Clarence Secor

Clarence Secor was active as an artist and documentarian during a concentrated period spanning 1937 to 1939. His work is intrinsically linked to the monumental effort to catalog American material culture undertaken during the New Deal era.

Secor is credited with creating 15 works categorized as Index of American Designs. These works typically consist of detailed illustrations documenting historical American folk art, decorative objects, and tools for archival preservation. Examples of the varied objects documented by Secor include a Framed Flower Painting, Ice Skate, Needlework, Thread Cutting Plane, and a Drawknife. The inherent precision of these historical renderings ensures their continued value as high-quality prints and references today.

The institutional significance of Secor’s documentation is established by the presence of his work in major national repositories. Fifteen examples of Secor’s Index of American Designs are represented in museum collections, most notably at the National Gallery of Art. The public domain availability of these images secures the continued study and appreciation of the historical objects documented by Clarence Secor prints.