Herbert Waide Hemphill papers

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ArchivalResource

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Title

Herbert Waide Hemphill papers

Date

1776-1998

Resource Link

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9f69d462b-a5dc-45d7-bfd8-fcac50b7312b

Abstract

The papers of folk art collector and museum curator Herbert Waide Hemphill date from 1776-1998, bulk 1876-1998, and measure 26.7 linear feet. Found within the papers are biographical materials, personal business records, files documenting his collecting, writings, art work, minutes of meetings, a scrapbook, printed material including exhibition and auction announcements and catalogs, and miscellaneous artifacts. The collection also contains numerous photographs of Hemphill, family members, his residences, friends and colleagues, exhibitions, travel, and art work. Sound and video recordings include interviews of Hemphill.Biographical material includes photocopies of Hemphill's birth certificate and passport, social security cards, and international health card, genealogical notes, an evaluation of his school work, membership cards, award certificates, address books, and an engagement calendar containing very brief annotations of his activities.Correspondence documents Hemphill's affairs with miscellaneous museums and art institutions, discussing his presentation of lectures, exhibitions, and loans from his collection to organizations including the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, the Folk Art Society of America, the Museum of International Folk Art, and the Smithsonian Institution's American Art Museum.Hemphill's correspondence with friends and colleagues discuss collecting activities and pursuit of newly discovered folk art and artists. Many of the letters are from artists. Correspondents include Varick A. Crittenden, Michael D. Hall, A. Everette James, Daniel C. Prince, Neal A. Prince, and artists Rev. Maceptaw Bogun, Mary Borkowski, Tim Fowler, Joseph Victor Gatto, S. L. Jones, Gustav Klumpp, Roy Little, George Lopez, Kevin Orth, and Malcah Zeldis. There are also scattered letters from artists Miles Burkholder Carpenter, John W. Fancher, Rev. Howard Finster, William Hawkins, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Mr. Imagination, Mattie Lou O'Kelley, Clayton Patterson, St. EOM, and Mose Tolliver. One letter from Stephanie and John Smither is etched on a bone.Personal business records include both legal and financial documents. There are wills for Hemphill, his mother, and for his friend Neal A. Prince. The records also include leases, insurance records, contracts, grant proposals, loan agreements, deeds of gift, price lists, consignment records, tax records, and miscellaneous receipts. Cancelled checks relate to Hemphill's collecting interests and activities, and include payments to artists for their work. There are court papers documenting a lawsuit by Hemphill's landlord who was attempting to evict him.Art work consists of a sketchbook by Roy Little, a set of hand-cut Japanese mask designs, a collage of Polaroid photographs taped to glass created by Rev. Howard Finster, a hand-made book by Nancy Josephson, and miscellaneous drawings, watercolors, and prints by various artists including Justin McCarthy, Inez Nathaniel, and Nellie Mae Rowe.Notes and writings include card files of artists, extensive bibliographic card files, and scattered notes on artists including Miles Carpenter, Raymond Coins, Rev. Howard Finster, Mattie Lou O'Kelley, Royal Robertson, Veronica Terrillion, Mose Tolliver, and Bill Traylor. Also found are lists of artists, patrons, and art work, miscellaneous notes, and minutes of meetings. Writings by Hemphill and others including Michael D. Hall, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, A. Everett James, and Julia Weissman, consist of reports, typescripts, and poems concerning a wide range of art-related topics and travel.A scrapbook consists of unbound pages of clippings and newsletters about Hemphill, his collection, and exhibitions of folk art.There is extensive additional printed material illustrating Hemphill's many interests. This series primarily consists of clippings and exhibition announcements and catalogs for mainstream artists as well as folk artists. Also included are auction announcements and catalogs, announcements for festivals, press releases, and calendars of events. Numerous booklets, brochures, programs, menus, business cards, and novelty postcards concern a variety of topics including worldwide travel, the sale of art work, miscellaneous galleries, museums, organizations, conferences, schools, lectures, antiques and craft shops, films, publications, restaurants, household items, historical topics, and miscellaneous artists including Miles Carpenter, S. P. Dinsmoor, Lonnie Holley, Clementine Hunter, and Veronica Terrillion. There are also autographed copies of booklets <emph render="italic">The Black Swan and Other Poems</emph> by James Merrill, and <emph render="italic">The Blood of Jesus</emph> by Thomas Jefferson Flanagan. Novelty postcards range from photographs of Elvis Presley to cards with amusing captions or cartoon jokes. There is also sheet music by Charles Trenet. Miscellaneous printed material includes several eighteenth-century newspapers and a 1776 thirty shilling note from New Jersey. Photographs are of Hemphill, family members, his residences, friends and colleagues including style editor Carrie Donovan, artist Rev. Howard Finster dancing at an exhibition opening, actress Alice Ghostley, Michael D. Hall, circus performers Vernon Goins and Tiny Hicks, Smithsonian curator Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Neal A. Prince, and Jim Spies. Photographs of exhibitions include stereographic views of the International Exhibition in Philadelphia and the Exposition Universelle in Paris, and photographs of Hemphill's donation of his collection and its subsequent exhibition at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum. Travel photographs include views of South Dakota, Texas, the American West, Japan, Mexico, and The Netherlands. Numerous photographs of art work sometimes include images of the artists with their work including Bruce Brice, Raymond Coins, John W. Fancher, Rev. Howard Finster, Theora Hamblett, Bessie Harvey, William Hawkins, James Harold Jennings, John Jordan, Charles Lisk, Alexander Maldonado, St. EOM, Fred Smith, Edgar Tolson, Hubert Walters, and Purvis Young. Some photographs of unattributed art work has been arranged by the state in which it is located and includes a Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana, a Mummer's parade in Pennsylvania, <emph render="italic">Lucy</emph> the Elephant-shaped building in New Jersey, and <emph render="italic">Holy Ghost Park</emph> in Wisconsin. Other photographs of unattributed art work include works on paper, paintings, sculpture, signs, collages, needlework, glass, ceramics, and architecture.Sound and video recordings include a cassette from Hemphill's phone answering machine that contains only Hemphill's message to callers, cassette recordings of interviews with and concerning Hemphill, artist St. EOM, painter Robert E. Smith discussing his work, and the tour narration for a Smithsonian exhibition <emph render="italic">Made With Passion</emph>. There are videotapes about Hemphill and about artists Gayleen Aiken, Miller and Bryant, and Malcah Zeldis, and miscellaneous African American artists. There is also a videotape of an American Museum of Natural History tour group arriving in a succession of villages in Melanesia and Papua New Guinea where they are greeted by the native people and given the opportunity to purchase their art work.Artifacts consist of a scattered assemblage of three-dimensional objects including three wooden "fringe" pieces from cigar store figures, ceramic fragments from a sword handle, a lock of horse hair, and a hand-painted View Master viewer souvenir from the opening of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. The View Master contains a disc of photographs of artists with their work including Vollis Simpson and Mary Frances Whitfield. Also included is a teacher's kit <emph render="italic">Little Adventures in Art</emph> containing four phonograph albums and four short film strips of slides showing art work in animal and bird forms.

