Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Elisofon, Eliot
| title | Eliot Elisofon Papers, 1930-1988 (bulk, 1942-1973) | repository | University of Texas, Austin |
| description | Eliot Elisofon's career as a photojournalist, filmmaker, author, artist, and collector of primitive art and sculpture is documented by photographs, transparencies, slides, negatives, films, research material, notes, photo captions, logbooks, correspondence, agreements and other documents, drafts, proofs, tearsheets, clippings, scrapbooks, catalogs, sketchbooks, and artifacts, all dating from 1933 to 1988. |
| extent | 60.5 linear feet |
| formats | Correspondence Photographs Writings Research Files Ephemera |
| access | Open for research with the exception of Elin Elisofon's biography research files (folders 70.15 through 72.5) which require her permission to use |
| record link | http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/elisofon.hp.html |
| record source | http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/elisofon.hp.html |
| finding aid | Online and in repository. |
| acquisition information | Gift, 1992 |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:56 |
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| title | Chaim Gross papers, 1920-2004 | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | Biographical material, correspondence, business records, notes, writings, art work, printed material, and photographs. REEL D115: Ca. 900 letters and greeting cards, 1939-1963, to Gross from collectors, museums, art organizations, and colleagues; contracts and receipts, 1941-1959; a drawing of African sculptures; 4 sketches drawn on envelopes and letters received; minutes of an exhibit committee meeting, 1962; and printed material, mainly exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1942-1962, and invitations to art-related events, 1948-1959. Correspondents include: John I. H. Baur, Isabel Bishop, Cornelia Van Auken Chapin, Henry Di Spirito, Eliot Elisofon, Juliana Force, Hy Freilicher, Al Hise, Edward Hopper, Mervin Jules, Benjamin Kopman, Leon Kroll, Paul Manship, Frances M. Morgan, Arnold Newman, Elias Newman, Abbo Ostrowsky, Ann Cole Phillips, Edna Reindel, Hugo Robus, Edward Rowan, Charles Salerno, Paul Sample, Mitchell Siporin, Henry Strater, Isaac Stern, Egon Weiner, Anita Weschler, Warren F. Wheelock, Harry H. Wickey, Carl Zigrosser, and William Zorach. REELS D115a and 924-925: Ten record books of Gross' sculpture, 1926-1975, containing rough drawings of works, dimensions, titles, dates, materials, production locations, and information regarding owners. REELS N69/7-8, N69/19-20, N69/28-29, N69/34, and N69/52: Eighty sketchbooks, 1920-1968. REELS N69/35-36: Letters, 1942-1969, from universities, museums, galleries, and colleagues including Ben-Zion, George Biddle, Peter Blume, Federico Castellon, Joseph Floch, Jo Hopper, Karl Knaths, Arnold Newman, Elliot Offner, Paul Suttman, Stuyvesant Van Veen, and William Zorach; miscellaneous writings by Gross and others; 3 lists of works; and printed material. REELS 2320-2321 and unmicrofilmed: Letters and postcards, 1934-1974, many illustrated, from Mimi Gross and her husband, Red Grooms; eight illustrated letters and two envelopes from Mimi Gross to her parents Renee and Chaim Gross, written while she was traveling in Italy, Macedonia, Greece, and Yugoslavia in 1961 and 1968; 3 sketches; 2 clippings; and an exhibition announcement for Red Grooms, undated. REEL 2813: Thirteen postcards, 1951-1954, from friends who were traveling. REELS 4913-4923: Primarily correspondence (7.2 linear ft.), 1926-1983, with galleries, philanthropic organizations, and colleagues, including Isabel Bishop, Peter Blume, Jose De Creeft, Allen Ginsberg, John Graham, Joseph Hirsch, Joseph and Olga Hirshhorn, Jacob Kainen, Leon Kroll, Arnold Newman, Elias Newman, Abraham Rattner, Warren Robbins, Edward Rowan, Isaac Singer, Moses Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Isaac Stern, William Zorach, and an undated letter containing a photograph of Merce Cunningham. Photographs, 1935-1982, are of Gross, his children, art-related events, gallery receptions, gatherings at Gross' home, exhibition installations, of art work executed between 1920 and 1979, and colleagues, including Sam Adler, George Constant, José De Creeft, Alexander Dobkin, Philip Evergood, Ernest Fiene, Joseph Floch, Eugenie Gershoy, Vincent Glinsky, Aaron Goodelman, Adolph Gottlieb, Lena Gurr, Cleo Hartwig, Joseph Hirshhorn, Leon Kroll, Jack Levine, Louise Nevelson, Arnold Newman, Warren Robbins, Nelson Rockefeller, Isaac Soyer, Raphael Soyer, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Karl Knaths posing for Gross, and Joseph Stella posing for Moses Soyer. Other