One month, five big art archive gifts
The end of September brought a flurry of major art archive acquisitions to Hamilton Library.
A set of 57 hand-colored lithographs of drawings by Louis Choris from the 19th century books Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde (1822) and Vues et Paysages des Régions Équinoxiales (1826) was donated to the Pacific Collection. Hamilton Library also holds both books, which include images of Hawaiʻi and other Pacific Islands.
“These prints are among some of the earliest visual documentation we have of life in the Pacific, and as such are extremely valuable for researchers seeking information on island society, material culture and environments during the early period of contact between Pacific Islanders and Europeans,” said Stu Dawrs, senior librarian in the Pacific Collection.
“The Pacific Collection is generally acknowledged to be the world’s largest and most complete library of material relating to the Pacific Islands region,” Dawrs said. “Much of the credit for that standing goes to the many generous donors who have helped us to build and maintain this one-of-a-kind collection.”
In addition to the Choris lithographs, the Archive of Hawaiʻi Artists and Architects received donations of materials for two new artist archives and two accruals to existing archives.
Art Archivist Librarian Malia Van Heukelem is establishing new archival collections of artist papers for UH Mānoa Art Professors Charles Cohan, who will be retiring this December, and Ronald Kowalke, who died in 2021, with these gifts. Both taught art studio classes for decades in the Department of Art and Art History, made a deep and lasting impact, were respected by peers, and connected with the community.
The Cohan Papers consist of his sketchbooks from 1982-2023, instructional materials, exhibition ephemera, and other papers relating to his long career as a printmaker and professor. He was considered “a printmaker’s printmaker.”
The Kowalke Papers include his faculty papers and instructional materials, photographs, studies, sketchbooks, and records of his exhibits, commissions and other creative output. Kowalke was painter, printmaker and sculptor. UH Mānoa Art alumni and art archivists, Malia Van Heukelem and Ellen Chapman, remember him pushing his students to expand creativity and confidence through rapid timed sketching exercises in his drawing courses. The drawing for his “Windows of Fire” sculpture at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center is among the materials donated by his family.
In addition to the two new collections, there have been substantial new acquisitions to the Isami Doi Collection and the Ossipoff and Snyder Architects Collection. Each of the four acquisitions has strong connections to the history of UHM and connects with other established archives which supports expansive research.
Isami Doi has been referred to as the “spiritual father” of the Metcalf Château artists, including Satoru Abe, Tadashi Sato, Bumpei Akaji, and other Asian American artists of Hawaiʻi who followed his example of moving to New York a generation after he had lived in Paris and New York. A donor has given the library a collection of his original works, to be added to correspondence from Doi that she donated to the library in 2002. The works on paper, comprising watercolors, drawings (including this self-portrait), oil studies, prints and two rare, self-published books, are amazing additions for research and exhibition.
Architect Sidney Snyder, Vladimir Ossipoff’s business partner, donated a large collection of professional photos documenting the most famous of their architecture firm’s projects. The photo binders showcase 98 different residential and commercial projects. The gift also included a set of cross-reference index cards of the firm’s works, as well as a number of awards it had received for its projects. Snyder, who died on Sept. 21, 2025, practiced with Ossipoff for decades, beginning in 1956, and was the original donor of the existing materials in the Ossipoff and Snyder Architects Collection in 2010.
“These gifts enrich our collections and ensure that we are able to provide a rich tapestry of materials to support teaching, research, and creative activity,” said University Librarian Clem Guthro. “As the library for Hawaiʻi’s only research university, we depend on the generosity of donors to help us build world class collections.”
