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Walter Lehrman Beat Generation photograph collection, 1953-1956

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Lehrman, Walter
Title
Walter Lehrman Beat Generation photograph collection
Dates
1953-1956 (inclusive)
Quantity
2.5 linear feet, (5 boxes)
Collection Number
UUS_P0577
Summary
This small but significant collection includes original negatives and photographs of Beat Generation poets Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Creeley, and friends, made by Walter Lehrman from November 1955 through June 1956.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

No online items. Not available through interlibrary loan. Negatives have been removed from this collection and placed in cold storage box 74. Because of their fragility, these negatives are restricted. For "use copies" of the negatives, researchers are directed to the unretouched master digital scans of these negatives.

For other research, low-resolution hard copies for research purposes may be obtained from the Special Collections photograph curator or the Special Collections Department Head, in accordance with specific copying policies of the Walter Lehrman Photograph Collection. Please note: Except where specified, all materials in the Walter Lehrman Photograph Collection are copyrighted and may not be reproduced for publication in any media, including on-line display, without the express written permission of the copyright holder. Photocopies will be supplied for research use only. No digital scans, and no photographs by any kind of camera in the collection are permitted.

Languages
Material in English
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Biographical Note

Walter Lehrman was born and raised in the Bronx, the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. During WWII he was in the Army Air Force, a radio operator on a B-29. He was at Okinawa, preparing for the invasion of Japan's home islands, when the war ended.

Back home in New York, he received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Columbia. In 1951, he married Jinny Baker, a Greenwich Village art student and model, and together they moved to Berkeley, where Walter, having been offered a teaching assistantship, took up graduate studies in the University of California English department.

In Berkeley, the Lehrmans became friends with Allen Ginsberg (also at the UC Berkeley English department), Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac. Walter was on hand for the Six Gallery poetry reading in 1955, and, inspired by the performances of his friends, began photographing them at subsequent events, parties, and impromptu portrait sessions.

In 1956, the Lehrmans left Berkeley for Ohio when Walter took an English instructor's position at the University of Akron. At the same time, Gary Snyder left Berkeley for Japan; Jack Kerouac headed for Desolation Peak; Allen Ginsberg shipped out as a merchant seaman; and Philip Whalen departed for Newport, Oregon. It was the end of "the Dharma Bums" period, but Lehrman had managed to capture several of the main characters on film.

Walter Lehrman taught English at the University of Akron until 1986, retiring as an Associate Professor. During his academic career, his photographs remained in storage, only resurfacing in the 1990s with the resurgence of popular interest in the Beats.

Mr. Lehrman lives in Akron, Ohio, with his daughter, Elizabeth Raptis.

John Suiter is a writer and photographer currently (2015) living in Chicago. He first became acquainted with Walter Lehrman and his work during production on A Jack Kerouac CD-ROMnibus, a 1995 multi-media project which highlighted several of Lehrman's photographs, and on which Suiter was Associate Producer. In 2002, Suiter used Lehrman's portrait of Jack Kerouac, with permission, in his book Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades. In 2009 Suiter became Lehrman's agent and printer. He began having high resolution digital master scans of Lehrman's original negatives made, and created a series of inkjet digital prints of Lehrman's images that were exhibited at USU's Nora Eccles Harrison Museum in 2014.

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Content Description

Of particular note are Lehrman's historic images of Allen Ginsberg reading his famous poem "Howl" at readings in November 1955 in San Francisco and March 1956 in Berkeley. Also of interest are photographs made at the 3-day "Going-Away-to-Japan" party for the poet Gary Snyder in May 1956 when Snyder departed for Kyoto to pursue Zen training. That party is treated fictively in Kerouac's book, The Dharma Bums, and many of Lehrman's portraits are of people who were the life-models for Kerouac's characters.

The Walter Lehrman Collection is in six parts.

The collection also includes unretouched, high-resolution master digital scans of Lehrman's original negatives; a set of retouched, exhibition-grade digital files from the masters; and oversized, exhibition-grade prints of Lehrman's images by photographer John Suiter.

In addition, the collection has audio recordings made by Mr. Lehrman at the Town Hall poetry reading of March 18, 1956 in Berkeley, California, featuring Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Michael McClure, and Kenneth Rexroth.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Except where noted, all photographs in the Walter Lehrman Photograph Collection are copyrighted by Walter Lehrman and may not be reproduced in any manner without his express written permission. Requests should first be directed to the Special Collections Photograph Curator and/or the Associate Dean, Special Collections & Archives

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: USU_P0577; Walter Lehrman photograph collection; Photograph Collections Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations:USU_P0577, USUSCA.

Alternative Forms Available

Audio recordings.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Part I: Original negatives by Walter Lehrman, exposures made in 1955 and '56. Due to extensive damage to the emulsions, these negatives are in Cold Storage Box 74.

Part II: Silver halide photographs from the original negatives, printed by Walter Lehrman in 1955-'56. These are cropped versions of the full negative frames and appear to be preliminary "work prints."

Part III: Unretouched, exact digital "masters" made from high-resolution scans of the original negatives.

Part IV: Retouched, high-resolution digital files made from the digital masters.

Part V: Inkjet prints made by John Suiter from the retouched digital files in Part IV.

Part VI: Audio recordings made by Walter Lehrman at the Town Hall Theater poetry reading in Berkeley, California, March 18, 1956, (featuring Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Michael McClure & Kenneth Rexroth).

Processing Note

Processed in May of 2015

Acquisition Information

Purchased from Walter Lehrman and John Suiter, 2007-2015.

Related Materials

John Suiter Photography Collection, P0375; Merrill-Cazier Special Collections, Beat Collection. (Many publications feature Lehrman photographs).

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid/Register created by Daniel Davis and John Suiter
2015

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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