The Walt Kuhn Family papers and Armory Show records were loaned for microfilming and later donated to the Archives of American Art by Walt Kuhn's daughter Brenda Kuhn in several installments between 1962 and 1979. An additional accession of letters, photographs, and an artifact was purchased by the Archives in 2000. Another addition was donated by Terry DeLapp, Kuhn's dealer, in 2015.
The Archives of American Art holds the papers of Walter Pach, the European representative of the Armory Show.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
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 bulk of the collection was digitized in 2006 and 2009 and is available on the Archives of American Art website.
Materials that generally have not been digitized include medical records and records of routine financial transactions; duplicate originals and copies; negatives and slides; and large groups of news clippings. For many publications, such as books, catalogs, and pamphlets, only the cover and title pages have been digitized; complete publications are available by appointment. The 2015 accession has not been digitized.
Portions of the collection are available on 35mm microfilm reels D72-73, D240-D242, D344-D350, 912-916, 1191, 1607-1616, and 2917-2918 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
Walt Kuhn Family papers and Armory Show records, 1859-1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Initial accessions of the collection were arranged and microfilmed separately upon accession on microfilm reels D72-73, D240-D242, D344-D350, 912-916, 1191, 1607-1616, and 2917-2918. In 2004-2005 the entire collection to date was fully processed, arranged and described by Megan McShea. Series 1-3 and one folder from Series 4.1 were digitized in 2006, with funding provided by the Getty Foundation. Series 4 was digitized in 2009 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The 2015 addition was arranged and described by Stephanie Ashley in 2019, and has not been digitized.
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949) was an etcher, lithographer, and watercolorist, as well as being a teacher, an advisor to art collectors, an organizer, and a promoter of modern art. He played a key role in the art scene of New York City in the early 20th century, and was among the small group that organized the infamous Armory Show of 1913, officially known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, held at the 69th Regiment Armory building in New York City. After the Armory Show, Kuhn went on to a distinguished career as a painter. He was best known for his sober oil portraits of show people, clowns, acrobats, and circus performers, but was equally prolific in landscapes, still lifes, and figure and genre drawings.
Walt Kuhn was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1877. After a brief career as a bicycle shop owner in downtown Brooklyn, Kuhn traveled West in 1899 to San Francisco, CA and earned his living as a cartoonist for newspapers such as
Kuhn returned to New York City in 1904 and took up an active role in the art scene there, participating in the Salmagundi Club and the Kit Kat Club, teaching at the New York School of Art, and cartooning for
In 1911, when the National Academy of Design opened their annual exhibition, Kuhn, Henry Fitch Taylor, Elmer MacRae, and Jerome Myers were exhibiting at Clara Potter Davidge's Madison Gallery. To these four young artists, the Academy exhibition was typically lackluster, and the attention it received was unwarranted. Sensing that they were not alone in their attitude, they decided to organize. They invited a dozen other artists to join them, thus forming the Association of American Painters and Sculptors (AAPS). The group elected Kuhn Secretary and Arthur B. Davies President, and with the help of attorney and art collector John Quinn, they incorporated and began raising funds for an independent exhibition the following year.
In September of 1912, at Davies' suggestion, Kuhn traveled to Cologne, Germany to view the Sonderbund Internationale Kunst-Austellung. There he saw presented, in overwhelming volume, the work of his European contemporaries and their modern antecedents, the post-impressionists. He immediately began selecting and securing artwork for the upcoming AAPS exhibition. Kuhn traveled through Germany, Holland, France, and England, visiting private collectors, dealers, and artists. In Paris, Kuhn was joined by Davies and American artist and art agent Walter Pach. Kuhn and Davies sailed for New York in November, leaving the details of European arrangements to Pach.
The resulting Armory Show exhibition opened in New York in February 1913, and a selection of the foreign works traveled to Chicago and Boston in March and April. It included approximately 1300 American and European works of art, arranged in the exhibition space to advance the notion that the roots of modernism could be seen in the works of the old masters, from which the dramatically new art of living artists had evolved. Savvy and sensational publicity, combined with strategic word-of-mouth, resulted in attendance figures over 200,000 and over $44 thousand in sales. The Armory Show had demonstrated that modern art had a place in the public taste, that there was a market for it and legitimate critical support as well.
During the first World War, Kuhn stayed in NY and was active in the Kit Kat Club, an artists' club founded in 1881, which provided its members with collective studio space, live models, exhibitions, and an annual costume ball. In 1917, Kuhn founded another group called the Penguin Club, which had similar objectives to the Kit Kat Club, but with Kuhn himself as the gatekeeper. In addition to exhibitions and costume balls, the Penguin Club held summer outings and stag dinners, and maintained collective studio and exhibition space on East 15th Street in Manhattan. Its members included Americans and European artists displaced by the war in Europe. In the 1920s, Kuhn expanded a few sketches he had written for Penguin Balls into full-blown vaudeville productions, some of which were incorporated into larger musical revues such as
In the 1920s and 1930s, Kuhn gradually achieved recognition for his artwork, with sales to private collectors and dealers including Edith Halpert, Merritt Cutler, Lillie Bliss, John Quinn, and Marie Harriman. Kuhn also promoted other young painters whose work he liked, including Otis Oldfield, Lily Emmet Cushing, John Laurent, Frank di Gioia, and the self-taught Vermont artist Patsy Santo. Sometimes artists would contact him by mail, asking for lessons or advice. His lengthy letters to students offer coaching in technique and subject matter, as well as in the overall problem of success in art.
In 1929, Kuhn moved into the 18th St. studio that he would keep until the end of his life. He kept a rack of costumes in the studio, mostly made by Vera Kuhn, and his models, many of them stage and circus performers, would come and sit for Kuhn's portraits. The same year his painting
Marie Norton Whitney Harriman, second wife of railroad magnate and diplomat W. Averell Harriman, shared a professional liaison with Kuhn that would take many forms and last until his death. Soon after the success of
Kuhn was an artist who understood the art business and never shied away from it. For Kuhn, promoting the ideas and practitioners of a certain brand of modernism was an expression of both aesthetic ideology and pragmatic self-interest. His contribution to the public discourse on modernism situated his own work at the heart of art history and the marketplace. Regardless of his motivations, he was indisputably a key player at a pivotal time in American art, when academic art was riotoulsy overturned to make way for modernism. His paintings are now held in major museum collections around the country, where most of them arrived with bequests from the collectors Kuhn had cultivated so carefully in his lifetime.
Sources consulted for this biography include
The Walt Kuhn Family papers and Armory Show records measure 31 linear feet and date from 1859 to 1984, with the bulk of material dating from 1900 to 1949. Papers contain records of the legendary Armory Show of 1913, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, which introduced modern European painting and sculpture to the American public. Papers also contain records of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors (AAPS), the artist-run organization that mounted the Armory Show; records of the New York artists' clubs the Kit Kat Club (founded 1881) and the Penguin Club (founded 1917); and the personal and family papers of New York artist Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), one of the primary organizers of the Armory Show.
As Secretary for the AAPS, Kuhn retained the bulk of existing records of that organization and of the Armory Show. Minutes and correspondence make up most of the AAPS records (Series 2), as well as documents related to John Quinn's legal brief against a tariff on imported works of living artists. Armory Show Records (Series 1) include personal letters, voluminous business correspondence, a record book, miscellaneous notes, inventories and shipping records, two large scrapbooks, printed materials, a small number of photographs, and retrospective accounts of the show. The printed materials and photographs in Kit Kat Club and Penguin Club Records reflect Kuhn's deep involvement in those clubs.
The Walt Kuhn Family Papers (Series 4) contain records of his artwork, career, travels, personal and professional associations, family members, and work in vaudeville, film, and interior design. Notable among the family papers are illustrated letters and other cartoons; sketches, drawings, watercolors, and prints; candid letters from Walt to Vera Kuhn discussing art scene politics and personalities in New York, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Florida, and the Midwest; general correspondence with artists, dealers, collectors, journalists, writers, models, and fans; notes in index card files containing biographical anecdotes of the Kuhns' many contacts; provenance files that document the origin and fate of Kuhn's paintings, sculptures, and prints; papers relating to Kuhn's exhibitions and his relationships with the Marie Harriman Gallery and Durand-Ruel Gallery; and photographs and drawings depicting Kuhn's early years in Munich, Germany and Fort Lee, New Jersey; trips to Nova Scotia, New England, the Western United States, and Europe; New York and summer studios, among other subjects.
This collection has been arranged into 4 series, with multiple subseries in Series 1 and 4.
In general, documents are arranged chronologically, alphabetically, or by type of material. Copy negatives and copy prints made from documents in this collection have been filed separately from originals, in a folder marked "copy." Duplicates of original records made or obtained by the Kuhns have been filed separately as well.
