Much of the material in this collection would be impossible to duplicate. Virtually every item provides insight into the diverse corners of Szyk’s life, the breadth and depth of his knowledge and interests, the causes he supported, and the way and manner in which his name became so widely known during his lifetime.
EPHEMERA
Books and Pamphlets
This section includes over thirty scare and quite rare Szyk-related booklets and pamphlets, among them the HUAC 1949 publication listing Szyk as a member of more than six subversive Communist-affiliated organizations.
Bergson Group Material
This subsection collection reveals the heart and soul of Arthur Szyk’s activism on behalf of the rescue of European Jewry during WWII. Szyk’s work with Peter Bergson’s groups in the United States is well documented here. According to Ben Hecht, Arthur Szyk was a one-man art department for the Irgun in America. Also, Szyk was a vice chairman of the American League, a founding member of the Committee for a Jewish Army, and contributing artwork to all of Bergson’s committees. Over sixty-five scarce and rare items comprise this section.
Bookmarks, Bookplates, Broadsheets, Greeting cards and Historic prints
Over sixty-five items are in this very diverse section of ephemera.
Early original photographs of Szyk’s art
Includes credits by A.C. Cooper & Sons (London), Frank J. Darmstaedter for The Jewish Museum New York, and several photos stamped with the credit of Roman Vishniac. Almost sixty original photographs are here along with a dozen reverse photographs (white on black).
Postcard Collection
Most of the postcards in this collection are printed in Paris in the 1920s, and Kraków and London in the 1930s. Many are signed and inscribed by Szyk, and several contain handwritten notes. Sixty original postcards, in virtually fine condition.
Poster Stamps
Included here are poster stamps (in booklets and full sheets) created to raise awareness and funds for Szyk’s many causes: the Allied war effort; the rescue of European Jewry; the creation of a Jewish homeland; and support for the newborn State of Israel.
Miscellany
A wide range of objects demonstrating the many ways Szyk’s art was commercially reproduced during and after his lifetime: CD covers, record album jackets, music boxes, plaques, plates, and more.
MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS
Magazines and Journals with Covers by Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk’s artwork appeared on the covers of more than two dozen different magazines and journals during his career. This section includes more than 40 items showcasing the diversity of Szyk’s illustrated subject matter.
Collier’s Magazine
While Norman Rockwell was illustrating covers for the Saturday Evening Post in the 1940s, Szyk was illustrating covers for Collier’s magazine. Szyk illustrated eight Collier’s covers between November 1, 1941 and February 27, 1943; all are included in this section.
Magazine Articles with Szyk Illustrations
This section—including more than 40 magazines—testifies to how widely Szyk’s artwork was circulated in American magazines during WWII.
Esquire Magazines with Szyk illustrations
Szyk was commissioned to create six full-page works of art specifically for Esquire.
Magazines with commercial advertisements illustrated by Szyk
The biggest businesses in America during WWII commissioned Szyk to create art to accompany their advertisements. More than twenty magazines in this section.
Commercial Advertisements illustrated by Szyk (single leaves)
This collection includes more than 20 single leaves.
Coronet Magazines with Szyk Contributions
Arthur Szyk illustrated twenty-three inside front covers for Coronet magazine from 1945–1948. All are included here, plus additional illustrations (inside pages) for the magazine beginning in 1942, for a section of nearly 40 items.
The American Mercury Magazine
This collection contains a complete run of the monthly publication from January 1941 through December 1942—twenty-four issues in all. Within nine of these magazines appear forty-three Szyk illustrations.
Answer Magazine
The Answer magazine was a non-sectarian American weekly dedicated to the Struggle for Hebrew National Liberation and the Independence of Palestine. It was published by the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People in Europe, and later, the American League for a Free Palestine, committees under the leadership of Peter Bergson. Szyk was both a member of and vice-chairman for these organizations. His artwork appeared on seven front covers for this magazine. Twice Szyk is profiled within its pages: “Arthur Szyk: Champion of His People” and “Thoughts on Hebrew Freedom.” This group of rare magazines, thirty-five overall, complements the Bergson Group material in the ephemera section of The Archives.
Menorah (Vienna/Frankfurt) and The Menorah Journal (New York)
The Menorah Journal featured articles and literature by leading Jewish scholars, intellectuals, and writers, and reproductions of contemporary Jewish art advancing a humanistic view of Jewish life. An article about Szyk with his illustrations appeared in the publication in May, 1928 in Vienna/Frankfurt; later his art appeared on three front covers between 1941 and 1951 when the journal was published in New York. A half-dozen copies of The Menorah Journal are included this section.
Magazines with biographies of Szyk
More than a dozen magazines are included here which contain brief biographies of Arthur Szyk during his lifetime. They include The New Yorker (August, 1941) article “Lodz’s Szyk” and a two-page spread in Click magazine (August 1942) entitled: “One-Man War Against Hitler: Arthur Szyk fights the dictators with pen, brush and venom”. Newsweek carried an obituary about Szyk in its September 24, 1951 issue, less than two weeks after his death [Szyk was also eulogized in The New York Times—see Newspaper section.]
