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Anita Weschler Papers

An inventory of her papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MFA
Date: 1969

Biographical History

Anita Weschler (1903-2000) was an American sculptor, painter, interior decorator, poet, and author. Born in New York, the daughter of J. Charles and Hulda Mayer Weschler, she studied in New York City at the Horace Mann School and studied art at the Parsons School of Design, the Art Students League under William Zorach and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with Albert Laessle. In 1928 she married Herbert E. Solomon and most of her career was spent at Long Hill, their home/studio in Erwinna, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She also kept an apartment in New York and in the early 1980's, after selling Long Hill, she relocated there permanently.

Weschler's sculpture has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Art Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the Carnegie Institute of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and other museums and galleries throughout the United States. Her work is represented in permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Norfolk Museum and many others as well as in private collections. She has had fourteen one man shows, five one man travelling shows and has been represented in ten group travelling shows. Her translucencies, paintings in fibre glass, were exhibited at the Wellons Gallery in 1956. She was a member of the Bucks County Art Alliance and the National Association of Women Artists; like many of her fellow artists, she also worked with the government's Federal Arts Project during the Depression (one example of her work is a terra cotta relief created for the Post Office in Elkin, NC).

Awards to Weschler include commissions for sculpture from the United States Post Office, and prizes at the Corcoran Gallery, San Francisco Museum and the American Federation of Arts Travelling Show. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Peterboro, New Hampshire, and the Yaddo Foundation, Saratoga Springs, New York. Weschler is a member of the Architectural League, Sculptor's Guild, National Association of Women Artists and Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.

Articles by Weschler have appeared in various art magazines and she is the author of a book of poetry, Nightshade.

One of her more well-known pieces, and one of the first-ever sculptural uses of fiberglass, is The Humanist, composed of fiberglass, bonded bronze and plastic resins. The Humanist, a standing figure with outstretched hands embodying the ideal secular humanist, was exhibited at the Guggenheim's outdoor sculpture garden in 1955 and eventually became the property of noted activist, writer and humanist Warren Allen Smith. Smith donated the sculpture to the Institute for Humanist Studies (IHS) in 2005, and it now graces the entrance of IHS headquarters in Albany, New York.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Anita Weschler Papers consists of appointment books, art organizations, artwork, correspondence, exhibit catalogs, financial records, memorabilia, photographs, printed material, and writings.

Appointment books cover nearly 40 years of the artist's working and personal life.

Art organizations files contain material relating to various art galleries, guilds, artists colonies, and schools, including the Archives of American Art, the Art Students League, the MacDowell Colony, and the Sculptors Guild.

Artwork includes original sketches for costumes and fashions, for designs and interior designs, sketches in crayon, ink and pencil, prints, and water colors. Sketchbooks are at the end of this series.

Correspondence is largely incoming from friends, family, admirers, writers, artists and museums.Correspondence pertaining to specific interior decorating jobs is included with the interior decorating material in the Financial records series (see below). Significant correspondents include artists (Doris Caesar), galleries (Mortimer-Levitt Gallery), museums (Columbia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art), organizations (Artists' Equity Foundation, Sculptor's Guild, Yaddo Foundation), and writers (Padraic Colum, Chaim Gross, Thornton Wilder).

Note: A partial index to correspondence is provided at the end of this finding aid. However, this index is NOT comprehensive. It covers only the [General] correspondence in Boxes 22-34. It does not include Business or Personal correspondence in Boxes 8-22.

Exhibit catalogues include Anita Weschler one man shows, Anita Weschler shows with other artists, and shows of other artists, arranged chronologically within each category.

Financial records include bank books, bank statements, bills and receipts, checkbooks, expenses and budgets, income taxes, insurance policies, interior decorating job files for various clients, and legal documents.

Memorabilia includes addresses and mailing lists, awards, autographs, biographical material, book lists, business cards, brochures on art equipment and techniques, exhibition schedules, clippings about friends, a guest book, and prints arranged in that order. Also included is material about the various art organizations with which Weschler was associated and a diary kept by Weschler's mother.

Photographs include photographs of Weschler, her family, friends and travels.

Printed material contains exhibit material, issues of various periodicals including Playbill magazine, programs from various performances, and miscellaneous items.

Recordings contains audiorecordings of interviews of Weschler and others, as well as Weschler reminiscing on her life and work.

Writings include handwritten and typescript manuscripts of articles, book reviews, books, diaries, essays, lectures, notebooks, notes, plays, poems, press releases, radio interviews, radio talks, short stories and untitled short pieces. Also included here are a few writings by others: Carl Carmer, Joseph Hudnut, Louise Lamprey and J. Charles Weschler.

