Among her many interests, Ade Bethune was a proponent of the teachings of Maria Montessori. Bethune's St. Leo Shop became an outlet for Montessori's books, which were imported from India in the late 1950s and 1960s. In addition, Bethune sold her own booklets for writing instruction--"Teaching the Child to Write" (originally published in Jubilee magazine) and Uniscript: A New Method for Teaching Handwriting--which were based on Montessori's principles. The Ade Bethune Collection has copies of both of these, along with a set of plaster letters for children to trace with a finger.
I had been meaning to let the Montessori department at St. Kate's know the connection between Ade Bethune and Montessori's work, and had an opportunity to do Friday. One of their faculty members was visiting the Archives for another reason. I told her that Bethune had sold Montessori's books in her shop and we had those and other Montessori-related items in the Collection. After seeing the plaster letters and looking through the writing booklets, she told me she was speechless and wanted to come back later to spend more time looking through the materials. Her comment in the heading is how she described the experience to a colleague.
This encounter reminded me, yet again, how many hidden treasures are in the Ade Bethune Collection. Bethune herself was a complex and talented woman whose work and interests went far beyond her more commonly known tag of "Catholic Worker artist." There are gems to be explored by those involved in many fields, and it is my job to make them more widely known--to the St. Kate's community and beyond.
Showing posts with label holdings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holdings. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
45 Years of Community Activism
Another set of materials in the Ade Bethune Collection has been organized and is available for research. The Newport Community Organizations Materials document Bethune's involvement with the Point Association, East-West Point Committee, Citizens Advisory Committee, Foundation for Newport, and other groups in her adopted home of Newport, RI.
This part of the Collection covers almost a half-century of Ade Bethune's activities, from the late 1950s to her death in 2002. During this time, Bethune was active on the Board or in other leadership positions for many of these community groups. Her involvement with them centered on supporting Newport's citizens; she wanted to ensure they had good homes and neighborhoods. In this effort, Ade Bethune addressed multiple road and redevelopment issues--working for or opposing proposals based on the impact they would have on the community.
At a February, 1970 public hearing regarding a proposed highway that would bisect Ade Bethune's Point neighborhood, she prefaced her questions and comments with the following statement:
Organization of the Newport Community Organizations Materials and production of a finding aid for them was made possible by a CLIR "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" grant with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This part of the Collection covers almost a half-century of Ade Bethune's activities, from the late 1950s to her death in 2002. During this time, Bethune was active on the Board or in other leadership positions for many of these community groups. Her involvement with them centered on supporting Newport's citizens; she wanted to ensure they had good homes and neighborhoods. In this effort, Ade Bethune addressed multiple road and redevelopment issues--working for or opposing proposals based on the impact they would have on the community.
At a February, 1970 public hearing regarding a proposed highway that would bisect Ade Bethune's Point neighborhood, she prefaced her questions and comments with the following statement:
"I will speak in the name of families, and children, and mothers, of the elderly, of the poor people, of the pedestrians on both sides of the Point. People who have no advocate to plead their cause and defend their rights. . . People who are not here tonight because they are too young to be here, or too old, like my mother, people who are working tonight and can't come."Through her work, Ade Bethune made sure that everyone in the community would have a voice.
Organization of the Newport Community Organizations Materials and production of a finding aid for them was made possible by a CLIR "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" grant with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Puzzles from the Past
Last week St. Kate's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa brought a visiting scholar, Dr. Gloria Pinney, to campus. Her visit included participating in three separate classes, plus a public lecture on her research into the Acanthus Column at Delphi. Weaving together pieces from art/archaeology, history, literature, mythology, and astronomy/cosmology, she traced her theories into the column's meaning, including why it was erected.
Listening to her speak, I thought the fields of archaeology and archives are similar in some respects. There are obvious parallels between the two related to uncovering and preserving the past and to historical research. But her use of research to decipher a puzzle brought to mind a more specific connection, for I have faced puzzles in the Ade Bethune Collection--items whose history or purpose I needed to discover in order to fully understand what they were.
One such puzzle concerns 4 unfinished painted wooden panels. They are not quite 5 feet high, with icon-style portraits in the top half and painted drapery in the bottom half. In their unfinished state they could have been preliminary studies, except for the gold leaf that was applied to parts of them. It was unlikely Bethune would have used gold leaf on anything but a final piece. These panels seemed important to her body of work on two levels. First, the Collection has few actual examples of her art, except for original drawings used for illustrations in various publications. Second, Bethune was interested in iconography and the symbols traditionally depicted with specific saints and people.
