Camilla and Earl McGrath papers - NYPL Digital Collections

Click to visit the main New York Public Library Homepage

The New York Public Library

Digital Collections

About Digital Collections

Search Browse About

Items Collections Divisions

Digital Collections Using Images Using Data

Camilla and Earl McGrath papers

Navigation About Filters

This collection is also available in Archives & Manuscripts
View In Archives »

Collection Data

Description: Earl McGrath was a writer, music executive, art collector, and gallery owner. His wife, Camilla Pecci-Blunt McGrath, was an Italian countess and photographer. The Camilla and Earl McGrath papers document the couple's exceptional social life, Camilla's photography, and Earl's career through photograph albums, loose photographs, correspondence, business records, and ephemera.
Names: McGrath, Camilla, 1925-2007 (Creator); McGrath, Earl, 1931-2016 (Contributor)
Dates / Origin: Date Created: 1910 - 2016
Library locations: Manuscripts and Archives Division; Shelf locator: MssCol 24314
Topics: Carroll, Jim; Didion, Joan; Ertegun, Ahmet M.; Ford, Harrison, 1942-; Huston, Anjelica; Jagger, Mick; Lebowitz, Fran; Leibovitz, Annie, 1949-; Menotti, Gian Carlo, 1911-2007; O'Hara, Frank, 1926-1966; Richards, Keith, 1943-; Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002; Southern, Terry; Tosh, Peter; Twombly, Cy, 1928-2011; Wenner, Jann; Atlantic Recording Corporation; Rolling Stones; Art collectors; Art dealers; Countesses; Executives; Photographers; Screenwriters; Socialites; Music business; Poetry, Modern -- 20th century; Rock music; Spouses
Genres: Albums; Photographs; Scrapbooks; Screenplays
Notes: Biographical/historical: Earl McGrath was a screenwriter, music executive, art collector, and gallery owner married to Camilla Pecci-Blunt McGrath, an Italian countess and photographer, for 44 years. Born to a working class family in Superior, Wisconsin in 1931, Earl joined the Merchant Marine, traveling the Middle East and Africa in the mid-1950s. Earl was particularly prone to meeting and befriending talented and famous people. Camilla Pecci-Blunt was an Italian countess born in 1925. She and Earl McGrath met in 1958 attending the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Earl was a guest of the festival's founder, composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Camilla and Earl married in 1963. In the early years of their marriage, the couple carried on an international long-distance relationship as Earl attempted to establish himself as a screenwriter in Los Angeles and Camilla spent significant portions of her time at Marlia, her family's villa in Tuscany, Italy. Eventually, they settled together in an apartment across from Carnegie Hall in New York City, where they frequently hosted salon-like lunches and cocktail parties attended by some of the world's most influential cultural figures. Routinely for decades, Camilla documented these gatherings in her photograph albums. While working for 20th Century Fox in the 1960s, Earl met and formed a close bond with Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish-born co-founder and chairman of Atlantic Records. Ertegun hired McGrath at Atlantic Records in 1970. At Atlantic, Earl worked with artists such as Peter Tosh, Jim Carroll, and the Rolling Stones, serving as the president of the Stones' own Rolling Stones record label division of Atlantic Records in the late 1970s. He worked as an independent record producer in the 1980s. Earl and Camilla amassed a large art collection curated from the works of artist friends including Larry Rivers, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Brice Marden, and Bruce Nauman. In the 1980s, they converted their second home in West Hollywood, California to an art gallery, and later opened another gallery on West 57th Street in New York City. Camilla died in 2007. Earl died in 2016.; Content: The Earl and Camilla McGrath papers document 20th Century cultural history, the couple's exceptional social life, Earl's writings, and his careers as a music executive and art dealer. The collection is comprised of three series: Camilla's files; Earl's files; and their shared correspondence.
Physical Description: Extent: 124.41 linear feet (103 volumes, 59 boxes)
Type of Resource: Text; Still image
Identifiers: NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b21528622; MSS Unit ID: 24314; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): adeae110-bccb-013e-abfe-0242ac110002

46 results found