Contributed by Jahna Auerbach, Assistant Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
Jahna and Hoang photographing John Rhoden’s sketchbooks.
Archival collections can range from standard mediums such as papers, photographs, and books to less standard materials like large pieces of art, framed documents, photo albums, etc. Most of the time we are able to digitize items on a flatbed scanner, but other times we need to utilize a copy stand and digital camera setup.
Example of a bound volume in a flatbed scanner.
Example of a bound volume in a flatbed scanner.
Objects that usually need to be digitized with a camera are bound materials (books). This is because the only way to lay a book flay on a scanner would involve breaking the spine. At PAFA we had to capture John Rhoden’s sketchbooks and exhibition catalogs with a digital camera.
An example of a book cradle used for digital capture. These cradles can cost thousands of dollars so many archivists figure out alternative processes. (https://www.digiscribe.info/)
When photographing books, it is important to avoid distortion of the pages, have even lighting, eliminate any shadows that could occur, and ensure everything is in focus.
To accomplish this, we mounted a digital camera onto a copy stand so that it is oriented straight down. A copy stand is a very sturdy alternative to a tripod. We have lights on either side of the book and include the Kodak Color Control Patches in each frame to standardize proper black and white values. Without a ‘V cradle,’ pages can easily look distorted because the pages have a natural curve. To eliminate distortion we photograph the books with the page we want to capture flat while holding the book at a 90-degree angle.
Then Hoang, Kelin and I had to work together. I handled the camera settings and focus, Hoang helped keep the pages flat and straight, and Kelin monitored the images in Lightroom.
What may be surprising is that, to save time, we first capture the recto (the front side) of each page, and then the verso (the backside) of each page. In post-production I will have to edit and merge these images so that a viewer can “flip” through the book digitally.
As tedious as photographing can be, it was a fun change of pace to work together, which is something we haven’t been able to do now that we are primarily cataloging and digitizing records on the flatbed scanner. Now, all we have to do is digitally process the images and we have digital images of a book! The finished digital book will be available as a part of the John Rhoden papers, accessible through PAFA’s Digital Archives.
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National
Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history,
literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding
selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional
information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its
grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Kelin Baldridge,Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
Here in the Rhoden papers, we have been elbow-deep in the
nitty-gritty work of digitization and cataloging. We are approaching the five thousand
digitized objects mark and, as we are nearing this milestone, wanted to
re-commence our regular posting.
Archives Director Hoang Tran and Assistant Archivist Jahna Auerbach photographing John Rhoden’s sketchbooks.
What we accomplished:
Finished digitizing all prioritized documents,
photographs, and slides
Photographed bound volumes such as sketchbooks
and exhibition catalogs
Up next:
Finish cataloging all digitized objects
Scan all non-priority manuscripts
Thoughts:
We began the digitization and cataloging process by establishing digitization priorities. In our first pass, we digitized all documents with clear informational value – names, dates, processes, plans, prices, etc. – a criteria that depends more on our judgment as archivists than on hard and fast rules. We additionally decided to digitize all black and white photographs of John’s military service, exhibitions, commissions, travel, family and friends, and home and all color photographs of John’s commissions and exhibitions. Finally, we decided to scan all good-quality color slides from John’s travels. (Good-quality simply refers to anything that is not blurry or dark to the point of negating an informational or aesthetic value.)
Above is an example of a prioritized document. It provides specific information on where John was and who he was with during his travels.
As of this week, we have digitized all of the above items and have finished cataloging them. With this in mind, our next step is to return to the manuscripts and scan all of the remaining documents. The manuscripts are simultaneously the smallest and most informationally rich portion of the collection and, as such, I am extremely excited to be able to provide easy access to all of them. Providing access to the entirety of John’s documents ensures that the physical remnants of his story are presented in the most robust manner possible and that each document can be contextualized to the fullest extent.
On a different note, one thing I have learned as a project archivist is that hitting a numerical goal is daunting. It is easy to become fixed on the number and prioritize that goal over others (such as blogging). However, now that we are through the thick of it, I have learned not to become overwhelmed by numerical goals but rather to allow them to serve as a framework for planning a balanced project.
