Lois Mailou Jones scrapbooks, 1922-1992

Collection Information

Size: 5 Microfilm reels, 27 volumes on 5 microfilm reels

Summary: This microfilm collection contains Lois Mailou Jones' scrapbooks documenting her career as an African American artist and educator. Scrapbooks contain correspondence (1928-1992) primarily regarding Jones' exhibitions, Howard University, and her art education in Paris, and include a letter and photograph from Emile Bernard; photographs of Jones in her Washington, D.C. and Paris studios, her work, and her extensive travels through Africa and Haiti; and printed material including exhibition announcements, catalogs, and clippings (1922-1992) of reviews, interviews, and articles on the European and African influences in her work. Also included are her resume, materials submitted for the Rosenwald Fellowship, and notes related to her coordination of the 1974 exhibition Paintings by Women Artists of the Caribbean and Afro-American Women Artists.

Biographical/Historical Note

Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998) was an African American painter, designer, and educator in Washington, DC. Jones studied at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts and at the Academie Julian in Paris. She was professor of design and watercolor at Howard University from 1930-1977. She married Haitian graphic designer Vergniaud Pierre-Noel in 1953 and the couple frequently returned to Haiti. In 1970 she served as cultural ambassador to Africa for the United States Information Agency.

Provenance

Lent for microfilming by Lois Mailou Jones, 1990 and 1992.

Language Note

Several letters and clippings are in French.

Location of Originals

• Howard University, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Washington, D.C. holds the Lois Mailou Jones papers, 1920-1998, which include the original scrapbooks, reels 4371-74, 4577.