Correspondence
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Herbert, David, 1920-1995
setName: label: See more items in
content: David Herbert papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Linear Feet (Boxes 1-2)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1942-1996
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.herbdavi, Series 2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Following letters to and from Herbert's parents, folders are arranged in rough alphabetical order.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Correspondence provides scattered documentation related to many of Herbert's business ventures. This series also contains some personal correspondence, including two folders of letters Herbert wrote to his parents from St. Croix in the summer of 1950, and other correspondence, primarily with Sarah Schmerer. 

Three folders of appointment requests consist of letters from artists, or their representatives, seeking to interest Herbert in their work, and Herbert's replies. 

Friends and colleagues represented in this series include Lloyd and Joanne Cotsen, Robert Fraser, and Irving Blum and Walter Hopps of Ferus Gallery. Ferus Gallery correspondence relates to the gallery's founding and includes installation photographs from a 1958 exhibition and a photograph of the gallery's exterior. Also found is correspondence with Richard Feigen related to the contract established between Feigen and Herbert in 1953, and their subsequent business relationship.  
Correspondence with the California Palace of the Legion of Honor relates to the loan and sale of Herbert's Onchi Koshiro woodcut Among the Rocks.

Scattered correspondence with artists includes one illustrated letter each from Martin Blaszko and Paul Sorel; two letters from Martin Hoffman; a letter from Clyfford Still; and three letters from Alfonso Ossorio. There are several items of mail art, including two from Ray Johnson. Correspondence with Josephine Merck includes a 1989 letter in which Herbert offers his services as a dealer. He also laments how the onset of diabetes had slowed his career, and states that he feels he can nevertheless take credit for aiding "such artists as Ellsworth Kelly, Jack Youngerman, José Luis Cuevas, Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel, Reeve Schley among others early on in their careers," claiming an ability "to spot true intrinsic talent way before the artist realizes his full potential and also before wide public recognition." Additional scattered correspondence with artists can be found in Series 6: Artist Files.

Correspondence with Jaime Andrade is limited to two letters and a postcard from Andrade, but related material includes Andrade's resumes, and documentation relating to ownership of the Andrade family farm in Ecuador, and letters written by Herbert in support of Nelson Andrade and others coming to work in the United States.

Correspondence with Stanley N. Nagler relates to a lawsuit brought by Herbert against Aaron Berman regarding an Ellsworth Kelly drawing belonging to Herbert. Herbert claimed that he loaned the drawing to the Museum of Modern Art through the Aaron Berman Gallery when he was employed by Bernam, and that the drawing was never returned to him.