Holding Repository

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630534

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 65 Entities related to this resource.

Harvey, Bessie, 1929-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j20s6p (person)

Flanagan, Thos. J. (Thomas Jefferson), 1890-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zw2v7q (person)

Hamblett, Theora, 1895-1977

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w622321j (person)

Ghostley, Alice, 1926-2007

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jh4vps (person)

Hall, Michael D., 1941-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kd28c7 (person)

Michael David Hall (1941- ) is a sculptor and educator from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. From the description of Oral history interview with Michael David Hall, 1976 July 19-26 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 495595175 ...

Zeldis, Malcah

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c959v5 (person)

Smith, Robert E., 1926-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hx8s61 (person)

Dinsmoor, Samuel Perry, 1843-1932

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vq4b3t (person)

Hunter, Clementine

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gj0fhs (person)

Artist. From the description of Reminiscences of Clementine Hunter : oral history, 1979. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122597977 African American folk artist; Natichitoches, La.; b. 1885; d. 1988. From the description of Documentary on Clementine Hunter, 1985. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 779476826 From the description of Video on Clementine Hunter, 1985 [videorecording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 83475525 ...

Mr. Imagination, 1948-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bk2mkm (person)

Terrillion, Veronica

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cq04kr (person)

Nathaniel, Inez

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pm3gr1 (person)

Prince, Neal A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xf4292 (person)

Hawkins, William Lawrence, 1895-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ks80qg (person)

Orth, Kevin, 1961-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q257kf (person)

McCarthy, Justin, 1891-1977

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65m6zpd (person)

Museum of International Folk Art (N.M.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f30bg (corporateBody)

Since its official opening in 1953, the Museum of International Folk Art, a unit of the Museum of New Mexico, has sought to collect, preserve, interpret, and present material folk culture from all parts of the globe. It has developed notable collections of textiles, costumes, Spanish Colonial art, contemporary Hispanic crafts of the Southwest, and Latin American folk art. From the description of New Mexico Northeast Sector Overview Project survey, 1984- 1985. (Museum of New Mexico Li...

James, A. Everette (Alton Everette), 1938-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gq86cv (person)

Goins, Vernon

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r91fvq (person)

Finster, Howard, 1916-2001

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sj1zk2 (person)

Self-taught visionary artist; Georgia. From the description of Howard Finster papers, 1932-1987. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122502741 From the description of Howard Finster illustrated letter and cards, [ca. 1981]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122546159 The Reverend Howard Finster emerged from the rural Appalachian culture of northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia to become one of America's most important creative personalities in the last quarter of the twen...