The panels were included in the shipment of Ade Bethune's items to St. Kate's upon her death, but for a number of years I couldn't place them in any sort of context. Then one day, browsing through some of the materials in the Collection, I came upon a folder titled with the name of a church and the word "Icons." Wondering if it had any connection to the mysterious panels, I looked through the contents. Inside were 3 letters, illustrated notes on the history and traditions of the iconstasis in Orthodox churches, and sketches of designs similar to the panels. In the last letter, written in response to having received a schmatic of the altar screen for the church, she wrote:
Listening to her speak, I thought the fields of archaeology and archives are similar in some respects. There are obvious parallels between the two related to uncovering and preserving the past and to historical research. But her use of research to decipher a puzzle brought to mind a more specific connection, for I have faced puzzles in the Ade Bethune Collection--items whose history or purpose I needed to discover in order to fully understand what they were.
One such puzzle concerns 4 unfinished painted wooden panels. They are not quite 5 feet high, with icon-style portraits in the top half and painted drapery in the bottom half. In their unfinished state they could have been preliminary studies, except for the gold leaf that was applied to parts of them. It was unlikely Bethune would have used gold leaf on anything but a final piece. These panels seemed important to her body of work on two levels. First, the Collection has few actual examples of her art, except for original drawings used for illustrations in various publications. Second, Bethune was interested in iconography and the symbols traditionally depicted with specific saints and people.
 |
| Sketches for 2 of the 4 panels, showing the Mother of God and Christ. The other 2 designs depict John the Baptist and the patron saint of the church for which they were intended. |
"I am upset to see that this design was made without consulting me and without respect to the nature or tradition of the iconstasis. The size of the panels shown on the drawing is 36" x 48", whereas the actual panels you furnished, and on which I have worked, are 24" x54". It looks as though we are not communicating on a professional level. Regretfully, therefore, I would ask to resign from the project and be released from the verbal contract we made."Here was a letter that explained both the unfinished state of the panels, and the use of gold leaf. They were intended to be used as part of an altar screen, but Ade Bethune resigned the commission due to a lack of communication. And the panels remained in her house until her death.
Friday, April 15, 2011
New Resources Online
We've been busy the past few weeks making more information and resources about the Ade Bethune Collection available online. There are new additions to the Library's Digital Collections of articles written by Ade Bethune and published in Catholic Art Quarterly. Digital versions of 8 typescripts in various forms of draft and one manuscript are now accessible online for viewing. The full text of the articles can also be searched. Take a look!
Titles of the articles are:
Titles of the articles are:
- Font and Altar: Footnotes on Sacred Architecture (1954)
- Revising our Conception of the Communion Rail (1958)
- Some Suggestions on Teaching Design (1947)
- Symbols of the Spirit (1954)
- Version 1
- Version 2
- The Person and the Industrial Counter-Revolution (1940)
- The Raising of Lazarus: a play (1949)
- The Tabernacle and the Altar Facing the People (1959)
- Version 1
- Version 2
The article "The Person and the Industrial Counter-Revolution" may be of particular interest to the St. Catherine University community. It is based on a speech she gave in 1939 at the 3rd meeting of the Catholic Art Association, which was held on the St. Kate's campus.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Finding Aids Available
Finding aids to three series in the Ade Bethune Collection are now on the Collection web site. Work on the remaining processed series is in progress, and we hope to make them available over the summer.
Ade Bethune's Writings
The collection includes about 100 published articles in both manuscript (some typed) and printed forms. There are about 17 booklets or books in various forms of draft and print as well as roughly 44 unpublished articles or notes. There is also correspondence with various editors and publishers about Bethune's work. Materials span the years from 1933 to 1998 with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1940s to 1960s.
Bethune published articles in about 37 different journals, with most being in Orate Fratres, Liturgical Arts, and Catholic Art Quarterly. She also wrote a series of 5 articles for Church Property Administration on the need for church architecture to support the liturgy.
Catholic Worker Materials
These materials cover the Catholic Worker movement, from its beginnings in New York to its international presence. The collection spans most of the 21st century, though the bulk of the materials fall between 1940-2000. It includes correspondence; Catholic Worker publications, such as pamphlets, newspapers, and newsletters; other writings both by and about the Catholic Worker movement; and some of Ade Bethune’s artwork for the paper. This collection contains both personal materials illustrating Bethune’s relationship with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker as well as more generic materials relating to the social movement in general.
Items of particular note include correspondence between Ade Bethune and Dorothy Day, correspondence she held with other Catholic Workers, especially Mary Paulson and Hazen Ordway, and materials relating to the first large Catholic Worker conference held on the 50th anniversary of the movement’s founding.
