Letters from 1901 - 1960

Eero Saarinen, 1953

Maxfield Parrish, 1918

Maxfield Parrish (110), Letter to Martin Birnbaum, December 4, 1918

 
AH_Saarinen3.jpg
Now a few words about divorce so that I don’t have to waste the time on the phone with that [...] You beast! I was just about to send you flowers—for the first time than you wrote about flowers—now you will have to wait—a bit.

Charles Burchfield, 1956

I agree with you that the the tide of mediocrity that seems almost to engulf our modern world is indeed frightening. But I do believe that no matter what cultural deserts are created from time to time, there will always arise a new spirit to re-create forgotten values. That doesn’t mean of course that we have to lie down and quit fighting.
— Charles Burchfield (35), letter to Lawrence A. Fleischman, March 17, 1956 [right]
This will not be written with scalpel like objectivity it is just going to be small talke——-
— Eero Sarrinen (125), Letter to Aline Saarinen, April 10-11, 1953 [above]

Eero Saarinen (126), letter to Aline Saarinen, April 10-11, 1953, continued.

1830-1869          1870-1900          1901-1960          1961-1970          1971-1990


All images from Pen to paper: Artists' Handwritten Letters from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art by Mary Savig, published by Princeton Architectural Press (2016). Images courtesy of, and copyrighted by, the Archives of American Art.