Maryette Charlton Papers

Collection

Identifier: MC-015

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains documents and other material related to Maryette Charlton’s education in the Art Education program at Pratt Institute from 1945-1947, including alumni documents. The collection consists primarily of newspaper clippings, original drawings, photographs, postcards, and other items Charlton compiled into bound scrapbooks for each course, which were removed from their original three-ring bindings. This coursework contains original artwork and photographs by Charlton, as well as found objects and pasted graphics. Also included are handwritten course notes and a report (with earlier versions) on art education in Scarsdale Public Schools, course plans and student work from the Saturday Morning Art School, and commencement and alumni documents. Documents related to her personal life outside of Pratt Institute include her illustrations in A Cat Would Be Company by Lucyle Hook, correspondence and photographs from friends serving overseas during the Second World War, correspondence with her parents, newspaper clippings, art education publications, maps and guides of New York City, and other related ephemera. There are oversized documents housed in Box 12 and were given their own subseries. The bulk dates for this collection are 1945-1947.

Dates

1944 - 1998
Majority of material found within 1945 - 1947

Creator

Charlton, Maryette (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to the public.

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Archivist, Pratt Institute Library.

Biographical / Historical

Maryette Charlton was an American painter, printmaker, photographer, and film maker born in Manchester, Iowa on May 18, 1924. She studied in Chicago with Moholy-Nagy at the Institute of Design, and received initial college credits from Monticello College 1942-1943 (Godfrey, Illinois), Northwestern University 1943-1944 (Chicago, Illinois), and Antioch College 1944-1945 (Yellow Springs, Ohio). She was admitted to Pratt Institute January 22, 1945 for the Art Education program and graduated with her B.F.A. on May 29, 1947. During the summer of 1946 she studied at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She later received her M.F.A from Columbia University.

Throughout her program and upon graduating from Pratt she taught at the Saturday Morning Art School. She later worked at the Container Corporation and eventually founded and taught at the art department of the American University of Beirut in the 1950s. Charlton’s son, Kirk Winslow, was born in 1955 and became an artist, photographer, and film maker who eventually died in 2002 from HIV/AIDS complications.

Her work as a filmmaker documented the works of Alexander Calder, e.e. cummings, Frederick Kiesler, Pierre Matisse, Dorothy Miller, Lenore Tawney, Loren MacIver and others. Charlton’s e.e. cummings archives have been left to Harvard University, as well as cummings’ mahogany desk to Poets House in Battery Park City. New York arts memorabilia was donated to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Maryette Charlton died in New York City on November 25, 2013.

Extent

4.8 Linear Feet (11 boxes, 1 oversize box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Maryette Charlton was a behind-the-scenes figure in the lives of many artists, actors, and writers. Charlton was a supporter of the downtown New York City arts, working with and donating to galleries and venues throughout her life. As a student at Pratt Institute, Charlton left an impression in the art education program through her work with the Saturday Morning Art School and her thorough report on the art curriculum at Scarsdale Public Schools. Throughout the art education program at Pratt Institute, Charlton compiled detailed and creative scrapbook-like binders to represent the coursework for most of her classes, which comprises the majority of the collection. Also included are personal notes and sketches, correspondence, New York City related ephemera, and the rough drafts for her illustrations in A Cat Would Be Company, by Lucyle Hook.

Arrangement

The records are arranged in two series, which have been further arranged in subseries. The series and subseries arrangement of the records is as follows:

Series 1: Pratt Institute Art Education, 1944-1998

1.1: General, 1944-1947

1.2: January to May 1945 Semester

1.3: 1945-1946 Semester

1.4: Summer 1946- University of Colorado-Boulder

1.5: 1946-1947 Semester

1.6: Scarsdale Public Schools Report, 1947

1.7: Art Education Publications, 1945

1.8: Saturday Morning Art School, 1947-1958

1.9: Graduation and Alumni, 1947-1998

Series 2: Personal, 1944-1996

2.1: A Cat Would Be Company, by Lucyle Hook, with illustrations by Maryette Charlton

2.2: Convention Programs, 1946-1947

2.3: Correspondence, 1945-1946

2.4: Photographs

2.5: Newspaper Clippings, 1944-1996

2.6: Guides and Maps, 1945-1947

2.7: Postcards and Ephemera, 1945-1946

2.8: Oversized materials, 1945-1947

Harmful Language Statement

If you encounter any pejorative language (i.e. racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic) or content in the finding aids or within the content of the collection, please send an email to archives.library@pratt.edu with the relevant details. For more information about how the Pratt Institute Libraries are addressing offensive language and content across its catalogs and databases, please see the Libraries' Harmful Language Statement: https://library.pratt.edu/statement/2022/05/27/harmful-language.html.