Paul Rogers Harris Gallery and Arts Organizations Mailings Collection
Scope and Contents
This is a collection of postcards and flyers sent by galleries and arts organizations to announce or promote exhibitions or events. The mailings were collected by Harris from 1960s-2010s, with the bulk from the 1980s and 1990s. The the bulk of the mailings are from Dallas, with additional mailings from galleries and organizations throughout the Metroplex and Texas. The collection does not include mailings from large museums or galleries outside of Texas. The collection also includes gallery mailings sent to Pamela and Bill Nelson which Harris acquired after Pamela Nelson installed an exhibition of them.
Metroplex has been defined as an area encompassing Fort Worth on the west, Denton and McKinney on the north, Rockwall on the east, and Waxahatchie on the south (functionally Lancaster and Cedar Hill based on content); minus the Dallas cards.
Dates
- 1960s-2010s
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for public research. Researchers must make an appointment to view this collection; contact the archives at archives@DMA.org.
Biographical / Historical
Paul Rogers Harris was born in Dallas, Texas in 1933. He graduated from the North Texas State College (now University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas in 1954 with major in art and minor in education. He went on to teach at the elementary and high school levels from 1954-1960. From 1960-1965 Harris was the art director of the Dallas Independent School District’s educational television program on KERA-TV, the Dallas PBS affiliate. During this time Harris also established and supervised the Children’s House at the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, an experimental program for teaching art to children ages 5-12.
In 1965 Harris moved to New York City to undertake graduate work at New York University. While in New York, he also worked in the education department of the Museum of Modern Art as a Lecturer (1966-1968) and Coordinator of Educational Services (1968-1970). While at MoMA, Harris also coordinated Claes Oldenburg’s Documents of the Ray Gun Theater in conjunction with Oldenburg’s solo exhibition at MoMA in 1969.
Harris returned to Dallas in 1970 to be the Head of the Department of Art Education at Southern Methodist University, a position he would hold until 1974. Harris became the director of The Art Center in Waco, Texas. He went on to curate 95 exhibitions in his 12-year tenure. He also began his career as an independent curator at this time, curating the inaugural exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art’s new education space called Gateway Gallery in 1984. Harris left Waco in 1986 to become the Director of the Craft Guild of Dallas, a position he held until 1988.
Harris transitioned to an independent curator, establishing Paul Rogers Harris Exhibitions in 1988. He curated numerous exhibitions at Dallas-area galleries, highlights include The Texas Printmakers, 1940-1965 at the Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University in 1990; and Breaking into the Mainstream: Texas African American Artists at the Irving Art Center in 1996. Harris was also a consignment dealer and executor of the estates of two Dallas-area artists, Barbara Maples and Coreen Spellman.
Paul Rogers Harris is also an artist himself, designing two holiday cards for MoMA in 1968 and 1971, and exhibiting work in competition exhibitions and other local galleries.
Harris died in 2019.
Extent
12.71 Linear Feet (10 cubic foot boxes, filed letter; 1 slim Hollinger)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This is a collection of postcards and flyers sent by galleries, arts organizations and artists to announce or promote exhibitions or events. The gallery cards were collected by Harris from 1960s-2010s, with the bulk from the 1980s and 1990s. Mailings are arranged in seven series: Dallas, Metroplex, Texas, Organizations, Artists, and Events.
Arrangement
Mailings are arranged in six series. Three series are based on location for commerical, non-profit and college/university galleries and small museums: Dallas, Metroplex, and Texas. Three additional series consist of non-gallery mailings: Artists, Events and Organizations. Within each series, cards are organized alphabetically by gallery. Miscellaneous files are present at the end of each series if applicable. Miscellaneous files consist of galleries where only a single mailing was received by Harris and Nelson. If there are mulitple envelopes for a gallery, cards are arranged by date (if determinable), gallery address, or unsorted if no usable arrangement can be discerned.
See Processing Information note for additional arrangement information.
Large envelopes have been used to contain the mailings as most are small postcards. For the purposes of description in Archives space, each gallery or organization will be assigned "File" as the level of description. For Phase II description the number of envelopes will be noted in a physical description note if more than one. Containers will be noted by carton number only. Envelopes are arranged alphabetically in a container.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Paul Rogers Harris. Gallery mailings were retrieved by Hillary Bober and Leigh Arnold from Harris's garage on 2 May 2012.
The collection was acquired by the DMA Archives as part of the DallasSITES (history of contemporary art in Dallas, 1963-present) research project (2011-2013).
Boxes were frozen in onsite freezers to kill any insects as materials were formerly housed in a garage.
Appraisal
Phase I sorting - During initial review, Archivist decided that mailings from outside of Texas would be discarded (primarily from New York and Santa Fe); mailings from large museums were also discarded during the sorting of mailings into three location-based series (Dallas, Metroplex, Texas).
Phase II sorting - Working by Phase I category (Dallas, Metroplex, Texas), processor sorted each mailing by gallery or organization name. In Phase II sorting, mailings were not generally reviewed for duplicates, which will be done in Phase III. The collection at the end of Phase II consisted of 6 cubic feet of Dallas, 1.3 cubic feet of Metroplex; 4 cubic feet of Texas; and .7 cubic feet of arts organiation, open studio, and artist mailings. Some non-art mailings were found and discarded in Phase II.
Processing Information
A small portion of mailings were processed in 2012-2013 per planned arrangement as described. Many mailings were used for a collage/boards in the DallasSITES exhibition in summer 2013.
Additional description/notes were added for DACS compliance and ArchivesSpace local usage guidelines in 2021.
Phase II (see appraisal note) sorting and arrangement was completed in December 2024 by Hillary Bober.
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Paul Rogers Harris Gallery and Arts Organization Mailings Collection
- Author
- Hillary Bober
- Date
- 2024-12-16
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Dallas Museum of Art Archives Repository