New York Public Library Exhibition Explores the Influence of Yaddo

Yaddo: Making American Culture
on view October 24, 2008 - February 15, 2009

William Gass painted by Philip Guston, 1969. Photographer unknown. Collection of Tom and Musa Mayer.

New York, NY (December 5, 2008) - The iron gate that has welcomed generations of artists to Yaddo is now welcoming guests of The New York Public Library to an historic archive exhibition in New York City.

Yaddo: Making American Culture, a richly detailed multimedia exhibition, explores the influence of Yaddo and opens a window onto some of the most significant events in twentieth-century life as experienced by its artists. The free exhibition will remain on view through February 15, 2009 in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall (First Floor) of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Sociologist and cultural critic Micki McGee, Fordham University, has served as the Spencer Trask & Co. Curator for Yaddo: Making American Culture.

Through a lively mixture of letters, papers, photographs, books, artworks, film clips and sound recordings Yaddo: Making American Culture offers a rare glimpse into the workings of Yaddo, revealing how it has hosted such luminaries as James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Aaron Copland, Philip Guston, Patricia Highsmith, Jacob Lawrence, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, and Sylvia Plath. At the same time, the exhibition provides a new perspective on public events throughout the period. The economic and social turmoil of the 1930s, the destruction and displacements of World War II, the paranoia of the McCarthy era, the strife born of resistance to Jim Crow segregation, and the rise of the feminist and gay rights movements are among the developments that shaped Yaddo, the lives of the artists who sought shelter there and the works they produced. As a result, the exhibition gives an intimate yet panoramic view of American culture, from Yaddo's first official season in 1926 through 1980.

The exhibition showcases extraordinary materials from the Yaddo Records - Yaddo's unique archive - which reveal the story of Yaddo and its artists. Since 1999, the Records have been a part of The New York Public Library's Manuscripts and Archives Division, which makes them publicly accessible to researchers and preserves them for future generations. Additional installments to the Library's holdings from Yaddo's ongoing records will be made through 2026, the 100th anniversary of Yaddo's first official season for invited guests. Joining the wealth of materials from the Yaddo Records in the exhibition are exceptional items from other NYPL collections, from Yaddo's holdings of rare books and artworks, and from other lenders. For more exhibition details, including hours and docent tours, click here.

1943 Yaddo guests. Seated: Isabella Howland, Margaret Walker, Jean Stafford, Harold Shapero, Tamaras Kerr, Agnes Smedley, Karin Michaëlis, Carson McCullers, Alfred Kantorowicz. Standing: Kappo Phelan, Elizabeth Ames, Rebecca Pitts, Paul Zucker, Hans Sahl, Langston Hughes. The New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Yaddo Records.

"The Yaddo Records are a prized holding of The New York Public Library," stated Paul LeClerc, President of the Library. "We take great pride in being able to offer the public access to materials that were once only accessible by a few. Our collection of Yaddo materials and the exhibition itself will be an exciting and eye-opening experience for anyone with an interest in American culture and the arts."

"We are honored that The New York Public Library has chosen to make Yaddo the centerpiece of its fall and winter exhibition program," stated Elaina H. Richardson, President of The Corporation of Yaddo. "Thanks to the Library's enthusiasm, the cooperation of the lenders to the exhibition, and the expert curatorship of Micki McGee, Yaddo: Making American Culture will initiate a festive celebration of Yaddo, in New York City and around the country."

Curator Micki McGee edited and wrote an introductory overview for a major companion volume for the exhibition. Yaddo: Making American Culture, published in cloth and paperback by Columbia University Press in association with The New York Public Library, offers a fascinating glimpse into Yaddo and the lives and historical circumstances of its artist guests. Richly illustrated with photographs, prints, intimate letters, documents and ephemera, primarily from archives and collections at Yaddo and at The New York Public Library, the volume includes essays by Marcelle Clements, David Gates, Allan Gurganus, Tim Page, Ruth Price, Helen Vendler, Barry Werth, and Karl Emil Willers and a Yaddo timeline.

In celebration of Yaddo and the presentation at The New York Public Library, libraries, museums, and other institutions nationwide will present exhibitions through 2009, showcasing Yaddo artists for whom they hold papers or materials from private collections. The participating institutions are The Grolier Club of New York; the Saratoga Springs Public Library; the Houghton Library at Harvard University; the University of Maryland Libraries; the Green Library at Stanford University; the Hayden Library at Arizona State University; the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin; the Eudora Welty Education and Visitors Center of The Mississippi Department of Archives and History; the Northwestern University Library; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; the Pennsylvania State University Libraries; the William Allan Neilson Library at Smith College; the Flannery O'Connor Collection at Georgia College & State University; the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University; and the University of Delaware Library.

A series of free public programs also will be offered in conjunction with the Yaddo: Making American Culture exhibition. For information about these programs, click here.

For their support of the exhibition, The Corporation of Yaddo is thankful to The New York Public Library, The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, Spencer Trask & Co., Mary H. White and J. Christopher Flowers, the New York Council for the Humanities, public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, George Rickey Foundation, Inc., Harold Reed, Allan Gurganus, Peter C. Gould, Anthony and Margo Viscusi, Susan Brynteson, Nancy Sullivan, Bruce and Ellen Cohen, Rick Moody, Barbara Toll, Rackstraw Downes, Matthew Stover, Van der Veer Varner, Gardner McFall and Peter Olberg, Joseph Caldwell, John Ashbery, Geoffrey Movius, Patricia Volk, and two anonymous donors. Support for The New York Public Library's Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani and Adam Bartos, Jonathan Altman, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.