Finding Aid to the Martinez, Dean, DuCasse Family Papers and Photographs
Lara Michels
The Bancroft Library
2024
The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
bancref@library.berkeley.edu
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: Martinez, Dean, DuCasse family papers and photographs
Creator:
Martinez (Family : Martinez, Xavier, 1869-1943)
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 2023/251
Physical Description:
3 linear feet
(2 cartons, 2 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1893-1978
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Language of Material:
English
, Spanish; Castilian
.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase from Auger Down Books in 2023.
Biographical / Historical
The Mexican-American artist Xavier Martinez and his extended family and social circle, which included his estranged wife Elsie
Martinez and her partner the artist and writer Harriet Dean, as well as his daughter, the muralist and artist Micaela Martinez
DuCasse and her husband Ralph DuCasse, were figures in the California art scene in the early part of the twentieth century.
Preferred Citation
Martinez, Dean, and DuCasse family papers and photographs, BANC MSS 2023/251, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
Processing Information
Processed by Lara Michels and student processing assistants at the file level. Arrangement is nearly as received from seller.
Information from the seller's notes has been included in the scope and content notes throughout the finding aid.
Scope and Contents
Correspondence, photographs, manuscripts and personal papers of Xavier Martinez, Elsie Martinez, Harriet Dean, Micaela DuCasse,
and Ralph DuCasse, with emphasis on the the artists' careers and the artistic milieu of California and Paris in the 1920s
and 1930s, as well as Ralph DuCasse's military service in the Philippines in the 1940s.
Conditions Governing Use
Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction
of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions,
privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond
that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
For additional information about the University of California, Berkeley Library's permissions policy please see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Martinez, Xavier, 1869-1943
Martinez, Elsie, 1890-1984
Whitaker, Margaret Vandecar, 1868-1905
Dean, Harriet, 1892-1964
DuCasse, Ralph, 1916-2003
Mexican American artists
Artists -- California -- 20th century
Mexican American women artists
carton 1, folder 1-36
Xavier Martinez incoming correspondence
1893-1944
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: The incoming correspondence to Xavier Martinez includes early material from his family, and extends
through his career and life with a large focus on his correspondence with his daughter. Approximately fifteen family letters
are written in Spanish from Mexico, in Spanish (1894; 1897; 1906-1907; 1926; 1936). They are from his father, brother, sister,
and nephew. The 1906-1907 letters express worry following the San Francisco earthquake. Also includes letters dated from 1921
to 1923 from daughter Micaela, Elsie (who signs her name as Pelican - his nickname for her), and Harriet Dean.
carton 1, folder 37-42
Xavier Martinez family photographs
approximately 1870-1943
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: Guadalajara and California, 1870s? - 1943. Thirty photographs of various members of the Martinez
family, albumen and silver prints, boudoir card size and smaller, some with Guadalajara and San Francisco studio marks verso.
carton 1, folder 43-59
Micaela Martinez incoming correspondence
1927-1942
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: The incoming correspondence to Micaela Martinez is nearly all from her family, mostly Xavier Martinez
(her father), but also from Elsie Whitaker Martinex (her mother) and Harriet Dean. Some letters from Xavier Martinez are illustrated.
carton 1, folder 60-74
Harriet Dean correspondence with Elsie Martinez
1927-1948
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: Approximately eighty letters written to Elsie Martinez and Harriet Dean from a range of correspondents,
most from the 1930s, with Micaela Martinez being most heavily represented. Some of the other correspondents include the artist
Virginia Hale, who signs her letters as "Naya," Ralph and Margot Pearson and various others.
carton 2, folder 1-15
Harriet Dean incoming correspondence
1921-1951
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: A collection of over ninety-five letters to Dean from Micaela Martinez and others, nearly all from
the 193Os, that provide further information on the lives of Dean and her circle. The letters indirectly document Dean's conversion
to Catholicism, her life with the Martinez family, the art scene of the time period, and her broad social circle.
carton 2, folder 16-43
Harriet Dean outgoing correspondence
1924-1978
undated
carton 2, folder 44-47
Harriet Dean manuscript material and miscellaneous
approximately 1925-1965
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: A varied group of writing and family material, including several screen treatments and short stories,
family-related publications, and scrapbooks. In the late 1920s Dean wrote several screen treatments under the pen-name Clare
Walton.
carton 2, folder 48
Harriet Dean family photographs
carton 2, folder 49-61
Elsie Whitaker Martinez incoming correspondence
1912-1939
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: Letters addressed to Elsie Martinez. Also letters addressed to Elsie and "Marty"(Xavier), from
an unidentified Japanese poet in 1912-1915.
carton 2, folder 62-70
Clare Virginia Hale incoming correspondence
1925-1938
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: Approximately twenty-eight letters to and from Clare Virginia Hale, a longtime friend of the Martinez/
Dean family who referred to herself as Maya and lived in Taos.
carton 2, folder 71
Elsie Martinez diary
1922-1923
Scope and Contents
Margaret Whitaker written on front but appears to be Elsie's diary. Contains some loose materials and drawings.
carton 2, folder 72-75
Ralph DuCasse letters and other World War Two materials
approximately 1940-1945
Scope and Contents
From seller's description: Military language study sheets and other wartime activity ephemera, as well as over 200 pages of
handwritten letters sent from the Philippines, and two photographs, c. 1943-1945.
carton 2, folder 76-80
Assorted postcards and family ephemera and miscellany
approximately 1900-1950
flat_box 1
Figure drawings done by Elsie Martinez in Paris and original cloth portfolio
1923
flat_box 2
Xavier Martinez brass name plate, wallet, framed photograph (unidentified but possibly of Margaret Vandecar Whitaker
