Professional Papers

Teaching includes materials created and collected by Anni Albers in her capacity as a teacher and administrator at Black Mountain College in Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States and as guest lecturer at Philadelphia Museum School of Art. There is a small amount of material relating to Anni’s teaching, including a letter of reappointment for Black Mountain College, a weaving lecture slide list, textile photographs and publicity.

The subseries Project Files consists of materials pertaining to prints, weavings and various other projects completed by Anni Albers, often in collaboration with a printmaker or other organization. Of note among the materials are correspondence, print documentation, lists and notes related to print portfolios and weaving and design reproductions made in collaboration with Tyler Graphics, Gemini G.E.L., Knoll Textiles, Larsen Carpet, and Tamarind Lithography Workshop. Other highlights include material relating to the Harriet Engelhardt Memorial Collection of Textiles, assembled by Anni for Black Mountain College and eventually housed at the Yale University Art Gallery; an original weaving, Ark, commissioned by Temple Emanu-el in Dallas; a Bauhaus postage stamp with Josef Albers’s design; and Josef Albers’s “Learning Never Ends” postage stamp.

Solo and Group Exhibition subseries comprise the bulk of the series and includes correspondence, writings, catalogues, brochures, publicity, condition reports, shipment forms, work lists, and notes. This subseries reveals Anni Albers’s career exhibiting her weavings, prints and jewelry. Of note among the exhibition files are materials relating to a major solo exhibition, “Anni Albers: Textiles,” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1949, the first solo textile show at the Museum of Modern Art, and the traveling exhibition “Pictorial Weavings” in 1959–1960. Comprising the bulk of the subseries is material documenting the solo exhibition, “The Woven and Graphic Art of Anni Albers,” at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1985–1986; and the subsequent traveling exhibition and publication, The Woven and Graphic Art of Anni Albers for which several individuals contributed essays. Among the group exhibition files, highlights include materials pertaining to the exhibitions “Anni Albers and Alex Reed: Exhibition of Necklaces,” Willard Gallery in New York in 1941; “Josef and Anni Albers: Paintings, Tapestries and Woven Textiles,” at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT in 1953 and “Gunta Stölzl and Anni Albers,” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1990.

The Awards and Honorary Degrees subseries includes correspondence, awards, photographs, writings, speeches, publicity, and medals from the universities, colleges, and professional organizations that bestowed awards and honorary degrees on Anni Albers. Of particular importance to Anni Albers was the 1961 American Institute of Architects Craftsmanship Medal, the 1976 Philadelphia College of Art Honorary Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, 1990 Royal College of Art Honorary Doctorate, and the various awards from the city of Bottrop.

The Interviews subseries contains printed interviews conducted with Anni Albers. The subseries is small and all are of great interest since few interviews with Anni Albers exist.

Bibliographies and Biographies includes photocopies and citations of bibliographies of publications on and by Anni Albers and biographies and biographical notes on Anni Albers. This subseries also contains submitted biographical entries and correspondence with biographical publications.