Nancy Holt Estate records
name: label: Creator
content: Holt, Nancy, 1938-2014
label: Names
content: Dia Art Foundation
label: Names
content: James Cohan Gallery
label: Names
content: John Weber Gallery
label: Names
content: Lippard, Lucy R.
label: Names
content: Smithson, Robert
topic: label: Occupation
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Environmental artists -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Installation artists -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Photographers -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Sculptors -- New Mexico -- Galisteo
label: Occupation
content: Installation artists -- New Mexico -- Galisteo
label: Occupation
content: Environmental artists -- New Mexico -- Galisteo
label: Occupation
content: Photographers -- New Mexico -- Galisteo
label: Occupation
content: Filmmakers -- New Mexico -- Galisteo
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women sculptors
label: Topic
content: Earthworks (Art)
label: Topic
content: Women photographers
label: Topic
content: Women filmmakers
label: Topic
content: Scrapbooks
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Bequest of Nancy Holt, 2014.
creator: label: Creator
content: Holt, Nancy, 1938-2014
setName: label: See more items in
content: Nancy Holt Estate records
abstract: label: Summary
content: The Nancy Holt Estate records measure circa 60.8 linear feet and date from 1835, and 1880-2014, with the bulk of the material dating from 1960-2000. The records offer extensive documentation of Holt's career and include biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, writings, calendars and notebooks, Holt's project files including for unrealized projects, general business and professional files, subject files including source material, and printed material documenting Holt's professional activities from the 1960s to 2013. Also found is Holt's photographic material documenting various phases of the execution of many of her works of art, as well as personal and family photographs. Furthermore, the collection includes files Holt maintained related to her stewardship of Robert Smithson's estate, other records related to his life and work, and the John Weber Gallery records concerning Robert Smithson which consist of the gallery's inventory and slide records of Smithson's drawings and sculptures, including earthworks. 


The collection total includes 11.9 linear feet of unprocessed records including 2.0 linear feet of financial records, 9.0 linear feet of Holt's annotated library, and 0.9 linear feet of preliminary drawings and sketches.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Nancy Holt (1938-2014) was an environmental and installation artist, sculptor, filmmaker, and photographer, based in New York, New York. She was best known for her large-scale public land art installations including her seminal work Sun Tunnels (1973-1976) located in the Great Basin Desert, Utah. Her work engaged with the natural environment and the celestial realm, tracing the rotation of the earth and the movement of the sun and stars. Holt was also fascinated by mechanical systems such as those used for heating, drainage, and ventilation, and her functional sculptural installations explored the relationship between architecture and the built environment. 

Holt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, grew up in New Jersey, and graduated from Tufts University in 1960 with a degree in biology. She moved to New York City later that year where she reconnected with the artist Robert Smithson, who she had known growing up in Clifton, New Jersey, and to whom she was married from 1963 until 1973 when Smithson died in a plane crash.

Holt's landmark work Sun Tunnels was executed in 1973-1976 in Utah's Great Basin Desert, where Holt and Smithson had purchased surrounding land specifically to ensure an unimpeded view of the horizon. Holt went on to produce many site-specific outdoor works including 30 Below (1980), Dark Star Park (1984), Solar Rotary (1995), and Up and Under (1998). Her exploration of what she termed Systems Works included Catch Basin (1982), Flow Ace Heating (1985), and Spinwinder (1991). 

Holt's photography was essential in the development of her ideas. In Missouri Ranch Locators: Vision Encompassed (1972) she used photography in her development of "seeing devices," creating eye-level steel pipes to direct viewers to a specific site in the surrounding landscape, and developing a concept that was central to Sun Tunnels and other works.  Her book Ransacked, Aunt Ethel: An Ending (1980) documented through text and photographs the abuse and theft her aunt was subjected to at the end of her life. In Time Outs (1985) Holt used photographs of football games taken from a television screen to create a book born out of her childhood love of TV sporting events.

