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Link Papers

Carl Link Papers

Carl Link Papers, 1887-1977
12.5 cubic feet (21 document boxes, 4 flat boxes, 1 glass negative box, 1 over-sized folder)
Location: 0026; 0028; 0030; 0032-0037; 0683; 0685; Flat File 2/Drawer 4
Collection #: 061
Accession #: 1968.11

 

Introduction

Papers and photographs of Carl Link, a German-American artist, commercial illustrator, and art educator known for his paintings of dance and theatrical personalities, Native Americans, and animals. The bulk of the collection consists of material directly related to his artwork, including more than 800 original designs, drawings, and sketches, as well as many photographs and published examples of his completed artwork. Link’s portraits of the 1922 and 1930 Oberammergau Passion Play casts are particularly well documented. Link’s career as a commercial illustrator is represented by original and published examples of his work. The collection also includes a significant amount of correspondence. The majority of the letters and postcards in the collection are personal, rather than professional in nature, and much of the correspondence is written in the German language. Link’s most prolific correspondent was his mother Dora, whose letters date from 1913 through 1951; while many of Dora’s letters are repetitive and pedestrian in nature, others paint a fascinating portrait of German society between the wars through the eyes of a woman who was an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler. Other letters are from family members in Germany, a wide variety of female friends, dancers and theater people, artists, rodeo trick rider Eleanor Heacock, and some business and commercial correspondents. Included is Link’s image reference files or morgue, which he used for his commercial illustration work; personal files with numerous address books and address lists of friends, models, and business acquaintances, biographical information, and some financial records; and subject files that include a variety of topically arranged files reflecting many of Link’s personal and professional interests such as art, art education, dance, and the theater. The photographic prints and negatives primarily document Link’s completed fine art and commercial illustration work, but also include photographs of horses and other animals; Link with friends and family; Link at work sketching and painting; Germany, Paris, and New York in the 1920s; and dance and theatrical personalities.

Biography

Carl Link was born on August 13, 1887 in Munich, Germany. His parents were Karl and Dora Link. He was an only child. Link’s father was a furniture maker and wood carver and his mother had an interest in music and theater that she passed on to her son. There is some indication in the collection that Link’s family may have been minor Bavarian nobility. Throughout most of his adult life, Link provided financial support to his parents until their deaths in 1948 and 1951. This was particularly true during the privations following the First and Second World Wars. Link also made regular visits to Germany during his parents’ lifetimes, although his 1938 visit would be the last until after the end of the Second World War.

Carl Link was a tall, distinguished looking bachelor. Through much of his life he was attractive to a wide variety of women, and he reciprocated the attraction. In the words of pioneering Native American dancer and entertainer Molly Spotted Elk, who was Link’s friend and model during the 1930s, but not romantically involved with him, Link was a “marvelous, darling, and lively person, whose eyes were alight and who always spoke as if he were excited.” She also noted in her diary that Link, “has many women friends—many of them of wealth, beauty, position, with husbands lost or discarded. …The front and back entrances of his studio offer an amusing bit of masculine intrigue—Carl can have one woman visitor in the front room and another in the back.” The collection provides ample evidence of Link’s many relationships with women over the years, both in Germany and the United States.

Link’s first professional art training was in architectural drawing with Professor Behring in Berlin. After a year under Behring his parents were convinced to allow him to attend the Royal Academy in Dresden from 1909 to 1910 where he studied with Professor Richard Muller and Professor Schindler. Two collection photographs show Link dressed up in elaborate costume and makeup for a student theatrical presented at the Dresden Royal Academy. Link moved on to the Royal Academy in Munich where he studied with Professors Franz von Stuck and Angelo Jank. Jank was famous as a painter of horses, and under his tutelage Link also became very proficient in creating life-like drawings and paintings of horses and other animals. One of Link’s fellow students at the Munich Royal Academy was artist Winold Reiss, who became a life-long friend. Link excelled at both ornamental and life figure drawing. His proficiency in both areas would be critical to his later success as a designer of theatrical properties and a portrait painter. After completing his formal education he pursued additional studies in life and flower drawing at the Kunstgewerbe Museum in Berlin and for a short time was an apprentice at the museum.

In 1913, Link moved to London. He worked briefly for the S.H. Benson, Ltd. Advertising Agency as a commercial illustrator and studied life drawing at the Polytechnic School of Art in London. Some of his commercial illustration from this early period is included in the collection. Because of the increasing threat of war in Europe, his stay in London was brief. Strong anti-German sentiment in England and the threat of internment caused Link to leave for the United States in 1914. The only available passage was steerage class on the S.S. Adriatic. A German language account of Link’s unpleasant first trans-Atlantic voyage, written on S.S. Adriatic stationary, is included in the collection. Link arrived in New York in September 1914.

Life was difficult for a German emigrant to the United States during the First World War. It is unclear how he made ends meet during his first year in New York, although he was able to sell at least one cover illustration to Puck magazine in England. By the winter of 1915 he obtained a position teaching costume design at the New York Evening School of Industrial Art. He would teach at the New York Evening School off-and-on for over twenty years. Other schools where Link taught during his career include Columbia University, Master Institute of United Arts, New York School of Design for Women, and New York University. Since he typically taught night school classes, his days were free for his commercial and fine art work. He also kept busy visiting galleries and museums, sketching people on the streets of New York, and sketching animals at the Bronx Zoo. In 1916 Link did his first major United States portrait, Charles Evans Hughes the former-Supreme Court Justice and 1916 Republican Presidential nominee. Link also continued his commercial illustration work, selling covers and illustrations to the Louis Bosser and Sons advertising firm in Brooklyn, New York. During this period he changed the spelling of his first name from “Karl” to “Carl,” apparently because he thought it sounded less German. This “Americanized” spelling is used throughout the finding aid.

