Table of Contents
Scope and Contents of the Collection
Selected index to correspondence
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| Creator: | Artzybasheff, Boris, 1899-1965 |
| Title: | Boris Artzybasheff Papers |
| Dates: | 1893-1966 |
| Quantity: | 4.5 linear ft. |
| Abstract: | Spanning 1893 to 1966, the Boris Artzybasheff Papers comprises biographical material, correspondence, artwork, writings, and memorabilia of the Russian-American artist (1899-1965), who is perhaps most widely known for the more than 200 covers of Time magazine he produced between 1941 and 1965. Illuminating Artzybasheff's unique and versatile artistic style as well as his life as an immigrant in the United States, the collection documents the career of the illustrator, painter, designer, and author. |
| Language: | English, Russian |
| Repository: | Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center |
Scope and Contents of the Collection
Arranged chronologically, the Correspondence (Box 1) consists of incoming and outgoing letters in Russian and French as well as English. Letters bearing the dates 1918 through 1923 are largely in Russian, most likely to and from Artzybasheff's mother, who was residing in Constantinople at the time. Correspondents during the remaining years (1934-1965) include literary figures (Edward H. Dodd; Charles G. Finney; William McCleery), advertising agencies (Daniel and Charles, Inc.; Shaller-Rubin Company, Inc.), and Time magazine. A selected index to the Correspondence follows the box list.
Artwork (Boxes 1-3) encompasses original book illustrations, two paintings, reproductions, research material, signatures, and sketches. Reproductions, which account for the bulk of the collection, are categorized by both format and subject. Personal greeting cards, book and magazine illustrations, and three-dimensional figures constitute Reproductions (by format). Book illustrations are arranged by book title when known. While magazine illustrations (mostly cover art) list each periodical title in the collection in which Artzybasheff's artwork appears, many of these items are cross-referenced to the subject Technology. Reproductions (by subject) categorizes images as Portraits, Technology, War images, and Miscellany. Images are identified by the name of the portrait subject, the client for which Artzybasheff produced advertising, the title of the periodical in which his work was displayed, or the title of the image as provided by Artzybasheff. Oversize Package #1 houses a variety of artwork, specifically, original book illustrations, a painting on wood, and large-format reproductions.
Writings (Box 4) consists of autobiographical reminiscences, three essays, two journals describing Artzybasheff's painting technique (including Time magazine portraits), one journal in Russian, and a published speech.
Memorabilia (Boxes 4-5) includes artwork by others, awards, calendars, personal documents, a price list of drawings, photographs of Artzybasheff and others, printed material, and miscellaneous typefaces. Printed material contains articles about Artzybasheff (1928-1954), newspaper clippings (1920-1965), a Russian newspaper (1937), several exhibition catalogs and announcements (1931-1966), book and artwork reviews (1922-1956), and documentation of Time magazine's 40th anniversary, which includes photographs of Artzybasheff. A genealogical record of the Southard family belonging to Artzybasheff's wife, Elisabeth Southard Snyder, and five periodicals are stored in Oversize Package #1.
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.
