Everett Ellin was the polymathic owner of two well-regarded art galleries in Los Angeles during the late 1950s and the early 1960s. He invigorated the local art scene by bringing major artists from New York to Los Angeles. He also created a vital link between technology and museums by founding the Museum Computer Network. After leaving the art world, he worked as an entrepreneur in energy management and medical imaging technology, as an inventor of media devices, an executive for SONY, and as a business consultant. The papers document Ellin's professional life, including his work with the Everett Ellin Gallery, French & Company, and the Museum Computer Network. A small quantity of personal papers is also present.

Everett Ellin was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1928 and died in 2011 in Diana, Texas. While he is most known in the art world as a Los Angeles dealer of contemporary art, his BS in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan (1949) and JD from Harvard Law School (1952) allowed him to follow diverse career paths before and after he ran the Everett Ellin Gallery (1957-1958) and Everett Ellin Gallery, Inc. (1960-1963). Ellin is regarded as one of the key local gallery owners responsible for animating the mid-century Los Angeles art scene by showcasing contemporary art from New York. Before opening the gallery, Ellin served as a US Air Force officer in the Korean War, assisted the Vice President of the William Morris Agency, clerked for a justice of the California Supreme Court, and served as Deputy House Counsel for Columbia Pictures. In 1959 he opened the Everett Ellin Gallery on Santa Monica Boulevard, a move which developed out of his experience of writing gallery contracts for his girlfriend and future wife, the painter Joan Jacobs, and her artist friends. In this first iteration of his gallery, he showed California abstract expressionist artists, including Bruce Beasley, to whom he gave his first show.

6 Linear Feet (14 boxes; 5 audiocassettes; 4 audio discs; 1 computer disc; 3 videocassettes)

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Open for use by qualified researchers. Audiovisual and born digital materials unavailable until reformatted.