In 1916, Carl Link came to the attention of theatrical producer Morris Gest. Gest, who would produce more than sixty Broadway productions during his career, was a major factor in a new direction in Link’s art. Link designed the stage settings and costumes for four successive Gest productions, The Wanderer, 1917; Chu Chin Chow, 1918; Aphrodite, 1919, and Mecca, 1920. In 1922 Gest brought Russian producer, writer and director Nikita Balieff to New York to stage his musical production Chauve-Souris. Link did many caricatures of then current New York theatrical and society luminaries to decorate the stage curtain used in that production, as well as other design and illustration work, some of which is in the collection. Link also created the stage settings for the 1924 Gest production The Miracle. In addition to working in the theater, he was also an avid attendee at a wide variety of theatrical and modern dance programs, especially during the 1920s and 1930s.

Through his work for Gest, Link became acquainted with many of the theatrical and dance celebrities of the period. Link completed portraits of many actors and dancers including Dame Judith Anderson, Lady Diana Cooper, Marion Davies, Vera Fokina, Helba Huara, Michael Mordkin, Nita Naldi, and Ruth St. Denis. A number of these portraits were done as cover illustrations for The Dance Magazine and Theatre Magazine. He also served as the art director for The Dance Magazine for a time in the early 1930s. Link did some illustration work for the motion picture industry, including posters for Red Feather Photo Plays and a large mural design and illustration for the 1922 Marion Davies film “When Knighthood Was in Flower,” which was displayed as a billboard at 7th Avenue & 47th Street in New York City.

In 1921, Link returned to Germany to visit his parents and to create a series of portraits that would bring him recognition beyond the theatrical and dance world where he was best known. Link had the opportunity to complete life portraits of the principal players in the 1922 Oberammergau Passion Play. These portraits were used to publicize the production in Germany and were printed in Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times, and many other newspapers across the United States. Link did another series of portraits of the 1930 Passion Play cast, which received similar wide publication and publicity. Both sets of Oberammergau portraits and they wide publicity they received are well documented in the collection.

The stock market crash of 1929 brought an end to Link’s association with Morris Gest. Through the 1930s he taught art, painted portraits, and continued his commercial illustration work for publications such as Liberty Magazine. Portrait subjects during this period included rodeo cowgirls Eleanor Heacock and Lucyle Roberts, as well as Molly Spotted Elk, who was Link’s model for a painting of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. From 1936 through 1939 Link taught summer classes for Winold Reiss’s art institute at Glacier National Park and Lake Tahoe. During his time in Montana he became fascinated with the West and Native Americans and painted a series of portraits from life of Blackfeet and Blood Indians in traditional dress. The collection includes photographic prints and negatives of many these portraits as well as prints of Link sketching and painting some of his Native American portraits.

In 1941, Carl Link made a temporary move to Palm Beach, Florida where he taught at the newly opened Norton Gallery and School of Art. While in Florida he entered and won an art competition at the Norton Gallery and was asked by a Naval Air unit to design their unit insignia. In the late 1940s Link purchased a home at Kings Beach, California on Lake Tahoe where he gave art lessons during the summer. Link’s major commercial illustration commission during this period was from World Book Encyclopedia. Link worked two years to create more than 200 color illustrations of authentic native costumes of the world for the 1947 edition of World Book. The collection contains some of Link’s research materials and page layout sketches for this project.

Some time in the 1950s Link became the chief designer for Imperial Linens, Inc., a manufacturer and importer of decorative linens. As part of his duties he would visit Imperial Linens’ factory in Funchal, Madeira. Although Link apparently continued his art instruction and painting work during this period, as he grew older he reduced his level of activity. In the 1960s he continued to go out to Lake Tahoe, but his art activity level decreased markedly as the decade wore on. By early 1968 his health had noticeably deteriorated, and in May 1968 Carl Link died in New York at the age of 80.

Sources
Krakel, Dean. Adventures in Western Art. Kansas City, Mo.: The Lowell Press, 1977.
McBride, Bunny. Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.

Scope & Content Note

The papers of Carl Link are arranged in six series: Artwork, Correspondence, Image Reference Files, Personal Files, Subject Files, and Photographs.

Series 1: Artwork (1913-1970)
This series is the highlight of the Carl Link Collection. The collection includes almost 800 original designs, drawings, and sketches in pencil and ink, two temperas, and three watercolors. The distinction in the collection between a “drawing” and a “sketch” depends on how finished a particular piece appears, with sketches being less finished than drawings, although this distinction is necessarily subjective. Also included is an etched copper plate for producing an intaglio print, over 100 photocopies of artwork, a few tracings, and a large selection of Link’s artwork and commercial illustration in published form. This series also covers exhibitions displaying Link’s artwork, lists of completed artwork, as well as some scattered information about sales and commissions. The series is divided into the following subseries: original artwork, publications, exhibitions, lists of artwork, and sales and commissions.

The original designs, drawings, and sketches are many and varied, and cover the breadth of Link’s artistic interests. Designs include mock-ups for dance programs, art exhibition programs, brochures, advertisements, a nightclub mural, and several different designs for a Florida Naval Air squadron insignia from 1941. Other original designs include those for Denishawn and Ziegfield Follies dance programs and a commemorative medal for the 50th wedding anniversary of Oklahoma oilman Frank Phillips and his wife dating from 1947.

