Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

Printmaker File

Call Number

PR 58

Date

[1730]-2014, undated (bulk 1800-1860), inclusive

Creator

New-York Historical Society

Extent

6.4 Linear feet (13 boxes, 5 drawers of flat files, 1 drawer of oversize flat files, 1 oversize framed item)

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The Printmaker File is comprised of prints which are filed by the artist or engraver. It includes aquatints, engravings, etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts. It includes many scenes and views of New York City. The prints in this collection are likely to be known or studied because of their creators or because of their significance in the history of American printmaking

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into three series by size of print. Thereunder prints are arranged alphabetically by printmaker's surname.

Missing Title

  1. Series I. Prints 16 x 20" and smaller
  2. Series II. Prints 16 x 20" to 30 x 40"
  3. Series III. Prints larger than 30 x 40"

Scope and Content Note

The Printmaker File spans the period from the 1730s to the present and contains etchings, engravings, aquatints, and lithographs, mainly views of New York City and the east coast of the United States.

Historically, many items acquired by the Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections were filed by subject or geographical location. Prints were housed in the Printmaker File if the importance of the artist or printmaker was deemed more important than the subject or place. For example, fine art prints of geographical locations were filed here instead of in the Geographic File. In many cases (i.e. Louis Prang, Bufford's Lithography) there are other prints by printmakers represented here in different collections throughout the Department. This file reflects a historical way of organizing prints, and now creates a backbone for any future filing by printmaker. Note that in 2016, the prints formerly housed in PR 229, Fine Art Prints of New York City, were merged into the Printmaker File.

"Printmaker" generally means the engraver, etcher, or lithographer of a print. In some cases it refers to the publisher of a print or to the original artist. In all cases, any other known names associated with the print (i.e. original artist, sketch designer, publisher) are given here. Lithographs found in this file are generally notable for their early dates. Lithography firms such as Bufford's Lithography and H. N. Sumner & Co. are considered the "printmaker," as is Jacques-Gerard Milbert, who did not actually draw on stone many of the views after his work found in this File.

Many prints collected here are remarkable for their age, their provenance, or their historical significance. Early views of New York City, Savannah, Georgia, and Charlestown, South Carolina can be found in the File. However, there are also a fair amount of twentieth-century prints. Points of local interest -- including various skylines of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the New York Stock Exchange, the Woolworth Building, and the World Trade Center -- are well-represented.

Important New York artists from throughout the twentieth century are represented in the collection. Artists with four or more prints include: Paul Berdanier, Arthur Cohen, K. Dehman, John Mackie Falconer, Agnes B. Fernbach, Albert Flanagan, Julius F. Gayler, Joseph W. Golinkin, Edward S. Hewitt, F. Leo Hunter, Nat Lowell, William Meyerowitz, Charles F.W. Mielatz, Betty Waldo Parish, Philip Reisman, Shunji Sakuyama, Anton Schutz, T.F. Simon, Emily Trueblood, William H. Wallace, Charles Henry White, Lawrence Nelson Wilbur, and Louis Wolchonok.

In addition, the collection includes small samples of the work of John Taylor Arms, Gottlob Briem, Fritz Eichenberg, Red Grooms, Richard Haas, Childe Hassam, Martin Lewis, James Pennell, Ernest D. Roth, and Richard Sloat.

Women printmakers found here include Isabel Bishop, Edith Bry, Mabel Dwight, Su-Li Hung, Yvonne Jacquette, Wuanita Smith, Caroline Phelps Stokes, and Karen Whitman, in addition to Fernbach, Parish, and Trueblood.

The collection is arranged into three series by size of print, to ensure correct handling and housing of the material: Series I. Prints 16 x 20" and smaller; Series II. Prints 16 x 20" to 30 x 40"; Series III. Prints larger than 30 x 40". Print titles are taken from inscriptions where possible. Titles given in brackets were assigned during processing.

Subjects

Access Restrictions

For more information on making arrangements to consult the collection, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Printmaker File, PR 058, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection is comprised of gifts from multiple donors, and several purchases.

Separated Materials Note

Over time several groups of prints have been removed from this collection and established as discrete collections. These were:
PR 162 Audubon Print Collection
PR 216 Alexander Anderson Print Collection
PR 217 John Hill Print Collection
PR 220 William James Bennett Print Collection
PR 221 Asher B. Durand Print Collection
PR 224 Peter Maverick Print File
PR 225 Anthony Imbert Print Collection
PR 226 James King Print Collection
PR 227 Saint-Memin Print Collection
PR 230 Currier and Ives Print File
PR 388 Print Club of New York Presentation Prints
PR 409 Marco Luccio Drypoint Etchings
PR 444 Leon Louis Dolice Etchings

In December 2017, a new collection was formed: New-York Historical Society Collection of Prints from the Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project (PR 345). Several works were removed from the Printmaker's File at that time and transfered to PR 345. WPA-related prints by the following artists were moved: Lou Barlow, Sarah Berman, Hugh Botts, David Burke, Mabel Dwight (Buried Treasure), Eli Jacoby (Tattoo Artist), and Ann Nooney.

Related Material at the Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections

Additional fine art prints with a subject of New York City can be found in the James Boyd Collection of New York City Etchings (PR 007).

Accruals

The collection is open to additions, which is expected to occur from time to time. The most recent addition to the finding aid was made in February 2022.

Collection processed by

Jenny Gotwals.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:49:54 -0400.
Language: Description is in English.

Processing Information Note

Additions made by archivist Marybeth Kavanagh in 2016 and 2017 and archivist Larry Weimer in 2020 and 2022.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024