Maurice Becker papers
name: label: Creator
content: Becker, Maurice, 1889-1975
label: Names
content: Artists for Victory, Inc.
label: Names
content: Becker, Dorothy Baldwin
label: Names
content: Lancaster, Elizabeth G. (Elizabeth Grieg), 1889-
label: Names
content: Neumann, J. B. (Jsrael Ber)
title: label: Topic
content: Liberator (New York, N.Y.: 1918)
label: Topic
content: New masses
label: Topic
content: Masses (New York, N.Y.)
topic: label: Occupation
content: Cartoonists -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Politics in art
label: Topic
content: Caricatures and cartoons
label: Topic
content: Painting, American -- New York (State) -- New York
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Maurice Becker donated his papers in several increments between 1962-1966. Additional material doanted in 2022 by Paul Becker, Maurice Becker's nephew.
creator: label: Creator
content: Becker, Maurice, 1889-1975
setName: label: See more items in
content: Maurice Becker papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of painter and political cartoonist Maurice Becker measure 4.5 linear feet and date from circa 1908 to 1976.  Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence; writings; printed material, including radical labor and political periodicals; artwork; and photographs of Becker, his family and friends, and his artwork.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Painter and political cartoonist Maurice Becker (1889-1975) lived and worked in New York City, New York and Tioga County, Pennsylvania, and was a frequent contributor to contemporary periodicals of the 1910s.

Becker was born in Nizhni-Novgorod (now Gorky), Russia to Isor and Rose Becker.  In 1892, his family immigrated to the United States and settled in the Jewish community of Manhattan's Lower East Side.  After graduating from high school, Becker took night classes in bookkeeping and art, studied with Robert Henri and Hugo Boss, and worked days as a sign painter and garment factory worker.  He began illustrating for the New York Tribune and Scripps newspapers from 1914 to 1915, and contributed artwork to numerous contemporary periodicals in the 1910s, including Harper's Weekly, Saturday Review, and Metropolitan.  Becker was also a frequent contributor to more radical political journals, including The Masses, Liberator, and One Big Union Monthly.

In 1918, he married Dorothy Baldwin, who was a registered Socialist.  After stating his conscientious objection to World War I, Becker traveled to Mexico to avoid the draft and was arrested upon his return in 1919.  After his trial and sentencing, he served 4 months of hard labor before President Wilson's commutation of all objectors to the war.  From 1921 to 1923, Becker lived in Mexico working as an illustrator for El Pulsa de México, and began to devote himself to painting full time.

After his return to New York City, Becker held a series of one-man shows at the Whitney Studio Club (1924-1928), J.B. Neumann Gallery (1924-1931), and Delphic Studios (1930).  Becker was a member of the Society of Independent Artists and the Artists' League of America and remained a pacifist for the rest of his life.  He died in 1975.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4.5 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1908-1976
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.beckmaur
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Prints
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Sketches
label: Type
content: Watercolors
label: Type
content: Paintings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 6 series.

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1913-1965 (0.2 Linear feet: Boxes 1, 9)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1908-1976 (0.3 Linear feet: Boxes 1, 9)

Series 3: Writings, circa 1920-1960 (0.1 Linear feet: Boxes 1, 9)

Series 4: Printed Material, circa 1910-1970 (1.6 Linear feet: Boxes 1, 4, 9-12, OV 5)

Series 5: Artwork, circa 1910-1965 (2.1 Linear feet: Boxes 1-3, 10, 12, OV 6-8, 13-20)

Series 6: Photographs, circa 1910-1966 (0.2 Linear feet: Boxes 3, 10)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The papers received a preliminary level of processing upon receipt and were microfilmed onto reels 128 and 4909. All previously filmed and unfilmed accessions were merged, fully processed, and described by Judy Ng in 2013 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

The 2022 addition was processed by Ryan Evans in 2022.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Portions of the collection and material lent for microfilming are available on 35 mm microfilm reels 96, 128 and 4909 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Prints
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
label: Genre/Form
content: Watercolors
label: Genre/Form
content: Paintings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of painter and political cartoonist Maurice Becker measure 4.5 linear feet and date from circa 1908 to 1976.  Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence; writings; printed material, including radical labor and political periodicals; artwork; and photographs of Becker, his family and friends, and his artwork.

Biographical materials consist of a curriculum vitae and a list of artworks dating from 1927 to 1959. Sldo included are documents related to the household and marriage of Maurice and Dorothy Baldwin Becker such as deeds, insurance, rent statements, retirement paperwork, and travel documents including Maurice Becker's passport.   

Correspondence is primarily with Becker's family, friends, and business associates.  There are letters to and from his wife, Dorothy Baldwin Becker, a letter from friend and artist Elizabeth Lancaster, and a letter from Artists for Victory.  There is also a letter from Becker to his friend J. B. Neumann containing a draft of Becker's will authorizing Neumann to sell and distribute his paintings upon his death or incapacitation; a letter of invitation to artists and writers interested in reviving a new Masses style journal; and letters from magazine editors regarding freelance commissions. 

Writings consist of poetry and notes by Becker, an excerpt from an essay describing Becker's exhibition at the Artists' League of America by an unknown author, as well as a signed poem "Two Funerals" by Louis Untermeyer.

Printed material includes bulletins, clippings and labor newspapers, exhibition announcements and catalogs, periodicals, press releases, and miscellaneous printed material.  Periodicals include whole issues of Liberator, The Masses, New Masses, and One Big Union Monthly, where Becker's political cartoons were frequently featured. Also included are subject files including clippings and other printed material on artist Moses Soyer, and dancer and sister to the artist Helen Tamaris.

Artwork includes paintings, over 1500 graphite and pen and ink sketches, watercolors, and prints depicting Becker's figure drawings, caricatures, portrait drawings of men and women, and sketches of animals and landscapes.  Many of these sketches were the basis for panels that later appeared in the New York Tribune, The Masses, and Liberator.

Photographs are of Maurice Becker with family and friends, and five photographs of his artwork,as well as images of other artists' artwork, travel photographs, and photographic postcards.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: There are scattered Maurice Becker papers found within the Art Young papers at the Tamiment Library in New York.  These were loaned to the Archives in 1971 for microfilming on reel 96.  These papers are not described in the container inventory of this finding aid but include approximately 20 postcards, catalogs, sketches, photographs, and other printed materials. 

Duplicate magazines, catalogs, and clippings were transferred to the National Portrait Gallery Library in 1977.