material includes contracts, loan agreements, receipts; minutes of meetings; lists of art work and people; writings by Gross and others; 2 drawings; clippings; exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1935-1982; a catalog, 1977, for "The Sculptor's Eye," an exhibition of African art from Gross' collection; press releases; programs; brochures; 2 books, Chaim Gross: The Jewish Holdiays (1972) and The Sculpture Reliefs of the Ten Commandments by Chaim Gross (1973); and reproductions of art works. Bio / His Notes: Sculptor, instructor; New York, N.Y.; b. 1904; d. 1991. Born in a small village in Austria-Hungary, Gross studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts (Budapest) in 1919, and at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Vienna) in 1920. Immigrating to New York City in 1921, he attended classes at the Educational Alliance Art School from 1921-1926 and befriended Raphael and Moses Soyer. He also studied at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, and with Robert Laurent at the Art Students League. Gross taught at the Educational Alliance Art School from 1927-1990, and at the New School of Social Research from 1950-1990. A renowned collector of African sculpture, Gross was active in many art-related and philanthropic organizations. His daughter, Mimi, was married to Red Grooms in 1964. |
| extent | 10.4 linear ft. |
| formats | Correspondence Business Papers Writings Artwork Photographs |
| access | Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm. Use of unmicrofilmed material requires an appointment. |
| record link | https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/AAA.groschai.pdf |
| record source | https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/chaim-gross-papers-8992 |
| finding aid | Finding aid available at AAA offices. |
| acquisition information | The Chaim Gross papers were given to the Archives of American Art in a series of accessions by Chaim Gross from 1963-1983. Thirteen postcards were given by Mrs. Irving Marantz in 1975. Mimi Gross donated eight letters and two envelopes in 2005. Additional papers were donated by the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation in 2016 via Susan Fisher, executive Director, and in 2017 and 2020 by the Foundation via Sasha Davis, Interim Director and Curator of Collections. |
| updated | 06/09/2023 15:39:50 |
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| title | Eliot Elisofon Field photographs, 1942-1972. | repository | National Museum of African Art |
| description | The photographs document many aspects of African life and culture including agriculture, animals, archeology, architecture, art and artisans, children, cityscapes, dance and music, domestic scenes, education, flora, hunting and fishing, industry, landscapes, leaders, markets, medicine, recreation, rituals and celebrations, and transportation. Photographs taken by Eliot Elisofon to document his travels and work. The images portray many aspects of African life and culture including agriculture, wildlife, archaeology, architecture, art and artisans, children, cityscapes and landscapes, leaders, markets, medicine, recreation, ritual and celebration, and transportation. Artisans shown include an Asante weaver making kente cloth in Ghana; a Dogon carver in Mali making a kanaga mask; an Ebrie goldsmith in Cote d'Ivoire; Hausa dyers in Kano, Nigeria; and Nupe beadmakers in Nigeria; as well as artists at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa, Congo. Portraits of leaders include the Asante court at Kumase in Ghana; Ebrie chiefs and notables in Cote d'Ivoire; the timi (king) of Ede, a Yourba town, Nigeria; the emir of Katsina, Nigeria; and the Kuba king and his court in the Congo. There are informal portraits showing children of the Kuba royal court dancing, Fulbe women with gold earrings in Mali, Mangbetu women in the Congo, and Maasai elders in Kenya. Masked dances documented include a Dogon dama festival celebration in Mali, an Igbo festival in Nigeria, and Kuba and Pende masked dancers in the Congo. There are also images of Yoruba gelede (men's association) masks in Nigeria. Non-masked dancers shown include Dan professional acrobatic dancers in Cote d'Ivoire, Irigwe dancers in Nigeria, Mangbetu dancers in the Congo, Mbuti dancers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Wodaabe men dancing in Nigeria. Events shown include Hausa riders in chain mail during the Independence Day celebration in Katsina, Nigeria. Images of art in situ include ancestral altars in the King of Benin's palace in Nigeria; Dogon rock paintings in Mali; and Yoruba Shango shrine sculptures in the palace courtyard of timi (king) of Ede in Nigeria. Landscapes include views of mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Animals shown include birds, buffalos, elephants and giraffes. Traditional architecture shown includes Asante shrine houses with raised wall decorations in Ghana, Dogon villages in Mali and mosques in Mopti. Bio / His Notes: A photographer best known for his work in Life magazine. Elisofon worked as a free-lance magazine photographer from 1933 to 1937, as a staff photographer for Life from 1933 to 1937 and on photographic assignments for various magazines, including the Smithsonian magazine, from 1942 to 1945. Elisofon traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America documenting the peoples of these lands as well as their arts and environments. A founding member and curatorial associate of the private Museum of African Art, which in 1981 became the National Museum of African Art (NMAfA), Elisofon bequeathed his collection of African photographs to the museum when he died in 1973. To honor Elisofon's contribution to the understanding of African art and culture, NMAfA named its archives after him. |
| extent | 80,000 photographic prints : b&w ; 25 x 20 cm. or smaller. 30,000 slides : col. photographic negatives : b&w ; 35mm |
| formats | Photographs |
| access | Permission to reproduce images from Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. For information on photo services and research appointments, please visit |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| acquisition information | Photographs from this collection appeared in Life magazine and in the following publications; Color Photography by Eliot Elisofon (London: Thames & Hudson, 1962), The Nile by Eliot Elisofon (New York: Viking Press, 1964), Zaire: A Week in Joseph's World by Eliot Elisofon ((New York: Crowell-Collier Press, 1973), Africa by Eliot Elisofon edited by Tom Maloney (New York: U.S. Camera Annual, 1953-54) and Memorable Life Photographs by Edward Steichen (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1951). |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:00 |
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| title | Artist file: Elisofon, Eliot; miscellaneous uncataloged material. | repository | The Museum of Modern Art |
| description | 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 Elisofon, Eliot |
| extent | 1 folder |
| formats | Ephemera |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | https://library.nyarc.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/ai54l4/alma991012087689707141 |
| updated | 11/29/2022 15:49:50 |
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| title | Eliot Elisofon photograph collection. | repository | Emory University |
| description | The collection consists of nineteen black and white photographs (8" x 11") related to African culture by Eliot Elisofon. Notes: Eliot Elisofon (1911-1973), internationally known African American photographer and filmmaker. Related materials located in other repositories: National Museum of African Art (U.S.), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. |
| extent | .25 linear ft. |
| formats | Photographs |
| access | Unrestricted access. Small collection, may be available for use after consultation with staff. |
| record source | http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ |
| finding aid | Finding aid available in repository. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:00 |
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| title | Gloria Swanson Papers, 18??-1988. | repository | University of Texas, Austin |
| description | The papers of this well-known American actress encompass her long film and theater career, her extensive business interests, and her interest in health and nutrition, as well as personal and family matters. The papers of actress Gloria Swanson (ca. [18--]-1988, bulk 1920-1983, 620 boxes) document her career accomplishments, her business ventures and her various interests, as well as her childhood, family, personal relationships, and private life. Included are correspondence, photographs, scripts, production records, financial and legal records, publicity materials, clippings, scrapbooks, published materials, film, audio recordings, music, writings, art work, and artifacts. In the foreword to her autobiography, Swanson explained her eighty year accumulation of "files and scrapbooks and photographs and films and letters and documents" with the statement "I never throw anything away." Also a diligent custodian, she shepherded records from California to New York, installed state-of-the-art mechanical filing cabinets in her office in the 1950s, and even hired an archivist to order her papers after they were "ransacked" during the writing of Swanson on Swanson. This process was