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University of Texas at Austin

Ellen Peckham:

An Inventory of Her Art Collection at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Ellen Peckham, 1938-
Title: Ellen Peckham Art Collection
Dates: 1957-2010, undated
Extent: 201 flat file folders, 3 artists' books, 1 framed painting, 2 document boxes (205 items), and 222 electronic files (975 MB)
Abstract: The Ellen Peckham Art Collection consists of artwork and poetry by Peckham, including pencil, ink, charcoal, and watercolor drawings, etchings and other prints, and handwritten and typed drafts of poems. Also present are works of art by other artists and electronic representations of all the artworks.
Call Number: Art Collection AR-00382
Language: English
Access: Open for research. Please note: A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials to the Reading Room. All researchers must have an appointment to view oversized and/or fragile works of art. Some materials may be restricted from viewing. To request access to electronic files, please email Reference.
Restrictions on Use: Certain restrictions apply to the use of electronic files. Researchers must agree to the Materials Use Policy for Electronic Files before accessing them. Original computer disks and forensic disk images are restricted. Copying electronic files, including screenshots and printouts, is not permitted.


Administrative Information


Acquisition: Gifts (09-06-010-G, 11-02-006-G), 2007-2010
Processed by: Sara Schumacher and Helen Young, 2011 Born digital materials processed, arranged, and described by Chance Adams and Brenna Edwards, 2015-2022.
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Biographical Sketch


Ellen Peckham, a poet and visual artist, was born Ellen Stoepel in 1938, in Rochester, New York. She briefly attended the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City in 1958, before enrolling in the Art Students League of New York in 1959. During the 1960s and 1970s, Peckham traveled extensively and focused her artwork on drawing. In 1976, she studied printmaking with Roberto DeLamonica, and then Mohammad Omer Khalil after DeLamonica's death. That same year she married Anson Peckham.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Peckham created prints, signing her works E. Stoepel Peckham before eventually using Ellen Peckham as her professional name. During this time, she began to publish her poetry in collections and journals, often combining her poetry and prints together, with the poems' texts describing, decorating, or responding to the images.
In 1994, Ellen and Anson Peckham opened Atelier A/E, a gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. In addition to her own work, she collaborated and exhibited collages and constructions with her husband up until his death in 2006. Peckham has authored and illustrated two solo collections of her poetry and visual art: Ticket Stubs (2002, 2007) and Recording Loss (2010).

Sources:


Peckham, Ellen. Ticket Stubs. New York: Atelier A/E, 2007.
Peckham, Ellen. Parallel Vocabularies, video, 00:07.15. http://www.ellenpeckham.com/PlayDVD.php (accessed 02 March 2011).

Scope and Contents


The Ellen Peckham Art Collection consists of artwork and poetry by Peckham, including pencil, ink, charcoal, and watercolor drawings, etchings and other prints, and handwritten and typed drafts of poems. Also present are works of art by other artists. The materials are arranged into three series: I. Art Works by Peckham, 1957-2010, undated; II. Poems by Peckham, 1965-2010, undated; and III. Art Works by Other Artists, 1952-2008, undated.
Series I. Art Works by Peckham is divided into two subseries: A. Drawings, 1957-1989, and B. Prints and Haiga, 1977-2010, undated. The works are in chronological order with materials grouped by drawing series or print series title. The titles were transcribed from the works or come from documentation provided by the artist; descriptions appear in brackets.
Subseries A. Drawings contains 64 works. Subseries B. Prints and Haiga, contains 125 prints and two artist's books. The artist's books, Haiga Volume 1 and Haiga Volume 2, each comprise fifteen haiku with corresponding haiga, the art form which often accompanies haiku.
Series II. Poems by Peckham comprises drafts of 127 poems, some of which relate directly to her series of prints. There are also three music scores for voice and piano by Gerald Busby for song settings of three of Peckham's poems. A compact disc of a performance of the songs with Gilbert-Michel Rolle has been transferred to the Ransom Center's Sound Recordings Collection.
Series III. Art Works by Other Artists contains fourteen items: six prints, five drawings, one unframed painting, one framed painting, and one artist's book.
Series IV. Digital Material contains electronic versions of materials in Series I and Series III. The materials have been listed alphabetically in a mirrored version of Series I and Series III.

Related Material


The Ransom Center also has additional Ellen Peckham materials in its Manuscript Collection, Film Collection, and Library.

Container List