Drawings in the collection cover most of the subject matter that Link was known for. There are numerous drawings of animals and birds, many of which were probably drawn at the Bronx Zoo. There are many drawings of clothing and dress of the world, some of which probably date from his illustration work for World Book Encyclopedia; however, some of this material was also used in his fine art work. Additional drawing subjects include flowers, landscapes, and Greek mythology, while other drawings relate to his theatrical design work. Portrait drawings are lightly represented in the collection with only a few drawings connected to his dance and Oberammergau portrait work. Portraits represented in the collection include a charcoal portrait of rodeo cowgirl Eleanor Heacock, a pencil drawing of his mother just prior to her death, and several of the New York character study drawings that Link wanted to publish as a book, but apparently nothing ever came of this idea. Other highlights include a poster mock-up for the 1930 Broadway comedy Follow Thru, a colored pencil illustration for the 1932 film Madame Butterfly, and several large drawings of Noah’s Ark for an unknown theatrical production.

The copper plate for producing an intaglio print depicts a dancing woman in an unidentified European folk costume. The photocopies of Link’s artwork are in both negative and positive formats. Much of this material duplicates what is found elsewhere in the collection, especially the artwork prints and negatives found in the Photographs series. However, there are some examples of Link’s work that are found only among the photocopies. Artwork subjects found primarily in the photocopies include New York character study and flower drawings and European landscapes. The sketches cover much of the same subject matter as other parts of the collection, but there is some interesting material found only in the sketches. Included are seventy sketches of birds, many of which are colored with pencil or watercolor; ten quick sketches done at a dance performance as it was occurring; Native American material culture sketches of dwellings, jewelry, and totem poles; sketches, notes, and layout ideas for Link’s proposed New York character study book; and two sketch books that focus on dancers, horses, and theatrical stage setting ideas. The collection also includes a sketch, apparently autographed by Martha Graham, of the famed dancer in performance. Other artwork in the collection includes two tempera paintings of women that appear to be for magazine cover illustrations; several tracings of dolls and mythological subjects; and three watercolors, one quick watercolor sketch of a Bavarian Oktoberfest scene, and two groups of watercolor illustrations mounted on pasteboard depicting Christian religious figures, which date from 1913. These illustrations are very detailed and well done, but unfortunately have become quite soiled over the years.

In addition to the original artwork, there is a significant amount of Link’s artwork in published form. Included are examples of advertisement illustrations created by Link for the Eichler Brewing Co. and Red Feather Photo Plays, an early silent film studio. Early commercial illustration efforts in Germany and England include a postcard, a cigar box cover illustration, poster designs, advertisements, and the illustration for the cover of a writing paper tablet. Examples of American and Canadian commercial illustration include an illustration of Madison Square Garden in a booklet about 1924 Democratic Presidential nominee John W. Davis; the cover illustration for a brochure promoting winter sports at Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, Quebec; a 48-page booklet promoting the 1947 World Book Encyclopedia, which includes a sample page of Link’s costumes of the world illustrations; an illustration and letterhead design created for the Society of Modern Art in New York; note cards and prints with Link illustrations of dogs, horses and birds; and two illustrations in a brochure advertising bungalows in the Poconos.

Real collection highlights are the holiday cards that Link designed and illustrated to send to friends at Christmas. There are more than a dozen different designs of these interesting and sometimes risqué cards. Most of the card designs have multiple copies. Link had his designs and illustrations printed on the cards in outline with little or no background color, and then he would custom color each card with tempera paint before mailing it out. Each card became an original work of art. The collection includes examples of cards that have been colored and those in their original form. Link also designed cards for others, and there are some examples in the collection.

Much of Link’s most striking work is found in his magazine cover illustrations. Included are over a dozen different cover illustrations for Puck, The Dance Magazine, and Theatre Magazine. The illustrations exist in several formats including intact magazines, detached covers, proof sheets, and detached covers mounted on pasteboard. For example, Link mounted his Dance Magazine cover illustration of Vera Fokina on pasteboard and then painted a new gold background around the original image. Also included are a significant number of two-color and full-color illustrations created for Liberty Magazine and other publications. Newspaper illustration subjects include his 1922 and 1930 Oberammergau Passion Play portraits, portraits and other illustrations completed in conjunction with the Mecca and The Miracle theatrical productions, and one of his dance portraits.

Additional examples of Link’s published artwork include three pieces of sheet music from 1919 that feature Link cover illustrations, one of which is inscribed to Link by songwriters Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy; programs and advertisements for theatrical productions and nightclubs, featuring the programs for Aphrodite and Mecca, which include Link illustrations throughout; and a kind of crossword puzzle based on the caricatures Link created for Chauve-Souris.

Finally, the Artwork series has some information about the exhibition and sale of Link’s artwork. Exhibition information includes exhibition programs, newspaper articles promoting or reviewing the exhibitions, exhibition artwork lists, and a couple of hand drawn exhibit layouts. The most heavily documented exhibition in the collection is the 1935 German-American Artists exhibition at the Westermann Gallery in New York. Included is the invitation, the program, the original exhibit labels for Link’s paintings, a newspaper article about the exhibition, and some notes Link made about which paintings to exhibit. There are some sketchy and mostly undated lists of his artwork, including a list of his theatrical stage setting work, but nothing like a comprehensive list of Link’s paintings exists in the collection. The sales information in the collection includes some lists of painting sales, but few notations about price. Also included are some invoices and notes concerning publication of his artwork in Ladies Home Journal and The Dance Magazine, and notes about the D. & R. Bischoff publishing company in Munich producing prints of his Oberammergau Passion Play portraits for sale in Germany. In general, collection information about art sales and commissions is neither extensive nor detailed.

