Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Portrait of Miriam Devenport Ebel created by Bill Frier.
- Artwork Title
- Portrait of Miram Devenport Ebel
- Series Title
- 2 in a portfolio of 3
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Miriam Davenport Ebel
- Signature
- "Bill . . . à M. Fry
- Contributor
-
Artist:
Bill Spira
Subject: Miriam Davenport Ebel
- Biography
-
Bill Spira, a cartoonist, was also known as Bil Freier. He was originally from Austria. During the Holocaust he forged passports for the Emergency Rescue Committee. Despite Varian Fry's (an American ERC representative) intervention, he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. He survived the camp.
Miriam Davenport Ebel (1915-1999) was born Miriam Davenport in Boston, studied art and architecture history at Smith College, New York University, and the University of Paris, and escaped to Toulouse and then Marseille during the German invasion in May 1940. She worked with Varian Fry at the Centre Américain de Secours, a cover for the Emergency Rescue Committee, helping to smuggle antifascist artists, writers, and intellectuals out of Europe. She joined her fiancé in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, in October, returned to the United States via Lisbon just after Pearl Harbor, and continued to work for relief, rescue, and refugee organizations. After the war she pursued her career in painting and sculpture and as an instructor in art and French. She married Charles Ebel (1937-2013) in the 1960s.
Physical Details
- Classification
-
Art
- Category
-
Drawings
- Object Type
-
Portrait drawing (lcsh)
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The portrait was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1991 by Miriam Davenport Ebel.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 18:21:36
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn4569
Also in Miriam Davenport Ebel collection
Collection includes a hatbox, which Miriam Davenport Ebel (the donor) took to France with her in June 1938. At one point, she lived for five months using only what was packed in the box. Steamer sticker on box is that of the Companie Generale Transatlantique's SS Champlain. In addition, the collection includes a musical score written by Hans Sahl, 1938, Zurich, Switzerland and purchased by Miriam Davenport circa 1940 in Marseilles, France, as well as a book she purchased, also in Zurich. The collection also includes artwork and papers. The Miriam Davenport Ebel papers consist of correspondence, identification papers, mementos, photographs, and printed materials documenting Davenport's wartime experiences in Marseilles and Ljubljana; her work and friendships with Varian Fry, Mary Jayne Gold, Walter Mehring, Hans Sahl, and others; and relief committees including the Emergency Rescue Committee, the International Relief and Rescue Committee, the Progressive Schools Committee for Refugee Children, and the Refugee Relief Trustees, Inc.
Hatbox
Object
Miriam Davenport Ebel took the hatbox to France with her in June, 1938. At one point, she lived for five months using only what was packed in the box. Steamer sticker on box is that of the Companie Generale Transatlantique's SS Champlain.
Miriam Davenport Ebel papers
Document
The Miriam Davenport Ebel papers consist of correspondence, identification papers, mementos, photographs, and printed materials documenting Davenport’s wartime experiences in Marseilles and Ljubljana; her work and friendships with Varian Fry, Mary Jayne Gold, Walter Mehring, Hans Sahl, and others; and relief committees including the Emergency Rescue Committee, the International Relief and Rescue Committee, the Progressive Schools Committee for Refugee Children, and the Refugee Relief Trustees, Inc. Correspondence consists of letters, notes, and telegrams between Miriam Davenport and Mary Jayne Gold, Varian Fry, Daniel Bénédite, Katia Landau, Walter Mehring, and Hans Sahl. The correspondence describes wartime life in Marseilles, advises Davenport on strategies for returning to the United States, and catches Davenport up on news in post‐liberation France. A note from Walter Mehring includes a small sketch of a rabbit, and a note from Hans Sahl encloses a poem. This series also includes a couple of letters Davenport drafted on behalf of the Progressive Schools Committee for Refugee Children, her condolences to Fry’s family on his passing, and a letter about Albrecht Ragg’s project on German socialist immigration to the United States during the Hitler years accompanied by a photocopy of his chapter on rescue. Identification papers include Miriam Davenport’s calling card, French identification card, and Yugoslav visa. Mementos include calling cards, tram receipts and Davenport’s Yugoslav visa documenting her summer in Toulouse and Marseille, a hand painted‐program for a 1941 Andalusia festival in Marseille, and Davenport’s English translation of a German story by an unnamed refugee client. Photographs depict Miriam Davenport, Varian Fry, Mary Jayne Gold, and Hans Sahl. Printed materials consist of promotional brochures created by Miriam Davenport Ebel, Harold Oram, and Eileen Fry for the Emergency Rescue Committee, the International Relief and Rescue Committee, the Progressive Schools Committee for Refugee Children, and the Refugee Relief Trustees, Inc.
Portfolio cover
Object
Cardboard and paper portfolio in which the three drawings by Bill Frier were stored.