Existing envelopes are filed in front of correspondence and enclosures directly after. Correspondence in the Armory Show Records and AAPS Records is arranged alphabetically, and correspondents are listed in the box inventory following series descriptions below.
As Secretary of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors (AAPS), and as selector of European works included in the show, Walt Kuhn was heavily involved in the conception, organization, and production of the International Exhibition of Modern Art, more commonly known as the Armory Show of 1913. Records in this series document the exhibition, including the selection of art work in Europe and the U.S., selection of venues, negotiation of contracts, production of the exhibitions, publicity, promotion, sales, and the wide array of responses to the exhibitions in New York, Chicago, and Boston.
Types of material found in this series include correspondence, clippings, notes, inventories, insurance policies, mailing lists, a record book, writings, entry cards, marked and unmarked catalogs, pamphlets, postcards, floor plans, photographs, scrapbooks and memorabilia related to the exhibition. Also included are a handful of records related to retrospective accounts and exhibitions produced in 1938 and 1963 for the 25th and 50th anniversaries of the exhibition, including Walt Kuhn's 1938 pamphlet, "The Story of the Armory Show."
Records relating to the formation and administration of the AAPS are found in Series 2.
This series is arranged according the following 9 subseries:
This series has been digitized in entirety with the exception of duplicates, copies, and the 2015 addition.
This series contains correspondence among Armory Show organizers, artists, dealers, collectors, vendors, publicists, and the public concerning the planning, production, and reception of the exhibition in New York, Chicago, and Boston.
Unless otherwise noted, incoming and outgoing correspondence has been interfiled and arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Often only unsigned carbons of outgoing correspondence exists for a listed correspondent. When a correspondent has less than five items in a series, their letters have been placed in general alphabetical files, whose contents are listed under their file heading. Announcements written by AAPS members and sent to multiple recipients have been filed under the heading "Association of American Painters and Sculptors," regardless of the signature.
Correspondence is divided into the following six groups.
Details of the content and arrangement of each group can be found with their box and folder listing below.
Organizers' Letters include letters written by Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn. Recipients include Walter Pach, Walt Kuhn, and Vera Kuhn. Letters describe Kuhn's and Davies' travel to Europe to collect works to exhibit, preparations in New York, and the traveling exhibitions in Chicago and Boston. Several letters from Walt Kuhn are illustrated, and a floor plan of a proposed installation in the Armory is among Davies' letters. One postcard to Vera Kuhn from Boston is signed by Maurice and Charles Prendergast and Frederick James Gregg, as well as by Walt Kuhn.
Additional letters from Walt Kuhn to his wife before and after his Armory Show activities can be found in Series 4.2: Walt Kuhn Letters to Family.
Letters are separated by author and arranged chronologically.
Arthur B. Davies
Walt Kuhn to Vera Kuhn
Walt Kuhn to Vera Kuhn
Walt Kuhn to Vera Kuhn
Walt Kuhn to Walter Pach
Artists and Lenders Correspondence includes correspondence between organizers and artists, dealers, collectors, and other potential contributors to the exhibition. Included are letters from Oscar Bluemner, Constantin Brancusi, Robert Delaunay, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Arthur J. Eddy, Erich Heckel, Edvard Munch, Maurice Prendergast, John Quinn, Odilon Redon, Charles Sheeler, Alfred Stieglitz, Leo and Michael Stein, Ambrose Vollard, and Jack B. Yeats, among others.
This group is divided geographically between domestic and European correspondents, and is arranged alphabetically by name. Americans living in Europe at the time of the show are generally filed in the European correspondence. In addition to letters, this series contains occasional translations of letters from French or German, and a handful of lists of works or notes found with correspondence.
Additional correspondence with artists, dealers, and patrons can be found in Armory Show Sales Correspondence (Series 1.1.6).
Domestic, A-D
Domestic, E-J
Domestic, Keller, Henry G.
Domestic, K-R
Domestic, Stieglitz, Alfred
Domestic, S-Y
Europe, Artz and de Bois, (see also Bois, J.H. de)
Europe, Bernheim Jeune and Cie
Europe, Butler, Theodore E.
Europe, Druet, Emile (Galerie E. Druet)
Europe, General A-D and illegible
Europe, M. Flechtheim (Alfred Flechtheim)
Europe, Hans Goltz (Neue Kunst)
Europe, General, H-N
Europe, Thannhauser, Heinrich (Moderne Galerie)
Europe, General, P-Y
Correspondence with Insurers, Packers, and Shippers contains inventories, receipts, and correspondence detailing arrangements for the physical handling and security of works included in the show, and correspondence relating to insurance claims on exhibited works.
Artists' and lenders' correspondence regarding insurance and shipping is filed in Artists and Lenders Correspondence (Series 1.1.2). Extensive correspondence regarding the shipment of works to Chicago and Boston is filed in Traveling Exhibition Correspondence (Series 1.1.5). Additional shipping information can be found in the annotated catalogs filed in Printed Material and Memorabilia (Series 1.5).
Adams Express Company
Austin, Baldwin and Co. (Mr. Fleming)
Blaiklock Bros. Limited
Chenue, J.
Oversized material housed in Box 27
Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
Doll and Richards, Inc.
Hensel, Bruckmann and Lorbacher
Lloyd Anglo-Francais
Pottier, Ch.
Frederic B. Thomason, Insurer
United States Lloyd's
Wetsch (Gebrüder Wetsch, Wetsch's Kunst und Mobiltransport in München)
General C-W
Oversized material scanned with Box 1, F32
The bulk of correspondence concerning the production and promotion of the Armory Show is filed here. Subjects include real estate matters, press coverage, art work reproductions, invitations, publications, merchandise, and fundraising. Correspondence by artists, dealers, and collectors concerning these subjects has been filed in Artists and Lenders Correspondence (Series 1.1.2).
Beatty, John W. (Carnegie Institute)
General A-B and illegible
Churchill, Alfred Vance (Smith College Art Dept.)
Conley, Col. Louis D. (69th Regiment Infantry N.G.N.Y.)
Crowninshield, Frank (The Century Co.)
General C-E
Holland, R.A. (City Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO)
Irving, F. (Geo. R. Read and Co., Real Estate)
General F-I
Koehler, Robert (Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts and School of Art)
Lamb, James E.
Loweree, W.D. (The Whitehead and Hoag Co.)
General J-L
General M-N
General O-R
Sulzer, William (Governor of New York State)
General S-T
General, W-Z
This series documents the modified exhibitions sent to the Art Institute of Chicago (March 24 to April 16, 1913) and the Copley Society of Boston (April 28 to May 19, 1913). The bulk of correspondence is between Armory Show organizers and officials at the Chicago and Boston venues, including Walt Kuhn, Arthur B. Davies, Walter Pach, Frederick James Gregg, Elmer MacRae, and John Quinn, William M.R. French, Arthur T. Aldis, N.H. Carpenter, J.F. Coolidge, Holker Abbott, and Desmond Fitzgerald.
Correspondence among exhibit organizers regarding sales made during the traveling exhibition is also filed here. A contract between the AAPS and the Copley Society, referred to in a telegram of March 4, 1913, is filed with that telegram. Correspondence regarding a contract dispute between the AAPS and the Copley Society is also filed in this series. Arrangement is chronological.
Additional correspondence relating to the traveling exhibition can be found in Walt Kuhn's letters to Vera Kuhn in Organizers' Letters (Series 1.1.1).
Traveling Exhibition
Traveling Exhibition
Traveling Exhibition
Traveling Exhibition
Traveling Exhibition
Traveling Exhibition
Sales Correspondence contains the bulk of correspondence regarding the sale, payment, and delivery of works bought at the exhibition, as well as inquiries and acknowledgements made by the buyers and artists. This correspondence is most often of a perfunctory nature, listing works and prices or other arrangements.
In addition to correspondence in this series, information about exhibition sales can be found in Traveling Exhibition Correspondence (Series 1.1.5), Armory Show Notes (Series 1.4) and in the marked catalogs in Printed Materials and Memorabilia (Series 1.5).
Artz and de Bois
Druet, Emile (E. Druet Galerie)
Goltz, Hans (Neue Kunst)
General, A-K
General, L-P, 1913
Tuttle, William F. (Friends of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago)
General, Q-Z
This series contains a record book of works from the United States submitted for inclusion in the Armory Show, showing which works were selected and which rejected. Also found are mailing lists of artists.
Mailing lists
Record Book
This series consists of forms filled out and submitted by artists and dealers for individual works sent to the Armory Show. Forms include the name of the work, the name of the artist, the date of execution, the price of the work for insurance and for sale, the location of the work and the address to which the work was to be returned.
Forms in German are separated from forms in French, and arrangement is alphabetical by artist.