Series 2: Correspondence (1903-1977)
This is the second largest series in the collection. The Correspondence series is arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within folders; letters that cannot be dated are placed in the back of each folder. Because the vast majority of the correspondence is handwritten rather than typed, and because forty to fifty percent of the correspondence is in German, it was sometimes difficult to decipher the name of the correspondent. When only the first name of the correspondent is available the decision was made to file the letter alphabetically under the first name. In case of Link’s own unsent or draft correspondence, the letters were filed under the name of the intended recipient. In situations where the name of the correspondent could not be discerned, the correspondence was placed in an unidentified correspondence file at the end of the series. Holiday and greeting cards were placed together in a single folder towards the end of the series because the majority could not be dated, most were signed without last names, and few had any informational content. Nora Mills, a native German speaker, was able to read selected portions of the German language correspondence, and this scope and content note greatly benefits from her notes and observations. However, of necessity, there are significant portions of the German language correspondence that have not been reviewed for content.

Most of the Correspondence series is personal, rather than business in nature. Link’s mother Dora is his most extensive correspondent with letters spanning nearly forty years, from 1913 through 1951 near the time of her death. All of Dora’s letters are in German. Link’s father apparently never wrote to him. There are some gaps in Dora’s letters, including a period in the 1920s with few letters and a complete cessation of letters from late 1941 until 1945 because of the war. The overall tenor of her letters is that she wants to make sure Link understands his obligations to his parents, and they are filled with requests for money and goods they cannot easily obtain in Germany, complaints about their situation, and demands that Link visit them. Letters to Link from banks and money exchange companies document his attempts to support his parents in Germany. Dora also keeps Link apprised of what is going on back home, reporting on the activities of friends, art exhibitions, and difficult times in Germany, especially in the aftermaths of the First and Second World Wars. Dora also mailed a number of German language newspaper clippings on a variety of topics including art exhibitions, acquaintances of Link, and the political situation. Based on comments in her letters, Link sent both photographs and original artwork to his parents, which they found very interesting.

Probably the most interesting material in Dora’s letters is that relating to the rise of Adolf Hitler in the years leading up to the Second World War. Link’s mother is very enthusiastic about Hitler and makes it clear that, in her opinion, he is the best thing to ever happen to Germany. She is especially adamant that Link should return to Germany because artists are very well treated and appreciated in Hitler’s Germany. While Link does return to Germany to visit while the Nazis are in power, there is no indication that he considered returning to Germany permanently. In November 1938 Link’s parents go to see Hitler, Goering, and Goebbels in person, and his mother says, “That was my dream come true!!” In March 1939 she tells Link not to believe what he reads about Germany in the American press because it is all lies, and Germany has never seen better times. Although shocked by the coming of war, she says that Hitler has everything organized, unlike during the First World War. After the war Link was apparently able to reconnect with his parents through the efforts of Boykie Reiss, the son of Link’s friend and fellow Western artist Winold Reiss, who was in the United States military. After the war Link’s parents moved into a “stifl” or Catholic elderly residence in Bad Tolz. Most of the post-war correspondence concerns what items Link should send them to help them survive. Kenneth Hunter, a U.S. Army Captain stationed in Germany, who met Link’s parents and contacted Link because of his admiration for Link’s Oberammergau portraits, also assisted him in moving letters and care packages back and forth to Germany. Link’s father died in 1948 and his mother died in 1951.

The collection contains relatively little correspondence from other members of Link’s family. What correspondence exists is from his cousins Narzis and Paula Singer, cousin Gretel Scherrer, and Gretel’s daughter Ilse Wagner. A small amount of this correspondence is from before World War II, but most of it is post-war and details the need for care packages to be sent to the family and Ilse’s desire to emigrate to the United States with Link’s assistance, but apparently this never happened. Other letters give details about the extended family and condition reports on his parents.

Correspondence with friends is primarily of two types: letters from platonic friends and acquaintances both male and female, and letters from a wide variety of female friends in France, Germany, and the United States. Correspondence from friends includes an October 1914 letter from Ida Swift in London, which gives some flavor of the turmoil surrounding Link’s hasty departure from England. A series of letters from Mrs. Else Phillips, a German woman married to an Englishman in London during the First World War whom Link knew, details the difficulties of being German in England during wartime. Phillips requested Link’s assistance in emigrating to the United States, which he did, enlisting the assistance of Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollette (Link had become acquainted with Robert’s brother Philip LaFollette, either while in England or just after arriving in the United States) and also Simeon Gest, the brother of producer Morris Gest. Apparently this attempt was unsuccessful. Walter Melchers, a German national whom Link knew while in England and who was interned by the British, writes in a 1916 letter about his experiences in several prisoner of war camps in England and asks for Link’s help.

Considering the number of actors and dancers Link knew there is surprisingly little correspondence with them. Included are a Christmas greeting telegram from actress Marion Davies, a short postcard from German character actor Fritz Feld, and a funny note from silent screen vamp Nita Naldi about a missed portrait sitting. There is also a postcard and Christmas card from Native American dancer and entertainer Molly Spotted Elk who modeled for Link during the 1930s; the postcard features an unusual illustrated signature.

