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100% Complete
195 Total Pages 48 Contributing Members
Dove Diary, 1940
These are the diaries of Arthur and Helen Torr Dove. Arthur Garfield Dove was an early twentieth-century painter, collagist, and illustrator who was one of the first American artists to embrace abstraction in art. He was a part of Alfred Stieglitz's Circle of modern American artists introduced at Stieglitz's 291 Gallery along with John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe. Dove spent his career developing his own idiosyncratic style of formal abstraction in painting based on his ideas about nature, feeling, and pure form, and characterized by experimentation with color, composition, and materials. Around 1920, Dove met an artist named Helen S. Torr, also known as Reds. She was a Philadelphia-born painter who had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Torr and Dove eventually left their unhappy first marriages and began a life together, moving to a houseboat docked in Manhattan. In 1922, they moved to Halesite, Long Island, New York, where Dove's artwork once again flourished. By the mid-1920s, he was exhibiting regularly, paralleled by the rise of Stieglitz's new Intimate Gallery in 1925. His work continued to explore abstraction and organic forms, and, in addition to paintings, he produced assemblages made of found materials. Learn more about their life and work in the finding aid for the Arthur and Helen Torr Dove papers. Help us make these handwritten diaries more legible and searchable.
100% Complete
57 Total Pages 37 Contributing Members
Dove Diary, 1941
These are the diaries of Arthur and Helen Torr Dove. Arthur Garfield Dove was an early twentieth-century painter, collagist, and illustrator who was one of the first American artists to embrace abstraction in art. He was a part of Alfred Stieglitz's Circle of modern American artists introduced at Stieglitz's 291 Gallery along with John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe. Dove spent his career developing his own idiosyncratic style of formal abstraction in painting based on his ideas about nature, feeling, and pure form, and characterized by experimentation with color, composition, and materials. Around 1920, Dove met an artist named Helen S. Torr, also known as Reds. She was a Philadelphia-born painter who had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Torr and Dove eventually left their unhappy first marriages and began a life together, moving to a houseboat docked in Manhattan. In 1922, they moved to Halesite, Long Island, New York, where Dove's artwork once again flourished. By the mid-1920s, he was exhibiting regularly, paralleled by the rise of Stieglitz's new Intimate Gallery in 1925. His work continued to explore abstraction and organic forms, and, in addition to paintings, he produced assemblages made of found materials. Learn more about their life and work in the finding aid for the Arthur and Helen Torr Dove papers. Help us make these handwritten diaries more legible and searchable.
100% Complete
3 Total Pages 15 Contributing Members
Dove Diary, 1945
These are the diaries of Arthur and Helen Torr Dove. Arthur Garfield Dove was an early twentieth-century painter, collagist, and illustrator who was one of the first American artists to embrace abstraction in art. He was a part of Alfred Stieglitz's Circle of modern American artists introduced at Stieglitz's 291 Gallery along with John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe. Dove spent his career developing his own idiosyncratic style of formal abstraction in painting based on his ideas about nature, feeling, and pure form, and characterized by experimentation with color, composition, and materials. Around 1920, Dove met an artist named Helen S. Torr, also known as Reds. She was a Philadelphia-born painter who had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Torr and Dove eventually left their unhappy first marriages and began a life together, moving to a houseboat docked in Manhattan. In 1922, they moved to Halesite, Long Island, New York, where Dove's artwork once again flourished. By the mid-1920s, he was exhibiting regularly, paralleled by the rise of Stieglitz's new Intimate Gallery in 1925. His work continued to explore abstraction and organic forms, and, in addition to paintings, he produced assemblages made of found materials. Learn more about their life and work in the finding aid for the Arthur and Helen Torr Dove papers. Help us make these handwritten diaries more legible and searchable.