French
French
French
German
This series consists of handwritten and typewritten information related to the Armory Show, including notes in Walter Pach's hand from a conversation with Odilon Redon from December of 1912, a list of artists suggested for inclusion in the show by Picasso and often referred to as "Picasso's list," statistics for attendance and sales, prices of works in an annotated catalog, and a list of purchasers and their mailing addresses. Additional catalogs from the exhibition, both annotated and un-annotated, can be found in Printed Material (Series 1.5). Additional statistics for attendance can be found in Scrapbooks (Series 1.8, Press II, p. 69).
Walter Pach's notes from a conversation with Odilon Redon
Picasso's List
Prices and Purchasers
Statistics and Other Notes
Printed material in this series includes a blueprint of the Armory installation floor plan; the 1912 catalog of the Sonderbund Internationale Kunst-Austellung in Cologne, Germany, which was sent to Walt Kuhn by Arthur B. Davies and annotated by both men; exhibition catalogs for the New York, Chicago, and Boston exhibitions; printed exhibition announcements and notices; postcards printed with reproductions of art works; pamphlets published by the organizers of the show; two items of memorabilia including an Armory Show button and a lapel pin; and newspaper clippings.
Several of the catalogs contain annotations. Annotated New York catalogs are marked with prices and other notes; annotated Boston and Chicago catalogs are marked with shipping and packing information. Researchers should note for each of the catalogs, the annotated copies have been digitized. Digitization was not repeated for clean duplicates of catalogs.
An additional annotated catalog can be found in Notes (Series 1.4) under the heading "Prices and Purchasers." Additional clippings can be found in Scrapbooks (Series 1.8). Transcripts of Walt Kuhn's translation of Gauguin's "Noa-Noa" are filed under Writings of Walt Kuhn (Series 1.6).
Blueprint of Armory Show Floorplan
Oversized material housed in OV 36
Button and Lapel Pin
Clippings
Exhibition announcements and notices
See also folder 7
See also folder 8
See also folder 8
Pamphlets
Postcard reproductions of works exhibited
Oversized material scanned with Box 1, F88
This series contains translations written by Walt Kuhn during his voyage home from Europe in November, 1912. Works include excerpts from Paul Gauguin's "Noa-Noa," which was later published in pamphlet form for sale at the Armory Show, and excerpts from "Letters of a Post Impressionist" by Vincent van Gogh, which was not published. Also included are copyright clearances for both works obtained from the Library of Congress Copyright Office.
Manuscripts and typescripts are filed together in this subseries. The published pamphlet of the Gauguin translation can be found in Printed Material and Memorabilia (Series 1.5). Additional writings by Walt Kuhn can be found in the Walt Kuhn Family Papers (Series 4).
"Letters of a Post Impressionist," by Vincent Van Gogh, Translated by Walt Kuhn
Correspondence with Library of Congress Copyright Office
This series consists of photographs related to the Armory Show, including installation views, art works, the Duchamp-Villon brothers, and the celebratory beefsteak dinner held on March 8, 1913, taken by Percy Rainford. Photographs include individual prints and one photo album. The photo album consists of platinum prints of works of art that were made into postcards, and an original photograph of the Duchamp-Villon brothers.
A handful of loose platinum prints of art works and of the Duchamp-Villon brothers match the prints in the photo album in image, tone, and print quality, and have been treated as originals. Copy photographs of images whose originals are not in this collection are filed in Series 1.9: Retrospective Materials. Additional photographs are found in Series 3 and 4.
Installation views and Armory building
Partially scanned
Artworks
Beefsteak Dinner Photograph
Oversized materials housed in Box 27
Duchamp-Villon brothers
Photograph Album
Oversized material housed in Box 28
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F24
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F28
This subseries includes two scrapbooks (currently housed in three conservation phase boxes) that document the Armory Show. They include magazine and newspaper clippings; printed materials related to the exhibition; typescript documents of the AAPS related to statistics, public speeches, and circulars; and telegrams remarking on the exhibition. Subjects of the clippings include advance press of the show, diverse responses to the show, satirical cartoons, John Quinn's fight to eliminate the tariff on art, Guzton Borglum's public resignation from the AAPS, and the vice investigation of the show by Chicago authorities.
Because of the poor quality paper used in the scrapbooks, items in this series have required conservation treatment, which has slightly modified their composition. The Beefsteak dinner menu, which is from the celebratory dinner hosted by the AAPS on March 8, 1913 and is signed by the attendees, was originally included in these scrapbooks, but was later conserved as a separate item. The menu is included in this series with reference to its original page number in the scrapbook. The original binding of volume 2 of the scrapbooks was removed when the volume was conserved, and is housed separately. Another item that was separated from the scrapbooks, a clean copy of the New York edition of the exhibition catalog, is now housed with the other catalogs in Printed Materials and Memorabilia (Series 1.5). Microfilm copies of the scrapbooks as they appeared at the time of accession are available on reels D242-D243.
In general, scrapbook items are loosely chronological. Duplicates of many of the pamphlets, notices, posters, catalogs and postcards in the scrapbooks are found in Printed Material and Memorabilia (Series 1.5).
Additional scrapbooks, which are unrelated to the Armory Show, are found in Series 3 and 4.
Press I
Oversized material housed with Box 29
Press II, part 1
Oversized material housed with Box 30
Press II, part 2
Oversized material housed with Box 31
Original Binding for Press II
Oversized material housed with Box 27
Beefsteak Dinner Menu (from Press II, p. 175)
Oversized material housed with Box 27
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F31
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F34
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F36
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F38
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F39
This series consists of materials related to retrospective accounts of the Armory Show from the 25th and 50th anniversaries of the exhibition, in 1938 and 1963. Items from the 25th anniversary include an article by Frank Crowninshield in
Proof of Frank Crowninshield Article for
Oversized material housed in Box 27
oversized material housed in Box 27
Exhibition Catalog
Pamphlet, "The Story of the Armory Show,"
Photographs
oversized material housed in Box 27
Oversized material scanned with Box 2, F41
Oversized material from Box 2, F42
Oversized material from Box 2, F49
This series documents activities of the AAPS aside from the production of the Armory Show. Items include the group's constitution, documents related to incorporation, a minute book documenting their first meetings, multiple drafts of minutes of subsequent meetings, and briefs and correspondence relating to John Quinn's work to lift duties on imported art. Correspondence includes responses from exhibition venues around the country to queries made by Walt Kuhn in 1912 regarding the possibility of exhibiting members' artwork, along with a list of recipients in Kuhn's handwriting; letters accepting or declining invitations to membership; written resignations; and letters establishing proxies for the annual meeting of May 18, 1914. Lists of members are filed with membership correspondence. Records of the 1914 meeting, the first general membership meeting after the Armory Show and the last such meeting the group would hold, include tallies of votes to elect new officers and handwritten letters of resignation.
Additional insight into the origins and politics of the AAPS can be found in Series 4.2: Walt Kuhn Letters to Family (1911, 1913, and 1914). All materials related to the planning, production and business of the Armory Show are filed in Series 1.
This series has been scanned in entirety.
Constitution and Incorporation
Exhibition Venues
Membership
Miscellaneous Correspondence
Minutes
Minutes
Quinn Brief Against Duty on Works of Art
Records of the Meeting of May 18
Items in this series relate to the two artists' clubs in which Kuhn was heavily involved in New York. The annual costume balls of both clubs are documented in this series, as well as exhibitions and other events put on by the Penguin Club.
Artists's balls are documented in photographs, scripts, and printed materials. Photographs depict party-goers and performers in costume, including Kuhn, John Quinn, Frederick James Gregg, William Bahr, John Oakman, Charles Ferrand, Rudy Dirks, Jack Johnston, Gus Mager, and Wood Gaylor, among others who are unidentified. Several photographs were taken by New York photographer Jesse Tarbox Beals. Scripts or scenarios written by Walt Kuhn and Frederic Paul Lopère are also filed here. Kit Kat Ball Printed Materials include invitations, posters, and glossy, heavily-illustrated programs.
Most of the Penguin Club material in this series was removed from a scrapbook during previous processing and is now arranged chronologically as a group. In addition to artists' balls, items from the scrapbook document exhibitions, a musical performance, and social events such as stag dinners, strawberry festivals, and summer outings. Types of materials include invitations, tickets, flyers, announcements, posters, exhibition catalogs, programs, and Penguin Club stationary. Two posters for Penguin Balls are by the cartoonist Alfred J. Frueh.
Other Penguin Club materials include marked exhibition catalogs from 1917, with Kuhn's estimated and actual sales prices, a large poster designed by Kuhn for the 1917 Penguin Ball, and a 1923 flyer for a dinner honoring Horace Brodsky. An undated historical essay entitled "The Penguin" by George Spelvin, which may have been added to the collection at a later date, is accompanied by two photographs showing posters made by the Penguin Club for the Red Cross in 1918.
Additional materials related to the Penguin Club and Kit Kat Club can be found in the Walt Kuhn Family Papers (Series 4).
