May 18, 1939
The principal exhibition during the World’s Fair period at the Brooklyn Museum will be “Popular Art in America” (covering the late 18th and early 19th Centuries) which will open to the public May 18th after an invitation preview Wednesday night May 17. To continue until October 1. It can be seen by critics and reviewers beginning Monday, May 15th. Catalogues and an ample supply of photographs will be on hand then.
This collection, made up mostly of loans, will not be simply another folk art exhibition although it will necessarily have some objects in that category as they were examples of popular art.
In the Foreward to the Catalogue Mr. John M. Graham III, the assistant curator of the American Rooms, remarks that popular art, which overlaps and is closely related to folk art, has not been extensively shown. He defines popular art as one which, regardless of who produced it, whether skilled or unskilled craftsman, was intended to appeal to the great majority of people. In other words, it is unsophisticated art for the average man and woman. “Advertisements, valentines, and many of the ceramics, exemplify this kind of popular art; for, although they were made by relatively specialized and highly skilled craftsmen, their consumption was essentially popular."
The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is arranged to present characteristic examples as well as the best ones available from an aesthetic view point. The period most amply represented is the first half of the 19th century with a few objects from the late 18th century. The field of oil painting is not included as it has been the subject of so many past and current exhibitions.
Among the objects shown which fit most neatly the definition of “popular art” as given above and in contradistinction to “folk art” are the cigar store figures, the wood portraits of famous Americans, -the lawn sculpture of iron which came out like a rash In the gardens of prosperous citizens in the mid 19th century, the hitching posts, the weather vanes, the stoves, toys, penny banks, pottery, valentines, advertisements, and prints.
The examples of fractur drawings, samplers, mourning pictures, paintings on velvet and glass overlap into folk art or art that was practiced widely by people for their own enjoyment.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 04-07/1939, 116. View Original
May 18, 1939
The Brooklyn Museum’s principal summer exhibition, “Popular Art in America” was opened last night (Wednesday, April 17th) with a private preview attended by over 400 guests of the President and Trustees of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences (attendance based on acceptances received for the purpose of receiving tickets), The exhibition opens to the public today (Thursday, May 18th) and will continue through October 1, free daily except Monday and Friday. It is being shown In the Gallery of Special Exhibitions off the Main Entrance Hall.
Folk art is included, but the exhibition goes beyond the increasingly familiar paintings on velvet and fractur drawings done by people for their own satisfaction and entirely omits oil painting. This allows the extensive inclusion of objects made in the late 18th and 19th Centuries that were designed to appeal to and be used by the great majority of people. This covers highly decorated firemen’s hats and fire buckets, cigar store Indians and other figures, merry-go-round animals, lawn sculpture such as deers, dogs and hitching posts, weathervanes, firebacks, toys, penny banks, valentines, advertisements and prints, among other classifications. The exhibition was organized by John M. Graham III, Assistant Curator of American Rooms.
Among the exceptional objects are a penny bank composed of Teddy Roosevelt taking a shot at a bear whose head appears in a tree trunk; a cigar store figure In the costume of a bandmaster with a very small waist, sweeping moustachios, and a long black “coffin nails” cigarette in his mouth; a camel, a deer, two running roosters, and a giraffe, a Noah’s ark with an almost complete set of animals.
Lenders to the exhibition are:
Miss Mary Allis
Mr. Joel D. Barber
Bookshop of Harry Stone
Mrs. Theodore Bernstein
Miss Tina Baumstone
Mrs. Maurice Brix
Mr. Holger Cahill
Dr. Arthur E. Corby
Mr. John Conover
Mr. Arthur W. Clement
Mrs. Henry T. Curtiss
American Folk Art Gallery
Empire Exchange, Inc
Mrs. Juliana Force
Miss Ethel Frankau
Mr. George G. Frelinghuysen, Jr
Mrs. John W. Garrett
Mrs. Samuel T. Gilford
Ginsburg & Levy, Inc.
Mr. H. J. Halle
Mrs. Edith Gregor Halpert
Mrs. J. Amory Haskell
Mr. Sumner Healy
Mrs. DeWitt C. Howe
Jack & Charlie’s “21”
Mrs. George S. Kaufman
Mr. J. R. Macon
Mr. Paul Mellon
Mrs. David M. Milton
Miss Catherience McAuliffe
Mr. George S. McKearin
Mrs. Marguerite Morgentime
Mrs. Paul Moore
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York Historical Society
Mr. Arthur J. Sussel
Seaman’s Bank for Savings
S. N. Thompson, Inc.
Mrs. Dudley E. Waters
Webster Eisenlohr, Inc.
Prints and Drawings
Kennedy & Co.
