For this year's American Archives Month, we have been 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.
To wrap this year's American Archives Month up, we will turn our focus to one of the more popular series of the collection: the House and Property files. O’Keeffe maintained two homes in Northern New Mexico; her summer home at the Ghost Ranch, and her home and studio in Abiquiu. While both homes are owned by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, only the Abiquiu Home and Studio is open for public tours. O’Keeffe’s homes reveal her commitment to design and the aesthetics of her surroundings. She made her home distinctly modern, with abundant natural light, updated amenities and midcentury furniture. She kept manuals and brochures from appliances and tools that she used, including her Chemex carafes, Macintosh radio, and Barwa chairs.
O’Keeffe was also an avid gardener; when she purchased her Abiquiu home in 1945, she hired Maria Chabot to manage the restoration and rebuilding of the property to take place between 1946 and 1949, while O’Keeffe was in New York settling Alfred Stieglitz’s estate. Chabot planned to line the perimeter of the garden with tamarisks, willows and various fruit trees. The center of the garden would be leveled for planting vegetables and flowers (corn, radishes, roses, irises, poppies and hollyhocks). By the time O’Keeffe made Abiquiu her permanent home in 1949, the garden was able to supply almost all of the fruits and vegetables for her homes. She harvested the plants during the summer, enjoying the fresh produce at her Ghost Ranch home and preserving other herbs, fruits and vegetables for winter use at the Abiquiu house by drying, canning and freezing them. The garden at her Abiquiu home remains much as it was during her lifetime. Staff and interns, who live in Abiquiu and surrounding communities, work the land every summer and distribute the fruits and vegetables locally and to nearby food banks.
The materials related to the garden in the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers include these seed catalogs, instructional manuals, irrigation techniques, and a “Victory Garden Handbook”.
House and property files, 1943-1983, undated, Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, 1914-1991. MS-33. Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
0 Comments.