An interesting letter from Elsie Fleischer, a Link model who once lived in the United States but ended up in Germany when the war began, paints a harsh picture of life in post-war Germany and details the lengths to which people were willing to go to emigrate to the United States. A series of letters from Eleanor Heacock, a 1930s rodeo trick rider and Link portrait subject, writes about the circumstances of the portrait Link painted of Heacock and her horse Sonny Boy, a little bit about her rodeo career and friends, the marital and legal problems of fellow trick rider Lucyle Roberts, and her views on modern art including a scathing review of award-winning painting South of Scranton by Peter Blume, which she had seen at the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh. A 1969 letter to former NCHF librarian Esther Long reflects on her association with Link and her impressions of him as an artist and a man. A few German language letters from school friend Siegfried Hermann written during the 1950s reminisce about friends and places from their early days in Germany.

Letters written to Link by his many female friends tend to fall into a very predictable pattern. Link meets a woman and charms them completely, perhaps having a short relationship with them, and when he goes away the woman writes passionate and soulful letters to him. When he does not respond to the letters in the desired way, the woman either gets hurt, or angry, or stops writing altogether. Emblematic of these women was Lulu Proell, a Munich design student Link met in 1923, and with whom he apparently had a short, passionate affair. She bombarded Link with more than 100 letters over four years, which are by turns romantic, passionate, hurt, and angry. One 1923 letter included a transcription of a sign that had been posted all over her Munich school. The sign contained a parody of the Apostles’ Creed that decried the desperate economic situation in Germany and wondered who to blame: the Catholics, the Jews, or the rulers of Weimar Germany. Another German female friend, Strie Eulenburg, who was apparently a “grafin” or countess, writes in the early 1930s about the terrible economic situation and the poor financial condition of the Oberammergau Passion Play. She also encloses a letter written to her by Sylvester Schaeffer, a German actor and friend of Link, which mentions Link’s nude painting of Eulenburg that “should get a first prize.” The collection includes numerous other letters from female friends in France, Germany, and the United States.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the correspondence is the scarcity of letters from other artists. Based on the problematical history of the collection, and the fact that it was in the hands of several outside parties before it finally arrived at the Museum, it is possible that some artist correspondence that originally existed in the collection was removed, but that is conjecture. Link was friends with two other German-American artists who were drawn to the West, Jacob Asanger and Winold Reiss. There is a small amount of correspondence with Asanger, a 1926 letter encouraging Link to move out to Los Angeles where he would enjoy the climate, the driving, and the women and a few postcards sent while he was traveling. Reiss is even more lightly represented in the collection, which is strange since Link and Reiss were friends for almost forty years, although there is some indication in the collection that Reiss was a poor correspondent. There is a single postcard from Reiss to Link written from Mexico encouraging Link to “pack his bags right away” and join him; he also mentions the women and says he has done a lot of drawing. Link’s association with Reiss is hinted at in other correspondence including a postcard written to Link in care of Reiss, the draft of a 1938 note about a Navajo rug he bought while traveling with Reiss, and a postcard written to Reiss by a mutual friend of theirs that somehow found its way into Link’s possession. Reiss is also mentioned in two rare instances where both Link’s original draft and the response exist. In 1948 Link writes to his friend Albert Schweizer, who was with the Military Government of Bavaria, “helping Winold on some murals for the Indian Museum in Bartlesville, Okla. and intend to leave for Lake Tahoe, Cal. in 3 weeks by train. Winold will meet me out there in Oct.” It is unclear which “Indian Museum” is being referred to in the letter and whether the murals still exist. The other instance where both draft and response exist is Link’s 1953 letter to Native American artist Acee Blue Eagle about the death of Winold Reiss and Acee Blue Eagle’s shocked response in which he calls Reiss a “dear, dear close friend.” The final artist correspondence in the collection is a draft of Link’s 1955 letter to the widow of William R. Leigh on the death of her husband in which he calls Leigh a “great artist, a fine American and good friend.”

The collection includes some business correspondence. In addition to his dealings with banks and money exchange firms in order to help his parents, there is also correspondence connected to his art education activities, responses to Link’s letters pitching ideas for a design or illustration, and letters related to a particular project that Link was involved with such as correspondence with Cosmopolitan Productions, Dennison Manufacturing Co., and Imperial Linens. An intriguing example of pitching an idea is alluded to in a 1922 letter from British newspaper publisher Sir Edward Hulton. Hulton tells Link that he forwarded Link’s letter to Lord Carnarvon, the discoverer of the tomb of King Tutankhamen, which presumably had to do with a proposed art or illustration project connected with the tomb. There is also correspondence related to his work for producer Morris Gest and illustration assignments for magazines. In an interesting letter, which was forwarded to Link by F. Orner of the Liberty Magazine of the editorial department, an African-American man praises the sympathetic and accurate portrayal of African-Americans found in Link’s illustrations for a story called “The Easy Miracle.” Other business correspondence includes letters from D.& R. Bischoff Verlag, a German publisher, concerning the production and sales of prints of Link’s Oberammergau portraits, which apparently did not sell up to expectations. A series of letters from A.H. Wessely Co. of Hamburg, Germany concerns the design, manufacture, and shipment of two traditional German fireplaces called “kachelofens.” The letters date from 1926 and 1927 and include Link’s original design drawings for these custom fireplaces. The collection also includes an interesting series of letters between Link and advertising manager of the Excelsior Motor Manufacturing & Supply Co., manufacturer of Excelsior and Henderson motorcycles. Correspondence includes details about the price, features, and operation of the Henderson motorcycle with sidecar that Link purchased for trips to Germany in the 1920s. Link also apparently sent Excelsior some ideas for advertising illustrations and improvements to the motorcycle design, which seem to have been considered seriously by the company.

