Charis Wilson journal, letters, and notes documenting the Whitman trip with Edward Weston, 1936-2009, bulk 1941-1942

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Summary

Creators:
Wilson, Charis, 1914-2009
Abstract:
The collection contains the journal, letters, and notes documenting the Whitman trip Charis Wilson took with photographer Edward Weston.
Extent:
202 items in two boxes
Language:
The records are in English .

Background

Scope and content:

This small collection includes Charis Wilson’s typed journal for the eight-month trip she and Weston took during 1941 for the “Whitman” tour as well as supporting material including correspondence, the trip itinerary, notes, photographs, letters of introduction for Weston, newspaper clippings, brochures and miscellaneous ephemera, a negative list, and a list of illustrations for Leaves of Grass with Whitman quotations selected by Wilson. The journal typescript draft contains two black and white photographs.

Also included is correspondence between Weston, Wilson, George Macy, and Merle Armitage regarding the Limited Editions Club project as well as letters Weston and Wilson received during the “Whitman” trip. Among the authors of letters of introduction for Weston are photographer and curator, Beaumont Newhall, and artist Charles Sheeler.

The material was kept in the order in which it came to the Huntington Library. The original folders were also retained (if present).

The Huntington Library also has Charis Wilson’s journal (typescript) from her and Edward Weston’s Guggenheim-funded trip throughout California and the West in 1937 to 1939, which resulted in the book California and the West. Call number: HM 51997

Biographical / historical:

Widely known as photographer Edward Weston’s model and muse, Charis Wilson (1914-2009) was also a writer. She was born in San Francisco in 1914. She met Weston in Carmel, California in 1934, and they started a romantic relationship shortly thereafter. In 1937 Weston received a Guggenheim Fellowship and he and Wilson spent the year traveling around California and the American West. While Weston made pictures, Wilson kept a detailed journal of their experiences. In 1939 they married, and, in 1940 California and the West. In 1941 Weston was asked to take photographs to illustrate a Limited Edition Club edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Weston and Wilson traveled the United States by automobile for two years to complete both the Guggenheim and the Whitman projects. They divorced in 1946 and Wilson married labor activist Noel Harris. Harris and she had two daughters before divorcing in 1967. Wilson’s memoir, Through Another Lens was published in 1999. She died in Santa Cruz, California in 2009.

Acquisition information:
The collection was purchased from Rachel Harris, Charis Wilson's daughter, by the Library Collector's Council in January 2003. Rachel Harris later gave more material in August 2014.
Rules or conventions:
Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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