Martha Longenecker Papers, 1916-2013 (MSS 784)

Extent: 1.2 Linear feet (3 archives boxes)

Papers of Martha Longenecker, ceramic artist, professor of art, and founding president of Mingei International Inc., a non-profit foundation dedicated to furthering understanding of arts of the people. The collection contains Longenecker's notebooks documenting her glazing techniques, some files on Mingei International Inc. and the Mingei International Museum, and a small amount of biographical materials, correspondence, and subject files on ceramics and Native American art.

Martha Williams Longenecker was born on May 18, 1920 in Oklahoma City. She earned her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and her M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California, where she studied painting with the artist Millard Sheets. In 1952, while attending a week-long graduate seminar, Martha met and was profoundly influenced by Dr. Yanagi Soetsu, founder of the mingei ("art of the people") folk arts movement in Japan. She decided to devote her life to art which had a practical use. Longenecker went on to do post-graduate study of ceramics in Japan under Shoji Hamada and Tatsuzo Shimaoka and became an accomplished ceramics artist.

Longenecker was an art professor at San Diego State University from 1955-1990. With support from her late husband, Sydney Martin Roth, she founded Mingei International, a non-profit public foundation for furthering understanding of arts of the people. She also served as director of the Mingei International Museum of World Folk Art in San Diego from 1978-2005. While at the Mingei, she supervised its 1996 move from University Towne Centre to its current location in Balboa Park, and directed or designed nearly 130 art exhibitions, 33 exhibition documentary publications, and 19 videos.

Longenecker was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan in 2003 for her lifelong contribution to world folk art. She died October 29, 2013 at the age of 93.

Papers of Martha Longenecker, ceramic artist, professor of art at San Diego State University, and founding president of Mingei International Inc., a non-profit foundation dedicated to furthering understanding of arts of the people. The collection contains Longenecker's notebooks documenting her glazing techniques, some files on Mingei International Inc. and the Mingei International Museum, and a small amount of biographical materials, correspondence, and subject files on ceramics and Native American art. The subject files include material on sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, whose work has been extensively exhibited at the Mingei.

Arranged in five series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) MINGEI FILES, 4) NOTEBOOKS and 5) SUBJECT FILES.

Container List

BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS

Box 1 Folder 1
Résumé, ca. 1987
Box 1 Folder 2
One-page biography, 2006
Box 1 Folder 3
Biographical outline form (completed), undated
Box 1 Folder 4
Interview transcript. "Re-recording session 1 with Martha Longenecker", undated
Box 1 Folder 5
Interview questions and answers from the Consulate General of Japan, 2003
Box 1 Folder 6
Interview questions and answers relating to the founding of the Mingei
Box 1 Folder 7
Interview with Terry W. Roberts. Notes and partial transcript, 2007
Box 1 Folder 8
Tribute by Richard Armour, 1980
Box 1 Folder 9
Letter confirming honorary degree of Dean of Fine Arts, SDSU, 2007
Box 1 Folder 10
Klee Wyk Society (San Diego Museum of Man) membership booklet
Box 1 Folder 11
Notes, undated
Box 1 Folder 12
Mexico grant, SDSU
Box 1 Folder 13
Photographs
Box 1 Folder 14
Alhambran yearbook, 1937

CORRESPONDENCE

Box 1 Folder 15
Miscellaneous
Box 1 Folder 16
Letters, Mingei International Museum 20th Anniversary, 1998 May
Box 1 Folder 17
"Leanne" letters
Box 1 Folder 18
Hiroshi, letter and invitation with mounted photographs to pottery exhibition in Tokyo, 1962
Box 1 Folder 19
The Family Circle (group letters for spiritual renewal)
Box 1 Folder 20
Letters from John Longenecker, 1944, 1960

MINGEI FILES

Box 1 Folder 21
Photographs of galleries (some with Longenecker), undated
Box 1 Folder 22
Mingei Sixth Anniversary gala invitation, 1984
Box 1 Folder 23
Leadership transition binder, 2005
Box 1 Folder 24
Members' reception invitation for Millard Sheets retrospective, 1987
Box 1 Folder 25
Exhibitions
Box 1 Folder 26
Mingei Legacy Resource Foundation, 2013

NOTEBOOKS

Box 2 Folder 1-2
Notebook 1

Miscellaneous jottings, some loose papers laid in.

Box 2 Folder 3-4
Notebook 2

Includes formulas for ceramic materials and glazes. Some loose papers laid in.

Box 2 Folder 5-6
Notebook 3

Includes formulas for ceramic materials and glazes. Some loose papers laid in.

SUBJECT FILES

Box 2 Folder 7
L.H. Butcher Co. Ceramic Tips newsletter, 1948-1950
Box 2 Folder 8-9
Native American art
Box 2 Folder 10
Syllabus for Beginning Pottery, USC Dept. of Fine Arts, ca. 1959
Box 3 Folder 1
Anderson, Patricia. A guide for creative activities with clay, San Diego City Schools, 1961
Box 3 Folder 2
Leach, Bernard. Letter, pottery catalog and exhibition ephemera, 1954-1967
Box 3 Folder 3
Watercolor of potter by an unidentified artist, undated
Box 3 Folder 4
Pamphlets on Japanese gardens, 1999
Box 3 Folder 5-7
de Saint Phalle, Niki

Correspondence, flyers for exhibits, writings and press releases.

Oversize FB-071 Folder 5
Black and white family photographic portrait, 1916