This series has been scanned in entirety, with the exception of two photographs from the 2015 addition.
Photographs from Artists' Balls
Artists' Ball Scripts
Kit Kat Ball Printed Material
Dismantled Penguin Club Scrapbook
oversized material housed in Box 37
Dismantled Penguin Club Scrapbook
oversized material housed in Box 37
Dismantled Penguin Club Scrapbook
oversized material housed in Box 32 and Box 37
Dismantled Penguin Club Scrapbook
Marked Penguin Club Exhibition Catalogs
Oversized material housed in Box 37
Penguin Club Clippings
Oversized material housed in Box 37
Penguin Club Flyer from Horace Brodsky Dinner
Oversized material housed in Box 32
Penguin Ball Poster by Walt Kuhn
Oversized material housed in Box 38
Penguin Essay and Photographs
Oversized materials scanned with Box 3, F16
Oversized materials scanned with Box 3, F20
Oversized materials scanned with Box 3, F14-F16; Includes Posters by Alfred J. Frueh
Oversized materials scanned with Box 3, F18
Oversized maerials scanned with Box 3, F19
Oversized maerials scanned with Box 3, F21
This series contains records of Walt Kuhn's artwork, career, travels, personal and professional associations, family members, and work in vaudeville, film, and interior design. The bulk of material relating to Kuhn's career as a painter can be found in Kuhn's Letters to Family, General Correspondence, Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files, Provenance Files, and to a lesser extent in Financial Records, Notes and Writings, and Printed Materials. Walt Kuhn's Letters to Family, written to his father, wife, and daughter span his entire career and contain candid, personal accounts of his activities and many illustrations. Also included in the papers are biographical narratives and documents; records related to Kuhn's theater, film, and design projects; and original cartoons, drawings, sketches, and photographs. Audio recordings made in 1965 and 1969 contain the recollections of Kuhn's daughter, Brenda Kuhn.
Annotations in pen or orange crayon found throughout this series were probably made by Vera Kuhn and should not be confused with dates marked in pencil by Archives staff during initial microfilming in the 1960s. Penciled dates on correspondence were taken from the postmarks of envelopes, which were disposed of during microfilming.
This series is arranged according the following 12 subseries:
This series contains biographical documentation of Walt Kuhn, his wife and daugher, his father and mother, his in-laws, and their ancestors. Found in this series is a handwritten chronology containing notes on the Armory Show. Other types of material include additional biographical narratives and chronologies prepared by Walt Kuhn, Vera Kuhn, and others; identification cards, passports, death certificates and other official documents; obituaries; correspondence and notes on genaeology; published biographies; printed materials relating to Kuhn and Spier family homes; and medical records and correspondence. Artifacts include a framed dollar marked "first dollar earned by Walt Kuhn" and a medallion from art school.
Additional autobiographical writings can be found in Series 4.8: Notes and Writings. More obituaries of Walt Kuhn can be found in the 1949 clippings in Series 4.10: Printed Materials. Wills and documentation of family estates are in Series 4.7: Financial Records. Additional biographical information can be found in the audio recordings of Brenda Kuhn in Series 4.13: Audio Recordings.
The bulk of this series has been scanned with the exception of medical records of Walt Kuhn, Vera Kuhn, and Brenda Kuhn.
Walt Kuhn
George Spier
Walt Kuhn Family
Francis Kuhn
Passports
Walt Kuhn Obituaries
Woodlawn Cemetery
Genealogical Research
Biographical Publishers
Biographical Publishers
Printed Miscellany
Artifacts
Oversized material housed in Box 32
Oversized material scanned with Box 3, F39
Walt Kuhn traveled frequently throughout his life for weeks and months at a time, and while away he wrote lengthy letters almost daily, first to his parents from art school in France and Germany in 1901-1903, and from 1909 on to his wife and daughter. His candid and detailed letters to his family reveal otherwise hidden motives and feelings regarding events, career, art, politics, and personalities. Scattered letters to Walt from Vera and Brenda are interfiled chronologically in this subseries, and are especially revealing of Vera's involvement in her husband's career.
Occasionally, Kuhn writes from New York when Vera is out of town. Significantly, these occasions include the winter of 1911-1912, when he writes that "a new society" of artists is forming in reaction to the conservatism of the National Academy of Design, referring to the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, which would go on to mount the Armory Show of 1913. (For Kuhn's letters to his wife dealing directly with the Armory Show, dating from September 1912 to April 1913, see Series 1.1, Armory Show Correspondence, Organizer's Letters.) Other significant New York events described include Kit Kat Balls and Penguin Club events from 1914, 1917, and 1918.
Kuhn advised several important collectors of contemporary art, sometimes traveling with them to make purchases, and his letters home include descriptions of the collections and studios they visit. Collectors include Marie Harriman (especially 1931, see also Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files), John Quinn (1913, 1918, 1919, 1920), and Florida collectors Bert and Olive Taylor, Josephine and Ernest Kanzler, and Paul and Mary "Minna" Mellon (1945, 1947). Conversations with Mary and A. Conger Goodyear and Lillie P. Bliss about the formation of the Museum of Modern Art are related to Vera in letters from 1928 and 1929.
Kuhn's letters home reveal attitudes towards artists and other colleagues, as well as his many personal and professional prejudices. A painting trip to Paris in 1933 brings news of publisher Alfred Skira, and the artists Pablo Picasso, Demetrius Galanis, Man Ray, Cecil Howard, and Andre Derain. Letters from Ogonquit, ME, report on other artists who worked nearby, such as Edwin Booth "Ted" Grossman, Bernard Karfiol, John Laurent, John Carroll, Patsy Santo, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. From 1940 to 1942, a house on Lake Buel in Great Barrington, MA serves has a studio where Kuhn paints and tutors Mary Harriman Rumsey, Lily Emmet Cushing, and Harry Whitney, among others.
As designer and writer of vaudeville productions in the 1920s, Kuhn wrote home from the road about the politics and personalities of backstage life. Casts of his shows included performers Raymond Hitchcock and Lee Morse. During business trips for the Union Pacific railroad from 1936 to 1948, Kuhn wrote letters home about regional art and society circles throughout the Midwest and West. Significant Western contacts include artists Ralph Stackpole, Otis Oldfield, Rinaldo Cuneo, Edward Weston, critic Arthur Millier, collector Walter Arensburg, and film celebrities Cecil B. de Mille and Gary Cooper.
Kuhn's habit of writing to Vera when separated from her continued during his final illness and hospitalization in 1948 and 1949. Letters from this period are marked by his deteriorated mental state.
Illustrations are often found in Kuhn's letters, especially those written during painting trips to Paris, Maine, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Florida. Additional illustrated letters are filed with Artwork and with Photographs and Scrapbooks.
Photographs and photographic postcards are found throughout the series. Among them are photographs of the Gottlieb Reber estate in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1931; Arizona in 1928; and Florida in the 1940s. Many of the photographs mentioned in letters are filed in Series 4.11: Photographs and Scrapbooks.
Significant enclosures include letters from Charles Sheeler in 1922 and 1924, an exhibition catalog and floorplan for a Montross Gallery exhibition of 1914, and an original print of a nude by Kuhn, sent in 1918. Other enclosures were separated and may be filed elsewhere in the Kuhn Family Papers.
Correspondence is arranged chronologically. When undated, the sequence of letters has been determined from their contents, with undated letters placed at the end of the month or year, if known, or at the end of the series. Other personal and business correspondence is filed in General Correspondence and throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for more detail.
This series has been digitized in entirety, except for the 2015 addition.
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
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Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
oversized material housed in OV 39
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
oversized material housed in OV 39
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Walt Kuhn Letters to Family
Oversized material scanned with Box 5, F1 and F10
Correspondence in this series is primarily between Walt Kuhn and his professional and personal contacts and spans his entire career. Correspondents include family members, fellow artists, students, dealers, museum and gallery staff, collectors, friends, fans, critics and colleagues. Copies of outgoing correspondence are often present and are interfiled chronologically. Also included is scattered correspondence of Vera and Brenda Kuhn, and correspondence written after Kuhn died that documents his family's efforts to exhibit, sell, and donate his work.
The content of the correspondence ranges from personal and candid to purely transactional. Artists, collectors, dealers, and critics involved in the creation of significant works of art and collections in the early 20th century are represented. An alphabetical index of selected correspondents in this series is provided in the appendix. Another resource for accessing correspondence are the card files in Series 4.8: Notes and Writings, where correspondence with various contacts was indexed by the Kuhns and filed alphabetically by name.
