Scope and Content of Collection

This comprehensive archive relates to Hoffman's life and her career as a sculptor and a writer.

Correspondence traces Hoffman's relationships with friends, family members, and clients as well as the development of her commissions and publications. Manuscripts, edited drafts, and published copies representing all of Hoffman's books, articles and lectures are accompanied by publicity and endorsements. A large portion of the collection consists of photo albums, scrapbooks and diaries documenting Hoffman's work, travels and personal life.

Films produced by Hoffman, and others, are present, with footage of other artists at work and dance rituals of the world. Especially significant are the photo albums, travel logs and anthropological notes used to produce Hoffman's best known commission, the 104 sculptures of the "Races of Mankind" created for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago (1929-1933).

Drawings, sketchbooks and photographic studies provide an intimate perspective of the artist's creative process, particularly the "Bacchanale" dance reliefs (1914), and monuments built for the Bush House (1924), the New York World's Fair (1939), and Epinal Memorial Cemetery (1948-1960). These are supported by exhibition catalogs and clippings of reviews. A small collection of photographs, catalogs and correspondence also reveal Hoffman's friendships with artists Auguste Rodin, Ivan Mestrovic, Anna Pavlova, Jean Jacques Lemordant and Alexandre Iacovleff.

The collection includes photographs, motion picture films, videotapes, a sound recording, microfilm, copper plates, glass and acetate negatives, as well as drawings, letters, manuscripts and printed materials.

Arrangement note

The collection is organized in 10 series:
Series I: Correspondence and personal papers, 1909-1968;
Series II: Datebooks, 1926-1966;
Series III: Manuscripts, publications and lectures, circa 1913-1965;
Series IV: Periodicals, clippings and exhibition catalogs, circa 1920-1966;
Series V: Photographs, negatives, and copper printing plates, circa 1910-1965;
Series VI: Videocassettes and sound cassettes, circa 1924-1939, 1961;
Series VII: Travel diaries, postcards, scrapbooks and memorabilia, 1898-1966;
Series VIII: Sketchbooks, drawings, and photographs, 1901-1964;
Series IX: Awards, honorary degrees, 1915-1957;
Series X: Motion picture films and negatives, circa 1910-1966.