Norcross Publishing Co.
Old Print Exchange
Old Print Shop
For the first time the newly formed Women’s Committee of the Brooklyn Museum, organized to act as hostesses for important openings, received the guests. The reception was held in the large main entrance hall, on which the Gallery of Special Exhibitions opens. The Committee is composed of:
Mr. Edward C. Blum
Mrs. Egbert Guernsey Brown
Mrs. Robert Huse Brown
Mrs. Oliver G. Carter
Mrs. Gordon W. Colton
Mrs. Augustus W. Comstock
Mrs. James N. Currie
Mrs. Henry J. Davenport
Mrs. R. Edson Doolittle
Mrs. Louis H. Emerson
Mrs. Elizabeth L. Glass
Mrs. Charles H. Goodrich
Mrs. George Hills Iler
Mrs. Palmer H. Jadwin
Mrs. William C. Knoll
Mrs. Edward W. Macy
Mrs. E. G. Martin
Mrs. Alfred E. Mudge
Miss Julia King
Mrs. John S. Roberts
Mrs. Charles A Siper
Miss Arietta Smith
Mrs. Gilliford B. Sweeney
Mrs. Hollis K. Thayer
Mrs. John Weinstein
There is also a Program Committee of four made up of Miss Alice Recknagel, Mrs. Duffleld Hamilton, Mrs. Warren Blossom and Miss Julia Blossom, all members of the Junior League of Brooklyn.
The Members of the Program Committee were in costumes, from the Collection, of dates appropriate to the period covered by the “Popular Art” exhibition and by a special exhibition of costumes put on view in the Balcony Gallery showing women’s and children’s summer costumes for morning, afternoon and sports wear from 1830 to 1895.
As part of the program Miss Bernice Kamelur, soprano, presented popular songs of the 19th Century in costumes of the period. She was accompanied on the piano by Elsa Siedler, also in costume.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 04-07/1939, 124-6. View Original
May 17, 1939
The names numbered and listed below are selected from the acceptances received by the Museum to its invitation for the opening of the Exhibition of “Popular Art in America” on Wednesday night.
We send it to you in this form so that it can easily be checked by numbers over the telephone if you are interested in getting the actual list on Wednesday night. Otherwise it will be mailed Wednesday night. We will telephone to you to see how you want us to give you this Information.
