Call Number:

M76

Repository:

Bryn Mawr College

Extent:

22 boxes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Ben Wolf Collection (1914-1994), Bryn Mawr College Canaday Library Special Collections

Date:

1940-1996 (inclusive)

Creator:

Wolf, Ben, 1914-1996

Abstract:

The Ben Wolf collection contains materials collected by, researched, or produced by Ben Wolf throughout his life as a writer and artist. The collection includes Wolf's poetry, fiction, lectures, critical writing, and original artwork, as well as Sherlockiana material. Beyond work produced by Wolf, the collection also contains a wide variety of correspondence, as well as a large amount of collected brochures, newspaper clippings, and magazines. The collection is loosely dated from the 1950s until 1990s. It would be most useful for research into Ben Wolf's life and work, or for research into the Philadelphia art world during this period.

Ben Wolf was an artist, writer, poet, teacher, and socialite throughout the Philadelphia art world. He taught classes, gave lectures, participated in committees and development work, showed his own work in galleries, reviewed others' work, and authored monographs on other artists. Although it is not represented in this collection, Wolf had a career as a rare book seller, with a shop in Rosemont, PA, near Bryn Mawr. Although he was very prolific, Wolf never became a famous or valuable artist. Despite this, he was extremely well-connected.

Ben Wolf included his wife, Ruth Wolf, in many of his projects. The two lived in Philadelphia for most of their lives. A year spent abroad, in Europe, in 1956 is documented in the collection. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Wolf was active in Philadelphia social clubs, including his retirement home. Wolf died in 1996 in Gladwyn, PA.

This collection came to Bryn Mawr in two parts, one half in 1994 and another in 2016. The earlier accession was organized by Wolf himself, and contains a larger date range of material. The later accession mostly, but not entirely, contains material from Wolf's later retired years in Waverly Heights.

This eclectic collection contains a wide variety of materials, all of which pertain to Ben Wolf's broad interests over his varied career. The collection's strengths are two-fold: On one hand, this is a very thorough account of Wolf's life and creative works, including poetry, fiction, essays, lectures, and artwork. On the other hand, Wolf's research projects and correspondence with other artists and art-related people contains valuable information and material. Of particular note is Wolf's project on Morton Livingston Schamberg, a Philadelphia artist.

Beyond these two poles, this collection also contains a large volume of material on the art-scene in Philadelphia during Wolf's life, including arts clubs, museums, gallery exhibitions, brochures and publications. Not only was Wolf actively involved in these clubs, as the correspondence and hired advertising illustrations in this collection attest, but he also participated in the arts widely and collected material from many institutional sources.

Series 1: Alphabetical Topics contains material from the first accession organized by Wolf himself. Included here are correspondence, brochures, photographs, documents, and other professional materials. Wolf's Morton Livingston Schamberg project is included in this series. Series 2: Written Work contains all of Wolf's personal and professional writing including poetry and fiction in the form of notes, manuscripts, binders, and lectures, as well as related correspondence to these projects. Series 3: Original Art contains Wolf's drawings, prints, reproduction photographs, paintings, and cartoons. Series 4: Sherlockiana contains Wolf's Sherlock Holmes material, including publications, fan fiction, illustrations, letters, and original collected material from the Conan Doyle circle. Series 5: Europe Travel Materials contains a huge variety of material from Wolf's time in the UK in the 1950s, including brochures, travel guides, receipts, etc. Beyond Wolf's life, this series provides a unique window into international travel and tourism in the 1950s. Series 6: Legal Size Material contains material from Series 1 and 2 that did not fit into the letter-file boxes. Series 7: Odd-Sized Material contains some small notebooks, a few cassettes, and some 35mm slides. Series 8: Coast Guard Materials contains a 1940s and 1950s collection of photographs, mostly related to Coast Guard projects, but not entirely. These images might have been used as sample or stock images.