News – Summer and Fall 2008

Last July we received the Walter Ufer Papers from Dean Porter, Professor Emeritus of Art, Art History, and Design, and former director of the Snite Museum of Art on the Notre Dame campus. Walter Ufer (1876-1936) was an American artist associated with Taos, New Mexico; he is known for his paintings of Native Americans, particularly those of the Taos Pueblo. Dean Porter donated eight linear feet of Ufer correspondence and other papers dating chiefly from 1913 to 1936, including one linear foot of notebooks or diaries.

Along with the Ufer Papers, Porter sent eight linear inches of Howard Norton Cook Papers. Cook is also an artist known for his paintings of the American Southwest. Porter donated photocopies of letters received by Cook with related papers and four cassette audio tapes containing interviews with Cook.

In September and November Anthony O. Simon donated a collection of correspondence exchanged between twentieth-century Thomistic philosophers. Simon is the son of philosopher Yves R. Simon and director of the Yves R. Simon Institute. He has for many years been active in the American Maritain Association. The collection includes photocopies of correspondence between Jacques Maritain and John U. Nef, between Yves R. Simon and John U. Nef, and between Jacques Maritain and his bibliographer Donald Gallagher, along with some other papers of Yves R. Simon. Years ago Anthony O. Simon donated a large collection of Yves R. Simon’s papers to the Jacques Maritain Center at Notre Dame, which also has an important collection of Jacques Maritain’s papers.