Descriptive Summary
Biographical/Historical Note
Administrative Information
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Gretl Dichter photographs and personal papers
Date (inclusive): 1907-1996 (bulk 1916-1940)
Number: 2004.M.2
Creator/Collector:
Dichter, Gretl
Physical Description:
1.5 Linear Feet
(4 boxes)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: This collection of photographs and a
few personal items document the life of Gretl Dichter, her family, and her travels prior to
emigrating to the United States from Vienna, Austria in 1946.
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Language: Collection material is in German with some English
Biographical/Historical Note
Margarete (Gretl) Dichter was born in Vienna, Austria on April 17, 1907, and was raised
there with her six siblings. The Dichter family frequently traveled to European vacation
sites and resorts. Dichter worked in her father's department store, where she developed her
business acumen and fashion sense. She became very interested in photography, and documented
her extensive travels across Europe with her detailed and artistic photographs. When Austria
was annexed by Hitler and the Third Reich in 1938, they also confiscated the Dichter
properties and holdings, forcing Dichter and her siblings to flee to Chicago where they
lived with family from her father's side.
Dichter and her husband, Walter Silton, opened a wholesale toy company in Los Angeles which
became very successful. She was also to spend the rest of her life doing what she loved:
interior design, art, architecture, and classical music. She was passionate about the
outdoors, and frequently hiked and skied, often taking photographs of her adventures.
Dichter commissioned Richard Dorman to build a house in Beverly Hills based off on the
furniture she was able to bring from her apartment in Vienna, which had been designed by
Walter Sobotka, a well-known member of the Wiener Werkstatte in Vienna. Dichter spent her
last years living in a penthouse that overlooked UCLA and the Bel Air area. She cherished
her memories, her photographs, and her artwork. She died March 23, 1966.
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Gretl Dichter miscellaneous papers, 1906-1996, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 2004.M.2.
Aquisition Information
Gift of Edith Wachtel Arlen and Walter Arlen, 2002.
Processing History
Initial evaluation by Frances Terpak on May 13, 2003. Movement and rehousing by Vladimira
Stefura on January 8, 2004. The collection was reprocessed and the finding aid was written
by Sarah R. Jones in 2016 under the supervsion of Kit Messick.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection consists of 158 photographs, two original portfolios, one postcard, one
driver's license, and one passport. It also includes a three-page, typewritten biography
signed by Edith Arlen Wachtel, Walter Arlen, and Howard Myers. The photographs include views
of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and several landscape scenes taken by
Dichter on her vacations and travels. There are many images of the Dichter family, and three
photographs of the commemorative plaque that was erected in her honor in Brentwood,
California.
Arrangement
Organized in three series:
Within each series, files are arranged alphabetically. Within each
physical folder, the items are in chronological order. Series
I. Photographs of Locations, 1929-1933;
Series II. Photographs of Dichter
Family, 1907-1996;
Series III. Personal Items and
Papers, undated.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Topics
Portrait photography
Subjects - Places
Italy -- Description and travel
Germany -- Description and travel
Switzerland -- Description and travel
Europe -- Description and travel
Austria -- Description and travel
France -- Description and travel
Genres and Forms of Material
Black-and-white photographs
Black-and-white photographs -- 20th century
Passports
Photographs, Original
Photographs -- 20th century
Postcards -- 20th century
Black-and-white photographs -- Austria -- 20th century
Contributors
Dichter, Gretl