Up next, a post from Assistant Archivist Jahna about photographing John’s sketchbooks!
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National
Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history,
literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding
selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional
information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its
grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Jahna Auerbach, Assistant Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
When the processing team began organizing the John Rhoden papers we were challenged with identifying over 2,300 slides from John Rhoden’s travels. A majority of the slides were unlabeled and unorganized. At best, some slides included labels inscribed on the physical slides with the name of the country or city name, usually misspelled. To create useful and meaningful descriptive catalog records, we have been researching the places John visited for the past few months.
Labeled slides being organized by country. Taken by the author on October 29, 2019.
Every detail is a clue
To physically arrange the slides, we first took a broad approach–identifying and organizing the slides by continent and then by country. This step required multiple passes between Kelin and I. The process included a significant amount of research, including looking up obscure architecture, street signs, traditional dress, flora and fauna, types of alcohol, types of transportation, and lots and lots of translation. Anything could be a clue. One day I spent hours looking at Soviet Era street lights in hopes of identifying a small town.
Other days were spent identifying countries by different languages that were found on street signs, store fronts, and license plates. In order to translate these clues, we not only used Google translate, but we sent images to family and friends who were from the countries that John had visited in hopes that they could help translate, identify languages, or identify alphabets.
Once we were able to identify the countries represented in a slide, we began identifying specific locations, typically historical sites and buildings. This meant spending lots of time in Google street view walking from, for example, one Russian cathedral to the next, trying to see if we could identify where John was from the smallest clues. Luckily, many of the sites John visited still exist!
Our job is to identify who she is! (taken between October 1958 and December 1959)
Part Archivist // Part Detective
John Rhoden’s travel
slides are color positive, 35mm film, and mounted between two pieces of
cardstock. To identify certain places we had to utilize light boxes, magnifying
glasses, digital scans and even Photoshop to create more sharpness and contrast
between letters.
This image, taken between December 1958 and March 1959, is an example of a slide we needed to identify.
Here is an example of how we would identify a location on an unlabeled slide (above):
The slide is unlabeled, but the characters on the stone sign/marker reveals it is more likely East Asia, based on Rhoden’s travel history.
The characters resemble Japanese characters, so at this point we compared these images to other images we have that Rhoden labeled Japan.
The subject of the image is a group of people (family) having their photograph taken in front of a stone relief sign. We deduced that it is likely a tourist area.
After failing to find a tourist site in Japan with a matching sign we asked a family friend to translate the writing on the sign . We eventually learned that it says “National Treasure Great Buddha of Kamakura”
Then we revisited Google maps to make sure we have the correct place. On google street view there is an identical sign, but it is in a different location and has a different base. (Image: below left, the stone marker in its current location.[1])
Next we had to try to find images of the Great Buddha of Kamakura from the 1950s-1960s. Only through finding those images were we able to find confirmation of the stone sign, with the same base, near the Great Buddha of Kamakura. (Image: below right, In this photograph from 1968, the stone marker matches that of the slide.[2])
This is just an example of the identification process for one slide. But finding the identification for one slide can help identify many others. By identifying this one slide we now know that John traveled to Kamakura, Japan. There is a strong possibility that other slides from the area are also found in the collection, or at the very least, we can definitively label the slides “Japan”.
For other slides the subject may be somewhat generic. When a slide only shows, for example, a close-up of a roof or a cycle rickshaw, our Google searches tend to look like the following: “blue roof Russian cathedral Moscow” or “Indonesian cyclo”. We make educated guesses as to the location and continue to do so until we make an identification. Throughout the process, we gain new knowledge and awareness of specific regions, cultures, architecture, and geography. In fact, as we continue to learn more and more about certain countries, we become “subject specialists”: Kelin specializes in Europe; Hoang specializes in India and Italy; and I specialize in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
Above is an example of a close-up image of architecture with little-to-no context given. We were able to identify this image as the roof and south tower of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria. This identification led to a precise date, 1952, when Rhoden was in Austria.
