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Mary Randlett photographs, 1947-2004

Overview of the Collection

Photographer
Randlett, Mary, 1924-
Title
Mary Randlett photographs
Dates
1947-2004 (inclusive)
Quantity
approximately 80,000 photographic negatives and prints
Collection Number
PH0723
Summary
Photographs of the people, places, and art of the Pacific Northwest spanning the latter half of the twentieth century photographed by Randlett
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access for paper-based materials. No user access copy is available for videocassette. Users may be able to obtain a reproduction of the media for a fee. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Partial funding for processing this collection was provided by the Pendleton and Elisabeth Miller Charitable Foundation
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Biographical Note

Mary Randlett has been photographing the people, places, and arts of the Northwest for over half a century. She was born Mary Willis on May 5, 1924, in Seattle, Washington. Her father, Cecil Willis, ran Superior Reprographics, a blueprint company. Mary's mother, Elizabeth Bayley Willis, was a curator and marketer of international folk arts and crafts and was intimately involved in the Northwest art scene. Mark Tobey and Morris Graves were among the artists she befriended, and Mary Randlett would photograph many of her mother's artist friends later in life.

After receiving her first camera at age 10, Randlett made her first set of prints, depicting Orcas Island, in 1937. Her next camera, which she used during high school, was a Kodak 620 folding camera. When her younger sister went to Whitman College, Randlett went along. At Whitman, she used a campus darkroom to process and develop her photographs of friends, professors, and the campus.

After graduating in 1947 with a degree in political science, Randlett returned to Seattle, where she apprenticed herself to fashion photographer Hans Jorgensen, who had been Louise Dahl-Wolfe's assistant. On Jorgensen's advice, Randlett purchased a twin lens Rolleiflex camera and began shooting portraits of families and children. Although Jorgensen gave her tips on processing and developing her photographs, he never influenced her photographic technique. Randlett's portraiture was, however, influenced by the informal approach of George Mantor. In 1950, she married Herbert Randlett, and they had four children: Bob, Mary Ann, Peter, and Suzy.

In 1963, Randlett photographed poet Theodore Roethke at his home in Seattle. He died just two weeks later. Before long, she was shooting portraits of Roethke's students, including future Pulitzer prizewinner Carolyn Kizer. Visual artists -- including Kenneth Callahan, William Cumming, Philip McCracken, Leo Kenney, and countless other well-known names in Northwest art -- soon followed. These photographs are not merely portraits; they also document artists at work, installations of pieces, and gallery shows. Randlett has photographed over five hundred artists and writers.

But she did not limit herself to portraiture: nature photography is of great importance to Randlett, and she has experimented with lighting and techniques throughout her career. She collaborated with the poet Denise Levertov on Lifting the Veil: The Northwest Landscapes of Mary Randlett, which features Levertov poems inspired by Randlett's nature photographs. Architectural photography is another important subset of her body of work: she has documented many homes, commercial buildings, and parks, as well as the architects and landscape architects who designed them.

After Randlett and her husband divorced in 1972, she moved to Virginia, where she assisted a friend with research on Northwest Coast Indians and worked on a commission for the National Register of Historic Places. She returned to the Northwest in 1975 and continued her nature and portrait photography. Randlett has also worked on commissions from various organizations, including the King County Arts Commission and the Northwest Living section of the Seattle Times, and has collaborated on many publications. Her photographs have illustrated books on Northwest artists, the Bloedel Reserve, Seattle's historic preservation movement, and public art in Seattle.

Mary Randlett's work has been included in more than 120 exhibitions, over twenty of which have been solo shows. Her photographs are found in the permanent collections of museums nationwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Northwest Art.

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Content Description

The collection contains black and white photographic prints, contact prints, negatives, and mounted exhibition prints depicting members of the Pacific Northwest's creative community over the second half of the twentieth century. The images document the region's poets, artists, writers, and architects in their studios and working environments, as well as examples of Northwest architecture and public art. Also included in the collection are publications featuring Randlett's work and a videocassette detailing Randlett's career and work.

The collection is arranged in several series. These include People and Their Work (Series I); Art, Architecture, and Places (Series II); Exhibition Prints (Series III); and Publications (Series IV). The People and Their Work series includes portraits of important figures in the art and literature of the Northwest. Artists and writers from Washington, Oregon, and Canada appear in this series. Not everyone pictured in the series is a well-known poet, painter, or author; Randlett also did commercial portrait work, and her portraits of children and families also appear in the collection.

In the photographs that make up Series II (Art, Architecture, and Places), Randlett documented architecture and landscape architecture, including homes, gardens, offices, banks, and a variety of other buildings. She also photographed art shows and exhibitions. While people may appear in the images in this series, they are generally not the focus of the photographs.

The Exhibition Prints series includes mounted exhibition prints depicting artists, writers, and other important local figures, as well as architecture and public art. The fourth and final series, Publications, includes magazines, newspapers, brochures, book jackets, and other publications featuring Randlett's work.

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

View selections from the collection in digital format

Restrictions on Use

The creators' copyrights have been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 7 series.

  • Series I: People and Their Work, 1947-2002
  • Series II: Art, Architecture, and Places
  • Series III: Exhibition Prints, 1949-2004
  • Series IV: Published Works, 1960-1995
  • Series V: Accession PH2007-012, 1951-2002
  • Series VI: Videocassette, 2003
  • Series VII: Accession PH2023-003, 1993-2006

Within each series, photographs are arranged alphabetically by the name of the subject and chronologically within each subject. In Series IV, publications are arranged alphabetically by publication title and chronologically within each publication.

Acquisition Information

Source: Mary Randlett; received between 2002 and 2005.

Processing Note

Processed by Shannon B. Lynch, Michelle Vallance, Nathan Quigley, Carolynn Crews, Linda Corets, Megan Peacock, Laurel Evans, Jody Hendrickson, Ilana Barnes, Christian Lucier, Tim King, Julia Gray, Solveig Atwood, and Mindy Leong, 2005-2006; Stefanie Terasaki, 2014.

Portions of the collection remain unprocessed.

9 photographs accessioned as 2013122401.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)

Personal Names

  • Randlett, Mary, 1924---Photographs


2018 (Last modified: 3/17/2025)

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