Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Alice Cahana Papers, 1971-1983, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.cahaalic
Creators:
Cahana, Alice Lok, 1929-
Dates:
1971-1983
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.2 Linear feet
Repository:
The scattered paintings of painter and collagist Alice Cahana measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1971 to 1983. Found are biographical material, correspondence including a handmade card by Cahana, printed material, and writings.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The scattered papers of painter and collagist Alice Cahana measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1971 to 1983. Found are biographical material, correspondence including a handmade card by Cahana, printed material, and writings including a recollection about her incarceration in Auchwitz-Birkenau during World War II.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Alice Cahana (1929-2017) was a Hungarian-born painter and collagist active in Houston, Texas. Her works often comment on the Holocaust.
Born Alice Lok in Hungary, Cahana and her family were transported and incarcerated in multiple Nazi concentration camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Guben and Bergen-Belsen. Her father was given a fake passport by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg and survived the war. At Auchwitz-Birkenau, Cahana and her sister created art as decoration to win a contest orchestrated by the Nazi guards. Cahana was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and settled in Sweden to be reunited with her father. Later, she moved to Houston, Texas and studied at Rice University.
Cahana married Rabbi Moshe Cahana and had three children. She died in 2017.

Administration

Author
Jayna M. Josefson
Sponsor
Processing of this collection received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
Existence and Location of Copies
The collection is also available on 35mm microfilm reel 3435 at the Archives of American Art Offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
Processing Information
The Alice Cahana papers were microfilmed as part of the Archives of American Art's Texas project on reel 3435. The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2022 with support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Alice Cahana donated her papers to the Archives of American Art in 1982.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Conditions Governing Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Preferred Citation
Alice Cahana papers, 1971-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Painters -- Texas -- Houston Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Collagists -- Texas -- Houston Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women painters Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Jewish artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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