In 1938, Walt and Vera Kuhn wrote and self-published the pamphlet, "The Story of the Armory Show" and sent it
Kuhn regularly instructed students through the mail with lengthy letters about painting techniques and methods. San Francisco painter Otis Oldfield is represented by over 100 lengthy letters in this subseries. Kuhn's letters to Oldfield, returned at Kuhn's request in 1945 for a publication project that was never realized, are interfiled. Other correspondence students include Patsy Santo, Frank di Gioia, Watson Bidwell, John Bernhardt, John Laurent, Goldie Paley, and Eric Lundgren. See the appendix for dates.
Types of material include letters (sometimes illustrated), postcards, invitations, announcements, and Christmas cards, which are sometimes made of original artwork. Enclosures are often found, such as photographs, clippings, tracings of art work, writings, receipts, passes and membership cards. Some letters indicate enclosures that were previously separated and can be found in other series.
Significant writings enclosed with correspondence include an early vaudeville script written by Kuhn and his friend, Archibald Macnab (1923); drafts of articles about Kuhn by the poet Genevieve Taggard (1931), critic Alan Burroughs (1930), and patron Eloise Spaeth (1950); and an unpublished history of the 1913 Armory Show by Paul Bird (1938). Photographs and photographic postcards are also found throughout the series. Included are photo postcards from Spain and France (1925), and from Arizona and California (1928); and photographs related to Kuhn's work for the Union Pacific Railroad Company (1936, 1938).
Additional correspondence can be found throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for details.
See Appendix for a list of selected correspondents in Series 4.3.
The following is a selective list of correspondents represented in Series 4.3: General Correspondence, with cross-references to correspondence in 4.4: Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files and 4.5: Provenance Files. It is not comprehensive. An effort has been made to index regionally and nationally known artists, Kuhn's patrons and students, models, art historians, writers, museum and gallery staff, dealers, and persons known to be well-represented in other collections at the Archives of American Art. Cross-references to existing letters in other parts of the Kuhn papers and Armory Show records are included selectively. Correspondents who have not been indexed include family members, neighbors, business contacts from his theater and vaudeville work of the early 1920s, and from his railroad car design work from 1936 to 1948.
This series has been scanned in entirety, except for the 2015 addition.
General Correspondence
Includes a business card showing Kuhn as proprietor of the bicycle shop where he held his first job, and an 1894 letter to Kuhn from the Washington Continental Guard.
General Correspondence
General Correspondence
General Correspondence
General Correspondence
General Correspondence
General Correspondence
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General Correspondence
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General Correspondence
oversized material housed in Box 32
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General Correspondence
oversized material housed in Box 32
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General Correspondence
oversized material housed in Box 32
General Correspondence
oversized material housed in OV 40
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oversized material housed in Box 32
General Correspondence
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oversized material housed in Box 32
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General Correspondence
General Correspondence, A-L
General Correspondence, M-W and Illegible
General Correspondence, Kuhn Fragments
Oversized material scanned with Box 5, F31; Box 6, F30; Box 7, F23; Box 8, F11 and F13
Oversized material from Box 7, F24
This series contains a variety of materials relating to exhibitions and sales of Walt Kuhn's artwork between 1920 and 1958. Files for the Harriman and Durand-Ruel galleries also document selected exhibits of other artists and other activities of these galleries.
Documentation for exhibitions that took place in the 1920s is sparse; included are catalogs, announcements, inventories, and receipts for exhibitions at M. de Zayas Gallery, Montross Gallery, Beaux Arts Galerie, Grand Central Art Galleries, M. Knoedler and Co., the Arts Club of Chicago, Albert Roullier Galleries, and Anderson Galleries.
From 1930 onwards, exhibitions are more thoroughly documented. Records of exhibitions typically include announcements, marked catalogs, guest lists, diagrams showing the arrangement of art work in the galleries, letters detailing the production of the show or responding to the show, press coverage, and summary documents showing attendance figures and sales. For some exhibitions, there are also photographs and guest books.
Because of Kuhn's long relationship with the Marie Harriman Gallery, files contain a variety of unique materials. Included is correspondence concerning exhibits of André Derain, Pablo Picasso, and Demetrius Galanis in the early 1930s. Also found are detailed regional reports on museums and private collectors throughout the United States and their relative interest in modern art. Other items include vouchers for sales of Kuhn's artwork, a 1931 cartoon by Kuhn of himself with Marie Harriman in Europe; a photographic portrait of Harriman by Berenice Abbott and another by Underwood and Underwood; and a transcript of a 1931 radio address given by Marie Harriman.
The series is arranged by gallery or exhibition in rough chronological order. The Western Traveling Exhibition files are further broken down by venue and arranged in the order in which the exhibition traveled.
Additional materials relating to the galleries and exhibitions named in this series can be found elsewhere in the collection. Exhibitions before 1920 are discussed in some detail in Walt Kuhn Letters to Family from those years. Additional exhibition catalogs and announcements are found in Printed Materials, and correspondence with galleries exists in General Correspondence. See individual series descriptions for more details.
See the Index for a list of selected correspondents from series 4.3 General Correspondence with cross-references to this series and 4.5: Provenance Files.
This series has been scanned in entirety, with the exception of an oversized plan of the Marie Harriman Gallery and the 2015 addition.
Miscellaneous Galleries
Grand Central Art Galleries
Downtown Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Marie Harriman Gallery
Oversized material housed in OV 41
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Durand-Ruel Galleries
Marked Catalog
Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs, CO
San Francisco, CA
Santa Barbara, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Omaha, NE
Bloomfield Hills, MI
Milwaukee, WI
Pittsburgh, PA
Syracuse, NY
Cincinnati Art Museum Exhibition
Albany Institute of History and Art
University of Arizona
Oversized material from Box 10, F20
The Kuhns kept meticulous records of Walt Kuhn's art work. Their original file folders contain detailed annotations about paintings and sculptures, along with art reproductions, tracings, and other documentation. Annotations include information such as the model used for the work; where the work was created, exhibited, reproduced, and sold; and critical response. Some of the files also contain correspondence, clippings, exhibition catalogs, announcements, and bills of sale. Tempera paintings, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs are documented in a bound ledger filed at the end of this series.
Occasionally files contain other unique documentation. The unusually thick file for "Still Life with Red Bananas," for example, contains printed materials related to a controversy over the 1946 international exhibition of the State Department's collection of modern art, which was cancelled in response to conservative reaction. The collection was sold as "surplus" by the War Assets Administration, and the public outcry that ensued is documented in clippings in this file.
In addition to photographs of works of art, photographs in this series include publicity photographs of Edna St. Vincent de Millay standing before the painting "Mario" in her home and other installation views. Original sketches can be found in the files for Lahr's portrait and the paintings "Zuleika," "Absolom's House," "Beach Scene," "Green Apples with Gray Curtain," "Interior," and "Maternity." Miscellanous tracings and watercolor sketches of paintings whose original file folders are not present are filed at the end of this series.
Files are arranged alphabetically by the the artwork's title or by a key word in the title, grouping files for clown paintings, girl paintings, pine tree paintings, etc. This arrangement has been preserved, although it is idiosyncratic. Files for individual works have been grouped together in general alphabetical files. Large files are filed and listed individually. Execution dates of artwork for some files are provided in parentheses after the file headings and should not be confused with record dates.
Original files are very brittle and have torn edges and missing fragments. Microfilm of the collection made in 1965 may show the file before such damage occurred (reels D242A-D242B). Additional material related to the provenance of Kuhn's artwork is filed in Financial Records and elsewhere in the collection. See individual series descriptions for more details. A record book documenting Vera Kuhn's art jewelry is in Photographs and Scrapbooks.
See the Index for a list of selected correspondents from 4.3 General Correspondence with cross-references to this series and 4.4: Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files.
This series has been scanned in entirety, except for the 2015 addition.
ABS - ACR
ACR - APP
Oversized material housed in OV 42
APP - ATH
Oversized material housed in OV 43
"Athlete in Green" (1946)
ATH - BER
Oversized material housed in OV 42
BLA - BLO
Oversized material housed in OV 42
"The Blue Clown" (1931)
"The Blue Clown" (1931)
BOU - CAM
CAR - CLO
CLO - CLO
CLO - DOR
Oversized material housed in OV 42
DOR - EIG
Oversized material housed in OV 42
ELE - FLO
Oversized material housed in OV 42
FLO - GIR
Oversized material housed in OV 42
GIR - GIR
GIR - GRE
Oversized material housed in OV 42
GRE - GUI
HAR - HYD
Oversized material housed in OV 42
"Imaginary History" Series
Oversized material housed in OV 42
"Imaginary History" Series
Oversized material housed in OV 42
IND - KAN
Oversized material housed in OV 42
Portrait of Burt Lahr (1947)
LAN - MAN
MAN - MAN
MAR - MOR
MOU - PIE
Oversized material housed in OV 42
PIN - PIN
PIT - POT
Oversized material housed in OV 43
RED - ROS
ROS - SAN
Oversized material housed in OV 42
SHE - STI
Oversized material housed in OV 42
"Still Life with Red Bananas" (1941)
Oversized material housed in OV 42
STI - TRE
Oversized material housed in OV 42
TRE-TRI (1937-1939)
"Trio" (1937)
"Trio" (1937)
TRU - WHI
Oversized material housed in OV 42
WHI - YEL
Oversized material housed in OV 42 and OV 43
"Young Clown" (1932)
YOU-ZUL (1915, 1925-1939)
Tempera, Watercolor, Etching, Lithograph Records (1915-1938)
Oversized bound volume housed in Box 32
Miscellaneous Tracings of Artwork
Oversized material housed in OV 44
Miscellaneous Watercolor Sketches of Paintings (1933-1942)
Notes made by Brenda Kuhn in 1957-1958 during the move of Walt Kuhn artwork and other items from the studio at 112 East 18th Street in New York to Cirkers-Hayes Storage. Notes include a list of works with dates, and with dimensions and prices for some of the works.