Arrangement of the Collection

Appointment books and Correspondence are arranged chronologically. Undated correspondence, arranged alphabetically, follows the chronologically arranged letters. Incoming letters to members of Weschler's family are at the end of the correspondence, alphabetically arranged by recipient's name. Exhibit catalogs are alphabetical by type of show, and within that chronologically.

Art organizations are arranged alphabetically by name of organization. Artwork, Financial records, Memorabilia, and Printed material are arranged alphabetically by type. Photographs are arranged alphabetically by subject. Writings are arranged alphabetically by type, and within each type alphabetically by title. Writings by others are filed at the end of this series.

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

One book has been transferred to Rare Books for cataloging. It is indicated in the inventory below.

Subject Headings

Persons

Benét, William Rose, 1886-1950.
Boswell, Peyton, 1904-1950.
Brian, Doris.
Burle Marx, Roberto, 1909-1994.
Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972.
Cuthbert, Clifton, 1907-1978.
Fillmore, Parker Hoystead, 1878-
Freydberg, Ralph M.
Frost, Frances, 1905-1959.
Glowacki, Michaline.
Golden, Trudy.
Gorelik, Frances.
Graham, French W.
Grandin, Ruth.
Greenbaum, Beatrice.
Heine, Irwin Millard.
Hellinger, Joshua, 1907-1960.
Hopper, Inslee A.
Hudnut, Joseph, 1886-1968.
Humphrey, Doris, 1895-1958.
Hunn, Marianne.
Jenni, Donald, 1937-2006.
Jonas, Louis Paul, 1894-1971.
Kallock, Almansor.
Katzenberg, Elva S.
Koestler, Elsa Weschler.
Korff, Betty Hurd.
Lamprey, Louise, 1869-1951.
Langfeld, Beatrice.
Lewenthal, Reeves.
Limón, José
MacDowell, Marian.
Marceau, Henri, 1896-1969.
Mayer, Sophie.
McNickle, D'Arcy.
Montague, Ward.
Pearce, Glenn.
Piper, Raymond Frank.
Read, Gardner, 1913-2005.
Rewald, Estelle.
Richardson, Nina Maud.
Robinson, George S.
Rowan, Edward Beatty, 1898-1946.
Schlick, Frederick.
Smith, Warren Allen, 1921-
Solomon, Herbert E.
Sommerich, Jane.
Spencer, James Houston.
Ulreich, Bukannura.
Vitarelli, V.
Weschler, Adolphus.
Weschler, Anita.
Weschler, Hulda Mayer.
Weschler, J. Charles.
Wescott, Glenway, 1901-1987.
Wescott, Paul, 1904-1970.
Whiting, Frederic Allen.
Whitney, Parkhurst.
Willets, Eliza L.
Zorach, Marguerite, 1887-1968.
Zorach, William, 1887-1966.

Corporate Bodies

American Artists Group.
American Federation of Arts.
Architectural League of New York.
Art Students League (New York, N.Y.)
Artists Equity Association.
New York Enthusiasts.
Sculptors Guild (New York, N.Y.)

Subjects

Art, American -- 20th century.
Interior decorators -- United States.
Jews, American.
Painters -- United States.
Painting, American -- 20th century.
Sculptors -- United States.
Sculpture, American.
Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century.
Women artists -- United States.
Women painters -- United States.
Women poets, American.
Women sculptors -- United States.

Genres and Forms

Appointment books.
Articles.
Audiocassettes.
Awards.
Bank statements.
Bankbooks.
Calendars (documents)
Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Diaries.
Exhibition catalogs.
Interviews.
Manuscripts for publication.
Notebooks.
Photographs.
Poems.
Receipts (financial records)
Sketches.
Slides (photographs)
Sound recordings.

Occupations

Artists.
Interior decorators.
Painters.
Poets.
Sculptors.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Anita Weschler Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Anita Weschler, 1965-2001.

Table of Contents

Appointment books

Art organizations

Artwork

Correspondence

Exhibition catalogues

Financial records

Memorabilia

Photographs

Printed material

Recordings

Writings

Partial index to correspondence

Inventory

Partial index to correspondence

The majority of correspondence is incoming (to Anita Weschler). Outgoing letters (from Weschler) are denoted with an asterisk (*). "PM" indicates that the date was taken from a postmark on the envelope rather than from the letter itself.

Please note that this index is NOT comprehensive. It covers only the [General] correspondence in Boxes 22-34. It does not include Business or Personal correspondence (Boxes 8-22).