Cataloging these slides
have made me feel as if I have walked the streets of so many countries. I have
also learned that many countries have developed so much over the last 70 years.
For example, Seoul, South Korea in 1958 is unrecognizable compared to Seoul
2020, while other places have barely changed.
We would also like to
use this blog post to thank everyone who has taken the time to help us
translate and identify John travel photos. We wouldn’t have been able to do it
without you!
R and L: Slides on a light table, in the process of being organized by country (November 12, 2019)
For reference, the following is a list of countries John traveled to between 1951 and 1963: (in alphabetical order) Armenia, Cambodia, Croatia, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Jerusalem, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Monaco, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sardinia, Scotland, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, Tibet, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zanzibar.
Image Credits:
The Great Buddha of Kamakura from Google Maps. Captured by Google in 2010.
Sparrow, L. (1968) “Great Buddha of Kamakura,” [digital image]. Retrieved from: https://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/977126/great-buddha-of-kamakura/?search_hash=744c19a5b3a19e0562dfc5cee5e8007a&search_offset=0&search_limit=100&search_sort_by=relevance_desc
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National
Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history,
literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding
selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional
information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its
grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Kelin Baldridge,Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
As a follow up to the previous post, the following is a more visually-focused update on our progress to date!
The largest deliverable of the John Rhoden papers project is 5,000 publicly-available digitized items from the collection. With that said, our recent work has been focused on digitizing and cataloging. At the time of posting, we have digitized 2,610 physical records, totaling 3,275 individual scans.
We have worked our way through the manuscripts and black and
white photographs and are currently scanning Rhoden’s color slides. Scanning
the slides has proven to be an interesting challenge and our resident
digitization expert, Jahna, has a post in the works explaining those challenges
and solutions. Overall, however, digitization and cataloging is fairly
straightforward work. So, in order to keep things interesting, we have included
some gems discovered during the process below!
First, we have John and Richenda’s trip to Egypt touring some of the most iconic pyramids in the world to (precariously) riding camels and donkeys. The Rhodens clearly had the time of their lives!
Richenda, pyramids at Giza, 1958
John, pyramids at Giza, 1958
John, Colossi of Memnon, 1955-1959
United Nations Peacekeeper, 1958
The slides also introduce countless new artists to the collection, both known and unknown. One of the most interesting is Hasan Kaptan, the Turkish prodigy who is largely unknown in the modern era. Born in Ankara, Turkey in 1942, Kaptan exhibited throughout Turkey, had a one-man (boy) show in Paris, and exhibited in the Galerie St. Etienne in New York (Paintings of a Ten-Year-Old Turkish Painter on October 29, 1952) by age ten. Throughout his adolescence, he continued to exhibit around Europe and in the United States. His story and work was featured in Time and Harper’s Bazaar. As an adult, Kaptan seemingly stepped away from exhibiting and selling his art and has largely been obscured from history.
Hasan Kaptan (aged 13-17), with his art, circa 1955-1959
Serbian sculptor, circa 1955-1959
In 1954, John enjoyed the beaches of Sardinia, taking a break from his hard work at the American Academy in Rome.
John Rhoden with friends in Santa Teresa, Sardinia, 1954
Richenda Rhoden posing on a dock in Maddalena, Sardinia, 1954
Rhoden also visited the Waterford Crystal factory in Waterford, Ireland and photographed the workers during the crystal making process.
Worker at the Waterford Crystal factory, circa 1955-1959.
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National
Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history,
literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding
selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional
information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its
grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Hoang Tran, Project Director and Director of Archives
The team reached a project milestone this past week! We have digitized 2500 items! That means we’re 50% done with the digitization portion of the project.
Photographic prints and color slides make up the bulk of the records that have been digitized so far. Since Rhoden traveled extensively through Europe, Africa, and Asia, it has been an amazing experience viewing the exotic locations. The team also began cataloging portions of the digitized records which has been a great team building activity! For instance, since many of the slides were only identified by the country, we spent some time searching for the exact locations John visited. This required us to examine the smallest details within the images–signs, monuments, clothing, bus colors, trolley cars, license plates, etc. We also used Google Street View and Google Translate to help us figure out the specific sites/cities Rhoden visited.