Oversized material scanned with Box 13, F8
Oversized material scanned with Box 11, F2, F5-6, F12-15, F17; Box 12, F1-4, F9, F13-16; Box 13, F4-5
Oversized material scanned with Box 11, F3; Box 12, F11; Box 13, F5
Oversized material scanned with Box 13, F9
Although the bulk of the Walt Kuhn Family Papers are related to Walt Kuhn's artwork and career as a painter, items in this series document Kuhn's other creative projects in theater, motion pictures, and graphic and interior design.
In the 1920s, Kuhn designed and staged several vaudeville acts or "satirical ballets," which were performed in New York, Chicago, Atlantic City, and elsewhere. Included in this series are scripts, notebooks, sketches and drawings of costumes and stage sets, receipts, contracts, music, programs, a photograph, and a scrapbook. Notebooks contain sketches and production notes, contact information for theater people, and receipts signed by performers, among other notes. Scrapbooks contain clippings, programs, and one watercolor costume drawing. Other early theatrical writings and photographs can be found in Kit Kat Club and Penguin Club Records, and Kuhn describes his theater experience in detail in Walt Kuhn Letters to Family.
In 1939, Kuhn wrote and directed a silent, educational motion picture film called "Walt Kuhn's Adventures in Art - Learning to See." Kuhn gave lectures with the film from 1939 to as late as 1947. Papers related to this project include drafts of scripts, notes, and visual materials used in the film, including intertitles, photographs and a collage. Drafts for another film, apparently never made, are also filed with scripts. Items relating to copyright of these projects are filed with Financial Records.
From 1936 until 1943, Kuhn was employed by the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad Company through his connection with Averell Harriman, husband of Marie Harriman and UP's Chairman of the Board. He designed and decorated club cars and lounges for Streamliner trains, designed posters and brochures, and consulted for other projects. Kuhn's historically-themed club cars, "The Frontier Shack" and "The Little Nugget" involved two of his favorite historical themes, the old west and early stage comedians. Kuhn also designed graphics for UP's Sun Valley Lodge in 1937. Documents related to UP include blueprints, sketches, a poster, research notes, source materials, publicity, photographs, correspondence, pamphlets, tickets, sample materials, and notes. Related materials are filed in General Correspondence and Photographs and Scrapbooks.
Theater and Motion Picture files are arranged by type of material, and UP files are arranged by project.
This bulk of this series has been digitized except for: the 2015 addition, copies, and some oversized material, due to size and/or conditio. For publications, such as books, catalogs, and pamphlets, typically only the covers or covers and title pages have been digitized.
Scripts by Kuhn
Scripts by Others
Scripts by Others
Music
Oversized material housed in Box 33
Notebooks and Notes
(includes sketches)
Contracts and Receipts
Photograph
Oversized material housed in Box 33
Programs and Flyer
Scrapbook
Oversized material housed in Box 33
Items Removed from Scrapbook
Artwork
Oversized material housed in OV 45
List of Theaters in the United States with Seating Capacity Over 1500
Scripts
Photographs and Titles Used in Film
Photographs and Titles Used in Film
Photographs and Titles Used in Film
Photographs and Titles Used in Film
Expenses
Printed Materials
Frontier Shack (1936)
Frontier Shack (1936)
Frontier Shack (1936)
Oversized material housed in Box 33
Frontier Shack (1936)
(index cards and lists of comedians of the stage used for photos for Little Nugget)
Little Nugget (1937)
Little Nugget (1937)
Little Nugget (1937)
Oversized material housed in Box 33
Oversized material housed in OV 40, OV 41
Little Nugget (1937)
Little Nugget (1937), Photographs
Little Nugget (1937), Photographs
Little Nugget (1937), Photographs
Copper King (1938)
Oversized material housed in OV 40
Sun Valley Lodge
Sun Valley Lodge, Sketches
Sun Valley Lodge
Sun Valley Lodge, Photographs of Rodeo
Sun Valley Lodge
Oversized material housed in OV 45
Golden Spike Days
Hollywood Club Car
Oversized material housed in Box 33 and OV 41
Miscellaneous Notes and Writings
Miscellaneous Printed Materials
Material sent to Brenda Kuhn by Wreath McIntyre Mason including copies of catalog for the Arthur B. Davies collection and reproductions of Davies's artwork for which Mason posed as a model.
Oversized material scanned with Box 13, F14
(Original scores for "Lilies of the Field")
Oversized material scanned with Box 13, F17
Oversized material scanned with Box 13, F19
Oversized material scanned with Box 13, F33
Oversized material from Box 14, F1-12
Oversized material scanned with Box 14, F21
Oversized material from Box 14, F7
Oversized material from Box 14, F13
Oversized material from Box 14, F7
Oversized material scanned with Box 14, F21
Oversized material scanned with Box 13, F21
Oversized material scanned with Box 14, F16 and F18
This series contains records of the Kuhn family's financial assets and transactions. Types of material include account books, correspondence, legal documents, bills, and receipts. Sales of artwork are documented in Accounts of Moneys Received, Accounts of Paintings Sold, and to a lesser extent, Bills and Receipts. Also among the bills and receipts are insurance policies, travel expenses, lithography and publication expenses, and receipts for the shipment, framing, and photography of art works. Documents from the Walt Kuhn estate include a detailed appraisal made late in 1949 after his death, which lists several hundred works of art in his studio and on loan in various museums, among other property. A copy of the appraisal is annotated with notes of sales up to 1955.
The file on Copyrights contains correspondence and copyright registration certificates for Kuhn's theater acts, publications and motion picture. Copyright information about Kuhn's translations of 1912 are filed with those publications in Armory Show Records. Information included in tax returns includes payments made to Kuhn's models, who are named as employees. Other files document more personal financial transactions. Notebooks filed under Assets summarize information about savings, mortgages, stocks, bonds, and other property.
One folder labeled "Receipts for artwork sold" includes receipts from Montross Gallery for artwork by Kuhn including: two etchings; a decoration sold to John Quinn in 1920; and four oil paintings sold to L. P. Bliss in 1922. The folder also includes a list of prints and drawings by Kuhn sold by E. Weyhe in 1924.
Arrangement is alphabetical by subject. Execution dates of artwork are given in parentheses after the file heading and should not be confused with record dates. Additional correspondence and receipts related to Kuhn's sales of artwork can be found in General Correspondence, Selected Gallery and Exhibition Files, and Provenance Files.
This series has been partially digitized. Records not digitized include routine financial records such as leases, tax records, records of savings accounts and stocks and bonds, and utility bills, some records relating to the will of Francis Kuhn, and the 2015 addition.
Accounts of Moneys Received
Account of Painting Sales (1944-1949, 1952-1956)
Assets
Bills and Receipts
Bills and Receipts
partially scanned
Bills and Receipts
Bills and Receipts
Copyrights
Walt Kuhn
Walt Kuhn
Walt Kuhn
Walt Kuhn
Francis Kuhn
Francis Kuhn
George Spier
Last Wills and Testaments of Vera and Walt Kuhn
Leases
Notes of Personal Expenses
Storage
This series contains writings by Walt Kuhn, his family, and others, and notes relating to Kuhn's contacts, publications, artwork, and other activities. Types of material include index card files, address books, notebooks, manuscripts, typescripts, clippings, correspondence, and photographs.
Card Files containing the Kuhns' scrupulous notes about people make up the bulk of this series. The files were kept in three separate alphabetical files with overlapping dates. They contain contact information, anecdotal details about shared meals, cocktail parties, or excursions, and cross-references to correspondence. Attachments such as clippings, correspondence, photographs, exhibition catalogs, and social announcements are common. Photographs and artwork found among the cards have been removed to separate folders, including images of Alan Burroughs, Sadakichi Hartmann, and Patsy Santo, and watercolor drawings by Lewis Barrington and Jean Oberlé. The original arrangement of the card file is idiosyncratic.