Aiken, Gayleen

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz6g00 (person)

Spies, Jim

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t28487 (person)

Crittenden, Varick A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fp46s2 (person)

Brice, Bruce

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64v9k04 (person)

Centennial Exhibition 1876 Philadelphia, Pa.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6100x43 (corporateBody)

The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 marked the 100th anniversary of American freedom. The celebration took place in Philadelphia from May 10 to November 10 and attracted over eight million visitors. The exhibition spread across 450 acres of ground in Fairmont Park and consisted of over 200 buildings. Planning for the event began in 1870, and in 1871, Congress established the United States Centennial Commission to plan and run the exhibition. The following year saw the incorporation of the Centenni...

Klumpp, Gustave, 1902-1974.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sj2tqk (person)

Fowler, Tim

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69d9z0r (person)

Carpenter, Miles B. (Miles Burkholder), 1889-1985

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w622434p (person)

Smither, Stephanie

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bh5pkw (person)

Tolson, Edgar, 1904-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n315dk (person)

Wood-carver; Campton, Ky. From the description of Edgar Tolson interview, 1981 July 30. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220190676 Edgar Tolson, 1904-1984, wood-carver of Campton, Ky. From the description of Oral history interview with Edgar Tolson, 1981 July 30. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 646397589 ...

Fancher, John W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m74kvk (person)

Bogun, Maceptaw, Rev.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6943tsc (person)

Jones, S. L. (Shields Landon), 1901-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cs5dv7 (person)

Exposition Universelle de Paris (1878 : Paris, France)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63n87ww (corporateBody)

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kh5rns (corporateBody)

Patterson, Clayton

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bg4kp8 (person)

Josephson, Nancy, 1955-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xp8cxs (person)

Lisk, Charles

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nq54z2 (person)

Weissman, Julia

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r05bk9 (person)

Holley, Lonnie

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sb4c1x (person)

Prince, Daniel C.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ss211h (person)

Little, Roy

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6138t78 (person)

Morgan, Gertrude

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rv1x52 (person)

Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c096m6 (person)

Borkowski, Mary

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m74kxg (person)

Lopez, George

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g28r8k (person)

Roberts City was a Tampa, FL neighborhood located between West Tampa and the Hillsborough River, bounded on the north by the river, on the west by North Boulevard and on the south by Cass Street. It was established in 1893 when the Ellinger cigar factory moved to the area from Key West, and was originally known as Ellinger City. The Ellinger factory closed in 1902, and after the J. W. Roberts and Son cigar factory opened in 1909, the neighborhood became known as Roberts City. ...

Hemphill, Herbert Waide

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6446vp1 (person)

Herbert Waide Hemphill papers (1929-1998) was a folk art collector from New York, N.Y. Hemphill was one of the founders of the Museum of American Folk Art. He organized several significant folk art exhibitions, and is the co-author of "Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artist." From the description of Herbert Waide Hemphill papers, 1776-1998, bulk 1876-1998. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 756821023 Folk art collector; New York, N.Y...

Smith, Fred 1886-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h71q56 (person)

O'Kelley, Mattie Lou

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z3370k (person)

Mattie Lou O'Kelley (1908-1997) was a folk artist born in Maysville, Georgia. She was the daughter of Augustus Franklin O'Kelley and Mary Bell Cox O'Kelley. A self-taught artist, Mattie Lou O'Kelley was almost 60 before she began painting full time. The first display of her work was at the High Museum gift shop in Atlanta in 1975. The following year she was selected as a recipient of the Governor's Award in the Arts for the state of Georgia. Most of her paintings are based upon her childhood on ...

Walters, Hubert

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66v3nbs (person)

Gatto, Victor Joseph, 1893-1965.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61836cf (person)

Victor Joseph Gatto (1893-1965), known as Joe Gatto, was an American primitive painter best known for his images of New York city life. Although he showed artistic talent as a child, he followed a variety of career paths ranging from plumbing to professional boxing to service in the U.S. Navy before turning to painting full time in 1938. His work was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art and other major galleries in the United States and From the guide to the Victor Joseph ...

Donovan, Carrie

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62b9z2s (person)

Fashion editor Carrie Donovan was born Carolyn Gertrude Amelia Donovan in 1928. She and her sister Joan grew up in Lake Placid, New York, and lived with their grandparents until 1942, when they joined their mother, Margaret Wood Donovan, who was working in a war production factory in Brooklyn, New York. Captivated by fashion at an early age, Donovan graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1950, and worked as a reporter for the New York Times and later as an editor for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, ...

Herbert Waide Hemphill papers

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