Esther’s Library

The following offers a list of the books, pamphlets, and manuscripts in the Esther Lewittes Mipaas Collection. Some of these titles such as Michael and Anne in the Yosemite Valley by Virginia and Ansel Adams and The Inhabitants by Wright Morris count among the most celebrated photobooks of the 20th century. Other publications are more reflective of Esther’s diverse research interests in art, antiques, iron, and regional history. All books are currently housed with the Esther Lewittes Mipaas Collection in the Bay Area, California.

Adams, Virginia, and Ansel Adams. Michael and Anne in the Yosemite Valley. New York: Studio Publications, 1941. [Box 6]

Adams, Ansel, Nancy Lynne Newhall, and Ruth Kirk. Death Valley. Redwood City (California, US): 5 Associates, 1970. [Box 6]

American Cast Iron Pipe Company. The Lamprecht Collection of Cast Iron Art. Birmingham, Ala., 1941. [Box 1]

Antiques. April 1955. [Box 4]

Includes articles by Esther Lewittes, “A Mexican Eighteenth-Century Wool Rug” (pp. 321-323) as well as an article by Elizabeth McCausland, “American Still-Life Painting” (pp. 324-327) in addition to contributions by Jean Berain, Alice Winchester (the volume’s editor), K.B. Brett, Martha Lou Gandy and Dean A. Fales, Jr., and John Hayward.

Antiques. October 1974. [Box 4]

Includes an article written and photographically illustrated by Esther Lewittes, “The Terrace in New York’s Central Park” (pp. 649-657)

Antiques World 3, Nr. 4. February 1981. [Box 4]

Includes an article written and photograpically illustrated by Esther Mipaas, “The Many Lives of the Warwick Vase” (pp. 102-106).

Aphra 5, Nr. 3/4. Fall 1974. [Box 4]

Full title: Aphra: The Feminist Literary Magazine. Authors include Catharine Stimpson, Mary Rouse, Rikki Lights, Elizabeth Fisher, Daphne Patai. Art by Anon., Maude Boltz, Kathleen Caraccio, Francoise Grossen, Rosemary Mayer, Gail Singer. Poetry by Beth Copeland, Estelle Milligan, Helena Minton, Marge Piercy, Alice Walker.

Art d'aujourd'hui : revue d'art contemporain 3, Nr. 6. August 1952. [Box 4]

Braznell, William. California's Finest: The History of the Del Monte Corporation and the Del Monte Brand. [San Francisco, Calif.]: Del Monte Corp, 1982. [Box 1]

Caldwell, Erskine, and Margaret Bourke-White. Say, Is This the U.S.A. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1941. [Box 6]

Collectors of American Art, Inc, and Emily A. Francis. Collectors of American Art, Inc. New York, N.Y.: Collectors of American Art, Inc., Printed by the Modern Press, 1954. [Box 4]

Encounter 23, Nr. 3. September 1964. [Box 4]

The Feminist Art Journal 5, Nr. 3. Fall 1976. [Box 4]

The Feminist Art Journal 5, Nr. 4. Winter 1976-77. [Box 4]

The Feminist Art Journal 6, Nr. 1. Spring 1977. [Box 4]

Fore 'n' Aft 2, Nr. 46. November 12, 1942. [Box 1]

Special issue of the journal published by the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corporation, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation, and Henry J. Kaiser Company. The issue contains photographs and text about the building of the prefabricated ship, Robert E. Peary, Hull 440.

Fulton Mall Improvement Association. Fulton Mall Business Directory: With History, Walking Tour, and Maps of Downtown Brooklyn. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Prisma Graphics, 1979. [Box 6]

Esther Mipaas is credited as architectural editor of this publication. The book includes article by her and photos by her and David Weiss.

Forum 138, Nr. 4. May 1973. [Box 4]

Photocopy of article “Changing Walls: Art for the People and the People as Artists.”

Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics 1, January 1977. [Box 4]

Includes contributions by such artists, writers, and theorists as Martha Rosler, Ruth E. Iskin, and Lucy R. Lippard. Seed money for the issue contributed by Nancy Graves, Ann Sutherland Harris, Ruth Fine Lhrer, Sol LeWitt, Linda Nochlin, and Barbara Novak.

Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Mass.). Hyman Bloom. Institute of Contemporary Art, 1954. [Box 4]

L'Oeil: revue d'art mensuelle. Nr. 43/44, July-August 1958. [Box 4]

Maimonides, Moses, Avraham Yaakov Finkel, and Mintzi Schramm. Rambam: Shemonah Perakim, the Eight Chapters ; an Introduction to Ethics of the Fathers ; Perek Chelek ; Discourse on the World to Come. Scranton, Pa: Yeshivath Beth Moshe, 1994. [Box 4]

Marillier, H. C. The Tapestries at Hampton Court Palace. London: Published for the Ministry of Works by H.M. Stationery Off, 1962. [Box 4]

Minotaure. Nr. 3-4. Paris: A. Skira, 1933. [Box 4]

Surrealist magazine with cover by André Derain.

Mipaas, Esther. Cast Iron Bridges in Central Park. New York: Friends of Cast-Iron Architecture, 1980.

As part of her research on cast iron, Mipaas took copious photographs of several examples of architecture and sculpture around New York City. Her photographic files contain numerous photographs from this research that were never published.

Morris, Wright. The Inhabitants. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946. [Box 7]

First edition signed “Wright Morris, Bryn Mawr, 12-11-47” in the lower left of the dedication page.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Richard B. K. McLanathan. Queen Tomyris and the Head of Cyrus (Peter Paul Rubens). Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1955. [Box 4]

Museum of Modern Art <New York, NY>. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Print Room 1949-1958. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1958. [Box 4]

Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.). Muse or Ego: Salon and Independent Artists of the 1880's : 75th Anniversary Exhibition. Claremont, Calif: Pomona College Gallery, 1963. [Box 4]

Parsons School of Design. New York City WPA Art: Then 1934-1943 and….Now 1960-1977 [New York]: NYC WPA Artists, Inc., 1977. [Box 4]

Catalogue to accompany the exhibition at the Parson School of Design, November 1977. Esther Mipaas credited as editor to the catalogue and among the sponsors of the exhibition.

Preservation. March-April 2008. [Box 4]

Esther’s daughter, Judith, added this magazine to her mother’s collection. The feature article by Diane Cole, “Joy on Eldrige Street” (pp. 24-29, 56-57) describes the restoration of a synagogue in New York City.

A Report from the San Francisco Crafts and Folk Art Museum. Fall 1989. [Box 4]

Rifkind, Carole. Main Street: The Face of Urban America. New York [etc]: Harper & Row, 1977. [Box 6]

Simpson, Marc, and Donald L. Stover. USArt: An Exposition and Sale of American Art from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Friday-Sunday, February 5-7, 1993, Herbst Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, California, 1993. [Box 4]

Status [magazine], March 1966. [box 6]

Wildenstein and Company (New York, N.Y.), Camille Pissarro, Vladimir Visson, and Daniel Wildenstein. A Loan Exhibition of Paintings. Camille Pissarro, His Place in Art. 1945. [Box 4]

Waldman, Max, and Zero Mostel. Zero by Mostel. New York: Horizon Press, 1965. [Box 7]

Contains handwritten message in Hebrew signed by Zero Mostel.

Letters and Manuscripts

Mipaas, Esther to Jamie [draft], June 4, 1993. [Box 4]

Mipaas, Esther to Joanna Williams [professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley, draft], January 4, 1994. [Box 4]

Mipaas, Esther “Frederick Law Olmsted in Northern California: A Wilderness, a Cemetery, a Suburb, a Campus, and an Urban Park,” [nd., 36 pp.] [Box 4]

Mipaas, Esther. “Mary Hallock Greenewalt: Light and Music, the Electrical Art.” [n.d., 18 pp.] [Box 7]

Photocopies, Mimeographs, etc.

Syllabus, “Non-Fiction Writing, Section Two” [August 23, 1990]. [2 copies, box 4]

Millstein, Barbara H. and Municipal Archives, Department of Records and Information Services. Work and Working: NYC WPA Photographs, 1980. [Box 4]

Typed and photocopied catalogue for an exhibition that ran from September 4 until October 17, 1980 at Surrogate’s Court House, Chambers Street, New York, New York. The exhibition was organized by Barbara H. Millstein of the Municipal Archives and funded by the New York Council for the Humanities. Millstein thanks Esther Mipaas in her acknowledgments. The catalogue lists 120 photographs, two of which were by Esther’s husband, Cyril Mipaas: Aunt Dinah’s Kitchen, Home of the Negro Theater. 135th Street, between 7th and Lenox Avenues, East of the Y.M.C.A., Harlem, N.Y.C.” September 28 [no year] and Dicky Wells Club, Harlem [no date]. A 2018 exhibition of photographs from the Municipal Archives paid homage to Work and Working.

Jackson, Kenneth T. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. [photocopied page 1190, Box 5]

Includes an article by Esther Mipaas on Tompkins Square.