Anne Ryan Manuscript Collection
Scope and Contents
The Anne Ryan Manuscript Collection is comprised of typescripts of approximately 23 of Ryan’s literary works. The collection was donated by Anne Ryan’s daughter, Elizabeth McFadden.
Dates
- Majority of material found in ca. 1925 - 1950
Conditions Governing Access
There are no access restrictions on this collection. Photocopying of materials is limited and no materials may be photocopied or photographed without permission from library staff. Many manuscripts are brittle.
Conditions Governing Use
Researchers wishing to publish reproduce, or reprint materials from this collection must obtain permission.
Biographical / Historical
Anne Ryan – born 1889 (Hoboken, NJ); died 1954 (Morristown, NJ)
A collage artist and painter, Anne Ryan did not begin an art career until she was fifty and she was
sixty before she began her small scale collages of found objects which are now her signature works. The style was cubist-inspired abstractions, highly colorful and textured. She only lived to age seventy but in the decade in which she did the collages, she was quite prolific from her Greenwich Village studio.
She was born in Hoboken, New Jersey to a wealthy Irish family. She attended a Catholic convent
school and then St. Elizabeth's College, but left in 1911 before graduation to marry William Mc
Fadden, a law student.
She was unhappy as a wife and mother and separated from her husband in 1923 and took back
her maiden name. She moved to Greenwich Village in New York and lived a Bohemian lifestyle.
She also spent time in Spain and Paris and then returned permanently to live in Greenwich
Village.
In 1941, she had her first exhibition of oil paintings and then in 1948, saw a collage exhibition of
work by German artist Kurt Schwitters. From that time, she did her small-scale assemblages,
using found objects such as postage stamps, candy wrappers, and textured paper.
She died from a stroke and spent the last few months of her life at her son's home in Morristown,
New Jersey.
Source: American Women Artists by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein
Extent
.834 Linear Feet : 2 Hollinger Boxes of loose papers
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Collection of typescripts and manuscripts by Anne Ryan.
Physical Location
Special Collections Office, 5 Washington Street
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Elizabeth McFadden, 1973
- Author
- Nadine Sergejeff
- Date
- 2014
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections, Newark Public Library Repository