Hilton and Esta Kramer papers

Collection

Identifier: M252

Staff Only
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Scope and Content

The Hilton and Esta Kramer papers document the careers and personal lives of the Hilton and Esta. The papers (bulk 1960-2002) documenting Hilton Kramer's career as art critic for a number of newspapers and periodicals, including the New York Times (1965-1982), as author of several monographs on art history and as contributor to numerous other publications. Included are correspondence, subject files, newspaper and other clippings, published works, art exhibition files, and typescript drafts. Both subject files and "writings" files often include background information, such as articles written by others, museum and gallery catalogs, photoprints, and manuscript notes. Notable correspondents include Ansel Adams (August 14, 1977); Robert Altman (January 18, 1977); Josephine Herbst (for whose estate Kramer served as executor); Gregory Masurovsky; and Robert Motherwell (June 11, 1969; October 3, 1976; July 5, 1977; October 14, 1982; December 22, 1982; May 8, 1985). Frequent correspondents include Stanley Burnshaw, Daniel Curley, Joseph (Mike) Epstein, Elinor Langer, James Lord, Aleksis Rannit, Howard Rogovin, Roger W. Straus, Jr., Jerry L. Thompson, and Eliot Wagner. Files documenting Hilton Kramer's involvement with the New Criterion are not present.

The papers also document the collecting history of Esta Kramer whose collection of cookbooks is included in Special Collection. Esta's papers contain a selection of recipe cards, correspondence, and photographs. Correspondents include Anita Mozley, Ellie Heaslet, Lucie Oakley/Muriel Linde, Ruth Dech, and Lib Collins. Photographs consist of personal and family photos as well as some images by Frank Leslie. Journals and notebooks are also contained in her papers.

Dates

Creation: 1950-2002, undated

Creator

Kramer, Hilton (Person)

Biographical/Historical Note

Hilton Kramer (1928–2012) and Esta Teich Kramer (1929–2020) were influential figures in the art world, deeply engaged in both criticism and collecting. Hilton, born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, graduated from Syracuse University in 1950 and pursued postgraduate studies at institutions including Columbia University and Harvard University. His career as an art critic began in 1953 with Partisan Review and expanded to include roles at Arts Magazine, The Nation, and The New Leader. In 1965, he joined The New York Times as art news editor, later becoming its chief art critic. In 1982, he left the Times to co-found The New Criterion, a publication dedicated to rigorous cultural criticism.

Esta Teich, born in Brooklyn, New York, developed an early interest in the visual arts and worked as an editor at Arts Magazine beginning in the 1950s. It was there that she met Hilton. They married in 1964 and built a life centered on the arts. While Hilton championed modernism and critiqued postmodernism’s impact on contemporary art, Esta fostered a deep appreciation for art, design, and culinary history. The couple amassed a significant collection of 20th- and 21st-century American art, featuring works by Joseph Cornell, Louise Nevelson, Richard Pousette-Dart, Anne Ryan, and David Smith.

In 2002, Hilton and Esta retired to Damariscotta, Maine, where their home became a living gallery, filled floor to ceiling with their collection. Esta, in particular, maintained strong ties to Bowdoin College, supporting the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives. She generously loaned works to the Museum and established an endowment for paid student internships. In 2015, she donated a historically significant collection of American cookbooks to Special Collections.

Their legacies endure through their writings, art collection, and philanthropy, with nearly 200 works from their collection now part of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s permanent holdings. Hilton Kramer died in 2012 followed by Esta in 2020.