Photography

The John D. Schiff Collection contains both photographic prints and negatives of John D. and Trude Schiff’s photography careers. The subjects are predominantly portraits of artists and their works. Highlights include portraits of Ludwig Bemelmans and his Madeline illustrations, as well as photographic prints of Marcel Duchamp's Twine installation. and many other photographs of works of art.

The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence and photos. The voluminous correspondence saved by the Axelrads mostly deals with professional elaborations between former colleagues and friends, who had scattered to the farthest corners of the globe to escape the Hitler regime and so we have letters (to or from) Australia, South-America, Palestine, and of course the United States. In some instances we gain a faithly accurate picture of the living conditions in the countries of exile. Remarkably well drawn are the descriptions of Marseille, Cuba (both by Alice Laqueur), of Palestine, and most noteworthy, the odyssee of Leontine Axelrad.

Series I includes correspondence with friends in Germany in the mid-1930s; and with personal relations, 1930s-1960s and 1987.

Series II holds photographs and albums from pre-war Europe, some with captions (circa 1929-1935), as well as albums of travel and leisure, 1950s-1960s. Also included is documentation of a year Eva spent in Bavaria in 1975/1976 as an educator at a boarding school; this album is oversized and housed with oversized materials.

This collection documents the professional and personal lives of John (Hans) and Trude Schiff, with emphasis on John Schiff's career as a professional photographer. Although the greater part of the collection focuses on his photography, the collection additionally holds papers pertaining to the Schiffs' immigration, legal and financial papers pertaining to restitution from Germany, documentation of Trude Schiff's early medical career, and personal correspondence and photographs. Aside from the preponderance of photographs, the collection holds letters, address books, exhibit catalogs, and official documents, and a few clippings.

This collection documents the personal life and professional career of art director, editor, and photographer Kurt Safranski (1890-1964), who co-founded the photo agency Black Star in 1935. The collection also includes information about the career and life of Kurt’s daughter, Tina Fredericks-Koch, née Safranski (1922-2015), who worked as an art director for magazines and in real estate.