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Margaret Webb Dreyer papers

 Collection
Identifier: AAA 7077

Biographical information; correspondence; printed materials including clippings, exhibition catalogs and announcements, articles in the HOUSTON REVIEW by Martin Dreyer, "The Way We Were: Houston's Culture in the 1940's" and "Portrait of a Houston Artist: An Interview with Margaret Webb Dreyer"; Dreyer Galleries file, 1962-1975; and personal photographs.

Dates

  • ca. 1948-1979

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Microfilm reel 1703 available for use at Archives of American Art offices; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Archives; and through interlibrary loan.

Conditions Governing Use

Collections are made available for research purposes only. Documents, photographs, art work, microfilm, recordings, and transcripts owned by the Archives of American Art may be protected by copyright, trademark, or a related interest not owned by the Archives. It is the sole responsibility of the applicant to determine whether any such rights exist, and to obtain necessary permission for use.

If you would like to reuse or redistribute a digital or microfilm document from the Archives of American Art, please submit a request through the research request system and note that you are interested in reusing the item. In order to protect both you and the archives, AAA must have a reproduction agreement in place. All reuse requests are subject to a $25.00 administrative fee.

Extent

1 Microfilm Reels

229 Images

Biographical / Historical

Margaret Webb Dreyer (1911-1976) worked with several styles and media, but is best known as an abstract expressionist painter.

She began teaching painting in the 1940's at Ripley House Houston.

She and her husband Martin Dreyer played an important role in progressive and political causes such as The Vietnam War. Margaret ran Dreyer Galleries for many years where she showed support for local, African-American and women artists. The Gallery was associated with progressive politics so much that it was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan group.

She is included in an alphabetical listing of Texas women who have helped shape the history of Texas. In 2013, Houstonia magazine named her one of the most influential Houstonians of all time.

For more information on the artist go to: http://www.theragblog.com/thorne-dreyer-a-tribute-to-maggie-my-mother/

Sources: Thorne Dreyer, A tribute to Maggie, my mother, http://www.theragblog.com/thorne-dreyer-a-tribute-to-maggie-my-mother/, May 18th, 2020.

Wikipedia, Margaret Webb Dreyer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Webb_Dreyer, May 18th, 2020.

Texas State Historical Association, Webb, Margaret Dreyer, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fdrku, May 18th, 2020.

Physical Location

Available only on microfilm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Other Finding Aids

AAA online guide at https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/margaret-webb-dreyer-papers-7077.

Acquisition Information

Lent for microfilming 1983 by Thorne Dreyer, son of Margaret Dreyer. Microfilmed as part of the Archives of American Art's Texas project.(From Smithsonian AAA)

Note: The Margaret Webb Dreyer Papers were microfilmed for the Texas Art Project at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as part of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. Currently the papers can be accessed on microfilm at MFAH. The University of Houston Libraries and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston are digitizing the Dreyer papers as part of a collaborative TexTreasures 2020 grant project through the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) with funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).When digitization is complete, the Dreyer papers will be made available online through UH Libraries and MFAH websites.

Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas Art Project Microfilm Repository

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