Esta Nesbitt fashion illustrations
Online Access
Available digital items: https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/collections/KA008601.
Summary
Esta Nesbitt (1918-1975), an instructor at Parsons School of Design from 1964 to 1974, created fashion illustrations for Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, and New York Times Magazine. Later in her career, Nesbitt used innovative printing methods as a children's book illustrator, and experimented with Xerography. The collection primarily consists of 271 fashion illustrations, pre-publication layouts, mechanicals, proofs, and tear sheets.
Dates
- 1944 - 1964
Creator
- Macy's (Firm) (Sponsor, Organization)
- Nesbitt, Esta (Person)
- Saks Fifth Avenue (New York, N.Y.) (Sponsor, Organization)
Extent
22.2 Cubic Feet (2 boxes, 12 oversize boxes, 4 map case drawers, consisting of 271 illustrations in total)
Language of Materials
English
Scope and Contents of Collection
The Esta Nesbitt fashion illustration collection in the New School Archives represents Nesbitt's work predominantly as a fashion illustrator over the course of two decades. The collection includes original fashion illustrations, pre-publication work, clippings, and tear sheets of illustrations Nesbitt executed for Mademoiselle magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Franklin Simon & Co., among others. Nesbitt's original work is rendered in charcoal, ink, pastels, and gouache. Some of the tear sheets (i.e., printed pages of illustrations as they appear in published form) for Mademoiselle bear the stamp of Fritzie Miller Associates. Miller, an agent for commercial illustrators, presumably represented Nesbitt, and these works may have been used in a promotional portfolio.
Many of Nesbitt's illustrations in this collection provide evidence of the various stages of the publication process, frequently displaying lines to revise the underlying illustration, and extensively annotated with printer's instructions regarding print size, scale and color. Many have tissue or acetate overlays for the purposes of color separation or to present alternate positions and styles. Some layouts have cut-out sections of figures affixed to the illustrations, replacing or correcting gestures, facial expressions, and garment patterns. A number of the works here, such as the mechanicals for Macy's and Bamberger's, display extreme stylistic differences from the bulk of Nesbitt's work, suggesting that they may not have been executed by Nesbitt (they are identified in the inventory below).
A very few of the original works here reflect Nesbitt's work outside of fashion illustration, although it is not known whether they were produced for book projects, as fine art, or for other purposes.
Dates without parentheses following titles pertain to the date of creation; those inside parentheses indicate publication date.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.
Use Restrictions
To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Biographical note
Born in New York, Esta Nesbitt (1918-1975) studied at the Traphagen School of Design, Columbia University, and New York University. From the 1940s through the 1960s, Nesbitt led a successful career as a fashion illustrator for leading magazines and newspapers. Her work was often entered in the annual juried competition of the Society of Illustrators, at least once receiving a Certificate of Merit. She held an especially long and creative association with Mademoiselle magazine.
Around 1960, Nesbitt began taking painting and printmaking courses, and studied brush calligraphy at the China Institute of America, one of a number of styles and techniques she experimented with in a burgeoning new career as a children's book illustrator (another was the sugar-lift aquatint print). In the 1960s Nesbitt also became a pioneer in the use of reprographic technology to make fine art. Xerox Corporation sponsored her experimentation, providing access to the latest-model copiers in their showroom and holding an exhibit of her work, "Xerography--Extensions in Art," at their New York headquarters. In the late 1960s, Nesbitt pursued yet another form of aesthetic expression as a performance and conceptual artist in New York City, sometimes incorporating her reprographic prints into these works. (Kelvin Mason, "CCP Acquisitions: Esta Nesbitt--Xerox Art Pioneer." SubtopiaStudios.com. Accessed 19 Sept. 2011. http://www.subtopiastudios.com/writing). Nesbitt exhibited widely during her lifetime. She died in New York in 1975. Parsons School of Design--where Nesbitt had taught from 1964 to 1975--held an exhibition of her work in October 1977.
Organization and Arrangement
Organized in 5 series, arranged alphabetically within series: 1. Unidentified; 2. General; 3. Madmoiselle magazine; 4. New York Times magazine; 5. Saks Fifth Avenue
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated to Parsons School of Design by Saul Nesbitt, Esta Nesbitt's husand, in 1979; later transferred to the New School Archives.
Processing Information
Series and folders titled by commissioning publication and advertising campaign, when identified. Otherwise titled by department store or manufacturer; or by description of garment depicted and/or format.
- Advertising layout and typography (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Commercial art -- United States (Subject) (Places) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Department stores -- United States (Subject) (Places) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Fashion drawing (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Fashion illustration. (Subject) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Fashion illustrations (layout features) (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Fashion illustrators (Occupation) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Periodical illustrations (Type of Material) Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Tear sheets (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Women artists -- United States (Subject) (Places) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Women's clothing (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Esta Nesbitt fashion illustrations
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- New School Archives and Special Collections Staff
- Date
- December 7, 2011
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Revision Statements
- August 28, 2017: Extent and component locations altered after re-housing.