National Archives Month 2023: The Georgia O’Keeffe Papers
To celebrate American Archives Month 2023, which occurs every October, we are featuring content from newly processed collections from the Michael S. Engl Family Foundation Library and Archive. This year, we are spotlighting the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, to celebrate the completion of processing the collections and the publication of the finding aid after many years and several archivists!
After Georgia O’Keeffe’s death in 1986, the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation was established in 1989 to protect and preserve Georgia O’Keeffe’s legacy. One of its core functions was to distribute O’Keeffe’s assets, including her Abiquiú Home and Studio, and the contents therein. Upon the dissolution of the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation in 2006, the foundation donated its remaining assets to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Among those assets were materials of an archival nature still contained in the Abiquiú Home and Studio. Those materials now constitute the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, with the exception of archival materials from the Abiquiú Home and Studio’s Bookroom, which will be processed as a separate collection. Some archival materials remain in the Abiquiú Home and Studio, and will be transferred to the Library & Archive as accruals into the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers. As a whole, the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers provide a unique snapshot into O’Keeffe’s day-to-day affairs by representing both the extraordinary aspects of her life as well as the decidedly mundane.
Over the next month, we will be highlighting a handful of prominent themes found throughout these collections. The highlights include O’Keeffe’s fallout shelter at her Abiquiú Home and Studio, materials related to her garden, and other household ephemera. We will also be taking a look at the Abiquiú Notebooks, which are O’Keeffe’s own records of her artwork, originally compiled by Doris Bry in the 1950s. These notebooks document titles, dimensions, owners, exhibition histories, and more, and they often include reference photographs to remove the ambiguity around painting identification. The collections also include ephemeral materials from O’Keeffe’s world travel, correspondence, writings, and publications. Please join us on the Museum’s Blog and social media during American Archives Month as we explore these facets of the Library & Archive.
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The Michael S. Engl Family Foundation Library and Archive serves the public by collecting, providing access to, and preserving information about Georgia O’Keeffe and her contemporaries, related regional histories, and Modernism. The Research Collections and Services team is available to answer questions, share resources, and help with your research projects; you can contact the Library & Archive here.
