Lilian Swann Saarinen papers
name: label: Creator
content: Saarinen, Lilian Swann, 1912-1995
label: Names
content: Cambridge Art Center
label: Names
content: Cranbrook Academy of Art -- Faculty
label: Names
content: G Place Gallery (Washington, D.C.)
label: Names
content: Knoll Associates, inc.
label: Names
content: Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Midtown Galleries (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Otava Publishing Company
label: Names
content: Reynal & Hitchcock
label: Names
content: Armitage, Merle, 1893-1975
label: Names
content: Crosby, Caresse, 1892-
label: Names
content: Eames, Charles
label: Names
content: Eames, Ray
label: Names
content: Koch, Carl
label: Names
content: Kreis, Henry, 1899-1963
label: Names
content: Milles, Carl, 1875-1955
label: Names
content: Moholy-Nagy, László, 1895-1946
label: Names
content: Moholy-Nagy, Sibyl, 1905-
label: Names
content: Saarinen, Eero, 1910-1961
label: Names
content: Saarinen, Eliel, 1873-1950
label: Names
content: Saarinen, Loja
label: Names
content: Venturi, Robert
label: Names
content: Weese, Harry, 1915-1998
topic: label: Occupation
content: Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Illustrated books, Children's
label: Topic
content: Gateway Arch (Saint Louis, Mo.)
label: Topic
content: Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century -- United States
label: Topic
content: Illustrators -- Massachusetts
label: Topic
content: Art, Municipal
label: Topic
content: Women sculptors
label: Topic
content: Women illustrators
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Lilian Swann Saarinen donated the collection in 1975. She lent additional materials for microfilming in 1976.
creator: label: Creator
content: Saarinen, Lilian Swann, 1912-1995
setName: label: See more items in
content: Lilian Swann Saarinen papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of Cambridge sculptor and illustrator, Lilian Swann Saarinen, measure nine linear feet and date from circa 1909 to 1977. The collection documents Saarinen's career through correspondence with artists, architects, publishers, and gallery owners; writings and notes, including manuscripts and illustrations for children's books and publications; project and teaching files; financial records; artwork, including numerous project sketches; and photos of Saarinen and her artwork. Saarinen's personal life is also documented through diaries and correspondence with friends and family members, including Eero Saarinen, to whom she was married from 1939-1953.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Cambridge artist and sculptor, Lilian Swann Saarinen (1912-1995), studied at the Art Students League with Alexander Archipenko in 1928, and later with Albert Stewart and Heninz Warneke from 1934-1936, before moving to Michigan where she studied with  Carl Milles at the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1936-1940. Saarinen was an accomplished skier and a member of the 1936 US Olympic ski team.

At Cranbrook, Swann met architect Eero Saarinen, whom she married in 1939. She subsequently worked with Saarinen's design group on a variety of projects, including the Westward Expansion Memorial, which later became known as the "Gateway Arch" in St. Louis. Lilian and Eero had a son, Eric, and a daughter, Susie, before divorcing in 1953.

Saarinen, who had developed an affinity for drawing animals in childhood, specialized in animal portraits in a variety of sculptural media. In 1939, she exhibited her sculpture Night, which depicted Bagheera the panther from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, at the World's Fair. The sculpture was placed in the Boston Public Garden in 1986. In the 1930s and 1940s Saarinen was commissioned to work on a variety of architectural projects, including reliefs for post offices in Bloomfield, Indiana, Carlisle, Kentucky, and Evanston, Illinois, and the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois. She also executed commissions for the Harbor National Bank in Boston, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) at JFK Airport, the Northland shopping Center in Detroit Michigan, and Toffenetti's Restaurant in Chicago.

Saarinen was a contributing author and illustrator for a variety of publications, including Child Life, Interiors and Portfolio: An Intercontinental Quarterly. In 1935 she illustrated Picture Book Zoo for the Bronx Zoo and in 1946 Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc. published Who Am I?, a children's book which Saarinen wrote and illustrated.

Saarinen taught ceramic sculpture to soldiers for the Red Cross Arts and Skills Unit rehabilitation program in 1945, served on the Visiting Committee to the Museum School at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1959-1964, where she taught ceramics, and later taught a course entitled "The Language of Clay" at the Cambridge Art Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of Saarinen's private students at Cambridge was her cousin, Edie Sedgwick.