Series 3: Image Reference Files (1893-1965)
Consists of Link’s reference files or morgue, which he probably used primarily for his commercial illustration work, since his portraits and other fine art pieces were almost always done from life. The reference files are arranged into subseries by form and subject, which was suggested by some of Link’s folder and envelope headings, and then alphabetically by topic within the subseries.

The image reference files are primarily in the form of magazine tear sheets and newspaper clippings from both European and American publications, most from the first half of the twentieth century. The series has material showing many forms of artwork including cartoons; etchings and engravings; commercial illustrations; landscapes; paintings; portraits, both illustration and photograph; and sculpture, although Link apparently never sculpted. Among the highlights are two full-color brochures concerning Dean Cornwell’s large mural for the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company’s Long Distance Center in Boston, Massachusetts; a collection of late-1950s Time Magazine cover portraits; and a very nice selection of European etchings, engravings, and woodcuts, which appear to date from the late 19th century. The other image reference files series is arranged by subject, and is comprised mostly of magazine tear sheet and newspaper clipping photographs. Most of this material dates from the 1920s. The image reference subject files emphasize many of the same areas of interest covered in the rest of the collection, including animals; clothing and dress, which is the largest section of the image subject files; dancers; and Native Americans. Also featured are illustrations by early 20th-century artists Erte and Raphael Kirchner. The graphic design file contains some interesting instances of art deco and art nouveau design and a good selection of typography samples.

Series 4: Personal Files (1887-1970)
This series consists primarily of address books and lists and general biographical material, but also includes some date books, financial records, and legal documents. The series is arranged alphabetically by type of file. The address books are of two types, general volumes covering a particular date span and specialized volumes for a particular purpose. The non-specialized address books tend to be earlier, although the last two address books are also of this type. The specialized address books almost all date from the 1930s and 1940s, and the titles given by Link are used in the finding aid. Perhaps the most interesting address books are those giving contact information for dancers, models, and women because Link often wrote comments about appearance and body type, sometimes illustrated with a small sketch. Some address books also doubled as sketchbooks, featuring impromptu sketches of a variety of subjects. Carl Link also created address lists on pieces of paper and collected addresses and telephone numbers on business cards and paper scraps, which are also part of the collection.

The biographical material in the collection covers some, but not all, aspects of Carl Link’s life. Personal documents such as Link’s birth certificate, naturalization certificate, First World War draft card, passports, and driving licenses are included in the collection. Link penned some autobiographical material, such as his German language account of his passage to the United States on the S.S. Adriatic and some notes about his education and career. A collection of his business cards documents the many residences and studios he occupied during his years in New York City. The two most intensively documented aspects of his life are his assistance to his parents and other friends and relatives in Germany after the Second World War and his travels in Europe and the United States. Post-war assistance to relatives is primarily documented by brochures, invoices, and notes of various types. Link’s extensive travels are not completely covered in the collection, but featured are itineraries, hotel bills, correspondence, brochures, sailing schedules, and other documents. Other biographical material includes news clippings about Link and his activities; information about his parents and Bad Tolz, Germany, where they lived for many years; membership cards in several cycle clubs; and sketches and notes about the Link family coat of arms.

Date books and date book pages date from 1909 through 1953, but they are very scattered and lightly used; the 1909 date book includes sketches of people and typical German scenes. Financial records are also quite scattered and consist of a few bankbooks and other bank records. The financial records are rounded out by a small number of bills and invoices, some tax returns from the late 1920s and early 1930s, and two personal account or expense books, one of which has some sketches. Several of Link’s homes and studios are documented by floor plan sketches and notes about his paintings and other furnishings. Legal documents include employment contracts, a power of attorney, and two apartment leases.

Series 5: Subject Files (1902-1961)
Includes a variety of topically arranged files reflecting many of Carl Link’s personal and professional interests, including art and artists, art education, dance and dancers, motorcycles, music, Munich Oktoberfest, and the theater. The series is arranged alphabetically by subject.

The material on art and artists includes newspaper clippings and magazine articles about artists and the profession of art; a variety of art exhibition invitations and programs, primarily from the New York area; and articles and handwritten notes about art techniques and studio equipment. Of particular interest are two large flyers from 1938 and 1941 advertising the paintings of Western artist William R. Leigh, which include images of two Leigh paintings owned by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, an earlier version of The Leader’s Downfall and Crooked Anyway You Take Him. The art education files include documentation of both the curriculum and the schools where Link taught. Included are extensive handwritten notes and diagrams concerning human anatomy and human anatomy curriculum, some of which is in German. Link also collected the brochures of various art education programs, which are included. Although the collection includes some material from seven different schools Link was associated with, the most extensively documented are the New York Evening School of Industrial Art and the Norton Gallery and School of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. Featured are student art exhibition programs, school brochures, teaching certificates, notes and sketches concerning models and poses, class lists, and extensive teaching notes.

