Oral history interview with Charles H. Sawyer
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 1 hr., 3 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Sawyer, Charles Henry, 1906-2005
label: Interviewer
content: Ehrlich, Heyward
label: Creator
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
label: Names
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Cook, Howard Norton, 1901-1980
label: Names
content: Curry, John Steuart, 1897-1946
label: Names
content: Gibbs, Howard Manning, 1904-1970
label: Names
content: Knaths, Karl, 1891-1971
label: Names
content: Levine, Jack, 1915-2010
label: Names
content: Taylor, Francis Henry, 1903-1957
label: Names
content: Waters, Herbert
label: Names
content: Woodworth, Hail
label: Names
content: Zerbe, Karl, 1903-1972
topic: label: Topic
content: Federal aid to the arts
label: Topic
content: Museum directors -- Michigan -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Sawyer, Charles Henry, 1906-2005
label: Interviewer
content: Ehrlich, Heyward
label: Creator
content: New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Charles Henry Sawyer (1906-2005) was a museum director in Ann Arbor, Mich.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 14 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1964
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.sawyer64
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Charles Henry Sawyer conducted in 1964, by Heyward Ehrlich, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Sawyer speaks of how he first got involved in art after being offered a job teaching art and operating a museum in Andover by a family friend; how he became involved with the Federal Art Project; the early stages of the Project, and the difficulties they encountered, including the primary motivation of the Project, deciding where the work was to be assigned, and other administrative problems; the changes that occurred as the Federal Arts Project developed; the artists involved with the Project, such as Karl Knaths and Jack Levine; the shows that were put on by the Project; the end of the Federal Art Project; and his thoughts on the project in retrospect. Sawyer recalls Francis Taylor, Karl Knaths, Jack Levine, Howard Gibbs, John Stuart Curry, Herbert Waters, Karl Zerbe, Howard Cook, Hail Woodworth, and many others.