Collection Guide
Brief record only
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Alma Lavenson papers, 1855-1985.
Collection Number:
No online items
Collection Overview
Title:
Alma Lavenson papers, 1855-1985Creator/Contributor:
Lavenson, Alma, 1897-1989, creator, creator.Creator/Contributor:
Western Jewish History Center, 281.Creator/Contributor:
Judah L. Magnes Museum, WJHC 1979.004.Creator/Contributor:
Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and LifeAbstract:
The collection consists of a copy of Alma Lavenson's oral history, an interview with her, genealogical material and family
history, catalogues and publicity of her photography exhibitions, and photographs of Alma growing up and of her family.
Date:
1855 (issued)Subject:
n-us-caExhibitions -- California
Jewish women -- California
Photography, Artistic
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906
Juives -- Californie
Photographie artistique
Tremblement de terre de San Francisco, Calif., 1906
art photography
Exhibitions
Jewish women
Photography, Artistic
California -- Genealogy
Californie -- Généalogies
California
Lavenson, Alma -- 1897-1989 -- Archives
Wahrhaftig, Matthew -- Photographs
Lavenson family -- Photographs
Lavenson, Alma -- 1897-1989
Wahrhaftig, Matthew
Jewish photographers
Women photographers
Note:
Formerly: Western Jewish History Center Collection Number 281.
Formerly: Judah L. Magnes Museum Collection Number WJHC 1979.004.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.
Transfer; Judah L. Magnes Museum; 2010.
Alma Lavenson was born in San Francisco in 1897. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, her family moved to Oakland where
her father opened a dry goods store. By the 1920s, Lavenson had become a professional photographer and was acquainted with
other well-known photographers who were experimenting with new camera techniques and subject matter. Her meeting with Edward
Weston and friendship with Imogen Cunningham influenced her work to move away from a soft, lyrical quality towards more abstract
and austere imagery. In the 1930s, she began photographing California Mother Lode sites to record "those remaining bits and
fragments which still speak of ... the [18]50s and [18]60s." One of Lavenson's photographs, "American Indian," was among those
selected for the esteemed Family of Man show that was held at New York's Museum of Modern Art (1955). She married Matthew
Wahrhaftig.
Alma Lavenson papers, BANC MSS 2010/819, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, The Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley.
Materials in English.
Type:
Photographs.Archives.
Photograph
Catalogs.
photographs.
Genealogy.
Photographs.
Photographies.
Physical Description:
print
0.2 (1
Language:
English
Identifier:
2006585522
Origin:
CaliforniaCopyright Note:
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.