Holt's work can be found in the collections of major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum für Gegenswartkunst, Germany. Her permanent installations can be found at public institutions including Miami University Art Museum, Southern Connecticut State University, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Western Washington University, and University of South Florida. 

In 2012 Nancy Holt was made a Chevalier of the of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. In 2013 she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Sculpture Center in New York. Holt received five National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two New York Creative Artist Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Holt lived in Galisteo, New Mexico, from 1995-2013. She died in New York City in 2014.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 60.8 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1835
label: Date
content: 1880-2014
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.holtnanc
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Diaries
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Video recordings
label: Type
content: Drawings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The Nancy Holt Estate records are arranged as 12 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1880-2014 (2 linear feet; Boxes 45, 85-86, 88, OVs 64, 87, FC 89)

Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1966-2014 (7.5 linear feet; Boxes 45-52, 63)

Series 3: Writings, Calendars, and Notebooks, 1947-2013 (2.6 linear feet; Boxes 40-42, 52-53, OVs 43-44, 65)

Series 4: Interviews, 1973-2007 (0.3 linear feet; Box 53)

Series 5: Project Files, circa 1900-2014 (bulk 1970-2000)  (14.3 linear feet; Boxes 3-10, OVs 11-31, RDs 32-39, 69-71)

Series 6: Business and Professional Files, 1967-2013 (2.5 linear feet; Boxes 53-55, 63, OVs 64, 66-67)

Series 7: Subject Files, 1835, circa 1960s-circa 2013 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 55-57, 63, OVs 65-66)

Series 8: Printed Material, 1964-2013 (2 linear feet; Boxes 57-59, 63, OVs 65-66, RD 68)

Series 9: Photographic Material, circa 1890s-circa 2014 (10.9 linear feet; Boxes 72-83, OV 84)

Series 10: Artwork by Others, circa 1960s-circa 2006 (0.1 linear feet; Box 63)

Series 11:Robert Smithson Estate and Legacy Robert Smithson Estate and Legacy, circa 1961-2013 (3.1 Linear feet; Boxes 59-62, OVs 65, 67

Series 12: John Weber Gallery Records Concerning Robert Smithson, circa 1960-circa 2001 (2 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The John Weber Gallery records concerning Robert Smithson were processed and a finding aid was prepared by Stephanie Ashley in 2021, and the records were digitized in 2021. Holt's project files were processed and the finding aid was updated by Stephanie Ashley in 2022. The calendars and notebooks were processed and the finding aid was updated by Stepanie Ashley in 2023. Additional series were processed and the finding aid was updated by Stephanie Ashley in 2023-2024.

Processing reduced the collection extent by approximately 19 linear feet through more efficient rehousing and weeding of duplicate material.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The John Weber Gallery records concerning Robert Smithson (Series 12) were digitized in 2021 and are available on the Archives of American Art website. Negatives of the master slides (1 folder) have not been digitized.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Video recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Nancy Holt Estate records measure circa 60.8 linear feet and date from 1835, and 1880-2014, with the bulk of the material dating from 1960-2000. The records offer extensive documentation of Holt's career and include biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, writings, calendars and notebooks, Holt's project files including for unrealized projects, general business and professional files, subject files including source material, and printed material documenting Holt's professional activities from the 1960s to 2013. Also found is Holt's photographic material documenting various phases of the execution of many of her works of art, as well as personal and family photographs. Furthermore, the collection includes files Holt maintained related to her stewardship of Robert Smithson's estate, other records related to his life and work, and the John Weber Gallery records concerning Robert Smithson which consist of the gallery's inventory and slide records of Smithson's drawings and sculptures, including earthworks.


The collection total includes 11.9 linear feet of unprocessed records including 2.0 linear feet of financial records, 9.0 linear feet of Holt's annotated library, and 0.9 linear feet of preliminary drawings and sketches. 


Biographical material includes some vital records for Holt such as birth and marriage certificates, as well as resumes, biographical notes, and academic and family history records. Also found are records related to Smithson's death and information Holt gathered about Smithson's childhood and military service in circa 2005.


