Chuck Welch papers relating to mail art
name: label: Creator
content: Welch, Chuck, 1948-
label: Names
content: Held, John, 1947-
label: Names
content: Higgins, Dick, 1938-1998
label: Names
content: Johnson, Ray, 1927-1995
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- New Hampshire
label: Occupation
content: Artists -- New Hampshire
label: Topic
content: Mail art
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated in 2019 by Chuck Welch.
creator: label: Creator
content: Welch, Chuck, 1948-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Chuck Welch (1948- ) is an artist, musician, and mail art historian in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4.2 Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1974-2019
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.welcchuc
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Chuck Welch papers relating to mail art date from 1947-2019 and measure 4.2 linear feet. Included are letters to Welch received through the USPS and international mail systems, typed descriptions arranged alphabetically by sender/artist, and a 27-volume "Artistamp Archive," a 13-volume "Photographic History of Mail Art," and a 22-volume "Postcard Mail Art Collection" including complete sets of the original 2009 Emily Harvey Gallery exhibition and the 2019 10th Anniversary exhibition. Also included is Welch's Mail Art Library of 2,000 small-edition periodicals. 500 items are included in Welch's 1992 Networker Databank. Notable among over 1,600 mail artist listings are Ray Johnson,  Ruth-Wolf Rehfeldt, Shozo Shimamoto, and Edgardo Antonio Vigo.

Welch papers include numerous essays, articles, book drafts of manuscripts, and research for "Mail Art in Cyberspace," Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology, "Networking Currents," and "An Archival Mail Art Index." The index is a two-set bound 1600-page listing of 30,000 digital images created by 1,600 mail artists who exchanged mail art with Welch. It includes 26 categories of mail art media, artists' biographies, annotated letters and postcards, a glossary of terminology, lists of mail artist pseudonyms, and searchable names, topics, issues, and subjects such as Fluxus, Neo-Dada, Neoism, mail art congresses, and mail art networking aesthetics. A portion of the collection is in electronic format.