W. Langdon Kihn papers, 1904-1990, bulk 1904-1957

This subseries consists primarily of personal correspondence, including holiday cards and invitations, although letters related to commissions and exhibitions are scattered throughout.

This subseries includes the letters of W. Langdon Kihn, Alfred and Carrie Kihn (his parents), and Helen Kihn (his wife). Langdon Kihn's correspondence contains letters to his parents from his early trips out west, and drafts and fragments of letters to colleagues promoting his early exhibitions. There is also a selection of Christmas cards of his own design, which he sent to friends and family.

Notable correspondents, most of whom are also represented in the chronological correspondence, include the Canadian ethnographer, Marius Barbeau; well-known collectors, Dale and Maud Chester and Sir Henry Wellcome; artists Maynard Dixon and Guy Wiggins; French biophysicist and philosopher Pierre du Noüy; and military historian Captian Russell V. Steele, whose letters frequently include illustrations of soldiers in military uniforms.

Found in this subseries are letters to and from Kihn that document his career as an artist, illustrator, teacher, and writer. Scattered through out are personal correspondence, including letters addressed to his wife Helen from their mutual friends. There is also a cache of third party correspondence addressed to Marius Barbeau, a Canadian ethnologist who was a colleague and friend of Kihn's.

The earliest correspondence includes letters from his parents, particularly his father Alfred Kihn, who also trained as an artist and founded a steel engraving firm with his brother that specialized in bank note engraving. Kihn senior not only wrote proffering career advice, but also corresponded with his son's business and personal associates while Langdon Kihn was on extended trips. There are also letters from W. Langdon Kihn to his parents describing his trips, including his impressions of San Francisco, Glacier Park, experiences painting Indian portraits, as well as his 1929-1932 sojourn painting in Paris and Spain. These early letters also record exhibitions, primarily a traveling exhibition of his portraits of members of the Blackfeet Indian tribe, which was organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art and traveled to over 40 institutions in the United States.

Letters to and from authors, publishers, advertisers, and collectors comprise a large amount of correspondence from late 1920s to the mid 1930s, which document his efforts at securing commissions for commercial work. During this time he also began to submit articles about his work and travels. Correspondents include the author Constance Lindsay Skinner; publishers Macmillan and Company; Little, Brown, and Company; Harcourt Brace and Company; and magazines including, Fortune and Story Parade.

The bulk of the chronological correspondence records his association with the National Geographic magazine, spanning from 1935-1955. The National Geographic Society commissioned Kihn to paint historical and contemporary scenes of the lives of over 35 tribal nations from the continental United States, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories. Engraved illustrations of his paintings were published in the magazine's ongoing series on American Indians between 1937 and 1949. Most of the related correspondence was between Kihn, Franklin L. Fisher, Chief of National Geographic's Illustrated Division and Matthew W. Striling, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, who also played an important role in this project.

See Appendix for a list of selected indivuduals, institutions, and organizations found in Series 2.2.

Writings by Kihn include his travel diary, memoir, and typescripts, manuscripts and drafts of published and unpublished articles on amateur painters, his travels documenting various North American tribal cultures and his sojourn painting in Spain. This subseries also includes Kihn's notebooks and loose field notes from his travels, and notes on the National Geographic Indians of America series.

Additional illustrated field notes *can be found in the Sketchbooks and Sketches series.

This series includes typescripts of poems, lectures, and writings by Agnes Akin Atkinson, C. Marius Barbeau, Lena Becker Scott, Constance Lindsay Skinner and others.