To celebrate American Archives Month, we are featuring content from newly processed collections from our archive. This week, we are spotlighting Georgia O’Keeffe’s manuscript, My First Trip to New York.
In this ten-page, handwritten manuscript and corresponding typed transcripts, O’Keeffe recounts her first trip to New York to study at the Art Students’ League, as well as meeting Alfred Stieglitz for the first time. Written decades after the events described, O’Keeffe recalls on first entering 291 Gallery:
When Stieglitz heard us he came out and met us with glaring eyes, his dark hair standing up on the top of his head and some piece of photo equipment in his hand. He snapped at us and asked ‘What do you want?’ We wanted to see the Rodin drawings… I looked at the drawings and thought I had never been taught to do anything like that. It seemed to be scribbles. The men began to talk to Stieglitz – He talked back so voices became louder and louder. I wasn’t impressed so I went in the smallest room and stood waiting. There was nothing to sit on so I stood very tired of scribbly drawings and loud arguments.
To learn more about this collection and its contents, view the finding aid!
Need a break from the high desert heat? Stop by the library and cool off with the collections. Escape to the beach with Rebecca Salsbury James's serene reverse painting on glass, Peace (Two Shells), now on view as part of the exhibition Modernist Circle.
Rebecca Salsbury James, or Beck as she preferred, was a self-taught American artist who was known for her reverse painting on glass as well as her colcha embroidery, a New Mexico folk art form. James and Georgia O’Keeffe traveled to New Mexico together in 1929, which ended up being a pivotal moment in O’Keeffe’s personal life and artistic trajectory.
Learn more about the artist in the new subject guide, Rebecca Salsbury James.