Holger Cahill papers
name: label: Creator
content: Cahill, Holger, 1887-1960
label: Names
content: American Artists' Congress
label: Names
content: American Council of Learned Societies
label: Names
content: American Federation of Arts
label: Names
content: Artists' Union (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Cartoonists Guild
label: Names
content: Federal Art Project (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Federal Music Project (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Federal Theatre Project (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Index of American Design
label: Names
content: New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Shakers
label: Names
content: The Design Laboratory (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Treasury Relief Art Project
label: Names
content: United States. Work Projects Administration
label: Names
content: United States. Works Progress Administration
label: Names
content: Abbott, Berenice, 1898-1991
label: Names
content: Brown, Samuel Joseph, 1907-1994
label: Names
content: De Rivera, José Ruiz, 1904-1985
label: Names
content: Halpert, Edith Gregor, 1900-1970
label: Names
content: Hopkins, Harry Lloyd, 1890-1946
label: Names
content: Knaths, Karl, 1891-1971
label: Names
content: Miller, Dorothy Canning, 1904-2003
label: Names
content: Morris, Carl, 1911-1993
label: Names
content: Olds, Elizabeth, 1896-1991
label: Names
content: Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
label: Names
content: Rowan, Edward Beatty, 1898-1946
label: Names
content: Scaravaglione, Concetta, 1900-1975
label: Names
content: Segal, George, 1924-2000
label: Names
content: Speck, Walter, 1895-
label: Names
content: Ward, Lynd, 1905-1985
label: Names
content: Weisenborn, Rudolph, b. 1881
place: label: Place
content: United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
label: Place
content: United States -- Social conditions -- 1933-1945
topic: label: Occupation
content: Arts administrators
label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the public welfare
label: Topic
content: Art and state
label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the arts
label: Topic
content: New Deal, 1933-1939
label: Topic
content: Public officers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Holger Cahill papers were donated to the Archives of American Art through a series of gifts by Cahill's widow, Dorothy C. Miller, between 1964 and 1995.
creator: label: Creator
content: Cahill, Holger, 1887-1960
setName: label: See more items in
content: Holger Cahill papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of Holger Cahill (1887-1960) date from 1910 to 1993, with the bulk of the material dating from 1910-1960, and measure 15.8 linear feet. The collection offers researchers fairly comprehensive documentation of Cahill's directorship of the Works Progress/Projects Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) in addition to series documenting his work as a writer and art critic. Material includes correspondence, reports, artist files, scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Holger Cahill was born Sveinn Kristjan Bjarnarson in Iceland in a small valley near the Arctic Circle, on January 13, 1887. His parents, Bjorn Jonson and Vigdis Bjarnadottir, immigrated to the United States from Iceland sometime later in the 1880s. In 1904, his father deserted the family, forcing Sveinn to be separated from his mother and sister to work on a farm in North Dakota. He ran away and wandered from job to job until settling in an orphanage in western Canada, where he attended school and became a voracious reader.

As a young man, he worked at many different jobs and attended night school. While working on a freighter, he visited Hong Kong, beginning his life-long interest in the Orient. Returning to New York City, he eventually became a newspaper reporter, continued his studies at New York University, and changed his name to Edgar Holger Cahill. In 1919 he married Katherine Gridley of Detroit. Their daughter, Jane Ann, was born in 1922, but the couple divorced in 1927.

Cahill met John Sloan circa 1920, and they shared a residence. Cahill also wrote publicity (until 1928) for the Society of Independent Artists, through which he made many friends in the arts. From 1922 to 1931, he worked under John Cotton Dana at the Newark Museum, where he received his basic experience in museum work, organizing the first large exhibitions of folk art.

From 1932 to 1935, he was the director of exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. In 1935, Cahill was appointed director of the Works Progress/Projects Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP), until its end in June 1943. In 1938, Cahill organized a countrywide exhibition "American Art Today" for the New York World's Fair. He also married MoMa curator Dorothy Canning Miller in that year.

Profane Earth, Cahill's first novel, was published in 1927, followed by monographs on Pop Hart and Max Weber, miscellaneous short stories, and a biography of Frederick Townsend Ward, entitled A Yankee Adventurer: The Story of Ward and the Taiping Rebellion. Following the end of the Federal Art Project, Cahill wrote two novels, Look South to the Polar Star (1947) and The Shadow of My Hand (1956).

Holger Cahill died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in July 1960.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 15.8 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1910-1993
label: Date
content: bulk 1910-1960
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.cahiholg
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Prints
label: Type
content: Government records
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Slides (photographs)
label: Type
content: Photograph albums
label: Type
content: Drawings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into nine series:

Series 1: Biographical Material and Personal Papers, 1931-1988 (Box 1; 19 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence Files, 1922-1979, 1993 (Boxes 1-2; 1.5 linear ft.)

Series 3: Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, 1934-1970 (Boxes 2-14, 18, MMs009; 10.75 linear ft.)

Series 4: Writings, Lectures and Speeches, 1916-1960 (Boxes 14-15, 18; 1.0 linear ft.)

Series 5: Minutes of Meetings and Panel Discussions, Non-FAP, 1939-1947 (Box 15; 5 folders)

Series 6: Notes and Research Material, 1935-1970 (Boxes 15-16; 0.25 linear ft.)

Series 7: Artwork, undated (Boxes 16, 18; 2 folders)

Series 8: Printed Material, 1910-1985 (Boxes 16-17; 1.8 linear ft.)

Series 9: Photographs, circa 1917-1960 (Box 17; 6 folders)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was donated in several installments and typically microfilmed in the order in which it was received at some point after receipt. The entire collection was processed by Jean Fitzgerald in 1998. The microfilm was digitized in 2005 with funding provided by Jane Blumenfeld.
altformavail: label: Alternative Forms Available
content: The papers of Holger Cahill in the Archives of American Art were digitized in 2004 from 20 reels of microfilm, and total 30102 images.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Prints
label: Genre/Form
content: Government records
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Slides (photographs)
label: Genre/Form
content: Photograph albums
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: The papers of Holger Cahill (1887-1960) date from 1910 to 1993, bulk 1910-1960, and measure 15.8 linear feet. The collection offers researchers fairly comprehensive documentation of Cahill's directorship of the FAP in addition to series documenting his work as a writer and art critic. FAP records include national and state administrative reports, records of community art centers, photographic documentation of state activities, artist files, divisional records about teaching, crafts, murals, and poster work, files concerning the Index of American Design, scrapbooks, and printed material.