World House Galleries records, 1927-1991, bulk 1953-1980

This series consists of somewhat scattered business and administrative correspondence with clients, collectors, museums, galleries, auction houses, and a few artists. Correspondence concerns art purchases, loans to other galleries, and requests for Mayer to view art or visit artist studios. Some of the correspondence includes attached artist resumes. There is some additional correspondence scattered throughout the collection.

Artist files contain a variety of material on artists who were represented by World House Galleries or in whom the gallery was interested. Artist files hold correspondence, artist statements and resumes, sales records, printed materials, and exhibition catalogs. Most of the files also include images of the artist and of the artist's work in the form of slides, transparencies, negatives, and photographs. Prominent artists represented by the gallery and for which files exist include Jean Dubuffet, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee and Georgio Morandi, in addition to many artists from around the world.

Inventory records include gallery stock inventories, lists of art on consignment, and provenance notes. There are rough and final drafts of inventory organized by category, such as Herman Mayer's personal collection and the Oriental Antiquities collection, in addition to folders on specific items in the World House Galleries inventory organized by the artist's name.

The inventories for collections are arranged chronologically, with the "obsolete" or outdated rough drafts grouped together at the beginning. The inventories are followed by a list of art on consignment, then the item level folders for inventory arranged by alphabetically by the artist's last name. Inventory and provenance notes are at the end of the series.

Records of sales and purchases consist of sales records, financial documentation of accounts receivable or payments owed for sales of artwork, and documentation of Herbert Mayer's purchases, both abroad and within the United States. The sales records include cost and sales price and date from the founding of the gallery in 1953 until several years after it closed. Also found in this series are correspondence, lists of purchases, appraisals, auction catalogs, and printed materials.

This sereis contains documents about Herbert Mayer's donations to various schools, organizations and programs after World House Galleries closed. Mayer was very generous to his alma mater, Colgate University, and he donated art from the gallery and his personal collection, along with large tracts of land in Maine. Mayer also made substantial donations to other organizations and institutions, such as the Art Students League, Parsons School of Design, and the Stamford Center of the Jewish Community. Files include correspondence, forms and papers about the gifts, photographs, and printed materials.

This series holds records related to art work sold through Christie's, Parke-Bernet 84 (a division of Parke-Bernet), and Sotheby's auction houses in New York City. Herbert Mayer sold some art through the auction houses while World House Galleries was open and disseminated the majority of his personal art collection after the gallery closed. The folders contain correspondence, receipts, consignment agreements, settlement statements, lists of art available through the auction houses and other miscellanous materials.

Shipping statement files contain customs forms, correspondence, complaints, condition reports, and other documents related to the transportation and shipping of art work. Most of the files track specific shipments of art from locations around the world to their destination at World House Galleries in New York City.

The series is arranged alphabetically by the country of the shipment's origin, then chronologically by year. There are a few files with the same dates from the same location that actually represent different shipments. order.

There are a few miscellaneous folders at the end of the series labeled according to the contents of the shipment, such as ceramics, or the approximate timeframe of a trip abroad during which Herbert Mayber bought art for shipment.