Oral history interview with Roswell Weidner

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

OralHistoryResource

Oral history interview with Roswell Weidner

1989 July 20-27

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9d0c1ada8-2608-4b70-b8bd-f95469159f82

An interview of Roswell Weidner conducted 1989 July 20-27, by Marina Pacini, for the Archives of American Art Philadelphia Project. Weidner discusses his early life, education, and art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, first at the school at Chester Springs, and later at the main school in Philadelphia. He discusses the programs at both schools, and recalls some of the faculty members, including Roy Nuse, Albert Laessle, George Harding, Joseph Pierson, Francis Speight, Daniel Garber, and Henry McCarter. He discusses the courses, exhibitions, and the competitions for traveling scholarships. He also discusses his study at the Barnes Foundation with Violette De Mazia and Angelo Pinto. After leaving the Academy, he joined the National Youth Administration and then transferred to the WPA with the Museum Extension, the Painting Project and the Print Project. He speaks of his work for each of these programs, their administration, and some of the individuals involved including Dox Thrash. He recalls Mary Curran and the efforts made by Albert Barnes to have her removed as head of the Painting Project. Weidner discusses his fifty years as a teacher at the Academy, beginning in 1939, and the changes in the institution since then, including the introduction of printmaking, the growth of abstraction, the hiring of women and black instructors, and other changes. He speaks of his wife, Marilyn Kemp Weidner, a paper conservator, and the development of her practice, as well as his own future work.

Sound recording 3 sound cassettes.Transcript 134 p.

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7916910

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 21 Entities related to this resource.

Nuse, Roy Cleveland, b. 1885.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dk01zc (person)

McCarter, Henry, 1866-1942.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6033bx7 (person)

United States. Works Progress Administration

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67b4x1k (corporateBody)

Organizational History President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935 as a part of his New Deal to curtail the Depression's effects on the United States. The WPA attempted to provide the unemployed with jobs that allowed individuals to preserve skills or talents. The Federal Writers' Project (FWP), one branch of the WPA, provided work for over 6,600 unemployed writers, journalists, edit...

Pacini, Marina.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rj6kh6 (person)

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...

Weidner, Marilyn Kemp, 1928-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x35w8g (person)

Marilyn Kemp Weidner is a noted conservator of works of art on paper. She was born in Floral Park, New York, on January 10, 1928, the daughter of Winifred Simpson and Arthur Kemp. In the early 1970s, Marilyn Weidner started the conservation program in Cooperstown, New York. . In 1977 she started the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA), a non-profit laboratory which provided conservation services to small museums. . Mrs. Weidner left the CCAHA in 1984 and returned to privat...

Pennsylvania academy of the fine arts

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f2fs9 (corporateBody)

Art school; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From the description of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibition catalog, 1921 and 1923. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122553237 The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is an art academy and museum, founded in 1805 in Philadelphia, Pa. Exhibitions and classes began in 1811. Notable academy instructors and students have included Thomas Eakins, Cecilia Beaux, William Merritt Chase, Violet Oakley, Henry O. Tanner, Rembra...

McCarter, Henry, 1864-1942

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63b6hjv (person)

Nuse, Roy C. (Roy Cleveland), 1885-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v13m1z (person)

Harding, George Matthews, 1882-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s18vmr (person)

Pinto, Angelo, 1908-1994.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n0ggp (person)

United States. National Youth Administration

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v73x26 (corporateBody)

Barnes foundation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xw88fb (corporateBody)

De Mazia, Violette, 1899-1988

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60k2cft (person)

Garber, Daniel, 1880-1958

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x357g9 (person)

Painter, printmaker; Philadelphia, Pa. One of the "New Hope" landscape painters, trained at the Cincinnati Art Academy before moving to Pennsylvania. Then studied with Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy, becoming a teacher there himself in 1909. Garber won many awards for his work and was the subject of a retrospective at the Academy in 1945. Died 1958. From the description of Daniel Garber papers, 1900-1958. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 86118621 ...

Laessle, Albert, 1877-1954

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6447952 (person)

Animal sculptor; Miami, Fla. From the description of Albert Laessle papers, 1897-1971. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 81487348 ...

Thrash, Dox, 1892-1965

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60593jc (person)

Printer; Philadelphia, Pa. b. 1892; d. 1965. From the description of Dox Thrash autobiography, [ca. 1960]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 81906206 ...

Weidner, Roswell, 1911-1999

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hm5bkb (person)

Painter, educator: Philadelphia, Pa. From the description of Roswell Weidner interviews, 1989 July 20-July 27. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220184624 Weidner, Roswell T., 1911, Painter and educator of Philadelphia, Pa. From the description of Oral history interview with Roswell Weidner, 1989 July 20-27. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 646397173 Art instructor and painter; Philadelphia, Pa. Attended the Pennsylvania Academy of th...

Curran, Mary Doyle, 1917-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mm3vfx (person)

Pierson, Joseph W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d246bq (person)

Speight, Francis, 1896-1989

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h99qxs (person)

Francis Speight was born in North Carolina, and fought in World War I. He was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and later taught at the Academy for many years. He made his name as a realist, painting gritty landscapes of suburban Philadelphia and the mill towns of Manayunk and Conshocken. He preferred to paint on location, and won several local and national awards for his work. Late in his career he moved to Greenville, North Carolina, to serve as artist-in-residence at East Car...