Robert Bruce Inverarity papers

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Robert Bruce Inverarity papers

circa 1840s-1997

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9460b503e-0657-430a-9244-ead53bd5066f

The papers of artist, photographer, museum director, anthropologist, and writer Robert Bruce Inverarity are dated circa 1840s-1997 and measure 13.8 linear feet. Biographical information, correspondence, writings and notes, subject files, art work, scrapbooks, sound recordings, printed material and photographs are found within the papers. They document Inverarity's work as Director of the Federal Art Project in Seattle and Director of the Art and Craft Project for the State of Washington, as well as his other professional work. Nineteenth century material consists of a Japanese print, printed material, and photographs.Among the biographical information are awards and certificates, biographical and genealogical notes, and educational records. Correspondence concerns Inverarity's activities as Director of the WPA Federal Arts Project in Washington State, 1936-1941. Additional personal and professional correspondence, 1929-1993, documents his activities as a museum director, consultant, collector, and writer. Among the friends and colleagues with whom he corresponded are: Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, Rockwell and Sally Kent, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Wolfgang Palen, Juliet and Man Ray, Mark Tobey, Edward Weston, and various individuals associated with the WPA.Manuscripts of a few of Inverarity's many articles on topics such as anthropology, museology, and information storage and retrieval are among his writings and notes. Also included are the manuscript of an unpublished book, <emph render="italic">Tobey Remembered</emph>, along with drafts, notes, correspondence, research materials, and photocopies of Tobey's letters to him and others. Other writings consist of book reviews, children's books, a catalog of the Inverarity Collection, and a copy of his 1946 master's thesis, "The Social-Economic Position of the American Artist." Several journals, 1928-1966, survive, including one that records his 1932 trip to study the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands.Subject files include general subjects such as "Folk Art" and "Preservation." Files on the museums where Inverarity was the director contain some official records as well as general information. Art work by Inverarity includes eight volumes of sketch books, 1928-1942, commercial work for Boeing, notes and drawings for book designs. Among the work by other artists are drawings, paintings and prints by friends. Of particular interest are display panels for a small exhibit on airbrush stencil prints produced by the Washington State WPA Federal Art Project. Other noteworthy items are pencil sketches and a watercolor by Mark Tobey, and prints by Hiroshige and Jan Matulka.Five scrapbooks, 1928-1979, contain newspaper clippings, miscellaneous printed items, and a small number of photographs and letters. Three volumes document his career as an artist and museum director. One consists of biographical information and items designed by Inverarity, and another concerns publication and marketing of his monograph <emph render="italic">Art of the Northwest Coast Indians</emph>.Sound recordings consist of interviews and conversations. An extensive interview with Inverarity about his life and career was conducted by Craig Gilborn in 1990. Bruce and Jane Inverarity in conversation with former colleague Ernie Johnson and his wife Helen about his departure from the Museum of International Folk Art were recorded in 1980. Also included is a 1981 conversation with Grace T. Stevenson containing references to Mark Tobey and Morris Graves.Printed material includes many items about or produced by the WPA Federal Art Project. Among the items written by Inverarity are many articles on a wide variety of topics, his book <emph render="italic">Art of the Northwest Coast Indians</emph>, and two published portfolios. Printed material by other authors includes articles, books and reports about or mentioning Inverarity, and books designed or illustrated by him. Among the miscellaneous printed items are catalogs and brochures of the schools where Inverarity taught and studied, and a few ephemeral items designed by him.Photographs are of art work, people, places, the Washington State WPA Federal Art Project, and miscellaneous subjects. All photographs known to be by Inverarity are clearly marked. Art work includes views of Inverarity's collection of his own work and that of other artists hanging in his home. Photographs of people include artists, friends, colleagues, and various groups. Of special interest are Inverarity's portraits of artists, among them Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Morris Graves, Hilaire Hiler, Rico Le Brun, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning, and Mark Tobey. Photographs of places include the museums where Inverarity was director, places in which he lived, and travel pictures. Of note are a large group of photographs (copy prints) taken in 1932 while studying the Haida Indians in British Columbia. Nineteenth century photographs of family homes, Europe, and South America may have been taken by his father. Photographs of the Washington State WPA Federal Arts Project are of individual works of art, exhibition installations, mosaic procedures and local art centers. Many, probably intended for display, are mounted in groups on large cardboard panels. Miscellaneous subjects include art photographs by Inverarity and the microreader he invented.

