Giuseppe Donato Papers

Correspondence between the French sculptor Auguste Rodin and his former student and colleague Giuseppe Donato, who became a noted Philadelphia sculptor comprise the bulk of this collection. Rodin's writings consist of approximately one dozen letters, notes, and brief messages he sent on a few of his calling cards. There are also letters, one each, from Rodin's unidentified secretary, the art critic Jerome Maesse, and Judith Cladel, the French writer who was instrumental in establishing the Musée Rodin in Paris. Donato's correspondence, included here in photocopied format, consists of approximately 30 items written from 1901 to 1916. A fellow Philadelphian, William Struthers, wrote at least two of these letters. There are also three original letters Donato wrote but apparently never sent to Rodin. All correspondence is in French. Keepsakes Donato compiled of his former teacher include an autographed photograph of Rodin and the silk handkerchief and embroidered fabric case in which he kept it, as well as a clip of Rodin's hair Donato saved in an envelope with dried rose petals. Donato's 1965 obituary from the Philadelphia Bulletin is also included.

Most of the material came as a later accession and requires further processing. This "To be processed" material includes "Correspondence," dating 1897-1965. Many of the correspondents were Philadelphia-based, including the Public Industrial Art School, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, city officials and civic organizations. There are also communications from various foundries, most quoting estimates for bronze castings. Most of the "Clippings" are newspaper items regarding Donato's career and works of art, and testify to his contemporary prominence. Many of the clippings are fragile and currently cannot be accessed. "Photographs" best documents Donato's artistic output. His study pieces and finished marble and bronze works are recorded on a significant number of prints, film and glass negatives, as well as a small number of lantern slides. There are also images of the artist in his studios and with some of his prominent sitters, including the maestro Leopold Stokowski. Personal photographs include formal portraits and candid images of Donato, including his trip to Venice, and group and family photographs. Donato probably kept the unused postcards and prints depicting works of art, and the iconography booklet as reference for his own sculpture. These items, along with photographs of Cardinal Dougherty, of whom Donato made a death mask, and the 1940 program from the Walt Disney movie "Fantasia," which included Stokowski's orchestration, are identified here as "Research and reference." Photographic mock-ups experimenting with the placement of Donato's figure of Christ within a mountainous landscape, photographs of a posed dancer, and sculptural tool brochures are also included.

Reminiscent of da Vinci, Donato also devoted years to designing inventions, albeit of a smaller scale than those by his Renaissance compatriot. Based on the amount of documentation included in "Invention designs and related business papers" Donato worked primarily on writing instruments: conducting research, testing his designs on school children and fellow artists, photographing hands using his combo pen-pencils and patenting his designs. There is also a document regarding the incorporation of a business he and two other partners established in Philadelphia in 1933, the Rex-Pen-O-Lead Co., Inc., which was to manufacture, purchase and sell writing instruments and related products. Ten years later, Donato filed a $3.5 million lawsuit against Parker Pen Co. for using his designs after initially rejecting them. Articles, correspondence and other papers document his charge. Twenty years later, Donato apparently continued to refine his designs as made evident by the paragraphs written by young students while using his pens. Other inventions briefly documented include a food grater, shoe tree and fuel exhaust device Donato designed for cars in 1964 in response to President Lyndon Johnson's Clean Air Act. The last group of papers, "Other," consists of various materials that pertain personally or professionally to Donato. Included are drawings, biographical sketches, an exhibition catalogue, membership cards and certificates, passports, ephemera, and autographed photographs, including an oversized one signed by Benito Mussolini. The "Writings" pertaining to Donato's art include his remarks, printed in Spanish, about his monument erected in Cuba to Major General Máximo Gómez Baez. In another typescript, Donato recalls his five meetings with Mussolini.