100% Complete
66 Total Pages 21 Contributing Members
Dove Diary, Log of the Mona, 1924-1925
These are the diaries of Arthur and Helen Torr Dove. Arthur Garfield Dove was an early twentieth-century painter, collagist, and illustrator who was one of the first American artists to embrace abstraction in art. He was a part of Alfred Stieglitz's Circle of modern American artists introduced at Stieglitz's 291 Gallery along with John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe. Dove spent his career developing his own idiosyncratic style of formal abstraction in painting based on his ideas about nature, feeling, and pure form, and characterized by experimentation with color, composition, and materials. Around 1920, Dove met an artist named Helen S. Torr, also known as Reds. She was a Philadelphia-born painter who had studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Torr and Dove eventually left their unhappy first marriages and began a life together, moving to a houseboat docked in Manhattan. In 1922, they moved to Halesite, Long Island, New York, where Dove's artwork once again flourished. By the mid-1920s, he was exhibiting regularly, paralleled by the rise of Stieglitz's new Intimate Gallery in 1925. His work continued to explore abstraction and organic forms, and, in addition to paintings, he produced assemblages made of found materials. Learn more about their life and work in the finding aid for the Arthur and Helen Torr Dove papers. Help us make these handwritten diaries more legible and searchable.
100% Complete
1 Total Pages 5 Contributing Members
Edmund Charles Tarbell
Edmund Charles Tarbell letter to Charles Henry Hart.
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2 Total Pages 3 Contributing Members
Elaine De Kooning
Elaine De Kooning letter to Thomas Hess
100% Complete
50 Total Pages 31 Contributing Members
Esther McCoy’s Sophomore Days diary, Book 3, 1919
Esther McCoy (1904-1989) is remembered best for her pioneering work as an architectural historian, critic, and proponent of Southern California modern architecture of the early to midtwentieth century. Born in Arkansas in 1904, Esther McCoy grew up in Kansas and attended various schools in the Midwest. McCoy’s papers document her career as well as her family and personal life. In her "Sophomore Days" diaries, dating from 1919 when McCoy was 15, McCoy writes about school, church, and activities with friends. Found within the pages are notes passed between friends, scraps of fabric from sewing designs, programs for school and church activities, and fortune telling games very similar to the MASH game still played by girls today, giving insight into what life was like for a teenager in the Midwest in the late 1910s. Help transcribe her diary as part of the Smithsonian's #BecauseOfHerStory campaign to share and celebrate the diverse stories of American girlhood. Coordination of this and other girlhood history projects in the Transcription Center (including selection, digitization, cataloging, outreach, and educational resources) was funded by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative. Click here to learn more.
100% Complete
60 Total Pages 38 Contributing Members
Esther McCoy’s Sophomore Days diary, Volume 1, 1919
Esther McCoy (1904-1989) is remembered best for her pioneering work as an architectural historian, critic, and proponent of Southern California modern architecture of the early to midtwentieth century. Born in Arkansas in 1904, Esther McCoy grew up in Kansas and attended various schools in the Midwest. McCoy’s papers document her career as well as her family and personal life. In her "Sophomore Days" diaries, dating from 1919 when McCoy was 15, McCoy writes about school, church, and activities with friends. Found within the pages are notes passed between friends, scraps of fabric from sewing designs, programs for school and church activities, and fortune telling games very similar to the MASH game still played by girls today, giving insight into what life was like for a teenager in the Midwest in the late 1910s. Help transcribe her diary as part of the Smithsonian's #BecauseOfHerStory campaign to share and celebrate the diverse stories of American girlhood. Coordination of this and other girlhood history projects in the Transcription Center (including selection, digitization, cataloging, outreach, and educational resources) was funded by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative. Click here to learn more.
100% Complete
19 Total Pages 17 Contributing Members
F. Luis Mora pocket diary
As a figural painter, illustrator, and teacher, F. Luis Mora was very busy young man in 1912. Transcribe his pocket diaries to help us understand the lives of working artists in the early 20th century.
100% Complete
29 Total Pages 28 Contributing Members
Feline Finds from the Archives of American Art
We've all pawsitevely loved the Archive of American Art's exhibition Before Internet Cats: Feline Finds from the Archives of American Art. Now, you can help transcribe selected documents for an upcoming publication that will feature even more cat content from the Archives' vast collections.
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