Records of Gordon B. Washburn, director of the Albright Art Gallery from 1931-1942, including correspondence regarding Gallery matters and records of government sponsored art programs Washburn administered as a local chairman. (Please note: Washburn's correspondence from October through December of 1931 is located in Record Group 2, Series 4, William M. Hekking Records, 1925-1931.) The records are divided into 2 subseries. Series 1. Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Projects Records, 1932-1942, documents sponsored art projects that Washburn administered as a local chairman. For convenience these are referred to as Federal Art Projects Records. The Federal Art Projects records as found had apparently been culled from the general office records (located in Series 2). In addition to documenting mural project and other public works art commissioned during the Depression, these records also provide significant details about "blue collar" and clerical relief employment at the Albright from 1933 to 1942. Many jobs now performed by full-time staff were originally filled with relief workers and it is generally true that the modern departmental system began in the thirties. Series 2. Records and General Correspondence, consists of records originally maintained by the director's office staff. The relatively larger volume of records surviving from Washburn's administration in comparison with that of his predecessors is a reflection of the expansion of both the number of staff, and the variety of programs offered by the Gallery beginning in 1932. From his correspondence it is clear that Washburn dictated most of his letters, and routine communications were written and signed for him by his stenographers led by Beatrice Howe, Washburn's assistant director. Types of correspondence include material documenting the growing educational function of the Gallery, particularly records relating to Gallery cooperation with public schools, and the University of Buffalo, and also the administration of a 1939 Carnegie Foundation grant which founded the Secondary School Project, a diverse series of exhibitions aimed at young adults. Correspondence with visiting lecturers documents this aspect of the Gallery's education function. Another major category is correspondence with art collectors and dealers, most based in New York City. Much of this material relates to loans, purchases, and works considered for purchase. Correspondence documenting the acquisition of art for the permanent collection and the Room of Contemporary Art is included, though final correspondence documenting an acquisition is filed in art work's Documentation filed, maintained by the Registrar's Office (and not open to public). Correspondence from the Directors' Office records the decision to buy, while the Registrar's files record the actual purchase. Washburn corresponded frequently about art with his former professor, Paul J. Sachs and his assistant, Agnes Mongan. This correspondence concerns the quality and provenance of art under consideration for purchase, discusses the reliability of dealers, and also documents Washburn's personal life in Buffalo. Another frequent personal correspondent was Stephan Bourgeois, a European who established the Bourgeois Gallery in New York. Washburn's correspondence with this significant but little known art dealer and scholar, who pioneered representing French avant garde artists, is quite voluminous and comprehensive and continues in a complete series from 1931 to 1942. Bourgeois was involved in the organization of the Room of Contemporary Art and served as its New York representative in 1939 and 1940, advising on many purchases. He lectured several times at the Gallery, and his wife, Maria Theresa, who was a pupil of Isadora Duncan, danced in the sculpture court before an elite audience in 1932. Bourgeois' correspondence provides an interesting behind-the-scenes account of the factors and events affecting the New York art world in the thirties. Correspondence with other museum directors concerns circulating exhibition, loans, policies, and documents planning for major events, such as the New York World's Fair and similar expositions. This includes regular correspondence with practically every art museum in the United States. Museum correspondence is arranged alphabetically by city. Correspondence with artists was also found. This included both local artists of interest and isolated letters from internationally recognized artists such as Fernand Leger, Naum Gabo, and Josef Albers, and American artists like Walt Kuhn. Correspondence with local artists between 1932 and 1934 sheds light on Buffalo art activities particularly affairs involving the Buffalo Society of Artists and its splinter group, the Patteran Society.
