To celebrate American Archives Month 2023, which happens every October, we are featuring content from newly processed collections from our archive. This year, we are spotlighting the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers (MS33), to celebrate the completion of processing and the publication of the finding aid after many years and several archivists!
After Georgia O'Keeffe's death, The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation (GOKF) was established in 1989 to protect and preserve the legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe. One of its core functions was to distribute O'Keeffe's assets, including her Abiquiu home and studio, and the contents therein. Upon the dissolution of GOKF in 2006, GOKF donated remaining assets to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Among those assets were materials of an archival nature still contained in the Abiquiú home and studio. Those materials now constitute the Georgia O'Keeffe Papers, with the exception of archival materials from the Abiquiú home's Bookroom, which will be processed as a separate collection. Some archival materials remain in the Abiquiú home and studio, and will be transferred to the archive as accruals into the Georgia O'Keeffe Papers. As a whole, the Georgia O'Keeffe Papers provides a unique snapshot into O'Keeffe's day-to-day affairs by representing both the extraordinary aspects of her life as well as the decidedly mundane.
Over the next month, we will be highlighting a handful of prominent themes found throughout this particular collection. Included in these highlights are O’Keeffe’s fallout shelter at her Abiquiú home and studio, materials related to her garden, and other household ephemera. We will also be taking a look at the Abiquiú Notebooks series, which are O’Keeffe’s own record of her artwork, originally compiled by Doris Bry in the 1950’s. These notebooks document titles, dimensions, owners, exhibition history and more, and they often include reference photographs to remove the ambiguity around paintings’ identities. The collection also includes ephemeral materials from O’Keeffe’s world travel, correspondence, writings, and publications.
Please join us on social media, as well as the Museum's blog this month as we explore these facets of the archive this month. As a reminder, the Library & Archive serves the public by collecting, providing access to, and preserving information about Georgia O’Keeffe and her contemporaries, related regional histories, and Modernism. The Research Collections and Services team is available to answer questions, share resources, and help with your research projects; you can contact us here.
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