begun in 1980 by Raymond W. Daum. As many files as possible have been placed in the context of their original creation, left in their original order, and grouped together in the appropriate series. Materials which had apparently been separated for research or otherwise segregated (such as "VIP" correspondence) have been reintegrated into the collection. Other parts of the collection, which were so chaotic as to be virtually unuseable (i.e., United Artists, Health and Nutrition subseries, clippings, photographs, etc.), have had order imposed upon them. The collection contains extensive records (including numerous film stills) of previous hitSwanson'snext hit career in motion pictures, encompassing sixty-six films, ca. 1914-1975. Her film career spanned the early days of slapstick two-reelers, the peak of the silent era, and the transition to sound and other technological developments. Her role as one of the first women to independently produce her own films at United Artists, 1925-1933, is traced by the records of her production companies. These companies produced six of her films, including the controversial Sadie Thompson, and the legendary Erich von Stroheim fiasco Queen Kelly, as well as her first "talkie," The Trespasser. previous hitSwanson'snext hit watershed role of later years, that of Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950), is also well documented. Additionally, the collection also contains evidence of Swanson's varied personal enthusiasms: art (original art and sculpture by Miss previous hitSwansonnext hit, including a design for a United Nations Postal Administration stamp issue commemorating the Decade for Women, 1980); fashion (in addition to costume designs and the records of her commercial clothing line, there are associations with designers such as Coco Chanel, Edith Head, René Hubert, Givenchy, Pauline Trigere, Adam Werlé, and Valentina); health and nutrition (an early enthusiast of organic foods, her papers document a tireless crusade against chemical additives, inorganic pesticides, and pollution, her efforts in the passage of the so-called Delaney Bill in 1958, and participation in the Independent Cancer Research Foundation, the Committee for Independent Cancer Research, and the Patients' Aid Society); music (she sang on film, television, and stage, and numbered George Gershwin, Rosa Ponselle, and Jascha Heifetz among her friends); psychic phenomena and religion (her proclivities as a spiritual seeker are indicated in materials concerning such organizations as ESP Research Associates Foundation, the United Church of Religious Science, and the University of Science and Philosophy); politics (her campaign activities for Wendell Willkie, Thomas E. Dewey, and Ronald Reagan are included); science and technology (including visits to Bell Helicopter and to NASA, from which she cherished an autographed picture and drawings by Werner von Braun); and travel (England, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Russia, and Sweden, represented chiefly through photographs). There is a wide range of correspondence, located primarily in Series I., but also scattered through the other series due to the inevitable overlap of personal, career, business, and other relationships. Among Miss previous hitSwanson'snext hit correspondents are family, friends, business associates, acquaintances, and fans, spanning many notables from numerous fields of endeavor: Michelle Amon, Kenneth Anger, Robert Balzer, Vilma Banky, Beverly Bayne, Henry G. Bieler, Earl Blackwell, Virginia Bowker, Charles Brackett, Lewis L. Bredin, Harry A. Bruno, Carol Burnett, George Bush, Francis X. Bushman, Richard Evelyn Byrd, Walter Byron, James Cagney, Eddie Cantor, Carol Channing, Charlie Chaplin, Maurice Chevalier, Ronald Colman, Noel Coward, Fleur Cowles, Joan Crawford, George Cukor, Gloria Daly, Marion Davies, James J. Delaney, Cecil B. DeMille, Indra Devi, Thomas E. Dewey, Marlene Dietrich, William Dufty, Allan Dwan, Nelson Eddy, Mamie Doud Eisenhower, Harlan Ellison, Douglas Fairbanks, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Michael Farmer, José Ferrer, Allan Jay Friedman, George, Duke of Kent, George Gershwin, Margaret Ghika, Lillian Gish, Hubert de Givenchy, Elinor Glyn, Samuel Goldwyn, Ram Gopal, Edmund Goulding, D. W. Griffith, Gladys Griffith, Alec Guiness, Edmund Gwenn, Forrest Halsey, Oscar Hammerstein II, Helen Hayes, Will H. Hays, Edith Head, William Randolph Hearst, Ethel Helmsing, Katharine Hepburn, Conrad Hilton, Prince Franz Hohenlohe, Bob Hope, Hedda Hopper, Edward Everett Horton, L. Ron Hubbard, René Hubert, William Bradford Huie, George S. Kaufman, Buster Keaton, Edward Moore Kennedy, Harold J. