
updated11/12/2014 11:29:50
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titleLydia Winston interview, 1974 Aug. 23-Aug. 27.
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionAn interview of Lydia Winston conducted by Dennis Barrie for the Archives of American Art.
extent2 sound tape reels ; 5 in. (71 p. transcript)
formatsSound Recording Transcript
accessContact repository for restrictions and policies.
record sourcehttp://www.siris.si.edu/
acquisition informationThis interview is part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
updated11/12/2014 11:29:50
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titleArtist file: Winston, Lydia; miscellaneous uncataloged material.
repositoryThe Museum of Modern Art
descriptionPamphlet file
The folder may include announcements, clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations, small exhibition catalogs, and other ephemeral material.

Location
MoMA Queens Artist Files

Call Number
Winston, Lydia
extent1 folder
formatsEphemera
accessContact repository for restrictions and policies.
record sourcehttps://library.nyarc.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/ai54l4/alma991011906269707141
updated11/29/2022 15:49:50
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titleLydia Winston Malbin papers
repositoryYale University Library
descriptionThe Lydia Winston Malbin Papers was created and accumulated by Mrs. Malbin in the course of her art collecting, and serves as a supplement to and an enhancement of her collection of art. In time, it, along with the considerable library she amassed, came to enjoy a life and an importance of its own. In 1974, it was the focus for "Documenting a Collection", an exhibit mounted at the Detroit Institute of Arts (in conjunction with the show "Cobra and Contrasts"), which drew upon the archives holdings. Ultimately, the archives survived after the collection of art ceased to be.

An article in Connoisseur noted, "With a certain irony it would seem that to collect modern art one must not only look to the future, but to the past as well...[the Winstons] have complemented their art with a library and, even more important, with archives carefully and systematically developed. The art object is thus supplemented by a context of factual information, criticism and art history, and is established in a network of biographical, sociological , and theoretical relationships."

The papers are of interest in a number of areas. They provide extensive documentation of a major twentieth-century collection which is no more; they document -- sometimes in great depth -- individual works within the collection; they provide insights into some of the leading artists of this century, and particularly of the Italian Futurists; and they illustrate in detail the practice of art collecting as carried out by Malbin, one of the great American practitioners of that vocation.

They provide valuable information about many of the works of art that graced the collection. LWM was scrupulous about gathering as much information as she could prior to purchasing a work, and about documenting everything of relevance after, including: the costs and problems of transporting the work to their home ; all conservation work; correspondence with the artist and/or his family; correspondence regarding the work, including requests to purchase it; all information about the exhibition of the work; publications in which the work appears or is mentioned; all access to the work, and to the archival information regarding it, by scholars; and secondary materials regarding the work, the artist, the movement. On occasion, she even included relevant discoveries she made: e.g., photographs reminiscent of the work, or examples of the work's influence on advertising, or on other artists.

The papers are a particularly substantive source on the subject of Italian Futurist art. There is a wealth of information on the specific works within the Winston/Malbin Collection and the artists who created them, most notably Severini, Balla, and Boccioni. In addition, LWM collected major documents and minor scraps of information relating to Italian Futurism and its later influence within the art world.

Of special interest are the materials relating to the acquisition and later exhibition of the Boccioni drawings, and the friendship they formed with Signora-Boccioni, Boccioni's sister; the Winstons' exploits in persuading Brancusi to part with one of his works for the first time in twenty years (upon which Harry and Lydia Winston based a delightful one-act play); their experiences in commissioning a mobile by Alexander Calder for their Birmingham, Michigan home.

LWM pursued art collecting with a zest that all who knew her remarked upon. The collection contains many off-shoots of this activity: photographers of their many friends within the art world: artists and their families, fellow collectors, museum curators, and critics. There are articles she wrote, speeches she gave, copies of interviews.

Eventually -- inevitably -- the archive acquired its own reputation within the scholarly community. Numerous students visited the Malbin apartment in New York not only to view the collection, but also to conduct research within the archives. Some of the papers resulting in that research are also contained within the collection.

Biographical / Historical note:Lydia Winston Malbin (1897-1989) was an art collector and patron who assembled a major collection of modern European art with a concentration on Italian Futurism.

Arrangement
The Lydia Winston Malbin Papers are organized into thirteen series: I. Paintings, 1938-1982. II. Sculpture, 1949-1982. III. Graphics, 1944-1988. IV. Drawings, 1946-1985. V. Objects of Art, 1940-1972. VI. Correspondence, 1959-1989. VII. Photographs, 1949-1972. VIII. Gifts and Loans, 1945-1985. IX. Collection Art, 1951-1988. X. Projects and Activities, 1957-1988. XI. Other Papers, undated. XII. Albert Kahn Papers, undated. XIII. Lydia Winston Malbin Papers Addition, 1938-1997.

Cite as:Lydia Winston Malbin Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
extent45 Linear Feet (100 boxes)
accessThe materials are open for research.
record linkhttps://orbis.library.yale.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=8145489
record sourcehttps://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1498
finding aidFinding aid available.
acquisition informationThe bulk of the collection was donated to the Yale University Art Gallery by the Malbin family in 1991 with additional material being donated in subsequent years. The entire collection was transferred to the Beinecke Library in 2007.
updated11/19/2019 11:38:02
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