Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Allan Randall Freelon Papers, 1830-2018, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.freealla
Creators:
Freelon, Allan Randall, 1895-1960
Dates:
1830-2018
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
4.4 Linear feet
Repository:
The papers of African American painter and educator Allan Randall Freelon, who was based in Pennsylvania, measure 4.4 linear feet and date from 1830 to 2018. The collection contains biographical material, including appointment books and family history material; correspondence; writings; material related to professional activities, including exhibitions and school visits; personal business records, including estate records; printed material; scrapbooks; photographic material; and artwork and artifacts.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The papers of African American painter and educator Allan Randall Freelon, who was based in Pennsylvania, measure 4.4 linear feet and date from 1830 to 2018. The collection contains biographical material, including appointment books and family history material; correspondence; writings; material related to professional activities, including exhibitions and school visits; personal business records, including estate records; printed material; scrapbooks; photographic material; and artwork and artifacts.
Biographical material include address lists, certificates, appointment books, and family history material.
Correspondence includes a mixture of personal and professional correspondence with families, friends, galleries, museusm, and and Philadelphia area schools.
Writings consist of Freelon's MFA thesis, notes and notecards. There is also a fair amount of writings by others, such as essays, poems, reports, and even a travel diary from 1879-1880 by someone with the initials "I. J. G."
Materials related to professional activities include exhibition, project, and committee files. There are also assorted materials related to Freelon's work as the Art Director for Philadelphia public schools.
Also included are personal business records, which contain estate records (which includes a audiovisual recording), auction records, condition reports, inventories, property records, and sale records.
Printed material consists of clippings, magazines, newsletters, and exhibition catalogs and announcements.
There are three scrapbooks, which primarily contains a mixture of photographic material, correspondence, and printed material.
Photographic materials include slides, photographs, and negatives of Freelon, his paintings, studio, friends and family, and various other location.
Artwork and artifacts include sketchbooks, sketches, and one souvenir spoon from the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition of 1926.

Arrangement

Arrangement
This collection is arranged as nine series.
  • Series 1: Biographical Material, 1919, circa 1938-2001 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
  • Series 2: Correspondence, 1878-2010 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
  • Series 3: Writings, 1879-1880, 1922-1959 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
  • Series 4: Professional Activities, circa 1935-1957, 2000-2005 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
  • Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1856-1957, 1995-2018 (Boxes 1-2, OV 6; 0.3 linear feet)
  • Series 6: Printed Material, 1849-2015 (Box 2, Box 4; 0.5 linear feet)
  • Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1923-1960 (Box 2, Boxes 4-5; 0.7 linear feet)
  • Series 8: Photographic Material, circa 1880-circa 2006 (Boxes 2-3, Box 5, OV 6, MGP 6, Box 7; 1.6 linear feet)
  • Series 9: Artwork and Artifacts, circa 1912-circa 1960 (Box 3; 0.2 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Allan Randall Freelon Sr. (1895-1960) was painter and educator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania known for his impressionist paintings.
Freelon studied at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts), the University of Pennsylvania, and the Tyler School of Art of Temple University. He also spent summers studying painting with Hugh Breckenridge in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
His work was included in exhibitions at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, traveling exhibitions with the William E. Harmon Foundation, the Albright-Knox Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, the Howard University Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He was also one of seven Black artists included in the exhibition Art Commentary on Lynching, organized by the NAACP.
Freelon married Marie Cuyjet in 1918 and they had one son Allan Randall Freelon Jr. Freelon and Cuyjet eventually divorced and Freelon married Mary Kouzmanoff.
Freelon taught art in the Philadelphia public school system and in 1921 was appointed as assistant director of art education. In 1939 he was named the special assistant to the director of art in the Philadelphia public schools. Freelon also taught painting at Windy Crest, his studio in Telford, Pennsylvania, where he passed away in 1960.

Administration

Author
Rayna Andrews and Rihoko Ueno
Sponsor
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided in part by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Existence and Location of Copies
The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2023 and is available on the Archives of American Art website. The nitrate negatives in the photographic materials series have not been digitized.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Allan Randall Freelon papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 2019 by Nnenna and Maya Freelon as part of the Archives' African American Collecting Initiative funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. Nnenna is the widow of Phil Freelon, Allan Randall Freelon's grandson. Maya Freelon is Nnenna and Phil's daughter.
Processing Information
The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Rayna Andrews in 2021 with funding from the Henry Luce Foundation. The collection was fully processed and prepared for digitization by Rihoko Ueno in 2023 with funding provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.

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.
Access to nitrate negatives is restricted. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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
Allan Randall Freelon papers, 1830-2018. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
African American artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Educators -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scrapbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
African American painters Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
African American educators Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Diaries Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Drawings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Impressionism (Art) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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