Object Details
Creator
Tam, Reuben
Subject
Andrews, Dorothy
Nesjar, Carl
Kienbusch, William
Solomon, Hyde
Alan Gallery (Charles Alan)
Coe Kerr Gallery
Brooklyn Museum of Art
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Downtown Gallery (New York, N.Y.)
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
Place of publication, production, or execution
United States
Physical Description
9.6 Linear Feet
Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 8 series: Series 1: Biographical Material, 1934-1993 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet) Series 2: Correspondence, 1931-2006 (Box 1-4; 3.5 linear feet) Series 3: Diaries, 1932-1974 (Box 4-5; 0.4 linear feet) Series 4: Writings, 1939-1987 (Box 5; 7 folders) Series 5: Printed Material, 1935-1997 (Box 5-6, 9; 1.2 linear feet) Series 6: Photographs, circa 1930-1990 (Box 6-7, 9; 1.0 linear foot) Series 7: Sketchbooks and Drawings, circa 1936-1975 (Boxes 7, 9-10, OV 11, Boxes 12-13, OV 14; 2.2 linear feet) Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1938-1978 (Box 7-8; 0.9 linear feet)
Access Note / Rights
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Summary
The papers of landscape painter and educator Reuben Tam measure 9.6 linear feet and date from 1931 to 2006. The papers document his career as a painter in New York, Maine, and Hawaii through biographical material; correspondence with family, friends, art organizations, schools, and galleries; diaries, poetry, and other writings; exhibition catalogs, news clippings, other printed material; photographs; artwork, including numerous sketchbooks from his time in Maine, New York, Hawaii, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, Alaska and Canada; and eight scrapbooks.
Citation
Reuben Tam papers, 1931-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms
The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2017 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website. Materials which have not been digitized include blank pages, blank versos of photographs, and duplicates. In some cases, exhibition catalogs and other publications have had their covers, title pages, and relevant pages scanned.
Funding
The processing and digitization of the Reuben Tam papers received Federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
Use Note
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Related Materials
Reuben Tam papers, 1958-1966, are also located at Syracuse University.
Biography Note
Reuben Tam (1916-1991) was a landscape painter and educator in New York, Maine, and Hawaii. Tam was born in Kapaa, Hawaii, in 1916. He received a degree in education in 1937 from the University of Hawaii and was briefly a public school teacher before attending graduate courses at the California School of Fine Arts. In 1941 he moved to New York and took courses in art history and philosophy at the New School for Social Research and Columbia University. Tam became affiliated with the Downtown Gallery in 1945 and was a prolific exhibitor in national and regional shows, winning critical praise as an abstract landscape painter. In 1948 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and first exhibited in the National Academy's annual exhibition in 1947.
Tam was an instructor at the Brooklyn Museum of Art School from 1946 to 1974. While there he taught advanced studies in painting and was chairman of the graduate painting department. He also served as a visiting professor at Oregon State University, Haystack, and Queens College, CUNY.
Beginning in 1948, Tam and his wife, Geraldine, spent summers at their home and studio on Monhegan Island, Maine. Tam's work was deeply influenced by coastal landscapes both in Maine and in his native Hawaii. In 1981 he and his wife moved back to Kapaa, Hawaii, where he continued to paint and exhibit his new works until his death in 1991.
Language Note
Collection is in English.
Provenance
Scrapbooks were lent for microfilming in 1970 by Reuben Tam and were subsequently donated in 2009 along with additional papers by Geraldine King Tam, Reuben Tam's widow. 34 additional sketchbooks were donated in 2020 by the Geraldine King Tam Trust, via Cindy King, trustee and niece of Geraldine King Tam.
Digitization Note
This site provides access to the papers of Reuben Tam in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2018, and total 10,698 images.
Location Note
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Record number
(DSI-AAA_CollID)8481
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)210657
AAA_collcode_tamreub
Type
Sketchbooks
Sound recordings
Poems
Diaries
Scrapbooks
Watercolors
Drawings
Theme
Asian American
Sketches & Sketchbooks
Lives of artists
Data Source
Archives of American Art
Topic
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
Educators -- Hawaii
Educators -- Maine
Educators -- New York (State)
Asian American artists
Theme
Asian American
Sketches & Sketchbooks
Lives of artists
Record ID
AAADCD_coll_210657