Saarinen died in Cohasset, Massachusetts, in 1995 at the age of 83.
function: label: Function
content: Art commissions
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 9 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1909-1977
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.saarlili
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Blueprints
label: Type
content: Diaries
label: Type
content: Illustrations
label: Type
content: Sketches
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 11 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1930s-1960s (3 folders; Box 1, OV 12)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1920-1974 (1.9 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 8, OV 12)

Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1920s-1973 (1.3 linear feet, Boxes 2-3, 8, OVs 13-16)

Series 4: Diaries, 1930-1973 (1.4 linear feet, Boxes 3-5, 8)

Series 5: Project Files, 1931-1966 (1.7 linear feet, Boxes 5-6, 8, OVs 17-19)

Series 6: Teaching Files, 1966-1970 (3 folders, Box 6)

Series 7: Financial Records, 1940s-1970s (2 folders, Box 6)

Series 8: Printed Material, circa 1930s-1970s (0.2 linear feet, Box 6)

Series 9: Scrapbooks, circa 1909-1974 (2 folders; Boxes 6, 9)

Series 10: Artwork, circa 1920s-circa 1960s (1.7 linear feet, Boxes 6-7, 9-10, OVs 20-27)

Series 11: Photographs, circa 1940s, 1977 (0.5 linear feet, Boxes 7, 11, OV 27)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed to a minimal level, and a finding aid was prepared by Stephanie Ashley in 2015. The  collection was further processed and prepared for scanning by Stephanie Ashley in 2017.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2017 with funding provided by The Walton Family Foundation. Material not digitized includes blank pages of diaries, unannotated pages of engagement calendars, routine financial transactions, blank versos of photographs, and duplicates.

Material lent for microfilming is available on 35mm microfilm reels 1152 and 1192 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Blueprints
label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries
label: Genre/Form
content: Illustrations
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of Cambridge sculptor and illustrator, Lilian Swann Saarinen, measure nine linear feet and date from circa 1909 to 1977. The collection documents Saarinen's career through correspondence with artists, architects, publishers, and gallery owners; writings and notes, including manuscripts and illustrations for children's books and publications; project and teaching files; financial records; artwork, including numerous project sketches; and photos of Saarinen and her artwork. Saarinen's personal life is also documented through diaries and correspondence with friends and family members, including Eero Saarinen, to whom she was married from 1939-1953.

Biographical material consists of resumes and biographical sketches, as well as a 1951 blueprint for the Eero Saarinen and Associates Office Building in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Correspondence documents Saarinen's personal and professional life through letters to and from Eero Saarinen and other family members, including six letters from Loja Saarinen; correspondence with artists and architects, including Merle Armitage, Charles and Ray Eames, Carl Koch, Henry Kreis, Carl Milles, Laszlo and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Robert Venturi, and Harry Weese; and friends and colleagues at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Knoll Associates. Also documented is Saarinen's business relationship with Midtown Galleries and Caresse Crosby, and publishers and publications including Child Life, Interiors, Otava Publishing Company, and Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc. 

Writings and Notes document Saarinen's work on several children's publications, including Picture Book Zoo (1935) and Who Am I? (1946), through correspondence, notes, manuscript drafts, and extensive sketches. This series also includes Saarinen's ideas for other publications and incorporates some early writings and notes, as well as typescripts of her reminiscences about Eliel Saarinen, the Saarinen family, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. 

Diaries consist of bound diary volumes, loose-leaf journal entries, and heavily annotated engagement calendars, documenting Saarinen's personal life, artistic aspirations, and career development from the 1930s-1970s. This material provides a deeply personal view of the emotional landscape of Saarinen's life, her struggles to balance her identity as a working artist with the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker, and the complex, and often competing, relationships within the renowned architectural family into which she married.

Project files document Saarinen's work on book cover designs, federal and post office commissions in Bloomfield, Indiana, Carlisle, Kentucky, and Evanston, Illinois, reliefs for the Crow Island School in Winnetka, Illinois, and other important commissions including the Harbor National Bank Clock in Boston, Massachusetts, the KLM Airlines installation at JFK Airport, the Fountain of Noah sculpture at the Northland Center in Detroit, Michigan, and the interior of Toffenetti's restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. Also documented is her role in designs for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, with Eero Saarinen.

Teaching files document Saarinen's "Language of Clay Course" which she taught at Cambridge Art Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Financial records document exhibition and sales expenses for two exhibitions, including her show at G Place Gallery in 1944.

Printed material consists of clippings about Saarinen and her family, exhibition announcements and catalogs for herself and others, and reference files from the 1930s-1940s, primarily comprising clippings of animals. 

Additional printed material documenting Saarinen's career can be found in one of two scrapbooks found in the collection. An additional scrapbook consists of clippings relating primarily to Saarinen's parents.

Artwork comprises extensive sketches, particularly animal and figure sketches, in graphite, crayon, ink, pastel, and watercolor. The sketches demonstrate in particular Saarinen's developing interest in and skill with animal portraiture from her childhood to the 1960s.

Photographs are primarily of artwork and Saarinen's 1944 exhibition at G Place Gallery. Also found are one negative of Saarinen, probably with Eero Saarinen, and a group photo including Lilian, Eero, and Eliel Saarinen with the model for the Detroit Civic Center, circa 1940s.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reels 1152 and 1192) including a scrapbook containing clippings, copies of letters and telegrams received, and reproductions of Saarinen's work. There is a copy of Saarinen's book, "Who Am I?", and three albums containing photographs of Saarinen, photographs and reproductions of her work, a list of exhibitions, quotes about her, and writings by her about sculpture. Lent material was returned to the lender and is not described in the collection container inventory.