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INVENTORY OF THE BEAUMONT AND NANCY NEWHALL PAPERS, 1843-1993 (bulk 1929-1993)
920060
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Title: Beaumont and Nancy Newhall papers
Dates: 1843-1993
Dates: 1929-1993
Collection number: 920060
Creator:
Newhall, Beaumont, 1908-
Creator:
Newhall, Nancy Wynne
Extent:
ca. 150 lin. ft.
(268 boxes, 3 flat file folders)
Repository:
Getty Research Institute
Research Library
Special Collections and Visual Resources
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California 90049-1688
Abstract: The archive documents the work of Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, two key figures in the history of photography, through correspondence,
extensive research files, published and unpublished writings, and photographs, slides and audiotapes. Beaumont Newhall's papers
(136 lin. ft.) date from ca. 1843-1993, Nancy Newhall's papers (14 lin. ft.) date from ca. 1920-1989.
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Language: Collection material in English
Open for use by qualified researchers, except the audiotapes that have not yet been reformatted.
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Library Rights and Reproductions
Beaumont and Nancy Newhall papers, 1843-1993 (bulk 1929-1993), Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 920060.
This collection was acquired in 1992, and supplements were received in 1993 and 1996. Additional material was moved into the
collection from Special Collection Accession nos. 920082, 940082, 930036, and 93.R.23.
Michael Baker began processing the collection in December 1995 and nearly completed it in August 1996. He compiled a draft
of this finding aid and Annette Leddy extensively edited the front essays. Kelly Nipper completed processing and re-housing
the collection, and revised the finding aid in 1999. Jocelyn Gibbs and Alan Tomlinson completed the final editing of the finding
aid.
Biographical / Historical Note
Beaumont Newhall is perhaps the first champion of the study of photography as art, and of its history. He was born in Lynn,
Massachusetts in 1908 and graduated from Harvard University in 1932. After an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Newhall became the Librarian at the Museum of Modern Art. In 1937, at the request of Director Alfred Barr, Newhall organized
the museum's first exhibition of photographs. His
History of Photography, published for the exhibition, introduced formal criteria for judging photography as a fine art. Revised five times and translated
into several languages, it remains a widely read textbook on the history of photography.
In 1940 Beaumont Newhall became the first Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. He was drafted in 1942 and sent
to North Africa and Italy in a photo-reconnaissance division. In his absence Nancy Newhall, whom he had married in 1936, served
as Acting Curator. Beaumont Newhall resumed his Curatorship after the war, but resigned in 1945 over artistic differences
with the new director, Edward Steichen.
In 1948, Beaumont Newhall became the first Curator of Photography at the George Eastman House, and then served as its Director
from 1958 to 1971, building a significant photography collection. After his retirement, Newhall accepted a position as Visiting
Professor of Art at the University of New Mexico, where he helped to establish the first doctoral program in the history of
photography at an American university. He died in 1993.
In his long career, Beaumont Newhall authored numerous articles and reviews of books about photography. In addition to
History of Photography, he wrote
Masters of Photography (with Nancy Newhall, 1958),
The daguerreotype in America (1961),
Frederick Evans (1964),
Latent image: the discovery of photography (1967) and
Focus: memoirs of a life in photography (1993). He also published a book of photographs,
In plain sight: the photographs of Beaumont Newhall (1983)
Nancy Newhall (Nancy Wynne Parker) was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1908. She graduated from Smith College, where she showed
talent as a writer and painter, and married Beaumont Newhall in 1936. After serving as Acting Curator of Photography at the
Museum of Modern Art (1942-45), she wrote articles about photographers, edited and introduced photography books by Ansel Adams,
Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and others, and collaborated with Ansel Adams on several books about the American West, including
Yosemite Valley (1959),
Death Valley (1954),
The Tetons and Yellowstone (1970), and
This is the American Earth (1960). With Minor White, she founded the magazine
Aperture. She died in 1974, struck by a falling tree while rafting down the Snake River with Beaumont.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Beaumont and Nancy Newhall papers (ca. 150 linear feet) comprehensively document the professional lives of these two key
figures in the history of photography. The Newhall marriage is portrayed through the letters they sent to each other during
World War II and in later correspondence and letters of condolence to Beaumont upon Nancy's accidental death. Correspondence
also offers profiles of major photographers who were their friends, such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, and Alfred
Stieglitz, profiles amplified by snapshots and journal accounts. There is exhaustive documentation of the Newhalls' professional
lives, including Beaumont's daily journals, minutes of meetings, notes, records, and correspondence. These disclose the drama
behind such achievements as the founding of the Departments of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y. (MoMA) and George
Eastman House, and the establishment of the country's first doctoral program in the history of photography, and essentially
offer a history of the struggle for institutional acceptance of photography as a fine art form. Beaumont and Nancy Newhall's
published and unpublished manuscripts, in typescript and clippings, span seven decades. Books from Beaumont Newhall's library
have been transferred to the Getty Research Library.
Arrangement
The archive is arranged in nine series:
Series I. Research files, 1843-1993
Series II. Personal files, 1929-1993
Series III. Correspondence, 1934-1993
Series IV. Beaumont Newhall writings, 1925-1993
Series V. Lectures, 1934-1992
Series VI. Beaumont Newhall photographs, 1885-1984
Series VII. Nancy Newhall papers, ca. 1920-1989
Series VIII. Theses and publications, 1976-1987
Series IX. Oversize, 1852-1984
Adams, Ansel, 1902-
Anschütz, Ottomar, 1846-1907
Brady, Matthew B., 1823 (ca.)-1896
Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 1908-
Coburn, Alvin Langdon, 1882-1966
Emerson, P. H. (Peter Henry), 1856-1936
Evans, Frederick H.
Gernsheim, Helmut, 1913-
Lange, Dorothea
Lunn, Harry Hyatt, 1933-
Moholy-Vagy, László, 1895-1946
Morgan, Barbara Brooks, 1900-
Newhall, Beaumont, 1908-
Newhall, Nancy Wynne
Porter, Eliot, 1901-
Sheeler, Charles, 1883-1965
Smith, W. Eugene, 1918-
Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946
Steichen, Edward, 1979-1973
Strand, Paul, 1890-1976
Talbot, William Henry Fox, 1800-1877
Vogel, Hermann Wilhelm, 1834-1898
Weston, Brett
Weston, Edward, 1850-1936
White, Minor
Friends of Photography
George Eastman House
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
Salzburg Seminar
Southworth & Hawes
University of New Mexico
Cameras
Motion pictures--History and criticism
Photographers
Photography, Artistic
Photography—Collectors and collecting
Photography—Exhibitions
Photography—Periodicals
Photography—Processes
Tintype
Audiotapes
Black-and-white slides
Color slides
Diaries
Ephemera
Photographic prints
Photographs, Original
Adams, Ansel, 1902-
Hagemeyer, Johan, 1884-1962
Newhall, Beaumont, 1908-
Newhall, Nancy Wynne