Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Letterio Calapai Papers, 1858, 1870, 1900-1993(bulk 1920s-1993), in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.calalett
Creators:
Calapai, Letterio, 1902-1993
Dates:
1858, 1870, 1900-1993
bulk 1920-1993
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
3.4 Linear feet
Repository:
The papers of Italian-American painter, engraver, and printmaker Letterio Calapai measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1858 through 1993 (bulk 1920s-1993). Found are correspondence, teaching and project files, writings and notes, printed materials, photographs, and sketchbooks, including one with scenes of Rockwell Kent's dairy farm in upstate New York.

Scope and Content Note

Scope and Content Note
The papers of Italian-American painter, engraver, and printmaker Letterio Calapai measure 3.4 linear feet and date from 1858 through 1993 (bulk 1920s-1993). Found are correspondence, teaching and project files, writings and notes, printed materials, photographs, and sketchbooks, including one with scenes of Rockwell Kent's dairy farm in upstate New York. Calapai's teaching career is documented through correspondence, writings and notes, as well as files concerning his position at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. Projects files are found for Calapai's reprint of an 1845 engraving of The Capture of Major Andre by Asher B. Durand for the Historical Society of the Tarrytowns, New York, reprints of print originals by Thomas Bewick, the Look Homeward Angel engravings, and a possible exhibition and book about British engraver William Hogarth.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The Letterio Calapai papers are arranged into eleven series based primarily on type of material. Documents within individual folders are arranged chronologically by year.
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Biographical Material, 1928, 1948-1993, undated (Box 1; 6 folders)
  • Series 2: Correspondence, 1858, 1870, 1934-1992, undated (Boxes 1-2; 0.6 linear feet)
  • Series 3: Printed Material, 1925-1991, undated (Box 2; 12 folders)
  • Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1921, 1941-1992, undated (Boxes 2-3; 6 folders)
  • Series 5: The Historical Society of the Tarrytowns, New York, Project File, 1966, 1970-1980, undated
  • Series 6: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, Teaching Files, 1965-1981, undated (Box 3; 5 folders)
  • Series 7: Thomas Bewick Project Files, 1938-1988, undated (Box 3; 4 folders)
  • Series 8: Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward Angel Portfolio Project Files, 1929-1990, undated (Box 3; 7 folders)
  • Series 9: William Hogarth Engravings Project Files, undated
  • Series 10: Photographs, 1900-1990, undated
  • Series 11: Artwork and Sketchbooks, 1960-1988, undated

Biographical Note

Biographical Note
Italian-American painter, engraver, and printmaker Letterio Calapai was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1903. His parents emigrated from Sicily and encouraged his participation in the arts at an early age. Calapai studied at the Massachusetts School of Art, the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, under artist Robert Laurent at the Art Students League, and at the American Artists School under Ben Shahn.
While in New York, Calalpai worked as a lithographer in a commercial printing shop but eventually abandoned this to pursue his own printmaking and painting full time, an endeavor made possible with the financial help of his former professor, Charles Hopkins. In 1933, Calalpai received his first exhibition, a one man show of his oil paintings, at the Art Center in New York City.
In the 1940s, Calapai became William Hayter's personal assistant at the Atelier 17 printmaking workshop and began to focus much of his work on this medium. He created a hugely successful portfolio of wood engravings inspired by the Thomas Wolfe play Look Homeward Angel. New York's George Binet Gallery hosted an exhibition of these prints the same year, a show that resulted in purchases of the portfolio by the libraries of Harvard University, Princeton, and the Boston and New York Public Libraries. Calapai also created book illustrations for a number of manuscript projects including 45 wood engravings for How God Fixed Jonah (1946), a West African adaptation of Old and New Testaments accounts in the Bible.
Calapai founded and chaired the Graphic Arts Department of the Albright Art School in Buffalo from 1949-1955 and taught at various universities and colleges, including the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, the New School for Social Research, and New York University. He also established the Intaglio Workshop for Advanced Printmaking in Greenwich Village. He later left New York to teach at the University of Illinois, where he established a training studio and gallery.
Letterio Calalapi died in Glencoe, Illinois in 1993.

Administration

Author
Rosa Fernandez
Provenance
The Letterio Calalapi papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by the artist in 1992.
Processing Information
The Letterio Calapai papers were processed by Rosa Fernández in March 2003.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Terms of 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
Letterio Calapai papers, 1858, 1870, 1900-1993 (bulk 1920s-1993). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Sketches Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Study and teaching Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketchbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Prints -- 20th century Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Printmakers -- Illinois Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts -- Faculty Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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