Primary Sources: The 1910's: Art

"The George Grantham Bain Collection represents the photographic files of one of America's earliest news picture agencies. The collection richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations. The photographs Bain produced and gathered for distribution through his news service were worldwide in their coverage, but there was a special emphasis on life in New York City. The bulk of the collection dates from the 1900s to the mid-1920s, but scattered images can be found as early as the 1860s and as late as the 1930s."

"Contains 2,085 drawings, prints, and paintings related to the art of caricature, cartoon, and illustration, spanning the years 1780 to 1977 and includes works by 521 American and foreign artists and illustrators. Most of the images are cartoons, comic strips, and periodical illustrations drawn by American artists between 1890 and 1970."

"During World War I, the United States fought a war of ideas with unprecedented ingenuity and organization. President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI) to manage news and solicit widespread support for the war at home and abroad. Under the energetic direction of Mississippi newspaper editor George Creel, the CPI churned out national propaganda through diverse media including films, cartoons, and speeches. The CPI’s home-front propaganda cartoons were no laughing matter. The Bureau of Cartoons, headed by George Hecht, exhorted cartoonists to use their popular medium to support the war effort. Like other CPI pamphlets that urged Americans to integrate the war effort into their home and work lives, this excerpt from the CPI’s Bulletin for Cartoonists provided a mixture of suggestions, practical advice, and inspirational prose."

"This collection of photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company Collection includes over 25,000 glass negatives and transparencies as well as about 300 color photolithograph prints, mostly of the eastern United States. Subjects strongly represented in the collection include city and town views, including streets and architecture; parks and gardens; recreation; and industrial and work scenes"

"In February and March 1913, the “International Exhibition of Modern Art” opened at New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory. After a tour of the U.S., a half million people had seen the exhibit—one of the most influential in American art history. The self-consciously “modern” Armory show, organized by art patron Arthur B. Davies, challenged the artistic establishment. Two-thirds of the 1,600 works were by Americans, and the Europeans whose works were exhibited—Picasso, Matisse, Seurat, Van Gogh, Gaughin, and Duchamp among them—were far from the conservatives that Americans were used to. “We want this old show of ours,” declared one of the organizers, “to mark the starting point of a new spirit in art, at least as far as America is concerned.” The show raised the hackles of many critics (one newspaper offered a reward to any schoolchild who could find the nude in the show’s most controversial painting, Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”). But art critic W.D. MacColl praised the Armory Show’s avant-garde spirit in this Forum magazine review from July 1913." GMU History Matters

"In February and March 1913, thousands of New Yorkers poured into the 69th Regiment Armory for an “International Exhibition of Modern Art.” By the time the so-called Armory Show had completed its tour of the U.S., a half million people had seen the exhibit—one of the most influential in American art history. Up to that time, the nation’s galleries, patrons, and schools of art were firmly in conservative hands and favored staid, traditional European art. The self-consciously “modern” Armory show challenged the artistic establishment. Two-thirds of the 1,600 works were by Americans, and the Europeans whose works were exhibited—Picasso, Matisse, Seurat, Van Gogh, Gaughin, and Duchamp among them—were far from the conservatives that Americans were used to. Of course, not everyone accepted the new direction. In this Century magazine article entitled “The Post-Impressionist Illusion,” the influential art critic Royal Cortissoz equated the (allegedly negative) influence of modernism on American art with that of immigrants on American society." GMU History Matters

"The collection bears the name of the native New Yorker who assembled it over a period of more than six decades, Robert N. Dennis (1900-1983). It includes more than 72,000 stereoscopic views organized primarily by geography; within the geographical groups arrangement is by creator, publisher, or series name. Published series are arranged by item number."

"In 1913, an “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” eventually seen by a half million people, rocked the American art world. First mounted at New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory, it became known as the Armory Show, and its self-consciously “modern” approach challenged the dominance of conservative, staid styles of European art. Two-thirds of the 1,600 works were by Americans, and the Europeans whose works were exhibited—Picasso, Matisse, Seurat, Van Gogh, Gaughin, and Duchamp among them—were far from the conservatives that Americans were used to. Most critics took extreme positions, either praising or damning the show. In his “A Layman’s View of an Art Exhibition,” published in the March 29, 1913, issue of Outlook, Theodore Roosevelt took a moderate approach, lauding the unconventional spirit of the Armory Show while casually dismissing the work of such “European extremists” as the Cubists and the Futurists. " GMU History Matters

"This site provides access to the letters of Mary Cassatt in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2014, and total 239 images."