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630549

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 33 Entities related to this resource.

Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mx3911 (person)

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (French:28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French-American painter, sculptor, chess player and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, conceptual art, and Dada, although he was careful about his use of the term Dada and was not directly associated with Dada groups. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of...

Tobey, Mark

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n29w4c (person)

Painter; Abstract Expressionist. Also worked as fashion illustrator, portrait painter. Born in Wisconsin, December 11, 1892. Died 1976. Worked in Chicago, Seattle, Basel, Switzerland; New York, N.Y., Dartington Hall, Devonshire, England, and Paris. Convert to Baha'i religion. From the description of Mark Tobey papers, [ca. 1920]-1977. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78566820 Tobey was a painter; Seattle, Wash. Corle was at one time a New York City stage actress and wife of no...

Whitlock, Katholeen.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6767j9c (person)

Gilborn, Craig A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mk9rd5 (person)

Stevenson, Grace Thomas, 1900-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66d95t2 (person)

Johanson, Helen.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gj2wqm (person)

Tilikum (Organization)

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Museum of Mankind

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Pantages Circuit of Vaudeville Theatres

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United States. Work Projects Administration

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66x31vr (corporateBody)

The Works Progress Administration was involved in various projects including the compilation of sources on American territories. The card catalogs for these were prepared at the Library of Congress and are now in the National Archives. From the description of Classified Alaska Bibliography, 1942. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 42927718 Works Progress Administration (later called Work Projects Administration) began operations in San Joaquin County, Calif., July 1935. County a...

Graves, Morris, 1910-2001

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6765d9z (person)

Painter; Washington. From the description of Morris Graves papers, 1932-1963. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122502493 Painter; Seattle, Wash. From the description of Morris Graves letters to Derwent and Emma Conlee, [ca. 1950]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122566282 ...

Pantages, Alexander.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63v2dm5 (person)

Inverarity family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pk9vsz (family)

Johanson, Ernest.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x64vm6 (person)

Philadelphia Maritime Museum

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Adirondack museum

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Inverarity, Duncan George

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ww9mhf (person)

Archives of American Art

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From its founding to 1954 the Archives was headquartered at the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1960 the Archives moved its headquarters to New York but a branch office remained in Detroit. In 1963 an office was opened in Rome to collect the records of American artists' work in Italy. In 1970 the Archives became a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution and moved to Washington, D.C. Directors have included Edgar Preston Richardson, 1954-1964; William E. Woolfenden, 1964-1983; Richard N. Murray, 1983...

Inverarity, Rosalind

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h1558c (person)

Federal Art Project (N.Y.)

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Federal Art Project (Ill.)

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Federal Art Project (Wash.)

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Federal Art Project (Iowa)

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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...

Man Ray, 1890-1976

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64j0gzx (person)

Photographer. Halpert was director of the Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y. and a friend of director of museum director, James W. Foster. From the description of Photograph of Edith Halpert, [ca. 1930]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 744432180 From the description of Photograph of Edith Halpert, [ca. 1930]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122455038 Biographical/Historical Note American-born photographer, painter, a...

Deutsch, Hilda, 1911-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6681dtj (person)

Federal Art Project (Utah)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gc0c66 (corporateBody)

Morris, Carl, 1911-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60z71t9 (person)

American artist. From the description of Tape-recorded interview with Carl Morris : at Morris's studio in Portland, Oregon, March 23 &amp; 24, 1983 / Sue Ann Kendall, interviewer. (Oregon Historical Society Research Library). WorldCat record id: 57253583 Carl Morris was an abstract painter. He was born in 1911 and died June 3, 1993; Portland, Oregon. His wife, Hilda, was a sculptor. Hilda was born in 1911 and died on May 15,1991. From the description of Carl and ...

Tobey, Mark (Mark T.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zh973b (person)

Inverarity, Robert Bruce, 1909-1999

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61263md (person)

Designer, museum director; La Jolla, Calif. From the description of Robert Bruce Inverarity interview, 1975 Mar. 4. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220186681 Robert Bruce Inverarity (1909-1999) was a designer and a museum director in La Jolla, Calif. From the description of Oral history interview with Robert Bruce Inverarity, 1975 Mar. 4. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 779477494 Robert Bruce Inverarity, b. 1909, Designer, museum director of La Jolla, Cali...

Graves, Morris, 1910-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ch1wjq (person)

Federal Art Project (Calif.).

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Federal Art Project (Or.)

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