Overview
Papers of Wisconsin surrealist artist, Marshall Glasier.
Dates
- 1910-1990
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
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
5 linear feet (11 boxes)Papers include: autograph manuscript diaries, drawings and sketches, and correspondence of Marshall Glasier; manuscripts by his brother Franklin concerning Marshall; a few biographical items; photographs of Glasier, Glasier with others, and of his art work; and some printed miscellany relating to Glasier's life. Some items have notes by Franklin Kellogg Glasier and/or Elinor Randall Keeney. Correspondence makes up the bulk of the papers and includes correspondence with Marshall's father, mother, brothers, wife, daughter, as well as friends, other family, and colleagues. The series "Other correspondence" includes correspondence with Johan Bjorksten, Theodore Czebotar, Hans Heinrich Gerth, George Grosz, Julien Levy, Elinor Randall Keeney, Rudolf Kolisch, Katharine Kuh, Christy J. Palmer, Lester Polakov, Harry Partch, Frederic Taubes, John Wilde, and many others.
Biographical / Historical
Marshall Glasier (1902-1988) was born in 1902 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin to Gilson Gardner Glasier (1873-1972) and Marybelle DeGraff Kellogg Glasier (1874-1959). He was a twin, his brother was Franklin Kellogg Glasier (1902-1993) [also known as "Oz"]. Later there was another brother, John Strong Glasier (1910-1984). Marshall Glasier studied briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago, spent four years in the Marines, then set up as a commercial illustrator in Washington D.C. and in New York City. He took classes in New York with George Grosz at the Art Students League (circa 1930-1939), returned to Madison, Wisconsin, then went back to New York City to teach life drawing at the Art Students League where he remained for 30 years. While living in Madison, Glasier was part of a circle of artists [the "Wisconsin Surrealists"], who, along with others from Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Chicago, pioneered a Midwestern "take" on European Surrealism that became known as Magic Realism. He was married for a time to Joanne Chamberlain Glasier [later McTaggart] and they had a daughter, Philomel Glasier. Marshall died in 1988 in New York City. [Source: Oxford Art Online]
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Diaries, compositions, and miscellany
- II. Drawings and sketches
- III. Photographs
- IV. Printed material concerning Marshall Glasier
- V. Marshall Glasier correspondence with father, Gilson Gardner Glasier
- VI. Marshall Glasier correspondence with mother, Marybelle Kellogg Glasier
- VII. Marshall Glasier letters to both parents
- VIII. Marshall Glasier correspondence with his brothers
- IX. Marshall Glasier letters to and about his wife, Joanne Chamberlain Glasier
- X. Other correspondence
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
90M-23 and 90M-64. Gift of Marshall Glasier and Franklin Glasier, via Elinor Randall Keeney; received: 1985-1991.
See item (34) for additional information regarding relationship between Keeney and Marshall Glasier. Keeney and Glasier met in July of 1953 in Madison, Wisconsin through Roudaba Bunting. She worked with him and posed for him from 1954-1964.
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt.
- Title
- Glasier, Marshall, 1902-. Marshall Glasier papers, 1910-1990: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02475
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.
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