Oral history interview with Emmy Lou Packard
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 29 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Packard, Emmy Lou, 1914-1998
label: Interviewer
content: McChesney, Mary Fuller
label: Names
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Kahlo, Frida
label: Names
content: Moya del Pino, José, 1891-1969
label: Names
content: Refregier, Anton, 1905-
label: Names
content: Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957
topic: label: Occupation
content: Muralists -- California -- San Francisco
label: Occupation
content: Painters -- California -- San Francisco
label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the arts
label: Topic
content: Mural painting and decoration -- California
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Packard, Emmy Lou, 1914-1998
label: Interviewer
content: McChesney, Mary Fuller
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Emmy Lou Packard (1914-1998) was a painter and a mural painter. She was born in Imperial Valley, California on April 15, 1914, to Walter and Emma Leonard Packard. In the late 1920s she lived with her family in Mexico City where she became acquainted with Diego Rivera, from whom she received regular art criticism and encouragement. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and completed courses in fresco and sculpture at the California School of Fine Arts in 1940. That year and the next, Packard worked as a full-time painting assistant to Rivera on his 1,650 square-foot fresco at the World's Fair in San Francisco. During this project, Packard became very close to Rivera and Frida Kahlo and returned to Mexico with them and spent a year living with the couple.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 32 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1964 May 11 and 12
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.packar64
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The original transcript was edited. In 2021 the Archives retranscribed the original audio and attempted to create a verbatim transcript. This interview was audited and edited by Allison Tracy-Taylor in 2025.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Emmy Lou Packard conducted 1964 May 11 and 12, by Mary Fuller McChesney, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Packard speaks of her early interest in art and her education; meeting Diego Rivera, studying under him; working with him on murals; Rivera's personality; his marriage to Frida Kahlo and reaction to her death; his political views and his influence on art during the 1930s. She describes her feelings about art of the Work Project Administration period, and she recalls Anton Refregier and Jose Moya del Pino.