1. Dr. and Mrs. Samuel P. Bailey
2. Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Blum
3. Mrs. Egbert Guernsey Brown
4. Mrs. F.W. Blossom
5. Miss Julia Blossom
6. Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Blum
7. Mrs. Robert Huse Brown
8. Mr. Walter H. Crittenden
9. Mr. Leonard Cox
10. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Colton
11. Mr. Arthur W. Clement
12. Dr. Arthur E. Corby
13. Mrs. James N. Currie
14. Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dale
15. Mr. Joseph Downs
16. Miss Lucille Fawcett
17. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis W. Francis
18. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Frazier
19. Mr. and Mrs. A. Conger Goodyear
20. Miss Anne Goldthwaite
21. Mrs. William H. Good
22. Judge and Mrs. Edwin L. Garvin
23. Mrs. Walter Gibb
24. Mrs. I. W. Gasque
25. Mr. and Mrs. J. Monroe Hewlett
26. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Hammitt
27. Miss Malvina Hoffman
28. Dr. and Mrs. E. P. Huff
29. Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Janis
30. Mrs. William C. Knoll
31. Mrs. Be1la C. Landauer
32. Miss Hilda Loinos
33. Mr. Thomas D. Mabry, Jr..
34. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Allen Moe
35. Mr. and Mrs. L.R. Macon
36. Mrs. Dean C. Osborne
37. Hon. Jaime Velez Perez
38. Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Upham Pope
39. Mr. and Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt
40. Mrs. John S. Roberts
41. Miss Catherine Recknagel
42. Mr. and Mrs. Hardinge Scholl
43. Mrs. Elma Schniewind
44. Dr. Nina Schall
45. Mrs. Gilliford B. Sweeney
46. Miss Arrietta Smith
47. Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Soper
48. Mr. and Mrs. T. Conrado Traverso
49. Mr. Thornton C. Thayer
50. Mr. and Mrs. Hollis K. Thayer
51. Mrs. Tracy Voorhoes
52. Mrs. John Weinstein
53. Dr. and Mrs. Edwin G. Warner
54. Hon. F. Pardo de Zela
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 04-07/1939, 128. View Original
May 4, 1939
SATURDAY, MAY 13th, through SATURDAY, MAY 20th,1939
SATURDAY, May 13 th,
11:00 A.M. Motion Picture- “China’s Home Life; How China Makes a Living” (Sculpture Court)
2:00 P.M. Lecture-Demonstration- “History of Music and Its Parallels in Visual Art” by David Le Vita (Class A)
3:00 P.M. Songs of Lithuania. Presented in cooperation with the International Institute of the Y.W.C.A. (Sculpture Court)
SUNDAY, MAY 14th,
1:30 P.M. Federal Civic Orchestra of N.Y.C., and Federal Opera Co. of N.Y.C. (Sculpture Court)
3:00 P.M. Sound Motion Picture- “Pilgrim Forests, New England Fishermen” (Class A)
3:10 P.M. Organ Recital -Dr. R.L. Bedell (Sculpture Court)
4:00 P.M. Manhattan Federal Band (Sculpture Court)
TUESDAY, MAY 16th,
10:00 A.M. Sound Motion Picture- “Pilgrim Forests” (New England) (Sculpture Court)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17th,
1:30 P.M. Motion Picture - “The Frontier Woman” (Sculpt. Court)
SATURDAY, MAY 20th
11:00 A.M. Motion Picture - "Bit of High Life; Digging up the Past; Canoe Trails through Mooseland” (Sculpture Court)
3:00 P.M. Sound Motion Picture - “The Symphony Orchestra, Percussion Group, Woodwind, Brass and String Choirs “ (Sculpture Court)
ORGAN RECITALS (Broadcast over Station W.N.Y.C. from the Sculpture Court of the Brooklyn Museum)
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Frida[y]- 1:05 P.M. to 1:30 P.M.
Saturday--------------------------------------------10:00 A.M. to 10:30 P.M.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Exhibition of the Instruments of the Modern Symphony Orchestra and their Historic Antecedents - March 31 to May 14, (Second Floor)
Exhibition of Mexican Bead Work of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Lent by Mrs. Dwight Morrow. May 6 through summer (Second Fl.)
Popular Art in America - May 18 through summer (First Fl.)
World’s Fairs of Yesterday. Material from the Brooklyn Museum Art Reference Library - May 5 to Oct. 1, (Second Floor Library Gall.)
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1938. 11-12/1938, 293. View Original
May 4, 1939
On Wednesday evening, May 17th, the Brooklyn Museum will open with a reception and pre-view for members and guests of the Museum an exhibition of Popular Art in America. The exhibition is being arranged by Mr. John M. Graham, recently appointed Assistant Curator of American Rooms and will include decorative pictures such as memorial paintings on silk and paintings on velvet, carved figures such as figureheads, cigar store Indians and portrait heads, weather vanes of wood and metal, carved birds and animals such as roosters, eagles, decoys, gulls, etc., stoves and firebacks, toys, games and children's banks, iron lawn sculpture and hitching posts, ceramics and chalk ware. The period most amply represented will be the 19th century with a few objects from the middle of the 18th century through the 19th century.
This is the principal exhibition arranged by the Brooklyn Museum in connection with the New York World's Fair and will run through the summer.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 4-7_1939/Exhibition, 178. View Original
May 18, 1939
This is simply to remind you, in case you have not already seen them, there are two exhibitions only recently opened that you may want to cover when you are seeing the “Popular Art in America” show. They are: Mrs. Dwight Morrow’s Collection of Mexican Beadwork, first floor gallery, just off the Main Entrance Hall and “World’s Fairs’ of Yesterday”, second floor off the Main Entrance Hall.
There will be beaded work photographs available at the Information-Sales Desk. There is no catalogue for this exhibition but one of the publicity releases covers the show rather thoroughly. A supply will be on hand also. There are no photographs or catalogue for the “World’s Fairs of Yesterday” Exhibition. However, we can fill special requests for photographs which we can deliver within 36 hours or less.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 04-07/1939, 120. View Original
May 17, 1939
There will be an invitation preview 8:30 P.M. Wednesday evening, May 17th, at the Brooklyn Museum which will be socially important in Brooklyn and will have unusual material in the exhibition that will be opened of “Popular Art in America.”
A Program Committee composed of Miss Alice Recknagel, Mrs. Duffield Hamilton, Mrs. Warren Blossom and Miss Julie Blossom, all members of the Brooklyn Junior League, will be in costumes of the period of the exhibition drawn from the Museum’s costume collection and related to another exhibition that will be available for the first time that night, namely, women’s and children’s summer costumes for morning, afternoon and sports wear from 1830 to 1895. Those costumes are being shown now because they show the basis from which this year’s fashions were designed, especially the hats which in many cases are identical with those now seen on the street every day. Some of the costumes not like today’s are a bathing suit and a tennis dress, with high stiff collar and long sleeves.