NEWSPAPERS
The New York Times
In a four-year period (1941–1945) Szyk’s artwork appeared five times on the front covers of The New York Times Book Review. His artwork also appeared on three occasions within The New York Times itself accompanying ads by the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe and the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews. Over twenty different issues are included here.
The New York Post
Arthur Szyk was syndicated by both The Chicago Sun and The New York Post. From July 11, 1942 until September 23, 1944 over ninety different illustrations by Szyk appeared in The Post. Fifteen of Szyk’s illustrated newspapers are present here.
PM
Like The New York Post, PM was a liberal newspaper in New York (published 1940–1948). Szyk’s artwork appeared in over forty issues; almost all illustrations are present in this collection.
The Compass
Szyk created twenty-one editorial cartoons for The Compass, a short-lived paper (1949–1952) published in New York City. Ten issues containing Szyk illustrations are present in this collection.
Yiddish Newspapers with Szyk-Illustrated Articles and Articles about Szyk
All of the eighteen issues in this section are from the New York-based Der Morgen Zhurnal.
Additional newspapers
About twenty newspapers are included here, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Daily Tribune, etc.
POSTER COLLECTION
Historic Posters
More than twenty items are included in this section, including Arthur Szyk’s exceedingly rare and extremely large poster “Poland Fights the Nazi Dragon” for Polish War Relief.
Reproductions
A group of sixty reproduction large size posters from the 1990s are included in this section
SZYK’S PERSONAL MEMORABILIA
Arthur Szyk meticulously gathered and pasted his publicity into his personal scrapbooks, often annotated in his own hand with the date and place of publication. The Archives contains four virtually complete scrapbooks, plus additional leaves of two others. The New York Public Library and YIVO (New York) each own one Szyk scrapbook and are the only others in existence outside our collection.
Scrapbook One (1934)
Scrapbook One consists of forty-eight pages of material mostly dated between April and July of 1934. It is comprised of a collection of letters, telegrams, and newspaper clippings that deal primarily with Arthur Szyk’s work and public reception during his seven month stay in the United States. In addition to the various letters between third parties, Scrapbook One includes notes in Szyk’s own handwriting, as well as telegrams he received from well-wishers on his departure from the United States. There are several references to the success of his exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Scrapbook Two (1940–1941)
Scrapbook Two spans the years 1940-1941 and covers Szyk’s artistic and political dealings in Canada and the United States in the early years of World War II. The only exception to the chronology is the appendix, which contains a few pages of collected material from the mid-forties. The majority of Scrapbook Two is comprised of newspaper clippings detailing Szyk’s desire to aid the war effort by issuing a “call to arms” to all artists to produce political propaganda against the Axis; he also includes evidence of his own artistic involvement to that same end.
Scrapbook Three (World War II)
Scrapbook Three contains little by way of personal letters and telegrams and is comprised mostly of newspaper articles, cartoons, advertisements and magazine covers. Through these documents, one can trace Szyk’s ascent to fame in the United States and abroad as his drawings and caricatures proliferate in a myriad of different print mediums.
Scrapbook Four (World War II)
Scrapbook Four comprises 164 pages of rich material ranging from telegrams and personal correspondence to magazine covers and advertisements, to reviews and commentaries on Szyk’s exhibitions and publications. Perhaps the densest scrapbook and the most politically charged, Scrapbook Four provides the scholar with an intimate look at Szyk’s desperate attempt to save the Jews of Europe, his increasingly outspoken public persona, and his staunch defense of the Zionist movement. Multiple references in this scrapbook describe Szyk as a “soldier in art,” and proclaim his “pen is mightier than the sword” in his crusade against the Nazi regime.
1920s–1930s
(cross-listed with the Ephemera section)
1957. Scrapbook leaves
Compiled by Julia Szyk.
Personal Diary (1927)
While living in Paris, Szyk kept this personal diary, written with beautiful and elegant penmanship in Russian. 1927 must be considered a major milestone year in terms of Szyk’s elevated status in the art world: that year he began work on The Statute of Kalisz, which demonstrated his genius as a master illuminator. Szyk’s personal life was extraordinarily busy as he regularly frequented the most intellectual and elite and artistically creative cafés (Closerie, Dome and Deux Magot to name a few). At the end of October he wrote: “This month of October passed quite well, the work helped to forget daily problems. I am very satisfied. Work is progressing successfully …. I am writing these words in a very good mood because the atmosphere in my house in changing to an atmosphere of a house of a master. This I value more than life. I am mortal, but my work for the fame of my fatherland Poland will become immortal.” This is Arthur Szyk’s only known diary.
