Barbara Cowles collection of Beaux Arts Ball and RIT Art Department faculty photographs

Collection — Folder: 1

Identifier: RITArc-0377

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 32 black and white 3 x 3 inch photographs of the Beaux Arts Ball put on by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Art Department in the 1950s. The photographs are of individuals, mostly students, dressed in costumes and posing for the camera under an archway. Also included is a hand-written letter from Barbara Cowles, the donor, to Becky Simmons, RIT Archivist briefly explaining the gift.

There are six black and white 4 x 5 inch snapshots taken at an RIT Art Department function. There is another black and white 3 1/2 x 5 inch image of Tage Frid, woodworking faculty in the RIT School for American Craftsmen and other unidentified individuals. The last photograph is a black and white 3 x 4 inch snapshot of Dr. Paul A. Miller, RIT President, and his wife, Francena Miller at the Henrietta campus, probably around the early 1970s. Other photographs include RIT faculty Ruth Gutfrucht, Clifford Ulp, Harold Brennan, and Stanley Witmeyer.

Dates

Creation: ca. 1950's

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to researchers.

Historical Information: Beaux Arts Ball

Beaux Arts Balls or Bal des Quat’z Arts were the biggest, craziest parties of the Jazz Age. The Architecture community of the Ecole des Beaux Arts hosted the very first ball. The Beaux Arts Ball (in French the Bal des Quatres Arts) is the annual costume ball traditionally given by the students of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the spring, in the École building on the rue Bonaparte overlooking the Seine. Elaborately decorated allegorical floats circled the room at midnight and were judged by a panel. Its reputation for fabulously designed nudity, louche antics, cross-dressing and high style encouraged imitators in American cities. In 1931, in New York, famous architects dressed up as their buildings and today, many American architecture schools hold similar costume balls.

Almost two hundred years later the celebration continues in the United States and around the world today.

Extent

1 Folder(s) (1 envelope of photos)

Language

English

Additional Description

Overview

Barbara Cowles collection of Beaux Arts Ball and RIT Art Department faculty photographs consists of 32 black-and-white photographs from the 1950's. Also included is a hand-written letter from Barbara Cowles, the donor, to Becky Simmons, RIT Archivist briefly explaining the gift.

Arrangement

Photographs are arranged by subject.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection of photographs were donated to RIT Archive Collections by Barbara Cowles and from the family of Donald Bujnowski in May 2012. Accession number(s): 2012:017