Alma Thomas papers

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Alma Thomas papers

circa 1894-2001

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw98cd54656-ee02-4a0d-81ad-6db24f1be010

The papers of Washington, D.C. painter and art educator Alma Thomas, date from circa 1894-2001 and measure 5.5 linear feet. The papers document Thomas's work as a teacher, and her development and success as a painter of the Washington Color School, through biographical material, letters, notes and writings, personal business records, exhibition files, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographs, an audio recording, and two video recordings.Biographical material includes identity cards, chronologies, an audio recording including a biographical account, and scattered documentation of Thomas’s education and teaching careers with D.C. Public Schools, Howard University, and Thomas Garrett Settlement in Wilmington, Delaware. Also found are records relating to Thomas’s participation in a summer marionette class taught by Tony Sarg in 1934, and a tour of European art centers which Thomas took in 1958. Letters relate primarily to the exhibition of Thomas’s work and related events and are from galleries, museums, other art institutions, colleagues, and friends including Franz Bader, Adelyn Breeskin, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Howard University Gallery of Art, Martha Jackson Gallery, Nathalie J. Cole Johnson, Vincent Melzac, Celine Tabary, and Joshua Taylor.Notes and writings include four notebooks and autobiographical writings by Thomas, a “Birthday Book," and an annotated engagement calendar. J. Maurice Thomas’s writings about Alma Thomas, her research for a bibliography on James Weldon Johnson, and writings by others, including Jacob Kainen, about Alma Thomas, are also found here. Exhibition files contain a wide variety of documentation for many group and solo exhibitions of Thomas's work from the early 1950s through a 1998-2000 traveling retrospective exhibition, including solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1972. The records include letters from Franz Bader Gallery, David Driskell at Fisk University, and Vincent Melzac. Photographs include Thomas with individuals including William Buckner, Jeff Donaldson, David Driskell, James W. Herring, and Vincent Melzac. Also found is a photograph of the 1951 Little Paris Studio Group picturing Lois Mailou Jones, Celine Tabary, Alma Thomas, and others. Two video recordings are of events related to the 1998-2000 retrospective at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and the Columbus Museum of Art. Records documenting a 1981-1982 exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, <emph render="italic">A Life in Art: Alma Thomas</emph>, includes the script of a video written by Adolphus Ealey.Personal business records include price lists, gift and loan receipts, and files concerning the Art in Embassies Program, the Martha Jackson Gallery, a benefit auction for the Corcoran School of Art, and the designation of the Thomas family home in Washington, D.C. as a historic property. Eleven scrapbooks document Thomas's teaching career through the activities of the art classes she taught at Shaw Junior High School.Printed materials include announcements and catalogs for exhibitions and other events; clippings which document Thomas’s career and subjects of interest to her; Christmas cards featuring block prints designed by Thomas; and other programs and publications featuring Thomas. Photographs are of Alma Thomas, family, and friends and colleagues including Sam Gilliam, James V. Herring, and Nathalie V. Cole Johnson; art classes taught by Thomas; Thomas’s homes in Columbus, Georgia and Washington, D.C.; and exhibitions not documented in Series 4: Exhibition Files, including photographs of Alma Thomas at an opening at Barnett Aden Gallery with Alonzo Aden and others.

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630753

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 13 Entities related to this resource.

Thomas, Alma Woodsey, 1891-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v22xnq (person)

Alma Woodsey Thomas, painter and teacher, was born in Columbus, Georgia on September 22, 1894, the eldest of the four daughters of John Harris Thomas and Amelia Cantey Thomas. The family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1906. Alma Thomas graduated in 1911 from Armstrong Technical High School where she was first introduced to art classes. From 1911 to 1913, she took a course in kindergarten teaching at the Miner Normal School, Washington, D.C. Because of the lack of permanent positions in the D.C. pu...

Johnson, Nathalie J. Cole.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qk0n02 (person)

Thomas, J. Maurice.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f22310 (person)

Tarbary, Celine.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g76htt (person)

Thomas, J. Maurice

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d34z88 (person)

Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme, 1896-1986

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66q2zt1 (person)

Art historian, museum curator; Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C. Died 1986. From the description of Adelyn Dohme Breeskin papers, 1934-1978. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122565670 Adelyn Dohme Breeskin (1986-1986) was a museum director and art historian from Baltimore, Md. and Washington, D.C. From the description of Oral history interview with Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, 1979 Aug. 1-14. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 779477474 Adelyn D. Breeskin (1896-1...

Bader, Franz, 1903-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h99xnp (person)

Art dealer, photographer; Washington, D.C. Died 1994. From the description of Oral history interview with Franz Bader, 1978 Nov. 2. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 226956428 Franz Bader (1903-1994) was an art dealer and photographer in Washington, D.C. From the description of Oral history interview with Franz Bader, 1978 Nov. 2. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 422875751 ...

Tarbary, Celine

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w681838h (person)

Sarg, Tony, 1882-1942

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6db8mxk (person)

Tony Sarg was an inventor, designer, and author and artist of children's books, and is primarily remembered for designing marionettes and producing plays with puppet casts. Born in Guatamala, Sarg's father was in the German diplomatic service, and the family later returned to Germany. Sarg later lived in England and the United States; among his many accomplishments is designing the first balloons used in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. From the description of Tony Sarg biographic...

Johnson, Nathalie J. Cole

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g00b09 (person)

Martha Jackson Gallery

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mp9wh6 (corporateBody)

Martha Jackson opened her Gallery in New York City at 22 E. 66th St., moving three years later to 32 E. 69th St. The gallery specialized in modern American and European painting and sculpture, particularly Abstract Expressionists. Her son, David Anderson, worked with Jackson and took over the gallery after her death in 1969. He now operates the David Anderson Gallery, 521 W. 57th St. From the description of Martha Jackson Gallery records, 1954-1964. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 830...

Taylor, Joshua C. (Joshua Charles), 1917-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62n5n9s (person)

Museum director, art historian; Washington, D.C. Taylor was born in Oregon and received his B.A. from Reed College in 1939. He taught theater and served in World War II before completing his M.F.A. and Ph.D. in Art History at Princeton. For more than twenty years he was professor of art history and humanities at the University of Chicago. In 1970 he became the director of the National Museum of American Art (then the National Collection of Fine Arts) a position he held u...

Art in Embassies Program (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hx6cxq (corporateBody)