Shirley C. Burden papers 1947-1989

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Shirley C. Burden papers 1947-1989

Shirley Carter Burden (1908-1989), a descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt, was a prominent American photographer, best known for his pictorial essays exploring aspects of Catholic culture, racial intolerance, and architectural heritage. Burden promoted the appreciation of photography through service on the boards and advisory committees of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, and was a long-time supporter and chairman of the board of Aperture. Colleagues and friends included, among others, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Minor White, and Thomas Merton. The collection reflects Shirley Carter Burden's post-World War II career as a commercial architectural photographer and fine art photographer, particularly his publications and exhibitions. Correspondence, negative indexes, reviews, contracts, gift lists, proof copies and reference materials document the publication of Behold thy Mother, The Chairs, God Is My Life, I Wonder Why, Presence and The Vanderbilts in My Life, and projects concerning Ellis Island. Exhibitions of Burden's work and other projects are documented in correspondence, royalty and shipping receipts, exhibition floor plans, publicity material, invitations to openings, reviews, and a guest book. The collection also contains miscellaneous correspondence; business records; records of his private collection; and subject files on other photographers, particularly Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams. Also present is a phonograph recording of Burden's 1965 interview on "Open End" about Behold thy Mother. Some of Burden's photographs are scattered throughout the collection.

7.5 linear feet (20 boxes)

Related Entities

There are 9 Entities related to this resource.

Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v51n84 (person)

Thomas Merton was born on January 31, 1915 in Prades, France to Owen Merton (an artist from New Zealand) and Ruth Jenkins Merton (an artist from the United States), and grew up in New York, Bermuda, France, and England. Merton studied both in Europe and America, and he received a BA and an MA in journalism from Columbia University in 1938 and 1939. In 1938, Merton converted to Catholicism. He taught for two years at St. Bonaventure College in New York before entering the Abbey of Gethsemani i...

Lange, Dorothea, 1895-1965

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz4744 (person)

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Steichen, Edward, 1879-1973

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hf8k3c (person)

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Ellis Island (N.J. and N.Y.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tv5f5d (corporateBody)

Ellis Island is a former immigration inspection station. As the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 to 1954, it processed approximately 12 million immigrants to the United States in New York Harbor, within the states of New York and New Jersey. Prior to the immigration station it was owned by the Ellis family before the US government used it as a fort and a naval magazine. Between 1905 and 1914, immigration officials reviewed about 5,000 immigrants per day during peak times a...

Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67b4ts6 (person)

Ansel Adams, American photographer, was born February 20, 1902 in San Francisco, California. He was tutored privately at home where he studied piano, San Francisco, from 1914 to 1927, then studied photography with the photofinisher Frank Dittman, in San Francisco, in 1916 and 1917. He married Virginia Best in 1928, and had two children, Michael and Anne. Adams began his career as a photographer, 1927, and worked as a commercial photographer, from 1930 to 1960. He was a photography correspond...

Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani (Trappist, Ky.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jq4swq (corporateBody)

Burden, Shirley

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m74g78 (person)

Shirley Carter Burden (1908-1989), a descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt, was a prominent American photographer, best known for his pictorial essays exploring aspects of Catholic culture, racial intolerance, and architectural heritage. Burden promoted the appreciation of photography through service on the boards and advisory committees of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, and was a long-time supporter and chairman of the board of Aperture. Colleagues and friends in...

Vanderbilt family

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mn19nk (family)

White, Minor

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6651r1b (person)