The Neil Baldwin Man Ray Collection contains photographs, research notes, and correspondence pertaining to Dr. Neil Baldwin’s biography (Man Ray: American Artist) and documentary (Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde) of the artist. This collection is made up of seven series: photographs; critiques, features, reviews; Man Ray biography; Naomi Siegler Savage; interviews; and Man Ray documentary. The series and folders indicate Baldwin’s original organization. As a result, some folders, particularly those within the PHOTOGRAPHS series, contain duplicate materials.

The first series includes photographs by Man Ray and other. Photographs includes images of Man Ray, pictures that Man Ray took, pictures of Man Ray’s art objects, reproductions of his drawings and paintings, as well as photographs from Neil Baldwin’s trips to Paris in 1984 and 1986. Of note, the folder “Man Ray and his works, c. 1916-1952” includes pictures of Gertrude Stein, Nusch Éluard (Maria Benz), Gypsy Rose Lee, and Randolph Scott (1944), as well as “Le violon d’Ingres” (Ingres’ violin 1924). The folder “Man Ray’s photographs, drawings, c. 1913-1996” includes many undated photographs alongside photographs with prominent artists of the interwar Parisian avant-garde: Kiki de Montparnasse (a facsimile of the 1923 oil on canvas), Adrienne “Ady” Fidelin (1923), and Pablo Picasso. There is also a drawing of André Breton for Les Mains libres (Free Hands) (1936). The folder “Man Ray’s photographs, c. 1924-1948” includes the photograph of the Surrealist group (c. 1924-1925) and one of the Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp) perfume bottle, as well as photographs of objects and some portrait photographs. The folder “Man Ray’s photographs, photographs of him, c. 1919-1963” includes mostly undated photographs of him with other people, including Marcel Duchamp. This series continues in Box 8, a flat box, where there is a folder of photocopies of Dorothea Tanning paintings.

The second series, Critiques, features, reviews spans several boxes and contains critical commentary on Neil Baldwin’s scholarship on Man Ray. There are some newspaper and magazine features about Man Ray as well. Of note, the Interview magazine (in Box 8) includes a photograph of Juliet Man Ray (1985) on page 86 and George Melly’s article “Man Ray’s Camera Obscura” (pp. 96-105).

Man Ray biography contains research, correspondence, and newspaper clippings related to Man Ray: American Artist. The transcript of an interview with Anthony Penrose (son of Roland Penrose and Lee Miller) is in this series.

Naomi Siegler Savage includes photographs and postcards from Man Ray’s niece. The coloring book from Noami Savage.

Interviews includes transcripts of interviews of Man Ray by various individuals.

Exhibitions features catalogues and flyers about artists other than Man Ray. Information about avant-garde artists can be found here.

Finally, the series "Man Ray documentary" contains meterial related to Baldwin's film Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-garde, including research, contracts, business correspondence, and ephemera from the ceremony for the 1997 Emmy Awards (during which Baldwin's film was nominated for Oustanding INformational Special).