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Dichter (Gretl) photographs and personal papers
2004.M.2  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • 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.
    Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record   for this collection. Click here for the access policy .
    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