Ben Shahn at Harvard Commencement
The Fine Arts Library holds the collection of Stephen Lee Taller devoted to the American artist Ben Shahn (1898-1969). The Archive contains many thousands of items related to the artist’s work, including books written by and illustrated by Ben Shahn, magazines in which his work was featured, exhibition and auction sales catalogues, commercial work (book jackets, record jackets, advertisements), dissertations, and newspaper clippings. An image inventory attempts to record every know work by the artist.
A separate portion of the Taller Archive held by the Harvard Art Museums includes drawings and graphic work. The Museums also hold Shahn’s entire archive of photographic negatives. All of those works may be viewed in the Museums’ collections database.
Shahn presented the 1956-57 Charles Eliot Norton lectures, published as The Shape of Content. He also received an honorary degree from the University in 1967.