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy, Rose Kennedy, Jean Kerr, Edward I. Koch, Henri de la Falaise, Beatrice LaPlante, Henri Langlois, Rod LaRocque, Jesse L. Lasky, Evelyn Laye, Vivien Leigh, Alan Jay Lerner, Mervyn LeRoy, Clare Boothe Luce, Joel McCrea, Roddy McDowell, Frances Norton Manning, Arlette Marchal, Stanley Marcus, Frances Marion, Gene Markey, Herbert Marshall, Somerset Maugham, Louis B. Mayer, James Michener, Condé Nast, Marshall Neilan, David Niven, Richard M. Nixon, Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Albert Parker, Louella Parsons, Mary Pickford, Zasu Pitts, Harold Prince, Ronald Reagan, Charles Revson, Carroll Righter, Ginger Rogers, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph M. Schenck, Else Schiaparelli, David O. Selznick, Ted Shawn, Eunice Shriver, Herbert K. Somborn, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Steichen, Preston Sturges, Ed Sullivan, Joseph Patrick previous hitSwansonnext hit, Joseph Theodore previous hitSwansonnext hit, Constance Talmadge, Norma Talmadge, Bess Truman, Valentina, Erich von Stroheim, Raoul Walsh, Barbara Walters, LeRoy P. Ward, Jack Warner, Clifton Webb, Orson Welles, Dan Werlé, Billy Wilder, Lois Wilson, Sam Wood, Adelaide Woodruff, Florenz Ziegfeld, Adolph Zukor, and others. An extensive index of correspondents (which also includes photographic subjects, prominent photographers, and some topics) has been created in order to locate materials which are dispersed through the collection. The index is selective and should by no means be considered exhaustive. Persons and subjects were selected for their own intrinsic importance, as well as their quantity and importance within the collection. Individual actors in the stills are not indexed. However, a Film Credits List is included in this inventory which lists the individual cast members for each of previous hitSwanson'snext hit films. Though this collection is substantially complete, it is probably weakest in the area of personal materials for the 1920s through the mid-1940s. The permanent move to New York in the late 1930s, the arrival of long-time staffers such as Gladys Griffith in the 1940s, and the longevity of these arrangements seem to have contributed to a more stable and consistent climate in which the more comprehensive papers of the 1950s through the 1970s were created. Items not present in this archive include the bulk of Miss previous hitSwanson'snext hit film holdings, which were acquired by George Eastman House in 1967. For further information on those materials, see folders 201.1-201.8. For the disposition of certain other items after her death in 1983, see box 441. Due to size, this inventory has been divided into separate units: The collection is now arranged in seven Series: I. Correspondence (1907-1983, 85 boxes), II. Career (ca. 1914-1983, 118 boxes), III. Business Interests (1921-1982, 76 boxes), IV. Other Interests (1923-1983, 51 boxes), V. Biographical/Personal Papers (ca. [18--]-1983, 110 boxes), VI. After Death (1983-1988, 1 box), and VII. Formats (1889-1983, 147 boxes). Though these groupings represent a comprehensive structure never realized during Swanson's lifetime, they continue, to some extent, the arrangement process begun in 1980. Internal files document various surveys of the papers, 1980-1982 (see folders 16.4-17.8). |
| extent | 620 boxes plus art, audio discs, bound volumes, film, galleys, microfilm, posters, and realia (292.5 linear feet) |
| formats | Correspondence Film Clippings Legal Papers Scrapbooks |
| access | Contact Assistant Film Curator for access. Original audio recordings and films are unavailable for use until preservation copies are made. |
| record source | http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/record=b6949549~S18 |
| finding aid | http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00154p1.xml&query=Swanson&query-join=and |
| acquisition information | Purchase, 1982, and gifts, 1983-1988. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:00 |
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| title | Elisofon, Eliot : [photography bio file]. | repository | The Museum of Modern Art |
| description | The file may include announcements, clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations, small exhibition catalogs, and other ephemeral material filed through 2000; after 2000 all material is filed in the Library's artist files. Location MoMA Queens Photo Bio File Call Number Elisofon, Eliot |
| extent | 1 folder |
| formats | Ephemera Clippings Printed Materials Catalogs |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | https://library.nyarc.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/ai54l4/alma991012174309707141 |
| updated | 11/29/2022 15:49:50 |
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