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Aaron Bohrod Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: KM
Date: Jun 1994

Biographical History

American realist painter (1907-1992). Participant in the Federal Art Project and the U.S. Army War Unit's project on the pictorial history of World War II.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Spanning 1932 to 1963, the Aaron Bohrod Papers comprises correspondence, artwork, writings, and memorabilia of the American realist painter and art educator (1907-1992). The collection focuses on the professional career, rather than the personal life, of the Chicago-born artist who taught for more than two decades at the University of Wisconsin.

Documenting Bohrod's participation in the U. S. Army War Unit's project on the pictorial history of World War II, Family correspondence consists almost entirely of Bohrod's letters from the South Pacific to his wife Ruth and son Mark. A number of later family letters were written from Europe during Bohrod's assisgnment as artist correspondent for Life magazine.

Incoming letters with some outgoing handwritten drafts and typescript carbons constitute the Correspondence-subject files, which forms the bulk of the collection. Correspondents include art critics (John Canaday, Emily Genauer, Frank Getlein, Eleanor Jewett); authors (August Derleth, Albert Halper, Moss Hart, Gwendolen Haste); cartoonists (David and Irv Breger); ceramist F. Carlton Ball; entertainers (Edward G. Robinson, Meredith Wilson); and patrons (Orville Bulman, Edward C. Burman, Nathan Cummings, Arthur Fleischman, Lawrence A. Fleischman, Albert Hydeman, William J. Poplack, W. A. Sheaffer, Helene Tash, Charles D. Tenney). Among fellow painters, correspondence which is of greatest depth and duration includes that of Will Barnet, Cameron Booth, Howard Cook, Adolf Dehn, Kaj Klitgaard, Georges Schreiber, Samuel Schwartz, Burnett Shryock, Lawrence Beall Smith, Raphael Soyer, Frederic Taubes, Stuyvesant Van Veen, and Grant Wood. Other artist correspondents include Ivan and Malvin Albright, Minna Citron, Irvin Cowen, Stuart Davis, Thomas Dietrich, Ernest Fiene, Joseph Hirsch, Edward Hopper, Leon Kroll, Henry Lee McFee, Eugene Speicher, and A. Reid Winsey.

Organizational correspondence encompasses that with artists' associations (American Artists Group, Associated American Artists); educational institutions (Ball State Teachers College, DePauw University, Indiana University, Iowa State Teachers College, Lawrence College, Southern Illinois University, University of Wisconsin); galleries (Grand Central Art Galleries, Increase Robinson Gallery, Milch Galleries, Frank J. Oehlschlager Galleries, Frank K. M. Rehn); museums (Art Institute of Chicago, Butler Institute of American Art, Carnegie Institute, Detroit Institute of Arts, Los Angeles County Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Institute, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Whitney Museum of American Art); and publications to which Bohrod contributed (Chicago Tribune, Esquire, Family Circle, Fortune, Holiday, Life, Look, Time). Materials relating to the Federal Art Project and the U.S. Treasury and War Departments illustrate the relationship between government and the artist.

The remainder of the collection -- Artwork, Writings, and Memorabilia -- includes three original sketches, a diary from Bohrod's time at Camp Barnes, the manuscript for A Pottery Sketchbook as well as other manuscript and published pieces, clippings, exhibit catalogs, price lists, etc.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

See also the following:

Subject Headings

Persons

Albright, Ivan, 1897-1983.
Barnet, Will, 1911-2012.
Bohrod, Aaron.
Booth, Cameron, 1892-1980.
Breger, David, 1908-1970.
Citron, Minna, 1896-1991.
Cook, Howard Norton, 1901-1980.
Dehn, Adolf, 1895-1968.
Derleth, August, 1909-1971.
Florsheim, Richard A., 1916-1979.
Getlein, Frank.
Hart, Moss, 1904-1961.
Klitgaard, Kaj.
Schreiber, Georges, 1904-
Smith, Lawrence Beall, 1909-1995.
Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987.
Taubes, Frederic, 1900-1981.
Wood, Grant, 1891-1942.

Corporate Bodies

American Artists Group.
Associated American Artists.
Federal Art Project.
United States. -- Department of the Treasury.
United States. -- War Department.

Subjects

Art, American -- 20th century.
Art, American.
Artists -- Societies, etc.
Federal aid to the arts -- United States.
Painters -- United States.
Painting, American -- 20th century.
Painting, American.
Realism in art.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war.

Genres and Forms

Articles.
Correspondence.
Manuscripts for publication.
Reviews (documents)
Sketches.
Speeches (documents)

Occupations

Artists.
Painters.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Aaron Bohrod Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Bulk of collection, gift of Aaron Bohrod, 1963.

Diary, purchased, 2021

Table of Contents

Family correspondence

Correspondence-subject files

Artwork

Writings

Memorabilia

Inventory