Subject Headings
Persons
Associated Titles
Subjects
Genres and Forms
Occupations
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Boris Artzybasheff Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
Finding Aid Information
Created by: ASE
Date: Jun 1993
Revision history: 12 Jun 2005 - EAD file created (MRR);
21 Jul 2014 - Avco items added (MRC);
2 Dec 2016 - Pan Am item added (PB);
27 Nov 2017 - rehoused, inventory corrected (MS)
Inventory
| Biographical material | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Biographical material | ||||||||||
| Correspondence | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Correspondence 1918-1965, undated (2 folders) | ||||||||||
| See also Selected Index to Correspondence | |||||||||||
| Artwork | |||||||||||
| Illustrations (book) (original) | |||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Nansen | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Untitled | ||||||||||
| Paintings | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | "NM illustrators' White & Cool Black" | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | "Scarlet Lake & BP" 16 Jun 1963 - painting on wood | ||||||||||
| Reproductions | |||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Greeting cards, personal 1946-1954, undated | ||||||||||
| Illustrations, books | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | The adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan 1935 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Nansen | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Nansen | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Various, by title, A-Z | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Untitled | ||||||||||
| Includes illustrations for "Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Night Before," and "Origin of the Flying Saucers" | |||||||||||
| Illustrations, magazine | |||||||||||
| See also Reproductions by subject, below, for other examples of cover art. | |||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | American Artist cover art | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Colophon cover art | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Fortune cover art Apr. 1941 | ||||||||||
| See also Artwork Reproductions (by subject): Technology: Union Carbide & Carbon Corp. | |||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Life articles 1947, undated | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Medical Economics Jan 1953 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | New Hope cover art (photocopy) Sep 1933 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Time cover art 1941-1953 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Time cover art, "Farmer Warren North" 1959, | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Time cover art undated | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Time cover art [?] undated - photographs | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Three-dimensional figures, photographs of undated | ||||||||||
| Reproductions by subject | |||||||||||
| Portraits | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Burr, Harold Saxton, The Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine cover Dec 1957 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Caribbean faces 1948-1949, undated - advertising from Alcoa Steamship Company, Inc. | ||||||||||
| See also Artwork Research Material: West Indies. | |||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Caribbean faces, larger format items - advertising from Alcoa Steamship Company, Inc. | ||||||||||
| See also Artwork Research Material: West Indies. | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Dalton, Dorothy 1921 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Doenitz, Karl, Der Spiegel cover 1961 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Freud, Sigmund, Columbia Library Columns cover | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Jones, Jesse H. | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Smith, Howard K. | ||||||||||
| See also Technology: CBS News, "Election Night, 1960" (Howard K. Smith), below. | |||||||||||
| Technology | |||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) advertising - includes photographs | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | American Airlines advertising | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Atlas Copco advertising | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Atlas Copco advertising, larger format | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Avco advertising (2 folders) | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Avco advertising | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | CBS News, "Election Night, 1960" (Howard K. Smith) 1960 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Conway Associates International, Inc. advertising | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Dateline cover art | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Dun's Review and Modern Industry cover art June 1959 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | "Executive of the Future" 1952, 1956, 1961, 1966 | ||||||||||
| Cover art from Esquire, Apr. 1952; Overflow Mar. 1956; Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) program announcement, 1961; Senior Science, Sept. 1966 | |||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Haloid Xerox Inc. advertising | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "Improved Design for Modern Man" 1950 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "Jimmy Doolittle's 'Flying Engine' ", Esquire cover art 5 Sep 1932 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Machine Design cover art 10 May 1962 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Nation's Business cover art Mar 1951, Jun 1953 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "New Quick-think Lawyer" 1954 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | "New Quick-think Lawyer" 1954 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Production cover art Sep 1960 | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Railway Express Agency, Inc. advertising | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | St. Paul Insurance Companies advertising 1965 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Shell X-100 Motor Oil advertising | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | [John] Sutherland Prod's Inc. - includes storyboards for television commercial | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Time subscription advertising | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "The Twentieth Century Physician" | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., Fortune cover art | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Wickwire Spencer Steel Corp. | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Wickwire Spencer Steel Corp. | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Miscellany | ||||||||||