The exhibition of “Popular Art in America” is made up of pictures and objects of the late 18th Century and the 19th Century. Most of them instead of being the work of artists for their own satisfaction are objects made for popular consumption such as highly decorated firemens’ hats and fire buckets, Indians and other figures such as cigar store emblems, merry-go-round animals and birds, circus wagon ornaments and lawn sculpture such as doers, dogs and hitching posts.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 04-07/1939, 121. View Original
May 18, 1939
The exhibition “Popular Art in America” can be seen by critics and reviewers beginning Monday morning, May 15th. There will be an invitation preview Wednesday night, May 17th. Open to the public Thursday, May 18th. To continue through October 1.
Catalogues and Photographs
Press catalogues and a good supply of photographs will be available on request at the Information-Sales Desk just next to the Special Exhibition Gallery, where this exhibition is installed, off the entrance hall of the Museum.
The catalogue for this exhibition is not compiled by numbered items but by a brief discussion of each division of the subject.
If photographs of objects not already taken by the Museum are wanted, please request them through the Information Desk. Prints can be in your hands in 36 hours if not slightly earlier.
Curator in charge of the Exhibition
Mr. John M. Graham, III, Assistant Curator of American Rooms, is responsible for the exhibition and has arranged to be in the Museum on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to answer any inquiries that may arise. He can be reamed by phoning from the Information Desk.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 04-07/1939, 130. View Original
May 18, 1939
LIST FOR HANDY CHECKING BY TELEPHONE, IF DESIRED, OF GUESTS WHO WERE AT OPENING OF BROOKLYN MUSEUM "POPULAR ART IN AMERICA EXHIBITION" PRIVATE PREVIEW, WEDNESDAY EVENING 6:30, MAY 17TH
1. Dr. and Mrs. Samuel P. Bailey
2. Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Blum 3. Mrs. Egbert Guernry Brown
4. Mrs. F.W. Blossom
5. Miss Julia Blossom
6. Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Blum
7. Mrs. Robert Huse Brown
8. Mr. Walter H. Crittenden 9. Mr. Leonard Cox
10. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Colton 11. Mr. Arthur W. Clement
12. Dr. Arthur E. Corby 13. James N. Currie 14. Mr. and Mrs. Chester Dale
15. Mr. Joseph Downs 16. Lucille Fawcett
17. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis W. Francis 18. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Frazier 19. Mr. and Mrs. A Genger Goodyear 20. Miss Anne Goldwaithe 21. Mrs. William H. Good was late 22. Judge and Mrs. Edwin L. Garwin
23. Mrs. Walter Gibb 24. Mrs. I. W. Gasque 25. Mr. and Mrs. J. Monroe Hewlett 26. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Hamitt 27. Miss Malvina Hoffman 28. Dr. and Mrs. E. P. Huff 29. Mrs. Sidney Janis
30. Mrs. William C. Knoll
31. Mrs. Bella C. Landauer
32. Miss Hilda Loines 33. Mr. Thomas D. Mabry, Jr. 34. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Allen Moe
35. Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Macon 36. Mrs. Dean C. Osbourne 37. Hon. Jaime Velez Perez 38. Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Upham Pope 39. Mr. and Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt
40. Mrs. John S. Roberts
41. Miss Catherine Recknagel 42. Mr. and Mrs. Hardinge Scholl
43. Mrs. Elma Schniewind
44. Dr. Nina Schall 45. Mrs. Gilliford Sweeney
46. Miss Arrietta Smith
47. Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Soper 48. Mr. and Mrs. T. Conrado Traverso
49. Mr. Thornton C. Thayer
50. Mr. and Mrs. Hollis K. Thayer 51. Mrs. Tracy Voorhees 52. Mr. John Weinstein
53. Dr. and Mrs. Edwin G. Warner 54. Hon. F. Pardo de Zela
Additions to the Selected List of Guests who attended opening of Popular Art in America Exhibition Wednesday evening at the Brooklyn Museum:
Mr. and Mrs. Joel D. Barbour
Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Baery
Judge and Mrs. Philip A. Brennan
Mrs. Louis Carre
Mr. Nathaniel Pousette Dart
Mr. R. Edson Doolittle
Mr. and Mrs. William Llyod Garrison III
Mr. Walter Gibb
Mrs. Charles M. Higgins
Mr. Tracy Higgins
Mr. and Mrs. Robert McKeon
Mr. Abraham Martiner
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Mudge
Dr. and Mrs. Theodore Peterson
Mr. and Mrs. Laurance P. Robets.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Rogers, Jr.
Mrs. John J. Schoonhoven
Rev. and Mrs. Simmons
Mr. Paul Tilling hast
Mrs. William Van Alen
Mr. Heintz Thorner of the Corman Consulate
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939. 04-07/1939, 133-5. View Original