Notes on Artwork include a list of Kuhn's artwork which sold at the auction of John Quinn's art collection in February 1927; many lists of artwork compiled for exhibition, shipping, and inventory; and detailed descriptions of early artwork written by Kuhn.
Walt Kuhn's Notes and Notebooks include travel notes from Europe, the Western United States, and Maine, with a few sketches. Vera Kuhn's travel writings recount family trips to Nova Scotia from 1909 to 1912, and a trip to Europe in 1925.
Miscellaneous Personal Notes range from shopping lists and recipes to more significant notes such as those about he disposition of artwork after Kuhn's death. Collection Notes are notes about the family papers written on envelopes. The items once contained by the envelopes were separated from their contents during initial processing and are now filed throughout the Walt Kuhn Family Papers.
Other writings include manuscripts and visual materials from lectures given by Kuhn and Alfred Barr in 1934 about modern art collecting. Two articles about Kuhn published in Collier's in the 1940s are also filed here, along with related correspondence including letters from actress Dorothy Stickney, writer H.L.Mencken, and a number of Kuhn's former models. Photographs taken for the Collier's articles are filed with Photographs and Scrapbooks.
Miscellaneous Writings by Walt Kuhn include an autobiographical essay and writings on modern art and artists. Kuhn's writings from the period of his final illness and hospitalization are also filed here. Writings about Kuhn include manuscripts by Alan Burroughs, Jeanne Robert Foster, Blanche Matthias, and Frank E. Washburn Freund. Also included are typewritten copies of published essays about Kuhn's work.
Additional writings by Walt Kuhn are in Armory Show Records, Kit Kat Club and Penguin Club Records, and Other Projects. Significant writing about his artwork and techniques can also be found in his outgoing correspondence.
The series has been partially digitized; card files, several address books, and the 2015 addition have not been digitized.
Items Removed from Card File 1
Items Removed from Card File 2
Items Removed from Card File 3
Address Books
Mailing Lists
Mailing Lists
Model Contacts and Contracts
Miscellaneous Contact Information
Artwork Lists and Notes, Quinn Sale;
Artwork Lists and Notes
Artwork Lists and Notes
oversized material housed in Box 32
Artwork Descriptions
Oversized material housed in Box 32
"Story of the Armory Show" Notes
Walt Kuhn Notes and Notebooks
Vera Kuhn's Travel Writings
Vera Kuhn's Travel Writings
Vera Kuhn's Travel Writings
Vera Kuhn's Travel Writings
Brenda Kuhn's Travel Notebooks
Miscellaneous Personal Notes
oversized material housed in Box 32
Miscellaneous Personal Notes
oversized material housed in Box 32
Miscellaneous Personal Notes
Collection Notes
Collection Notes
Collection Notes
Collection Notes
Collection Notes
Contents of Safe Deposit Box
Lectures by Walt Kuhn and Alfred Barr
Visual Materials for Lecture
Miscellaneous Writings by Walt Kuhn
Miscellaneous Writings about Walt Kuhn
Miscellaneous Other Writings
Quotations and Statements about Art
Oversized material scanned with Box 19, F12
Oversized material scanned with Box 19, F13
Oversized material scanned with Box 19, F22 and F23
This series contains books, pamphlets, clippings, magazines, exhibition catalogs, invitations, announcements, art reproductions, programs, postcards, blueprints, and other printed ephemera gathered by Walt Kuhn and his family throughout their lives. Copies of published works by Walt Kuhn are filed here, as well as publications by friends and associates, including inscribed copies of works by Constantin Brancusi, Edwin Bjorkman, Frank Crowninshield, and Alice Garrett.
Exhibition Catalogs are found for Kuhn and other artists. Catalogs are occasionally annotated with reactions to artwork or other notes. For Kuhn catalogs marked with prices and/or buyers, see 4.4: S elected Gallery and Exhibition Files. For catalogs of the Armory Show, see Armory Show Records.
Clippings document Kuhn artwork and exhibitions, art institutions, art trends, collectors, other artists, Kuhn's other projects with the Union Pacific and theater, published life events of people known to the Kuhn's, articles written by friends, Walt Kuhn obituaries, and other miscellany. A significant portion of the clippings filed here are duplicated in other series.
Many of the periodicals in this series contain reproductions of Kuhn's artwork. Promotional Ephemera for Kuhn's publications, lectures, and other appearances are also filed here, along with circus programs and posters, and mailings on a range of subjects. Other printed materials are scattered throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for details.
This series is partially digitized. Some blueprints, news clippings, exhibition ephemera, printed material containing reproductions of Kuhn's artwork, general promotional ephemera, other printed material not directly related to Kuhn, and the 2015 addition have not been digitized.
Magazine Articles
Oversized material housed in Box 34
"The Story of the Armory Show,"
By Others, Bjorkman-Fraenkel
By Others, Garrett-Oldfield
By Others, Federal Emergency Relief Administration
Oversized material housed in OV 40
oversized material housed in OV 46
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Exhibition Catalogs, Invitations, and Announcements
Oversized material housed in OV 46
Oversized material housed in Box 34
Oversized material housed in Box 34
Includes a brochure for the New York School of Art Summer School 1908 session at which Walt Kuhn was an instructor, some of which took place at Fort Lee.
Oversized material housed in OV 47
oversized material housed in Box 34
Oversized material scanned with Box 20, F1
Oversized material from Boxes 22, F18-20
Oversized material from Box 22, F21
Oversized material from Box 23, F8
Oversized material from Box 20, F8
Oversized material from Box 21 and Box 22
Oversized material from Box 22, F10
Oversized material from Box 22, F28
This series contains original drawings, sketches, and prints created by Walt Kuhn. See also Series 4.11: Photographs and Scrapbooks, for addtional artwork in scrapbooks.
Cartoons include bird cartoons published in
Illustrated letters, sketches, and cartoons are scattered throughout the collection. See individual series descriptions for more details. Copies of artwork in this series are marked as such and filed alongside originals. Reproductions of additional artwork are filed in Provenance Files and Photographs and Scrapbooks.
The bulk of this series has been digitized. Only a sample of original Drawings for
Original Drawings for
oversized material housed in OV 48-54
Personal Cartoons
Sketchbooks from Trips to the Western U.S.
Original Drawings
Hand-Colored and 2-color Prints
Clown Act Sketches, Notes, and Watercolor Drawings
Clown Act Sketches, Notes, and Watercolor Drawings
Clown Act Sketches, Notes, and Watercolor Drawings
Clown Act Sketches, Notes, and Watercolor Drawings
Miscellaneous Original Sketches, Drawings, and Cartoons
oversized material housed in Box 32
Miscellaneous Original Sketches, Drawings, and Cartoons
Prints
Oversized material housed in Box 32
Costume Crest by Walt Kuhn
Reproductions of Early Cartoons by Walt Kuhn
17th Century German Engraving
Heirich von Zügel Sketch
Jules Pascin Portrait of Walt Kuhn (reproduction of 1916 drawing)
Patsy Santo Painting and Tracings
Brenda Kuhn Painting
Brenda Kuhn Scrapbook
(includes one sketch by Walt Kuhn)
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F22
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F25
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F12
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F12
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F12
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F12
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F12
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F12
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F12
This series contains individual photographs, notes, photograph albums, and scrapbooks of photographs and other materials, which depict Walt Kuhn, his family, friends and colleagues, homes and studios, art school, travel in the U.S. and Europe, works of art, and other miscellany.
Among the persons pictured are Walt, Vera, and Brenda Kuhn, LaSalle Spier, John Quinn, Frederick James Gregg, George Overbury "Pop" Hart, Gus Mager, William and Edith Glackens and family, Pablo Picasso, Cecil Howard, Jo Davidson, W. Averell and Marie Harriman, Gary Cooper, Otis Oldfield, Lily Cushing Emmet, Patsy Santo, and many of Kuhn's models. Also included are portraits of Kuhn by Frederic D. Pangborn and Edward Weston.
Scrapbooks (Volumes 5, 6, and 7) contain photographs, illustrated letters by Walt and Vera Kuhn, postcards to Vera's parents, real photo postcards, reproductions of early artwork of Walt Kuhn, and other ephemera. Illustrations depict Kit Kat Balls, the 23rd St. studio, and Fort Lee, NJ among other subjects. Many of the people and places depicted in albums and scrapbooks are also depicted in individual photographs, which are arranged within broad subject headings.
Selected subjects are noted in the inventory list, below. Additional photographs are scattered throughout the collection. Additional scrapbooks can be found among Armory Show Records, Kit Kat Club and Penguin Club Records, and Other Projects. Additional illustrated letters are found in Armory Show Records, Walt Kuhn Letters to Family, and Artwork. Refer to individual series descriptions for more details.
