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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 2072

Jane Freilicher papers

Overview

Correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs of the American artist Jane Freilicher and New York School poets.

Dates

  • Creation: 1945-1995

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Fragile originals have been photocopied and shelved at the end of the collection; the photocopies are substituted in the original location. Use of the originals requires the permission of the Curator of Manuscripts.

Extent

.66 linear feet (4 boxes)

The papers reflect Freilicher's relations with the circle of poet and painter friends known collectively as the New York School. Included are letters to her, some of which include compositions; compositions sent or given to her, some of which are about or are dedicated to her; photographs of the circle of friends; and printed material.

Biographical / Historical

Born Jane Niederhoffer in Brooklyn, New York in 1924, Jane Freilicher attended Brooklyn College and subsequently studied in the studio of artist Hans Hofmann; there she met the painter Larry Rivers. Leaving the Hoffman studio in 1948, she painted on her own in New York in the 1950s with the friendship and support of the group of New York School artists and writers that included John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara, and James Schuyler. She began to exhibit her work at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York in 1952, meeting the painter Fairfield Porter there.

She married jazz pianist Jack Freilicher when she was 17; the marriage was annulled five years later. In 1952 she met the former dancer Joe Hazan whom she married in 1957. They had one daughter in 1965, Elizabeth Hazan, who also became a painter. Freilicher and her husband built a house in Water Mill (N.Y.).

Arrangement

Arranged in four series:

  1. I. Letters to Jane Freilicher
  2. II. Compositions by others
  3. III. Photographs
  4. IV. Printed material

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

96M-13. Purchased from Jane Freilicher with funds provided by the Amy Lowell fund; received 1996 July 27.

Processing Information

Processed by: Melanie Wisner and Bonnie B. Salt

Title
Freilicher, Jane, 1924-2014. Jane Freilicher papers, 1945-1995: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00052

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440