Anecdote. Correspondence, Angelo Ravagli to Norman, 1946-1947

Most of Norman's documentation identifying works of art collected by Stieglitz are inventories of holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and the Stieglitz Archive at Yale University Library. A collection catalogue from Fisk University and a 1944 exhibition catalogue of the Philadelphia Museum of Art also cite their respective Stieglitz collection holdings. While works by the artists Stieglitz championed, namely Marin, Hartley, DeMuth, Dove, O'Keeffe, Sheeler, as well as his own photographs comprise the largest part of his collection, other artists identified here infer their influence on Stieglitz's idea of modernism. These include Rodin, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Matisse, as well as African sculpture, bronzes by Lachaise and Brancussi, and drawings by children, ages 2 to 10.

Also included here are typescripts of three slightly varied versions of Stieglitz's recollection of meeting D. H. Lawrence, which was no run-of-the-mill encounter. Instead this anecdote relates to the time in 1935 that he was telephoned by Angelo "Angelino" Ravagli, a companion of the writer's widow Frieda, seeking Stieglitz's assistance in retrieving the deceased Lawrence's ashes that were being held by the Customs House in New York City. The order of the versions was assigned during processing and based on textual differences. The "first" and "second" versions have no introductory paragraphs, and unlike the seemingly latter versions, the "first" does not mention O'Keeffe's trip to New Mexico, and her confirming the disposition of the ashes there. According to the text, Stieglitz corresponded with Lawrence, but the two never met. He did meet Frieda and Ravagli, however, a few years earlier on the couple's way from Europe to Taos. According to online sources, Ravagli had some success as a landscape painter in New Mexico. He has also been cited as the lover of Frieda Lawrence, whose affair during the 1920s, Lawrence memoralized in "Lady Chatterley's Lover." Frieda and Ravagli married in 1950.

The "Camera work" files consist of various summaries of publication information Norman compiled about the journal Stieglitz published from 1903 to 1917. The "Writings" files pertain to the publications about Stieglitz for which Norman was author or contributing writer. Most of the documentation is promotional ephemera, along with some notes. Also included in this subseries are copies of letters by Stieglitz and another writing in German.