Jahna (Assistant Archivist) was in charge of digitizing the slides documenting Russia. She was enamored with the country’s architecture. We all learned that “Onion Dome” was typically associated with Russian Orthodox churches.
As we continue digitizing Rhoden’s travel slides, we’re excited to get a chance to explore and learn more about the countries he visited (over 35!). Although the countries have changed so much since the 1950s-1960s, many of the buildings, landmarks, and monuments still remain.
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Kelin Baldridge, Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
Over here in the archives, we recently stumbled upon this enormous planning sketch for one of John Rhoden’s sculptures. The figures depicted in the sketch looked familiar, so we decided to do some digging within the papers to see if we could contextualize it.
Archives staff with the planning sketch for John Rhoden’s Beings Anthropomorphic.
Photographs in the collection revealed that this sketch was for a sculpture titled Beings Anthropomorphic. Captions on the photographs indicate that this sculpture was created specifically for the African American Museum in Philadelphia in 1975. There are no documents or correspondence directly related to this artwork and, as such, we have been unable to confirm the information on the photograph captions.
A label on the photograph suggests the sculpture was installed at the African American Museum in Philadelphia in the mid to late 1970s.
From the photographs, we do know that the artwork was completed and installed somewhere, but we cannot be sure that it was actually installed in the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Furthermore, the sculpture’s current whereabouts are unknown. However, what we do have relating to the sketch could potentially reveal something about John’s artistic planning process.
Small-scale model for Beings Anthropomorphic.
Above is a photograph of a small-scale model of Beings Anthropomorphic. It is evident that this was an earlier model given the slight differences in the figures. Below is a photograph of John with his planning sketch. It is interesting to note the grid imposed on the sketch as well as the inclusion of the weight and cost of the figures.
John Rhoden with a planning sketch for Beings Anthropomorphic on January 7, 1975.
Close-up of the planning sketch including the weights and costs of figures (left: 60 lbs, $300; right: 30 lbs, $150).
Having evidence of multiple objects produced in the process of creating an artwork gives an interesting view into both the evolution of Rhoden’s ideas and his creative and logistical artistic planning. John’s papers are full of items that contextualize each other, and give a more complete picture of John’s life and work.
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Kelin Baldridge and Jahna Auerbach, the John Rhoden papers processing team
Kelin and Jahna sorting photographs of John Rhoden’s art.
What we accomplished:
Sorted the archive’s manuscripts at item-level
Created an inventory to help fine-tune the intellectual arrangement
Ordered materials in order to complete the physical arrangement
Published our first blog posts
Started brainstorming for our digitization plan
Next up:
Complete sorting the archive’s photographs and artworks
Re-write the intellectual arrangement according to what we have learned while sorting
Finalize digitization plan
Start digitizing
Lessons:
One thing I learned this week is how helpful an item-level organization can be to understanding the story of the archive as a whole. We decided to physically organize the individual items in each folder by date. In doing so, we were able to make connections between the items and, in turn, better understand the stories present in the papers. The size of this archive is manageable enough to arrange the individual items by date, but it is large enough that having the items organized to such a degree is crucial to making them accessible and comprehensible.
Discoveries:
The most interesting discovery this week is not an item or theme in the archives, but rather how the archive’s team has become attached to the people represented. Kelin is absolutely enamored with John and Jahna has fully fallen for Richenda.
John’s photos, correspondence, and documents paint a picture of an ambitious, professional, kind, and joyous man. Lacking the aloofness characteristic of sculptors, John was a sharp businessman. From what I have been exposed to, it seems his professionalism served as the perfect compliment to his talent in cultivating a successful career as an artist.
Furthermore, everyone who met John adored him. Reference letters for his various grants and fellowships share absolutely glowing reviews of a man who is equal parts passionate, professional, talented, and enjoyable. He received heartfelt thank you notes from children he taught and was always greeted with great warmth in both personal and professional correspondence.
