Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Diana Korzenik collection of art education ephemera and books
- Description
This collection contains approximately 700 pieces of ephemera that along with more than 500 separately cataloged books form the Diana Korzenik Collection of Art Education representing the evolution of art education in the United States from mainly 1800 to 1950. An archive reflecting specific techniques and values employed in the education of children and budding artists of all ages during this period, the collection was compiled by Massachusetts professor Diana Korzenik, and the ephemera includes 178 pamphlets, 40 serial titles, 277 coloring and drawing books, and over 200 artifacts such as wooden and metallic paint boxes, tracing slates, stencil kits, geometric wooden blocks, chromolithographed scenes for copying, sketchbooks, crayons, and posable wooden mannequins. In addition to actual artifacts used by students, the collection also includes theoretical and instructional books aimed at art educators, policymakers, and parents. Many of the items demonstrate more traditional ways in which art has been taught in schools and homes, including the copying, tracing and stenciling of prepared images, the composing of original images, and the filling-in of outlined pre-defined images.
The ephemera is subdivided by series:
Series I: Instruction materials consisting of materials clearly used for didactic purposes, such as painting or penmanship books. Series II: Non-instructional materials such as student drawings, commercial catalogs, and material chiefly collected by Mabel Spofford, an art supervisor for Gloucester, Massachusetts, public schools in the mid-twentieth century. The wide variety of art education ephemera amassed by Spofford includes art educators' meeting notes, bulletins, summer school announcements, sample art projects, and other items reflective of her professional interests. Series III: Objects consisting of three-dimensional artifacts that would have been used for art-making purposes including raw material such as paint and pencils, and devices such as drawing slates.Among the oldest items in the collection is a Thomas Reeves and Sons watercolor paint set (Box 75, Set 05) dating from 1781. The collection spans over 200 years, with the most recent item being a copy of Some Events in the Life of Walter Smith (Box 22 Evelope 26) from 1982.
