Albert Paley collection
Collection Scope and Content Note
This collection contains the personal, artistic, entrepreneurial, and teaching records of the sculptor Albert Paley, in addition to records of the artist Frances Welles Paley. Materials include business and project records, correspondence, photographs and negatives, sketchbooks, realia, process work, travel and lecture notes, exhibition plans, studio administration documentation, videos, awards, publications, information on professional associations and the work and exhibitions of colleagues, and civic project records. Most material is physical and paper-based, but some collection materials are born-digital as part of the Paley Studios database and server.
The collection is arranged into five series, with multiple subseries within. An overview can be found in the System of Arrangement note, and details for series-specific arrangement can be found in notes for each series.
Dates
- Creation: 1920 - 2020
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1955 - 2019
Creator
- Paley, Albert (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
While the collection is in process, materials listed on this page are only available with advance notice.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is open for use, though access may be limited during processing.
Biographical Note
Albert Paley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1944. He attended Tyler School of Art for both his Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpting and Master of Fine Arts in goldsmithing between 1962 and 1968. In 1969 he was hired as an Assistant Professor in RIT's School for American Crafts where he taught until 1972. From 1972 until 1984 he taught at SUNY Brockport. Since 1984 he has been an Artist in Residence at RIT.
During his early career as a goldsmith, he made primarily jewelry. This changed in 1973 when the Smithsonian contracted him to create the Portal Gates for the Renwick Gallery. After this important architectural commission, Paley worked mostly in forged iron. His work on decorative and functional sculpture came from both public and private commissions. His studio expanded as the number and scale of projects he executed increased until 1984, when he incorporated his business as Paley Studios. For the next three and a half decades, Paley designed and created works installed in public and private spaces all over the world.
Early in Paley's art education, the importance of recordkeeping for professional advancement was reinforced. As a result, Paley began his art career as a diligent recordkeeper. This is demonstrated by the number of resume versions, lists of photography, collection of exhibition and lecture announcements and publications, and correspondence files from even before Paley Studios was incorporated. After 1984, as the business further grew and systematized internal practices, Paley and his staff began the project of creating a "Paley Archive" which would document the history of the work. Computing advances made creation of a multifaceted database possible, cataloging not only the final sculptures but the process work and supporting documentation for all production work in the studios.
In 2018, Paley made the decision to begin downsizing his studio operations.
Albert Paley still lives and works in Rochester, NY.
Extent
240 Box(es)
Language
English
Overview
The Albert Paley Collection contains documentation across the life and work of sculptor Albert Paley. It includes the extensive records from from Paley Studios, documents from his teaching career, personal and biographical materials, and records from a long career as a working artist which blur the line between professional and personal. Also in the collection is documentation of the artist Frances Welles Paley, Albert's wife.
System of Arrangement
An outline of the in-process arrangement is below. This may change as the collection is further processed.
Series I: Personal papers, 1955-2000
- Subseries: Family
- Subseries: Academic
- Subseries: Collections
Series II: Artwork
- Subseries: Jewelry, 1966-1974
- Subseries: Creative process
- Subseries: Business of sculpture
- Subseries: Exhibitions
- Subseries: Lectures and conferences
- Subseries: Professional Associations
- Subseries: Publications
- Subseries: Awards
- Subseries: Community of artists
Series III: Paley Studios operational records, 1984-2020
- Subseries: Project files
- Subseries: Shop Binders
- Subseries: Preservation Image Transparencies
- Subseries: FileMaker Pro database
- Subseries: Server
Series IV: Teaching, 1968-2000
- Subseries: Temple University School of Art 1968-1969
- Subseries: SUNY Brockport, 1972-1984
- Subseries: Rochester Institute of Technology, 1969-2000
Series V: Frances Welles Paley
How to locate project-specific materials
Albert Paley's work on individual projects is sometimes distinct from the work of Paley Studios on projects. Paley Studios also kept files and binders in specific systems that are differentiated from documentation kept in more informal areas of the studio and office. In an effort to preserve this dynamic, working documents for the many projects represented in the collection may be found in several places, and referred to by several control numbers or no number at all.
There are three main places in this finding aid to look when trying to locate project-specific materials.
- In Series III: Project Files, and Series III: Shop Binders, the formal office and shop filing systems are represented. These were originally housed in either filing cabinets or three-ring binders and used often before, during, and after project completion.
- In Series II: Business: Projects, files and documentation accumulated which were either duplicative of (some removed) or extraneous to the more formal filing systems. These may have been found in Paley's desk, in boxes created by the studio when the office moved but not later unpacked and then donated as a whole, or otherwise unfiled. Most of these records, however, were easily identifiable during processing as pertaining to specific projects from file folder labels or other notation.
Regarding identifying number codes, Paley Studios uses several identifiers to indicate different aspects of a project. Each identifier is unique, but a project may have more than one associated. The two main numbers are the account number and the archive control number. The account number represents a business category for each project (commission, exhibition, series, maquette, etc.), and the archive control number represents the object type (architectural gates, decorative lecterns, site-specific sculpture, etc.). There are several other identifier codes in use throughout the collection and database. Please see Series III for a complete list.
When searching for a specific project in the finding aid, the user may need to look in each of the above series and subseries, but can also use the search box. Input an account number or archive control number if you know it ("C-150" or "PM-18" for example), and also try one or two specific words associated with the project such as "tree grates" or "naples."
Custodial History
Materials in the collection were donated directly to RIT Archives by Albert Paley and Paley Studios.
Processing Information
This collection is currently in process. Updates will be made to this page as parts of the collection become available.
Processed by
Collection was processed by Ella von Holtum, project archivist, beginning in Fall of 2024. Student assistant Riley Mason and others assisted.
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Albert Paley Collection, 1920-2020
- Author
- Ella von Holtum
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the RIT Archives Repository
