Portraits by Carl Van Vechten

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Additional Collections of Carl Van Vechten Photographs

Researchers should contact the individual institutions regarding scope of the collections listed and access to the material.

Arizona
Tucson. Center for Creative Photography.
California
Los Angeles. University of California, Los Angeles, University Research Library, Department of Special Collections.
Santa Monica. J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs.
Connecticut
New Haven. Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Collection of American Literature. Several thousand photographs and Van Vechten's negatives.
New Haven. Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters. Photographs and color slides of black artists and writers.
District of Columbia
Howard University, Library, Special Collections. The Rose McClendon Memorial Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Negroes.
National Portrait Gallery.
Georgia
Atlanta. Atlanta University, Library, Special Collections. The Countee Cullen Memorial Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Negroes.
Iowa
Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids Art Center.
Iowa City. University of Iowa, Library, Special Collections. Large selection of photographs.
Illinois
Chicago. The Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Louisiana
New Orleans. New Orleans Museum of Art.
New Orleans. Tulane University, New Orleans.
Massachusetts
Northampton. Smith College Museum of Art.
Waltham. Brandeis University, Library, Special Collections. 1,600 photographs.
Michigan
Detroit. Detroit Institute of Arts, Graphic Arts Department.
Detroit. Public Library. The E. Azalia Hackley Memorial Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Negroes.
Missouri
Kansas City. Hallmark Cards.
New Jersey
Newark. The Newark Museum.
Princeton. Princeton University. The Art Museum.
Princeton. Princeton University. Library, Rare Books and Special Collections.
New Mexico
Albuquerque. University of New Mexico, University Art Museum. Jerome Bowers Peterson Memorial Collection of Photographs. 200 portraits of blacks.
Santa Fe. Museum of New Mexico, Photographic Archives.
New York
Brooklyn. Brooklyn Museum.
New York City. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Prints and Photographs.
New York City. Museum of Modern Art. Portraits of dancers and choreographers.
New York City. Museum of the City of New York. Portraits of theater personalities and black artists and writers.
New York City. New York Public Library, Rare Book and Manuscript Division. Carl Van Vechten Collection. Family and personal photographs, color slides, photographs of the Stage Door Canteen, and the 1939 World's Fair.
New York City. New York Public Library, Dance Collection. The Fania Marinoff Collection of Dance Photographs.
New York City. New York Public Library, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection. Photographs of celebrated authors.
North Salem. Hammond Museum. 400-500 photographs.
Rochester. International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House.
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Philadelphia. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Several thousand images representing the entire scope of Van Vechten's work.
Philadelphia. The Rosenbach Museum and Library.
Tennessee
Nashville. Fisk University, Library, Special Collections. George Gershwin Memorial Collection of Music and Musical Literature. Portraits of musicians.
Texas
Austin. University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Photography Collection.
Houston. Menil Foundation.
Virginia
Richmond. University of Richmond.
Wisconsin
Milwaukee. Marquette University Library. Karl Priebe Collection. 4,000 photographs.

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Selected Bibliography

Note: For additional material relating to Carl Van Vechten, researchers are encouraged to use Bruce Kellner's bibliography. Selected works pertaining to Van Vechten's photographic work are listed below.

Byrd, Rudolph P., ed. Generations in Black and White: Photographs by Carl Van Vechten. (From the Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection.) Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993.

Davis, Keith. The Passionate Observer: Photographs by Carl Van Vechten. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993.
Catalog for a traveling exhibition organized by Hallmark Cards. 59 portrait photographs are reproduced with biographical information about the sitters.

Kellner, Bruce. A Bibliography of the Work of Carl Van Vechten. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1980.
One section lists portraits taken by Van Vechten and provides citations of the published images. Other material relates to photographic exhibitions and collections that contain Van Vechten photographs.

Kellner, Bruce. Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades. [First ed.] Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.

Kellner, Bruce, ed. Letters of Carl Van Vechten. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

Lueders, Edward G. Carl Van Vechten. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1965.

Mauriber, Saul, comp. Portraits, the Photography of Carl Van Vechten. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978.

Van Vechten, Carl. The Dance Photography of Carl Van Vechten. Introduction by Paul Padgette. New York: Schirmer Books, 1981.
212 photographs.

Van Vechten, Carl. Portraits by Carl Van Vechten: A Photographic Exhibition. Nashville, Tennessee: The Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fine Arts, Fisk University, 1981.
10 images from the exhibition are reproduced.

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