Tagged: manuscripts

NHPRC Grant | Kurt Wiese papers

This is one in a series of posts related to our NHPRC-sponsored project: Twentieth Century Children’s Literature: Exploring the Past, Understanding the Present. Previous posts can be found here.

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce the publication of a newly revised finding aid for the Kurt Wiese papers (Ax 445). The finding aid is available on ArchivesSpace.

Illustration by Kurt Wiese for North America: The Land They Live in for the Children Who Live There by Lucy Sprague Mitchell (New York: Macmillan, 1931), circa 1931, Kurt Wiese papers, Ax 445, Box 1, Folder 8, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR.

The Kurt Wiese papers represent a major portion of Wiese’s body of work produced as an illustrator and author of American children’s literature. The collection is comprised of original children’s book production material and personal papers.

The children’s book production material series includes Wiese’s original artwork and related preparatory materials used in the creation of children’s books written by Wiese and other authors. The bulk of the artwork is comprised of ink and litho crayon illustrations on paper and board, but it also includes press-ready color-separated art on acetate, dummies, cover art, sketches, and proofs. It also includes typed manuscripts, as well as publisher and author correspondence.

The personal papers series includes personal and commercial artwork by Wiese not created for children’s books, as well as personal scrapbooks and photographs of Wiese. The original artwork is comprised of sketchbooks, drawings, paintings, and etchings, as well as some illustrations for magazines, periodicals, and greeting cards.

Cover sketch by Kurt Wiese for Freddy and Simon the Dictator by Walter Rollin Brooks (New York: Knopf, 1956), circa 1956, Kurt Wiese papers, Ax 445, Box 21, Folder 6, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR.

Kurt Wiese was born on April 22, 1887 in Minden, Germany. From 1909 to 1915, he worked and traveled throughout China and Southeast Asia. But at the outbreak of World War I, he was captured and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Australia. After being released at the end of the war, Wiese returned to Germany but the economy was so bad that he left for Brazil, where he began his career in illustration. In 1927 Wiese moved to the United States, where he married Gertrude Hansen in 1930 and they permanently resided in New Jersey. His first critical success in book illustration was Felix Salten’s Bambi in 1929. Wiese wrote and illustrated 20 children’s books and illustrated another 300 for other authors. He received the Caldecott Honor Book Award in 1946 for You Can Write Chinese and in 1948 for Fish in the Air. He also illustrated the Newbery Award winner Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, and the Newbery Honor books Honk the Moose, Li Lun, Lad of Courage, and Daughter of the Mountains. Kurt Wiese died on May 27, 1974.

NHPRC Grant | Kurt Werth papers

This is the second of a series of blog posts highlighting our NHPRC-sponsored project: Twentieth Century Children’s Literature: Exploring the Past, Understanding the Present. Previous posts can be found here.

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce the publication of a newly revised finding aid for the Kurt Werth papers (Coll 100). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

A boy in a tiger costume walks down a suburban street at night.
Sketch for A Tiger Called Thomas, circa 1963, Box 13, Kurt Werth papers, Coll 100, Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

The Kurt Werth papers represent a major portion of Werth’s body of work produced as an illustrator and author of American children’s literature. The collection is comprised of original children’s book illustrations and manuscripts, other artwork and manuscripts, personal papers, artifacts, personal and professional correspondence, and papers of his wife, Margaret Werth.

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New Finding Aids | Children’s Literature

New finding aids are now available on Archives West for the following children’s literature collections:

Bettina Ehrlich papers, circa 1959 (A 230)

Bettina Ehrlich (1903-1985) was an Austrian artist and author of children’s books. The collection includes Ehrlich’s manuscripts, sketches, and illustrated dummy for For the Leg of a Chicken.

Joseph Edward Van Wormer papers, 1961-1974 (Ax 770)

Joseph Edward Van Wormer (1913-1998) was an Oregonian wildlife photographer and author. The collection includes Van Wormer’s literary manuscripts for eight books about animals of the Northwest, mostly for children, and related correspondence.

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New Finding Aid | Sadakichi Hartmann papers

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce a newly updated finding aid published for the Sadakichi Hartmann papers (Ax 523). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

The Sadakichi Hartmann papers is a collection compiled by writer, playwright, poet, actor, artist, art critic, and Bohemian, Sadakichi Hartmann (1867-1944). Hartmann was one of the early Greenwich Village and southern California Bohemians during the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The collection contains draft manuscripts and published works, many of which pertain to the arts, as well as correspondence, family photographs, and artwork.

Hartmann was born in Nagasaki, Japan to a German father and Japanese mother in 1867. In an autobiographical work published in Greenwich Village (1915), Hartmann described himself as:

Greenwich Village, edited by Guido Bruno, New York, 1915, Sadakichi Hartmann papers, Ax 523, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

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New Finding Aid | Karl Pretshold papers

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce an updated finding aid published for the Karl Pretshold papers (Ax 834). The finding aid is available on Archives West.

This collection is about Karl Pretshold’s life and work as a journalist and public relations official. Pretshold worked in East St. Louis, Illinois as a journalist during the early 20th century. He wrote about workers unions and the labor movement. He traveled abroad during his career as a journalist and wrote about similar labor movements occurring in Britain. Following his career as a journalist Pretshold worked in New York City for the Department of Health in public relations. Pretshold was instrumental to a public campaign to test the newly developed polio vaccine. Pretshold died in New York in 1975, and the materials were donated to the University by his wife, Hannah following his death.

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