Pens and Brushes
A wooden cigarette box (13” x 6 ¾” x 1 ½”) embossed with the maker Alfred Dunhill / London contains a collection more than one hundred of Arthur Szyk’s pens and brushes. Many of the brushes have been cut, showing only a few hairs, and many of the pencil points have been carefully shaved in an elongated fashion.
Photographs inscribed to Szyk
The first photo is inscribed and signed to Szyk by the French Minister of Culture and Art Anatole De Monzie (Paris, late 1920s); the second by pianist Alexander Brailowsky (Paris, 1931); the third by General Władysław Sikorski (30 November 1938, and Warsaw 1934); and the fourth by Vladimir (Zev) Jabotinsky in full military dress inscribed and signed to Szyk (Paris, late 1920s).
Personal Medals
These three medals— the Palmes académiques (France), the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland), and the George Washington Bicentennial Medal (United States)—are suspended from a singular mounting bar measuring 2 ½” wide x 1 ½” in length (each medal less than ½” wide). Arthur Szyk proudly wore all three in several self-portraits.
Address Books
More than one-half dozen address books of Arthur Szyk reflect his personal and professional contacts in Poland, France, England, and America.
Personal Papers, Documents, Certificates, and Correspondence
Over 40 items are included in this section. Here are identified very specific personal items, for example: handwritten autobiographical statement signed; a TLS from Eleanor Roosevelt to Szyk (a photo of Szyk with Eleanor is in the Photograph collection); and Szyk’s personal statement regarding his Washington and His Times series.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Collection of Photographs of Szyk and his Family
Contained here are more than one hundred photographs of Arthur Szyk and his family. There are also photographs of several Szyk exhibitions, and others with Arthur Szyk posing with his artwork on display. Together these photographs provide a window into the artist’s life, as a young and older man.
STAMP COLLECTIONS
Award-winning Ken Lawrence Stamp Collection
This award-winning collection (“Special Study Exhibit”) was assembled by philatelic expert, collector, dealer, and scholar Ken Lawrence over a ten-year period and has been exhibited numerous times under the heading “Postal and Philatelic Art of Arthur Szyk.” It spans Szyk’s entire postal history and consists of professionally mounted pages in a binder of eighty-eight pages with full descriptions. Extremely rare Szyk postal items are included here. This collection could not be duplicated. A compendium reference binder assembled by Mr. Lawrence accompanies this collection.
Liberian—Jehudi Ashmun Collection
This collection includes Arthur Szyk’s original pen and ink drawing of the souvenir sheet and original pen, ink, and pencil proof. This is an outstanding, if not unique, two-volume collection of the Jehudi Ashmun Issue of 1952, the last philatelic work by Arthur Szyk.
ZIONIST MOVEMENT DOCUMENTS
Several hundred documents from the 1940s including letters, original mimeograph letters, press releases, booklets, newspapers, telegrams, questionnaires, etc. reveal the inside politics, infighting, and diplomacy of the Zionist movement in America. Some of the documents are marked “Confidential.” Undoubtedly much of this correspondence no longer exists elsewhere. This treasure trove reveals the diversity of opinion within the American Jewish Community and world Zionist organizations as to how best to bring about the creation of a Jewish State while also rescuing European Jewry. Because of Arthur Szyk’s activity in America on behalf of Jewish rescue, this reference collection serves as context for his actions, and more broadly provides insight into the American Jewish community dynamic.
Organizations featured in the correspondence
American Zionist Emergency Council (NY), The Jewish Agency for Palestine (London), Jewish Agency for Palestine (New York), Jewish Agency for Palestine (Washington, DC), ZOA (Zionist Organization of America), American Zionist Policy Committee.
Organizations attacked in the correspondence
American League for a Free Palestine, Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, Committee for a Jewish Army, Hebrew Committee for National Liberation—all groups in which Arthur Szyk was active.
Some individuals featured in the correspondence
Rabbi Stephen Wise, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, Peter Bergson, Samuel Merlin, and Chaim Weizmann (with several letters initialed by Weizmann).
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE MATERIALS
This section consists mostly of secondary material that serves as invaluable reference material to accompany the primary resource material in The Archives. More than one hundred-fifty three-ring binders are included in this section; several focus on the background of numerous Szyk illustrated books (e.g. contracts with The Limited Editions Club), and publishers who knew Szyk (e.g. Max Jaffe and Kasimir Bileski who published Szyk’s portfolio of Washington and His Times and the United Nations series, respectively); other binders focus on subject matter as diverse as Szyk’s investigation by the House on Un-American Activities committee, Szyk on Broadway, Bookplates created by Szyk, War Savings Bonds and the Treasury Department. Many binders contain information surrounding Szyk museum exhibitions over the past two decades. In this section is also found Julia Szyk’s unpublished memoirs and important Haggadah-related source material. Original photographs of Arthur Szyk and his family are included here as well as important Haggadah related source material. And there are also four binders documenting forgeries of Arthur Szyk art.
