Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
The papers of government arts administrator and novelist Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. (1918-2002) measure 40.2 linear feet and date from circa 1940 to 2002. The papers are comprised of biographical materials, correspondence, interviews, writings, numerous files reflecting his work to establish the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), political committee files, personal legal records, printed materials, scrapbooks, and photographs. Throughout the collection are video and sound recordings.
Biographical materials consist of awards; diplomas; genealogy records; resumes; and files for Biddle's work at Fordham, his nomination for the National Medal of Arts award, and about his second wife Catharina Baart. Correspondence is with family, friends, and professional and political contacts such as Jane Alexander, President Jimmy Carter, Armand Hammer, Nancy Hanks, Edward Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Sandra Day O'Connor, Claiborne Pell, Robert Rauschenberg, Slava Rostropovich, and others.
Interviews with Biddle include transcripts, four sound recordings, and two video recordings of Biddle with R.A. Davis, Bob Edwards, Peter Jessup, Susan King, Bob Schieffer, and Louann Temple.
Among the writings are journals, articles, poetry, speech notes, manuscript drafts of
Files concerning the establishment and early years of the National Endowment of the Arts consist of correspondence; congressional briefing books, committee files, and reports; financial material; drafts of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965; one sound reel titled "Swearing-In of L.L. Biddle, Jr.," and three video recordings. Additional files concerning Biddle's work for congressional committees and political campaigns include correspondence, meeting agendas and notes, and printed material concerning multiple arts organizations and the political campaigns for Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, and Claiborne Pell. Family and real estate records, a partnership agreement, and will are in personal legal records.
Printed materials include booklets, clippings, event invitations and programs, flyers, magazines and journals, and posters autographed by Jacob Lawrence, Fritz Scholder, and John Glenn. Additionally, one commercial sound cassette recordings of National Public Radio's program
Photographs are of family, travel, and friends and colleagues at various events. Six video recordings are home movies of Bryn Mawr and documentaries about St. Katherine Drexel. Artwork in the form of pencil and watercolor sketches is by Ruth Asawa Lanier, Barb Maxwell, Pat Oliphant, James Rosenquist, and Howard N. Watson.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the
The Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. papers were donated in 2013 by Thomas O'Callaghan, a close friend of Biddle's who inherited the papers.
The collection is arranged as 11 series.
This collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Sarah Mundy in 2016 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund. The Archives of American Art has implemented accelerated processing when possible to increase information about and access to more of our collections. For this collection, accelerated processing included arrangement to the series, subseries and folder levels, adhering to the creator's original arrangement as much as possible. Generally, folder contents were simply verified with the original folder titles, but items within folders were not arranged further. All materials were rehoused in archival folders and boxes for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. (1918-2002) was a federal government arts administrator and novelist active in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
Livingston L. Biddle was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1918 to a distinguished and wealthy family. He graduated from Princeton University in 1940. During World War II, Biddle volunteered as an ambulance driver in Africa for the American Field Services.
While working as a special assistant to Rhode Island Democratic Senator Claiborne Pell in the 1960s, Biddle drafted the legislation for the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965, which led to the creation of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) one year later. Biddle served as deputy chairman of the NEA from 1966 to 1967, as congressional liaison director in 1975, and as chairman from 1977 to 1981. In 1976, he served as director of the Congressional Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities.
Also a writer, Biddle wrote four novels, all set in Philadelphia, including
Biddle married artist Catharina Baart in 1973 after his first wife, Cordelia Frances Fenton, died in 1972. Biddle died in Washington, D.C. in 2002.
Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. papers, circa 1940-2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Biographical materials consist of appointment books, architectural plans of Biddle's property, certificates, keys to the city, plaques, diplomas, genealogy records, resumes, material from Biddle's tenure in the art department of Fordham University, Princeton University reunion records, and material regarding Biddle's nomination for the National Medal of Arts. The file for Catharina Baart contains resumes and statements on her career as an artist.
Oversized material housed in Box 41.
Oversized material housed in Box 41.
Oversized material housed in OV 43.
Oversized material housed in OV 43.
Personal and professional correspondence is with Biddle's family; former NEA chairs and political figures including Jane Alexander, Presidnt Jimmy Carter, Armand Hammer, Nancy Hanks, Frank Hodsoll, Lady Bird Johnson, Edward Kennedy, John Murtha, Claiborne Pell, Roger Stevens, and Sidney Yates; and other notable figures such as Sandra Day O'Connor, Robert Rauschenberg, and Slava Rostropovich. The series also contains correspondence with the American Film Institute, Century Club, Drexel University, and Music Critics Association, Inc.
Interviews include transcripts, four sound recordings, and two video recordings of Biddle on CBS'
The series is arranged chronologically by year.
Writings by Biddle include journals, drafts for articles, essays, plays, and short stories; poetry and songs; speech notes; one sound recording and two video recordings; drafts for the novels "Biddle Tales,"
This series documents Biddle's lengthy involvement with the NEA from its creation in 1965 through his appointments as congressional liaison officer, deputy chairman, and his appointment by President Jimmy Carter as chairman from 1977 to 1981. Included are drafts by Biddle for the National Foundation of the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 which led to the creation of the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities, files for agencies that worked closely with the NEA, conferences and events, briefing books that detail Biddle's travel agendas and provide background information on the arts of each locality, financial information, programs managed by the NEA, and reports. Additionally, three video recordings and one sound reel titled "Swearing-In of L.L. Biddle, Jr." are included.
Oversized material housed in Box 42.
This series is arranged as 2 subseries.
This series consists of files, primarily accumulated after Biddle's NEA chairmanship, documenting his service as a prominent fundraiser and organizer for multiple committees and political campaigns. The files contain correspondence, meeting agendas and notes, solicitation letter drafts, and printed material for the American Council for the Arts, American Field Service Committee, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Corcoran Museum Board of Overseers Exhibitions Committee, Cosmos Club Arts Committee, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts, various Washington, D.C. arts organizations, and the Catherine Bertini, Jimmy Carter, Judy Hancock, Walter Mondale, Claiborne Pell, and Sidney Yates campaigns. This series includes one sound recording.
Found in this series are estate records for Biddle's mother, Eugenia Law Biddle, and his first wife, Frances Fenton Biddle; records for an investment partnership agreement facilitated by Michael T. Yao; real estate deeds, appraisal reports, and property agreements for multiple properties; and versions of Biddle's will.
Booklets, clippings, event invitations and programs, flyers, magazines and journals, newsletters, one sound cassette of National Public Radio's program
Oversized material housed in Box 41.
Oversized material housed in OV 44.
Two scrapbooks and loose scrapbook material with memorabilia from the NEA and Biddle's travels are in this series.
Photographs are of Biddle, his family, friends and colleagues at arts and political events, and of international travel to China, Tibet, Turkey, and many other places in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series also includes six video recordings of Biddle's trip to Russia, his hometown of Bryn Mawr, and his ancestor, St. Katherine Drexel.
Oversized material housed in Box 42.
Oversized material housed in Box 42 and OV 44.
An ink drawing of singer Diahann Carroll, sketches by Ruth Asawa Lanier, watercolors by Barb Maxwell and Howard N. Watson, a cartoon by Pat Oliphant, and a silkscreen by James Rosenquist are in artwork.