Personal Correspondence
The collection includes personal correspondence with more than 150 individuals: handwritten and typed letters, photographs, postcards, and greeting cards, also any enclosed materials, such as print samples, informal sketches, or other items, that Bethune kept with the correspondences.
Especially of note is the over 30 years worth of correspondence she had with Arthur Graham Carey. Bethune and Cary discussed matters such as art commissions, personal affairs, and John Stevens Shop or Catholic Art Association business, as well as more general thoughts on the theory and philosophy of art.
It appears from the breadth of this collection that Ade Bethune faithfully saved all the letters that she possibly could. Often times, correspondence was with church community figures (such as Sister Peter Claver Fahy or Rev. Frederick R. McManus) or admirers from all over the world. Topics included informal art and design advice, discussions on liturgy, religion, or other personal matters. Letters to news editors, television hosts, and political leaders are somewhat common. She also corresponded with other successful artists such as Leandro Locsin, Alfonso Ossorio, and Fernando Zobel.
Ade Bethune's Writings
The collection includes about 100 published articles in both manuscript (some typed) and printed forms. There are about 17 booklets or books in various forms of draft and print as well as roughly 44 unpublished articles or notes. There is also correspondence with various editors and publishers about Bethune's work. Materials span the years from 1933 to 1998 with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1940s to 1960s.
Bethune published articles in about 37 different journals, with most being in Orate Fratres, Liturgical Arts, and Catholic Art Quarterly. She also wrote a series of 5 articles for Church Property Administration on the need for church architecture to support the liturgy.
Catholic Worker Materials
These materials cover the Catholic Worker movement, from its beginnings in New York to its international presence. The collection spans most of the 21st century, though the bulk of the materials fall between 1940-2000. It includes correspondence; Catholic Worker publications, such as pamphlets, newspapers, and newsletters; other writings both by and about the Catholic Worker movement; and some of Ade Bethune’s artwork for the paper. This collection contains both personal materials illustrating Bethune’s relationship with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker as well as more generic materials relating to the social movement in general.
Items of particular note include correspondence between Ade Bethune and Dorothy Day, correspondence she held with other Catholic Workers, especially Mary Paulson and Hazen Ordway, and materials relating to the first large Catholic Worker conference held on the 50th anniversary of the movement’s founding.
Personal Correspondence
The collection includes personal correspondence with more than 150 individuals: handwritten and typed letters, photographs, postcards, and greeting cards, also any enclosed materials, such as print samples, informal sketches, or other items, that Bethune kept with the correspondences.
Especially of note is the over 30 years worth of correspondence she had with Arthur Graham Carey. Bethune and Cary discussed matters such as art commissions, personal affairs, and John Stevens Shop or Catholic Art Association business, as well as more general thoughts on the theory and philosophy of art.
It appears from the breadth of this collection that Ade Bethune faithfully saved all the letters that she possibly could. Often times, correspondence was with church community figures (such as Sister Peter Claver Fahy or Rev. Frederick R. McManus) or admirers from all over the world. Topics included informal art and design advice, discussions on liturgy, religion, or other personal matters. Letters to news editors, television hosts, and political leaders are somewhat common. She also corresponded with other successful artists such as Leandro Locsin, Alfonso Ossorio, and Fernando Zobel.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Archives, Innovation, and the Economy
Recently Kate Theimer wrote a post, Wired magazine runs on archives, for her Archives Next blog. In the post, she provides several examples from recent issues of Wired magazine of cultural products whose development was all or partially based on research done in archives. Her point: while the primary economic impact of archives is usually considered to be the spending done by visitors to archives, there is a less recognized impact. This is the benefit the economy derives from the innovation and sales of products produced with the help of archives.
Her post inspired thinking about ways in which the Ade Bethune Collection has fostered the creation of cultural products. The most obvious is the use of artwork from the Collection in published books. Three of these come to mind in particular:
Information about this and others of Ade Bethune's church projects was included in an exhibition on campus, Bringing the Word of God to the People: Sacred Iconography and Church Design.
[In further support of Theimer's thesis, both Whitaker and Kantor performed research in other archives while working on their books.]
Her post inspired thinking about ways in which the Ade Bethune Collection has fostered the creation of cultural products. The most obvious is the use of artwork from the Collection in published books. Three of these come to mind in particular:
Crafting a Modern World: The Architecture and Design of Antonin and Noemi Raymond
Antonin Raymond designed a church (St. Joseph the Worker, completed in 1950) for a sugar refinery compound on the island of Negros, in the Philippines. Ade Bethune was commissioned to create mosaics and paintings for the church's exterior and interior. While working on the book, William Whitaker, one of the editors, visited the Collection, researching this project of Raymond's. He was surprised and pleased to discover a set of color slides taken of the church--the only color images he had found of the church at the time it was built, and important since parts of it have since been painted over. Two of these images are included in the Raymond book.Information about this and others of Ade Bethune's church projects was included in an exhibition on campus, Bringing the Word of God to the People: Sacred Iconography and Church Design.
