James Lee Byars - Dorothy C. Miller Correspondence
1961-1987

in The Museum Of Modern Art Archives

The Museum of Modern Art
Museum Archives
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019-5497
moma.org/learn/resources/archives

© 2006 The Museum of Modern Art. All rights reserved.

The Museum of Modern Art, Publisher

Finding aid prepared by Eve Lambert, 2004.

Machine-readable finding aid derived from various sources, 2006. Machine-readable finding aid created by Jonathan Lill. Description is in English.

Biographical Note

James Lee Byars: Byars was born in Detroit in 1932. He studied art, psychology, and philosophy at Wayne State University and the Merrill Palmer School of Psychology, graduating in 1955. A 1957 meeting with artist Morris Graves led Byars to move to Japan, where he lived until 1963, studying Buddhist philosophy and Noh theater in Kyoto. Byars met Dorothy Miller in 1958, when she arranged for his New York debut by exhibiting Byars' folded paper pieces for a few hours in an empty stairwell at The Museum of Modern Art. His practice of one-sided correspondence allowed him to explore an imaginative manipulation of paper. In addition to Dorothy Miller, Byars also engaged Joseph Beuys and Parisian art dealer Christiane Germain in one-sided correspondence.

Dorothy Miller: Dorothy Canning Miller was born in Hopedale, Massachusetts in 1904, and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. She graduated from Smith College in 1925 and was hired by the Newark Museum in 1926 after enrolling in their apprentice program. It was there that she began working with modern American art, catching the attention of The Museum of Modern Art Director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., who hired her as his assistant in 1934. The first exhibition for which she was responsible was New Horizons in American Art [MoMA Exh. #52, September 14-October 12, 1936]. As one of the first curators at The Museum of Modern Art, Miller became a pioneer of modern American art, organizing a series of "Americans" exhibitions that helped to establish the careers of such artists as Pollock, Rothko, Stella, and Byars. After only a year at MoMA, Miller became Assistant Curator in Painting and Sculpture, and in 1942 was made Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture. From 1943 she was Curator of Painting and Sculpture, until 1947, when she was made the Curator of Museum Collections, a position she held until 1967. From 1968 - 69, Miller was the Senior Curator in Museum Collections, until her retirement in 1969. Miller passed away in 2003 at the age of 99.

Restrictions

Location and Access

The records are open for research and contain no restricted materials.

Holdings of the MoMA Archives are available for consultation in the Archives Reading Room in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building of The Museum of Modern Art

The James Lee Byars - Dorothy C. Miller Correspondence is stored at MoMAQNS, and is made available by appointment at the Cullman Center or at the QNS location. Please contact the Archives for further details.

Ownership and Literary Rights

The James Lee Byars - Dorothy C. Miller Correspondence is the physical property of The Museum of Modern Art. Literary rights, including copyright belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Rights to work produced during the normal course of Museum business resides with The Museum of Modern Art. For further information, and to obtain permission to publish or reproduce, contact the Museum Archivist.

Related Collections at MoMA and Elsewhere

The Dorothy C. Miller Papers are maintained by The Museum of Modern Art Archives and contain information on Miller's exhibitions and activities during her time at the Museum.

The Public Information Records include extensive clippings regarding nearly every Museum exhibition, personality, and event.

For complementary exhibition-related materials, please consult the Registrar Exhibition Files.

The Department of Circulating Exhibitions Records (CE) include information regarding MoMA exhibitions that toured domestically.

The Records of the International Program (ICE) include documentation regarding exhibitions that circulated internationally.

Administrative Information

Provenance

The documents were initially collected by Dorothy Miller, Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, and were given by Miller to the Museum Library in 1986. The collection was accessioned to the Museum Archives via internal transfer in 1998.

Preferred Citation

The James Lee Byars - Dorothy C. Miller Correspondence, [series.folder]. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.

For subsequent citations the abbreviated version may be used: Byars - Miller Correspondence, [series.folder]. MoMA Archives, NY.

Condition

Many of the letters from Byars have been written on or consist of paper, cloth, or plastic that had been folded, rolled, or crumpled. The correspondence contains a great deal of organic matter such as leaves, flowers, seeds, or stones.

There have been several measures taken to preserve the material. Extensive preservation was necessary to ensure the stability of the material and the integrity of its content. All correspondence has been removed from any envelope or enclosure, which was then placed behind the document. Whenever possible, material has been unfolded and flattened. Fragile material has been enclosed in Mylar sleeves and backed with acid-free paper. Where there is the presence of small or delicate material, the Mylar has been completely sealed to prevent loss or damage. Some items have also been mounted on acid-free paper with archival-grade double-sided tape to enable researchers to easily view the material without damaging the items. When necessary, the archivist has transcribed the contents of the letter onto acid-free paper and enclosed the transcription and original letter in the same Mylar sleeve or within the acid-free folder to minimize wear on the material while enabling researchers to read the contents of the letter. This is noted in the finding aid. In some cases, Byars' letters were transcribed by Dorothy Miller's assistants and this is noted in the finding aid as "Original transcript included." There are instances where one large envelope contains several smaller identical envelopes and contents. In this case, everything has been enclosed in one Mylar sleeve into which a sheet of acid-free paper was inserted, creating a front and back. On the front of this Mylar sleeve an example of the smaller envelope and its contents has been mounted with archival-grade double-sided tape. The remaining examples, enclosed within the larger envelope, have been placed on the other side of the acid-free paper within the Mylar sleeve.

Additional Descriptive Data

Explanation of Abbreviations

AL is an Autographed Letter not signed.
ALS is an Autographed Letter Signed.
TLS is a Typed Letter Signed.
TL stands for Typed Letter.
MoMA is The Museum of Modern Art.
n.d. stands for no date.

MoMA Exh. #, or just Exh. #, followed by a date, refers to the number assigned to the exhibition and the date it was shown at The Museum of Modern Art.

Container List

Box and Folder List

Box	Folder Range
1	1-5
2	6-14
3	15-27
4	28-36
5	37-39
6	40
7	41-58