Correspondence files document many personal friendships including with artists and writers such as Carl Andre, Robert Fiore, Dee Dee Halleck, Lucy Lippard, Stanley Marsh, Serge Paul, May Stevens, Dennis Wheeler, and others. The series includes some personal family correspondence with Holt's aunts Dorothy Lopez and Ethel Tate, as well as copies of two letters and a postcard sent to Holt by Robert Smithson in 1961 and 1968, and many greeting and holiday cards sent to Holt from the 1970s to the end of her life. Over five linear feet of professional correspondence documents many aspects of Holt's career and includes correspondence with galleries, museums, writers, and researchers interested in Holt's work or requesting permissions for publication and duplication of images and other records. Arranged in rough chronological order spanning from the early 1970s to 2014, these files also provide a chronological point of access to material about specific projects including Dark Star Park, Rock Rings, Sky Mound, and many others.


Holt's writings include many artist statements on specific works, and notes revealing something of the development of her ideas. These are further supplemented by her notebooks and her calendars which provide another point of access to her activities throughout her career beginning in the 1970s. A series of interviews includes transcripts and two sound recordings primarily of interviews of Holt by various people. Also found are transcripts and related material pertaining to a conversation between Holt, Robert Smithson, and Lucy Lippard about Eva Hesse.


Holt's project files document over fifty of her realized and unrealized projects from the late 1970s to the late 1990s including earthworks and land art, film and video, publications, and gallery installations. They include Holt's proposals, correspondence and memoranda, background records such as site studies and reports, Holt's plans and photographs showing the development of her ideas, and printed material such as publicity about her projects and reviews of her work. Noticeably missing from the files is substantial documentation of Sun Tunnels. The project files are supplemented by Holt's business and professional files with include some project-related material such as records of maintenance work carried out on specific sites, contractual records which may duplicate those found in the project files, and some reference material. Other business and professional files include exhibition records, grant material, documentation of loans and permissions, inventories of Holt's work, and legal records including real estate agreements for land purchased in Utah and Maine by Holt and Smithson.


Holt's subject files include primarily printed material such as a clippings file of subjects of interest to Holt. A separate series of printed material includes announcements, catalogs, invitations, and programs related to exhibitions, installations, film and video screenings, and other events and documents press coverage Holt's work over the course of her career. Also found are extensive clippings and articles about her work published in newspapers, art journals, and other publications.

Holt's photographic material includes her documentation slides for the execution and presentation of many of her works of art. The series provides a wealth of visual documentation of Holt's artistic process and includes images of her models and drawings, the site selection process, construction and intallation of her artworks, and images she took of her finished works. This series also includes many images of Holt, Holt and family including Robert Smithson, Holt with friends, and Holt on trips and excursions. 


Artwork by others consists of four items including a computer portrait of Holt by an unknown artist. Records documenting Holt's stewardship of Robert Smithson's estate and legacy includes agreements and contracts, authentications for some artwork, inventories and invoices for Smithson's work from John Weber Gallery and James Cohan Gallery, appraisal records for Smithson's library, permissions for reproductions and use of his work, and records related to the maintenance of specific works. The records include documentation of donations to museums and other art organizations, including Holt's gift of Spiral Jetty to the DIA art foundation which is also the owner and steward of Sun Tunnels. Also found are transcripts of interviews with Smithson, drafts and related material for writings about Smithson, and printed material about his work including announcements, catalogs, clippings, posters, and other publicity. Additionally, the John Weber Gallery records concerning Robert Smithson consist of the gallery's inventory and slide records of Robert Smithson's drawings and sculptures, including earthworks, and incorporate some slides from the James Cohan Gallery. James Cohan worked for John Weber before establishing his own gallery in 2001.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds the Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt papers, an interview with Nancy Holt conducted 1992 July 6 by Scott Gutterman for the Archives of American Art, an interview with Nancy Holt conducted 1993 August 3 by Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz for the Archives of American Art, and the James Cohan Gallery records relating to Robert Smithson.