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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Typ 1146

Hugh Gray Lieber drawings, sketchbooks, paintings, and other material

Overview

Art work of American artist and educator, Hugh Gray Lieber.

Dates

  • Creation: 1921-1959

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.

Extent

26 linear feet (109 boxes)

Collection includes: drawings, manuscript notes, notebooks, oil paintings, poster, sketchbooks, typescripts, printed books, proofs, and watercolors. Many items include manuscript annotations.

Many of the drawings were made as illustrations for published works (primarily written by Lillian Rosanoff Lieber) such as: The education of T. C. Mits, The Einstein theory of relativity: a trip to the 4th dimension, Galois and the theory of groups: a bright star in mathesis, Good-bye Mr. Man, Hello Mr. Newman, Mits, wits and logic, Non-Euclidean geometry; or, three moons in mathesis, and many others.

Biographical / Historical

Hugh Gray Lieber (1896-1961) was an educator, artist, and book illustrator. He received a B.A. from Oklahoma University in 1919 and an M.A. from Columbia University in 1923. He joined the Mathematics Department of Long Island University in 1928 and chaired the department from 1931 to 1945. At an unknown date, Hugh Gray Lieber became Professor of Art in the same institution. He chaired the Fine Arts Department from 1945 until he retired in 1953. Lieber wrote and illustrated a number of books on popular science in collaboration with his wife Lillian Rosanoff Lieber.

Lillian Rosanoff Lieber (1886 – 1986) was a mathematician and popular author. She received a B.A. from Barnard College in 1908, an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Columbia University. She started teaching in the Department of Mathematics at Long Island University in 1934. In the 1940s and before her retirement in 1950, she chaired the Mathematics Department and the Galois Institute of Mathematics and Art in Brooklyn, New York.

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Drawings for publication
  2. II. Sketchbooks and drawings
  3. III. Paintings

NOTE: Each series includes a variety of materials.

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Immediate Source of Acquisition

No accession number. Gift of Lillian Rosanoff Lieber, via Garrett Birkhoff, Professor in the Mathematics Department of Harvard University; received: 1962 May 31.

Related Materials

Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. Lillian Rosanoff Lieber and Hugh Gray Lieber, Correspondence with Theodore Dreiser, 1926-1943. In: Theodore Dreiser Papers, ca. 1890-1965. Folder 3634.

General note

This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.

Processing Information

Processed by: Caroline Duroselle-Melish.

Boxes are distributed as follows:

  1. Boxes 1-19, 60-68: small (29.5 x 38.5 cm) = 28 boxes
  2. Boxes 20-59: medium (48.5 x 64 cm) = 40 boxes
  3. Boxes 69-103: large (59 x 79 cm) = 35 boxes
  4. Boxes 104-109: extra large ( 86.5 x 86.5) = 6 boxes
Title
Lieber, Hugh Gray, 1896-. Hugh Gray Lieber drawings, sketchbooks, paintings, and other material, 1921-1959: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02180

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