Graphic Design and Religion
This book, by Daniel Kantor, is an attempt to get churches and other religious organizations thinking about how to express themselves visually, beyond stock clip art and fonts, so that the graphic design products might be viewed themselves as sacred art. Among the examples included in the book are 4 drawings by Ade Bethune from the Collection.
Ade Bethune is an artist whose work has stood the test of time. While her earliest work is 75 years old, it still resonates powerfully today. This is probably from two factors.
- Her strong sense of graphic design: partly from her early interest in stained glass and partly because she saw the world more as strong lines and flat colors than as shadings and nuances (she once wrote that she had a hard time with watercolor because she didn't see things that way)
- Her interest in iconography, in distilling an image down to its symbolic essences, rather than a representation of a particular person, time or place
[In further support of Theimer's thesis, both Whitaker and Kantor performed research in other archives while working on their books.]
Stations of Joy: Meditations on Scriptural Events
Toward the end of the 20th century, interest arose in the Catholic Church for a complement to the Stations of the Cross, a set of Stations of the Resurrection that would focus on the hopeful side of Christ's resurrection, rather than the agony of His death as predominant in the Stations of the Cross. In 2001, the stations of the Via Lucis (or Way of the Light) were recognized by the Vatican in the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (see #153). Shortly afterwards, the Center for Learning contacted the Collection regarding their forthcoming book, Stations of Joy, based on the Via Lucis. They wanted to use Ade Bethune's work to illustrate it, and needed assistance in identifying images that would be appropriate for each station.Tuesday, March 1, 2011
First Finding Aid Entered into CLICnet
Finding aids for the Ade Bethune Collection will be placed online as part of the CLIR grant project. But other ways to improve access to the Collection are being implemented too, including the addition of records into CLICnet, the Library's catalog. Several books in the Collection have already been cataloged and added to CLICnet. Records for finding aids are being created as well. The first one, for the St. Leo Shop and St. Leo League Records, is now in CLICnet.
Bethune originally created a mail-order business because Catholic Worker readers were asking for cards using designs of hers they had seen in the newspaper. Eventually she formed the St. Leo Shop as a means of selling her religious artwork and other religious goods. It also carried publications on liturgical and social justice topics, as well as becoming the main North American outlet for Maria Montessori's books on education. The St. Leo League developed from the shop as an organization that met monthly to discuss sacred and liturgical arts. Both articles in the Shop's catalog and the League's quarterly journal, Sacred Signs, provided Ade Bethune with a forum for her ideas on Catholicism, iconography, and religious art and design.
Bethune originally created a mail-order business because Catholic Worker readers were asking for cards using designs of hers they had seen in the newspaper. Eventually she formed the St. Leo Shop as a means of selling her religious artwork and other religious goods. It also carried publications on liturgical and social justice topics, as well as becoming the main North American outlet for Maria Montessori's books on education. The St. Leo League developed from the shop as an organization that met monthly to discuss sacred and liturgical arts. Both articles in the Shop's catalog and the League's quarterly journal, Sacred Signs, provided Ade Bethune with a forum for her ideas on Catholicism, iconography, and religious art and design.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Ade Bethune Collection
St. Catherine University’s Ade Bethune Collection (ABC) contains the papers of Ade Bethune, a world-renowned liturgical artist and social activist. Ade Bethune made unique contributions to the field of sacred art and architecture as an artist, writer, and liturgical consultant, all flowing from her early association with Dorothy Day and the publication of her pictures in The Catholic Worker. Her career spanned over 70 years from art school in New York in the 1930s to her final projects in the early years of the 21st century. In Ade Bethune, St. Catherine University finds an apt symbol of its own mission and daily work—to educate women to lead and influence within the Catholic traditions of intellectual inquiry and social justice.The extensive holdings of the ABC cover Bethune's entire career. They consist of manuscript and printed materials, as well as a large variety of non-textual materials (graphic, sound, artifact). There are approximately 400 linear feet of papers, books, periodicals, drawings, photographs, slides, films, and audio/video tapes. In addition, there are about 170 cubic feet of oversized drawings, architectural plans, models, paintings, textiles, and artifacts. The Collection contains examples of Bethune's work in many media: ink on paper, tempera, silkscreen, bronze, pewter, wood, textile, clay, and stained glass.
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