Richenda’s primary presence in the collection comes in the form of photographs with her cats and Christmas trees. These photographs initially bonded me to Richenda and served as inspiration to explore her story further. As I dove deeper into her papers I learned that she is much more than just John’s partner. The content of her correspondence and photographs are full of personal information that illustrate a radical woman.
Aside from her letters, Richenda’s records consist of undergraduate papers, photographs, and some newspaper clippings. She did not keep many of her own things but what little we have is powerful. They tell a story of a woman who was creative, playful, intelligent and loved by all. Richenda was a self-proclaimed dreamer. She was an artist like John and her paintings were inspired by her Native American heritage, her travels with John, and her studies in anthropology and Asian art history. What we have in the collection only allows us to see small parts of who Richenda was, but I am now completely enthralled with her life and want to learn more about who she was as a person and as an artist.
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Kelin Baldridge and Jahna Auerbach, the John Rhoden papers processing team
Each Friday, we intend to publish a summary of what we accomplished, learned, and discovered in our work during the week leading up to it in the Weekly Roundup series. Here’s the first of many!
Rhoden project assistant archivist, Jahna Auerbach, hard at work organizing travel photos.
Accomplished so far:
Completed preliminary survey
Completed Processing plan
Completed preliminary Intellectual arrangement
Begun physically sorting objects
Next up:
Complete sorting
Finalize physical arrangement
Inventory of photographic items
Select items to be digitized
Week 1(ish) Lessons:
One thing we learned in creating the preliminary intellectual arrangement is how dynamic an intellectual arrangement can be. One of PAFA archivist Hoang Tran’s catchphrases is “things they don’t teach you in archives school” and the level of depth and complexity that can be included in an arrangement is certainly not something I was prepared for.
I had initially created an intellectual arrangement that was
separated into series based on John Rhoden’s life: Professional, Personal, and
Artist Series. The professional series was then separated by major milestones
in his career. Straight away, I liked this series because I felt it rendered
the items more accessible as they were grouped with what would likely be most
relevant to researchers. However, I quickly became afraid of the arrangement.
Lessons from archives school about avoiding charging items with meaning,
limiting their understanding, and ensuring that an arrangement is fully neutral
started to come back to me. As a result, I created a second (very safe, very
textbook) intellectual arrangement that separated the materials by document
type – correspondence, contracts, personal documents, etc.
When presenting these two arrangements to Hoang and Rhoden
Curator Brittany Webb, I was reassured that the more dynamic arrangement was
more suitable. Brittany reassured me that organizing the papers according to
career milestones rather than document type would be far more useful to a researcher.
Furthermore, Hoang taught me that the way archivists handle collections will
vary depending on the context. For our purposes, the PAFA archives are used for
art research, primarily by high-level students and weathered scholars. This
environmental context can then inform how an archivist approaches the
intellectual arrangement.
With the help of Hoang, I ultimately created a preliminary
intellectual arrangement that included the following series: exhibitions,
commissions, fellowships/grants/awards, press, teaching, gallery sales,
artwork, and personal. We did away with the restrictive professional, personal,
and artwork series while keeping the emphasis on his career milestones. It is much longer than my “safe” (document
type focused) intellectual arrangement was, but it also better contextualizes
the material and makes it more accessible.
Going forward, we expect the intellectual arrangement to
evolve as we continue to become familiar with the collection. Furthermore,
since the creation of the preliminary intellectual arrangement assistant
archivist Jahna Auerbach joined the team and her perspective and input will no
doubt help the arrangement evolve.
John in Egypt
John in Pakistan
Week 1(ish) Discoveries:
Having the privilege to process a collection of a person as well-traveled as John Rhoden has proven to be both fun and challenging. Rhoden traveled to over twenty countries with the U.S. State Department between 1955 and 1959 and has piles of photographs documenting his numerous journeys. The majority of his photographs are unlabeled, which means that we have to rely on landscapes, architecture, and various other vague context clues to identify where the photographs were taken. A large portion of our research has consisted of targeted searches about visual topics such as South Asian sculpture, architecture terms for temples, and whether or not sail boats are common in Egypt. Some questions we have are dry, but some spark conversation between PAFA employees across disciplines. This has turned sorting photographs into a complex puzzle that we are constantly trying to put the pieces together. It also has taught us that some things are unknowable, if only temporarily, and that working with a large archival collection requires a focus on the big picture.