Dance was one of Link’s most passionate personal interests, and this is amply demonstrated in the collection. Link collected a large number of newspaper and magazine articles about dancers and dance productions, including clippings of the “The Dance” column published by The New York Times dating from the late 1920s and early 1930s. Also included are brochures and other information about dance schools and The Dancer’s Club in New York City. The Dancer’s Club, sponsored in part by dancers Ruth St. Denis and Margaret Severn, was a residential and educational facility for young, aspiring dancers. Link served on the board and designed the organizational logo. Included are programs, invitations, brochures and minutes from a 1933 board meeting. Notable in the collection is the large number of dance programs and invitations dating from the early 1920s into the 1950s. Many of the luminaries of the dance world are represented including Martha Graham, Yeichi Nimura and Lisan Kay, Ruth Page, Albertina Rasch, Ruth St. Denis, Uday Shankar, and Margaret Severn, along with many lesser-known performers. Link also collected articles and other materials documenting musical performers, but to a much lesser extent; most notable is a deluxe program for a performance by Spanish actress and singer Raquel Meller.

Link’s interest in the theater was closely related to his art career. He collected articles, programs, and memorabilia concerning the producers and actors who worked on the shows for which he did design work. The subject files on Nikita Balieff, Lady Diana Cooper, producer Morris Gest, Rosamond Pinchot, and Max Reinhardt fall into this category. Link also saved articles, programs, and invitations documenting other shows and actors about which he had a personal rather than a professional interest. The theatrical production that has the most intensive documentation in the collection is the Oberammergau Passion Play. Link retained material related to his Oberammergau Passion Player portraits; publications utilizing his portraits; articles, brochures, booklets, and memorabilia related to the performances themselves; as well as articles and memorabilia concerning the persons who acted in the Passion Play. The two years with the most documentation are 1922 and 1930, but there is also some material on the 1934 performance.

Carl Link’s enthusiasm for motorcycling is shown in the collection material about his Henderson motorcycle. Included are a detailed invoice showing all the customizations he ordered and what they cost; brochures about the Henderson motorcycle and the optional sidecar, which Link ordered; insurance and licensing documents; and a detailed technical drawing with German annotations that seems to show the operation of the motorcycle’s optional Bosch magneto. Oktoberfest in Munich, Link’s hometown, is documented in the collection by two Oktoberfest songbooks, a booklet of Oktoberfest illustrations by German artist August Roeseler, and a rare copy of the official 1935 Munich Oktoberfest program. Other topics covered in less detail in the subject files include fashion; lecture programs; articles about artists’ models; research materials, including extensive documentation of books consulted while researching traditional clothing and dress of the world; society news; travel; and world events. The subject file of poems and writings by others includes a humorous bit of doggerel written by an anonymous Palm Beach woman telling Link she wants him to teach her “how to be naughty and still be nice.”

Series 6: Photographs (1892-1959)
This is one of the largest series in the collection. The series is arranged into prints and negatives subseries, and then alphabetically by subject. The prints and negatives document Link’s artwork and commercial illustration; his interest in photographing the world around him; personal interests such as animals, dance, and the theater; travel; his artists’ models; his family, friends, and personal life; and some image reference material. Virtually all of the photographs and negatives are black and white, although many of these have aged to a sepia tone. The artwork negatives are large format 5×7 and 8×10 negatives, but unfortunately seventeen of these negatives have developed cracked or crystallized emulsion rendering them difficult or impossible to use for scanning or printing purposes. Artwork negatives comprise the majority of the collection negatives.

Link’s artwork and commercial illustration is well documented in the prints and negatives. However, it should be noted that the indication of multiple photographs of artwork in the container list is somewhat misleading; the collection often includes multiple prints of the same painting or drawing. Included are some examples of animal paintings, landscapes, architectural paintings, nudes, and commercial illustration, but most of the photographs document his portrait work. Photographs of Link’s portraits include many of his dancer portraits; two portraits of his father; German actress Lil Dagover; rodeo trick rider Eleanor Heacock; men, women, and children in traditional Bavarian dress; ten of his portraits of Native Americans in traditional dress; as well as virtually all his Oberammergau Passion Play portraits. Behind the scenes photographs of Link painting two of the Blood Indian portraits and the Eleanor Heacock portrait are also included. The photographs of the Heacock portrait sessions reveal that, while both Heacock and her horse Sonny Boy were painted from life, they were painted during different sessions. The artwork negatives cover most of the same paintings as the prints, but there are a few additional pieces represented including Link’s painting of St. Kateri Tekakwitha with Molly Spotted Elk as his model, but unfortunately this negative has crystallized emulsion. Although a number of Link’s Oberammergau portrait photographs exist as standard large format negatives, nine of his 1930 portraits are also available as glass negatives. The collection also includes prints and negatives of some Link commercial illustrations, including magazine illustrations, advertisements, posters, Christmas cards, the decorated curtain for Chauve-Souris, and the billboard sized mural he completed for the Marion Davies film When Knighthood Was in Flower. This billboard mural is particularly well documented, not only does the collection contain prints and negatives of the two main images of jousting knights, but Link also shot a number of photographs of the completed mural in place at 7th Avenue & 47th Street in New York City.

Carl Link’s extensive collection of performance and studio photographs of dancers is another collection highlight. Pictured dancers include the Dolly Sisters, Vera Fokina, Gilda Gray, Tamara Karsavina, Lisan Kay, Albertina Rasch, Ruth St. Denis, Uday Shankar, and cast members of the Morris Gest production Aphrodite. Two of the Dolly Sisters photographs are studio portraits inscribed to Link. Other collection photographs document his interest in film and theater. Film and theater prints include portraits of Morris and Simeon Gest, for whom he did stage setting and costume design work, Marion Davies in costume in “When Knighthood Was in Flower,” and photos of the Oberammergau Passion Play cast, including some shots of Link posed with cast members. Photographing and sketching animals was another lifelong interest of Link reflected in the collection. Included are photographs of horses, dogs, and some zoo animals, which were apparently photographed at the Bronx Zoo in New York.