The bulk of this series has been digitized with the exception of negatives, copy prints, duplicates, photos of reproductions of artwork, and the 2015 addition.
Volume 1: Illustrated Photograph Album
Oversized material housed in Box 35
(Brooklyn NY bicycle shop; homes; Paris art school)
Volume 2: Photograph Album
(California and Southwest)
Volume 2: Photograph Album, Duplicate Prints from Glass Negatives
Loose Item from Volume 2
Volume 3: Photograph Album; Germany
(Royal Academy in Munich, Wörth, Germany; Heinrich von Zügel; includes sketches)
Loose Items from Volume 3
(includes masquerade ball in Munich)
Volume 4: Photograph Album
(Vera Spier and Friends)
Volume 5: Scrapbook
partially scanned due to condition
(Walt and Vera Kuhn and friends; Fort Lee, NJ and 23rd St. studio; Kit Kat Balls; Blandford, Nova Scotia; photographs, drawings and illustrated letters to parents)
Loose Items from Volume 5
(Royal Academy in Munich; New York School of Art class; Hackensack, NJ crowd; John Quinn; Vera Kuhn in costume; Kit Kat Ball drawing, original cartoons)
Volume 6: Scrapbook
(23rd St. studio; photographs, drawings, and illustrated postcards)
Loose Items from Volume 6
Volume 7: Scrapbook; Nova Scotia
Oversized material housed in Box 35
(Kuhns' and Glackens' in Nova Scotia, photographs, postcards, ephemera, drawings)
Volume 8: Photograph Album; Nova Scotia
Oversized material housed in Box 35
Volume 9: Photograph Album
(Brenda Kuhn baby book; Ogunquit, ME; Fort Lee, NJ; Adirondaks)
Loose Items from Volume 9
Volume 10: Photograph Album
(Brenda Kuhn, Waldo Schmitt)
Kuhn family summer homes and studios; not scanned due to format of album
Volume 11: Photograph Album; Summers, Duplicates and Copy Prints
Volume 11: Photograph Album; Summers, Duplicates and Copy Prints
Volume 12: Photograph Album
(Prescott, AZ buildings; Walt Kuhn in Prescott; NYC buildings and parks)
Volume 13: Dismantled Photograph Album
(Trips to Europe)
Volume 14: Photograph Album; Central City, CO
Volume 15: Photograph Album
(unidentified woman traveling in the Southwest circa 1910s)
Volume 16: Dismantled Scrapbook of Eloise Spaeth
(copy prints, Walt Kuhn biographical)
Portrait by Frederic D. Pangborn
Oversized material housed in Box 35
Portrait by Robert Waida
Portrait by Edward Weston
Early Walt Kuhn Photographs
Oversized material housed in Box 35
Later Walt Kuhn Photographs
Oversized material housed in Box 35
Copy of Robert Waida portrait and picture of Kuhn painting outdoors
Kuhn Family Photographs
Spier Family Photographs
Spier Family Photographs
Vier Spier (later Kuhn)
Vera Spier and Friends
LaSalle Spier (Vera Kuhn's brother) and Friends
Brenda Kuhn
Brenda at Summer Camp
Friends of Brenda Kuhn
(Nanette Tarbox Beals)
Vera and Brenda Kuhn
Other Family
Adler Family, Sonoma, CA
Photos taken 1906-1907 at Fort Lee House include Kuhn with Louis Schlesinger, Fred Albig, Jack Johnson, Gus Mager, and others.
Walt Kuhn, Rudy and Helen Dirks,
Walt Kuhn, John Quinn,
Walter Pach Portrait
Oversized material housed in Box 35
George Overbury "Pop" Hart
(with Walt Kuhn, Gus Mager in Fort Lee, NJ; Coyesville, NJ; Mexico)
Includes photos of an outing at Cherry Hill with Rudoph Dirks and Leonard "of Hackensack"; a cyanotype copy of a photo of Kuhn with "Pop" Hart and Gus Mager found in Box 25, Folder 7; and a cabinet card of Pop Hart and Rudolph Dirks in Iceland.
Lenna and Ira Glackens
Otis Oldfield, George Fitzgerald,
Lily Cushing Emmet and Family
Alice Wadsworth and Walt Kuhn at Goodyear Home
O. A. Renne
Walt Kuhn with Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman,
Walt Kuhn and Frank Cullen, Stuart, FL
Walt Kuhn with Neighbors, NYC
Bert and Olive Taylor and Family
Julie Millicent Ingersoll
Others
23rd Street Studio, NYC
Fort Lee, NJ
(Ogunquit and Cape Neddick homes, towns, Kuhn family)
Maine
Maine
Maine
Maine
Maine
14th Street Studios and Penguin Club
(exterior views)
18th Street Studio, NYC
(Walt Kuhn with models, including Helen Miller, George Fitzgerald, Ruth Johnston)
18th Street Studio, NYC
18th Street Studio, NYC
(2 photo shoots for
Hotel Albert Apartment, NYC
Summer Studio at Lake Buel, Great Barrington, MA
(Walt Kuhn, Ruth Johnston, Paul Bird, Lily Cushing Emmet, Harry Whitney, Barnum and Bailey Circus in Pittsfield, MA)
Summer Studio at Lake Buel, Great Barrington, MA
Summer Studio at Lake Buel, Great Barrington, MA
Glackens Home, NYC
Winslow Homer Studio Exterior
copy prints only
Homes of Family Members
Miscellaneous Family Places
(Walt Kuhn birthplace and grave)
Florida and Georgia
Nova Scotia
Northeastern U.S.
Northeastern U.S.
Europe
(group photograph including Kuhn, Pablo Picasso, Jo Davidson, Cecil Howard and others in Paris; W. Averell and Marie Harriman at the Warburg estate in Paris)
Europe
(group photograph including Kuhn, Pablo Picasso, Jo Davidson, Cecil Howard and others in Paris; W. Averell and Marie Harriman at the Warburg estate in Paris)
Europe
(group photograph including Kuhn, Pablo Picasso, Jo Davidson, Cecil Howard and others in Paris; W. Averell and Marie Harriman at the Warburg estate in Paris)
Western U.S.
(Harriman family, Sally Fox, Gary Cooper, Otis Oldfield; Prescott, AZ; California; Sun Valley Resort, Ketchum, ID)
Western U.S.
(Harriman family, Sally Fox, Gary Cooper, Otis Oldfield; Prescott, AZ; California; Sun Valley Resort, Ketchum, ID)
Western U.S.
(Harriman family, Sally Fox, Gary Cooper, Otis Oldfield; Prescott, AZ; California; Sun Valley Resort, Ketchum, ID)
Photographic Postcards
Unidentified Cartes de Visites
Unidentified Cartes de Visites
A Cuban Trip and Letter to Vera Kuhn
Kenyon Farm, Virginia
Garibaldi Rebels in Juarez, Mexico
Show People
Oversized material housed in OV 55
New York City Scenes
Spain Scenes by Hal Kravis
Miscellaneous Unidentified Photographs
Vera Spier Art Jewelry Record Book
(Woodstock, NY studio)
Oversized material housed in Box 35
Oversized material housed in Box 35
Paintings
oversized material housed in Box 35
Installation Views
Artwork by Others
Oversized material scanned with Box 23, F35
Oversized material from Box 24, F9
Oversized material from Box 24, F11
Oversized material from Box 24, F28
Oversized material from Box 24, F34
Oversized material from Box 24, F36
Oversized material scanned with Box 25, F5
Oversized material scanned with Box 25, F35
Oversized material from Box 25, F83
Oversized material from Box 25, F84
Oversized material from Box 26, F1
Oversized material from Box 25, F76
This series consists of 8 audio reels and 1 audio cassette. Reels 1 to 7 were made by Brenda Kuhn (1911-1993), daughter of Walt Kuhn, as she went through her father's papers from March to November, 1965, on the eve of their accession to the archives. In her recordings, she makes specific reference to letters, artwork, photographs, and other documents found in the Armory Show Records and Walt Kuhn Family Papers. In some cases, Brenda is able to provide witness accounts of persons and events documented in the papers. However, her comments often stray far afield of the papers and art historical figures known to her as she muses on the activities of her own life and her vocation as promoter of her father's work. On reel 6, side 2 she interviews Grace Jones Sarka, wife of Charles Sarka and friend of Walt Kuhn during his early years as an artist in New York.
On reel 8, Brenda Kuhn's recollections are guided by Garnett McCoy, curator at the Archives of American Art, who interviews her about Walt Kuhn, the Kuhn family, and their contemporaries. Selected subjects on reels 1 to 8 are listed with the box inventory. All reels were recorded on both sides at a speed of 1 7/8 inches per second unless otherwise noted.
The audio cassette was recorded on "Walt Kuhn Day" at Kuhn House in Cape Neddick, ME on the 50th anniversary of Walt Kuhn's death in 1969.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.