The papers of painter, muralist, children's book author and illustrator James Daugherty measure 6.5 linear feet and date from 1904-1978. The papers document Daugherty's career and artistic process through a small amount of biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, and sketchbooks. The 150 sketchbooks span seven decades and are the bulk and highlight of this collection. They contain preparatory drawings and sketches for artworks, murals, and illustrations, as well mock-ups for books, travel sketches, and a good deal of writing. Daugherty worked in both a non-objective abstract style and in representational illustration. His illustrations depict biblical stories and familiar characters and caricatures from American folklore including Revolutionary War heroes, Native Americans, American explorers and frontiersman.

The papers of New York art collector Chester Dale measure 8.4 linear feet and date from circa 1883-2003. Dale amassed one of the world's most complete collections of nineteenth and twentieth century French art, was a collector of eighteenth century American portraitists, and a patron and collector of twentieth American artists including George Bellows and Mary Cassatt. The bulk of the collection dates from 1920 to 1970 and documents Dale's activities through biographical material, correspondence, memoirs and other writings, purchase, sales and estate records, printed material, scrapbooks, and photographs.

The papers of painter, muralist, and illustrator John Steuart Curry, and Curry family papers, measure 10.1 linear feet and date from 1848 to 1999. Papers document his career and family history through certificates, correspondence, photographs, clippings, contracts, receipts, inventories, writings, notes, and other materials. The papers contain particularly rich documentation of Curry's period as artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin, from 1936 to 1946. Mural projects in Kansas, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin are also documented.

The papers of art critic Thomas Craven measure approximately .7 linear feet and date from 1919 through 1949 and 1975. The collection consists primarily of a dismantled scrapbook (1925 1949; 1975) containing newspaper clippings of Craven's articles and writings which span his career. Also found within the scrapbook are reviews by Oscar Bluemner and Byron Browne of Craven's two anti-modernist books, Men of Art and Modern Art. The collection also contains four letters concerning publications, a typescript essay about Thomas Craven's early career, two files of scattered writings in manuscript form, two bound handwritten manuscript versions of A Treasury of Art Masterpieces (1939), and Greek Art (1950), and miscellaneous loose newsclippings.

The records of New York City gallery, Betty Cuningham Gallery, measure 7.1 linear feet and 6.47 gigabytes, and date from 1970-1982 and 2004-2014. The bulk of the collection pertains to the reestablishment of the gallery in 2004, and includes artist files, exhibition files, guest books from exhibitions, exhibition catalogs and announcements, and scrapbooks. Among the artist and exhibition files are several promotional digital video recordings produced by the gallery featuring interviews with artists and curators. The gallery's early records, Cuningham Ward from 1972-1978 and Betty Cuningham Gallery from 1978-1982, contain artist files, exhibition files, a financial ledger, printed material, and photographs.

The papers of Romare Bearden measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1937 to 1982. The collection includes biographical information, correspondence, writings by and about Bearden, miscellaneous legal and financial material, photographs, drawings, and printed material. Found are numerous letters referring to African-American arts movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including exhibitions, publications, associations, and scattered letters of a more personal nature.

This collection, which measures 3.02 linear feet and dates from circa 1900 to 1986, documents the lives of painter and educator Leon Berkowitz and his first wife, poet Ida Fox Berkowitz, and provides insight into the cultural and artistic climate in 1940s and 1950s Washington D.C. through correspondence, notes, sketches, photographs, printed material, and audio cassettes.

The papers of painter and muralist Gifford Beal measure 7.7 linear feet and date from 1889 to 2001. The bulk of the collection consists of artwork, in addition to correspondence, writings, printed matter, including one scrapbook, pictorial subject files, photographs, and two scrapbooks of photographs of works of art. Artwork is primarily in the form of sketches and seventy-eight sketchbooks in a wide variety of media. Among the loose sketches are twenty-eight oil paintings on wood board or panel, and fourteen large pastel drawings on canvas depicting dancing figures in a romantic style. Artwork by other artists in the collection include prints by Arthur B. Davies, Rockwell Kent, and Denys Wortman.

The Wallace Berman papers date from 1907 to 1979 (bulk 1955-1979). The collection measures 5 linear feet and presents a cursory overview of Berman's career as an assemblage artist and poet. The collection contains business correspondence, letters from other artists and writers of the Beat movement, writings by others, scattered artwork by Berman, photographs by Robert F. Heinecken, and sound recordings of poetry readings.

The papers of southern California Pop artist Billy Al Bengston measure 10.4 linear feet and date from circa 1940s to 1989, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1960 to 1988. The collection documents the life and work of the artist through biographical materials, correspondence, personal business records, gallery and museum files, teaching files, project and commission files, scattered artwork, printed materials, and photographs.