The collection includes over 90 Link photographs documenting Manhattan and Coney Island during the 1920s and early 1930s. Images include street scenes, buildings, Central Park, views from the harbor, the arrival of a zeppelin, railroad yards, and numerous images of people at the Coney Island beach in 1920s swimwear. Link also took a number of travel photographs, including many images of Germany and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s showing people, parks, buildings, festivals, and street scenes. A small group of photographs, mailed to Link by friend Jack Kerner, show the Caribbean, including Aruba and the Virgin Islands, in the late 1920s. Also included are some United States travel photographs, mostly from the summers he spent teaching art at Glacier National Park in Montana. Some photographs taken on the Asbury Park, New Jersey, boardwalk appear to date from before 1920.

Personal photographs include photographs of Link, his family, and his friends. Included are some photographs of Link’s parents and extended family in Germany; most of these photographs seem to date from the 1920s and 1930s. There are also many photo portraits of Link’s female friends, but most are unidentified. Also included are many photographs of Link with friends, including Winold Reiss and others. Some photographs showing the furnishings of Link’s apartment and studio are also included. Photographs of Link and others in various automobiles in Europe and the United States and more than twenty photographs of Link in Europe on his Henderson motorcycle are included. Finally, there are many casual and formal portraits of Link from all stages of his life, including photographs of Link dressed in costume for a school theatrical at the Royal Academy in Dresden and the Beaux-Arts Ball in New York.

The Photographs series also includes portfolio photographs of artists’ models and posed model photographs taken by Link; image reference photographs, especially pertaining to clothing and dress; images of ships and shipboard life taken during some of Link’s trans-Atlantic voyages; glamour photographs of women; one 1937 photograph showing Link’s paintings on exhibit; and four negatives of a young Native American woman in traditional dress that were cryptically labeled “Jim’s Indian Girl Photos.”

Subject Terms

Personal Names:
Asanger, Jacob
Bal¯iev, N. F. (Nikita Fedorovich), 1877-1936
Blue Eagle, Acee, 1907-1959
Cornwell, Dean, 1892-1960
Davies, Marion, 1897-1961
Davis, John W. (John William), 1873-1955
Erté
Eulenburg, Strie
Fokina, Vera Petrovna, 1886-1958
Gest, Morris, b. 1881
Heacock, Eleanor
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
Horse—Sonny Boy
La Follette, Philip Fox, 1897-1965
Leigh, William Robinson, 1866-1955
Link, Carl, 1887-
Link family
Meller, Raquel, 1888-1962
Naldi, Nita, d. 1961
Phillips, Else
Proell, Lulu
Reiss, Winold, 1886-1953
Richards, Lucyle Garmes
Roeseler, August, 1866-1934
St. Denis, Ruth, 1880-1968
Spotted Elk

Corporate Names:
Norton Gallery and School of Art (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
S.S. Adriatic (Ship)

Subject Headings:
Address books
Artists’ models
Cityscape photographs
Cowgirls—New Mexico
The Dance Magazine
Dancers
Design drawings
Drawings
Glamour photographs
Glass negatives
Henderson motorcycles
Horses
Indians of North America—Montana
Invitations—1920-1950
Liberty Magazine
Murals
National socialism—Germany—Bavaria
Negatives
The New York Times
Oberammergauer Passionsspiel
Oktoberfest—Germany—Munich
Pen works
Pencil works
Photographic prints
Portrait photographs
Portraits
Programs
Tear sheets
Tempera paintings
Theater programs
Theatre Magazine
Theatrical posters
Travel—Montana—Glacier National Park
Watercolors
Women—Dance
World War, 1914-1918—Public opinion—Germany
World War, 1939-1945—Public opinion—Germany

Processing Information

The Carl Link Papers was processed by Jonathan Nelson in 2003.

In September 1968 Dean Krakel’s Western Art Fund purchased the papers along with original artwork from the Carl Link Estate. In November 1969 Dr. and Mrs. Lloyd Owens purchased the collection from the Western Art Fund. In October 1974 Edwin J. Beinecke, Jr. donated the collection to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (the original name of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum). It is unknown what was done to the collection while in the hands of these outside parties. In the 1970s some of the collection was placed in subject-specific folders by former National Cowboy Hall of Fame (NCHF) librarian Esther Long. In 1991 Charles Rand re-housed additional collection material in new folders with the original folder titles. Other parts of the collection, most notably the German language correspondence, were still in the original boxes and had not been touched. Some collection materials were originally stored in the art storage vault and other museum locations. A 1969 letter from Esther Long to Eleanor Heacock, one of Link’s portrait subjects, a 1977 article about Heacock, and materials relating to a posthumous Link exhibition at the NCHF were also added to the collection at some point.

After gathering together all the pieces of the collection, and in view of the problematical collection history noted above, it was clear that an original order could not be determined. Collection organization and arrangement was created during processing based on an analysis of the collection itself, although some aspects of the organization and arrangement were suggested by Link’s original folder and envelope titles.

Preferred Citation

Carl Link Papers, Box ##, Folder ##, Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Container List

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