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.
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.