| War images | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Hartford (Conn.) advertising for scrap metal drive | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Vultee Aircraft, Inc. advertising | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Wickwire Spencer Steel Corp. "Ain't going to study war no more..." | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Miscellany | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Miscellany | ||||||||||
| Miscellany | |||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | "Anxiety, Frustration, Repressed Hostility" | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | "Art Director, as seen by Artzybasheff" | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Ex Libris Studio advertising 1919 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | "A Flag for the United Nations" 1945 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Frankfort Distillers Corp. advertising for Paul Jones | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | [Chas. M.] Higgins & Co., Inc. advertising for Higgins' American Drawing Inks | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | "Indecision, Timidity, Infantilism" | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Logan Drinking Cup Co. advertising for Ajax and Aero Sanitary Drinking Cups | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | "Man Coddling His Ulcers" | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | "Naught so sweet as Melancholy" 1954 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Pan American World Airways advertising | ||||||||||
| Map-Case | Pan American World Airways advertising - poster | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Parker Pen Company advertising 1947, undated | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | The Russian Eagle menu | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | The Russian Inn menu | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Time advertising 1950, 1952, undated | ||||||||||
| See also Technology: Time subscription advertising, above. | |||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | "We Are Getting to the Bottom of It" 1948 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Wisconsin (State) advertising | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Worthy Paper Company advertising | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Miscellaneous images | ||||||||||
| Oversize 1 | Miscellaneous images | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Research material (West Indies) undated - photographs, Alcoa Steamship Company, Inc. advertising (3 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Signatures | ||||||||||
| Sketches (original), pencil | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | Sketches (original), pencil and watercolor - includes research material | ||||||||||
| Writings | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | Autobiographical - holograph, typescript notes, reminiscences (2 folders) | ||||||||||
| Essays | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | "The Fan Mail of Boris Artzybasheff" Jul 1937 - Published in Esquire | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | "The Magnificent Umpfs" - holograph draft | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | "The Purgatory" - typescript ms. drafts with holograph corrections | ||||||||||
| Journals, artwork 1957-1965 (2 items) | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | Journal, Russian 1919 | ||||||||||
| Speech, "Let George Do It!" Dec. 5, 1940 - Trade Book Clinic, New York, ; published 1941 | |||||||||||
| Memorabilia | |||||||||||
| Artwork by others | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | Originals 1946, undated - caricature sketches (5), silhouette (1) | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Reproductions undated | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Awards 1954, 1961 | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Calendars 1955-1958 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Calendars 1959-1965 | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Financial material - price list of drawings, miscellany | ||||||||||
| Oversize 2 | Genealogical record, Southard family - belonging to wife, Elisabeth Southard Snyder | ||||||||||
| Photographs | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | Artzybasheff, Boris undated (3 folders) | ||||||||||
| See also Printed material: Time 40th anniversary | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | Family, friends, and landscapes undated | ||||||||||
| Printed material | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | Articles about 1928-1954, undated | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Book, An illustrated introduction to psychoanalysis by Kenji Ohtsuki - gift from author, for use of Artzybasheff illustration, p. 191; in Japanese | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Clippings 1920-1965, undated (2 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Clippings, Russian newspaper 1937 | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Exhibition catalogs, announcements 1931-1966, undated | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Periodical, Kaiser Aluminum News 1966 - 5 issues | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Reviews 1922-1939, 1956, undated | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Time 40th anniversary 1963 - including photographs | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Time, "Famous Faces of Forty Years" 1963 | ||||||||||
| Oversize 3 | Typefaces | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Miscellanea 1893-1962, undated - certificates, personal documents, identification cards, passports, visas, miscellany (some in Russian) | ||||||||||
| Oversize 4 | Miscellanea 1893-1962, undated - certificates, personal documents, identification cards, passports, visas, miscellany (some in Russian) | ||||||||||
Selected index to correspondence
- Daniel and Charles, Inc. : 1965 Mar. 9 (outgoing typescript); 1965 Mar. 12
- Dodd, Edward H. : 1964 June 2
- Finney, Charles G. : 1935 July 7; 1936 Sept. 8 (writings attached)
- McCleery, William : 1965 Jan. 5; 1965 Jan. 15 (outgoing carbon); 1965 Feb. 8; 1965 Mar. 17
- National Historic Shrines Foundation, Inc. : 1965 Feb. 17
- Princeton University : see McCleery, William
- Shaller-Rubin Company, Inc. : 1965 Apr. 15
- Thompson, Ralph and Marcia : 1956 Jan. 2 (outgoing holograph); 1958 Aug. (outgoing holograph); 1962 Mar. 12 (outgoing holograph); undated (2 outgoing holograph letters, 1 from wife Betty)
- Time : 1964 Sept. 15; 1964 Sept. 21; 1964 Sept. 28; 1964 Oct. 30; 1965 Feb. 4
- United States. Department of State : 1920 Nov. 13 (re: visa for mother)