Nancy Davidson papers, 1970s-2016

Biographical material dates from 1978-2015 and contains an address book; over twenty daily agendas; a financial ledger; grant documentation including the Pollock-Krasner and Guggenheim awards; faculty and tenure records; residency and fellowship records; resumes; and ephemera relating to Davidson and Greg Drasler's wedding.

Correspondence dates from 1970s-2000s and is both personal and professional. Correspondents include family, friends, artists, as well as galleries and museums. Items including letters, postcards, greeting cards, and memos provide insight into Davidson's artistic network and document details of her group and solo exhibition history. Notable correspondents include Michiko Itatani, Joyce Kozloff, Eunice Lipton, Sabra Moore, and Nancy Spero. Galleries and museums include Marianne Denson Gallery; Museum of Contemporary, Chicago; N.A.M.E. Gallery, of which Davidson was an artist member; the Walker Art Center; and White Columns.

Over thirty notebooks, the majority of which are illustrated, date from 1970s-2010. Kept from the time Davidson was a student in Chicago, the notebooks capture her work process, evolution of ideas, related sketches in pen and pencil, reflections from readings and lectures, and notes from critiques with fellow artists Rosemary Mayer, Joyce Kozloff, Ray Yoshida, and Richard Halstead. A few of the books also contain diary entries of a more personal nature. Two files of loose notes relating to Davidson's work, as well as printed material, source material, photographs, and sketches, are arranged at the end of the series.

Gallery and exhibition files date from 1976-2002 and document several exhibitions and galleries that have represented Davidson's work over the years. Items include correspondence, loan agreements, price lists, floor plans, writings, guest books, and printed material. Additional correspondence with galleries and museums is arranged in Series 2: Correspondence.

Printed material dates from 1970s-2010s and includes announcements, annotated books, books released in Japan, bulletins, newsletters, calendars, clippings, exhibition catalogs, periodicals, press releases, programs, and a few other items of printed matter relating to Davidson's professional career. The items in this series provide extensive documentation of the dozens of group and solo exhibitions Davidson participated in, as well as the careers of her artist friends.

The photographic material found here dates from 1990s and includes photographic prints, slides, and negatives. The prints are of artworks, an exhibition installation, and Davidson participating in an artist panel discussion. The slides, negatives, and other prints are of dresses and fabrics, possibly used as source material for Davidson's sculptures.

Two sketchbooks, one dating from circa 1980 and one from circa 1990, contain predominantly figurative sketches in pen, pencil, and marker.