Richenda in Indonesia
Sailboats in Egypt
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created
in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for
the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature,
philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected,
peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information
about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs
is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Kelin Baldridge, Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
Work on the John Rhoden papers is well underway, so it seems appropriate to give the man himself a proper introduction.
John Walter Rhoden was born on March 13, 1916 in Birmingham,
Alabama. He attended Industrial High School where he was mentored by sculptor William
Grant. At age 16, John completed a portrait bust of the school’s principal,
Arthur Parker, who the school is currently named after.
John Rhoden with portrait bust of Major General H.R. Harmon, 1943.
After high school, John attended Talladega College from 1934 to 1936. There he met Hale Woodruff, who was already an established muralist and painter at that time. Woodruff encouraged Rhoden to visit New York where he met fellow sculptors Augusta Savage and Richmond Barthé. By 1942, Rhoden was a private enlisted in the Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army. During this time, Rhoden completed portrait busts of several high ranking members of the military, including Major General H.R. Harmon. After his service, Rhoden attended the New School for Social Research and then Columbia University from 1947 to 1950 where he won the 1st Prize for Sculpture three times. Also, at Columbia, John met classmate and painter, Richenda Phillips (also spelled Richanda in the archives).
John and Richenda at their 1954 wedding in Rome.
Richenda was a Washington native of Cherokee and Menominee descent. She first married her University of Washington in Seattle classmate, Lawrence L. Kay, who was killed in World War II. After the war, Richenda moved to New York City where she modeled and attended Columbia University in pursuit of a master’s degree in Asian art. After meeting, she and John moved in together in Greenwich Village, at which time Richenda taught painting at Stuyvesant High School’s evening program. In 1954, John and Richenda were married in Rome.
After his time at Columbia, Rhoden spent a year at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine before attending the American Academy in Rome from 1951 to 1954 on both a Fulbright Fellowship and the Prix de Rome.
John Rhoden working on woodcarving in Indonesia, 1963.
John was then selected by the United States Department of State to serve as an artist ambassador from 1955 through 1959 as a part of the International Cultural Exchange and Fair Participation Act of 1956 (ambassadors were sent as early as 1954), best known for its jazz ambassadors. During this service, he visited over 20 countries in an official capacity. After his time traveling with the State Department, John and Richenda returned to New York City and purchased their forever-home at 23 Cranberry Street in Brooklyn in 1960. Shortly thereafter, John left for Indonesia on a Rockefeller Foundation Grant to set up a bronze foundry at a university in Bandung.
John Rhoden at the installation of Nesaika, 1976.
With their professional traveling largely behind them, John and Richenda settled into New York City life where they both taught and exhibited extensively. During his later career, John notably exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia. He also completed several major commissions including Monumental Bronze for the Harlem Hospital in New York, Monumental Abstraction for the Metropolitan Hospital in New York, Nesaika for the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Mitochondria for the Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, and Frederick Douglass for Lincoln University.
Though there is so much more to his story, we will end the introduction here. From breaching the Iron Curtain to living the high life with the likes of Richmond Barthé, Cab Calloway and Bill Robinson, John’s life was rich and exciting and we hope you will follow along with us as we discover what his archive has to tell!
John Rhoden in his Cranberry Street studio.
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
Contributed by Jahna Auerbach, Assistant Archivist for the John Rhoden papers
While sorting through John Rhoden’s personal photographs, we stumbled upon photos of several family pets. Though their names are unknown, they were dearly loved, particularly by Richenda. Peppered throughout the hundreds of photographs and negatives are three beautiful cats that Richenda would pose with–in their garden, in front of the Christmas tree, dressed up, and on leashes. How lucky these cats must have been!
National Cat Day is a day to raise awareness of homeless cats. To learn more about the holiday and what you can do to help homeless cats, head on over to the National Cat Day website: https://www.nationalcatday.com/
This project, Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.
