Wallace Dreyer Papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
Old Dominion University
3023 Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library
Old Dominion University
4427 Hampton Blvd
Norfolk, VA 23529
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Jessica Ritchie
Phone: (757) 683-4483
Fax: (757) 683-5954
Restrictions:

Open to researchers without restrictions.

Terms of access:

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from Special Collections and University Archives, and the holder of the copyright, if not Old Dominion University Libraries.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Box [insert number], Folder [insert number and title], Wallace Dreyer Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Old Dominion University Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
4.30 Linear Feet and 9 Hollinger document cases boxes
Creator:
Dreyer, Wallace (1923-1995)
Abstract:
Wallace Dreyer, an artist, was an adjunct assistant professor and director of the photography program from 1966-1980. The collection contains professional as well as personal photographs, a sketchbook, professional and personal correspondence, a high school year book, newspaper clippings, newspaper advertisements for his art gallery business, certificates pertaining to his elementary school education and x-ray technician certification, x-ray technician employment, and his capture of enemy photographic equipment that he was allowed to keep.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Box [insert number], Folder [insert number and title], Wallace Dreyer Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Old Dominion University Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains professional as well as personal photographs and correspondence, newspapers clippings, certificates, and material related to Wallace Dreyer's work as an x-ray technician.

Biographical / historical:

Wallace Earl Dreyer was born March 5, 1923 and raised in Marlin, Texas, where he participated in the photography club at his high school. Dreyer's parents were Bruno G. Dreyer (1898-1975) and Louise Bertha Hoting Dreyer (1902-1971), who married in 1921 in Giddings, Texas. Dreyer had two siblings, a brother, James Lee Dreyer (1926-1932) and a half-sister, Virginia Hoting (b. 1924), who was his father's illegitimate daughter from an affair with Bertha Hoting Dreyer's sister. Dreyer attended the University of Texas and graduated in 1943, and also served in the Armed Forces Infantry from 1941 to 1942. During his military service, Dreyer fought in the Battle of Bastogne in Europe during World War II and also participated in the liberation of camps in Germany. He obtained his x-ray technician certification at Torbett Clinic and Hospital in 1951. In 1960, while he was an Associate Professor at Student Memorial Union at Texas A&M College, he married Evelyn Gay Turner (b. July 31, 1915), a teacher at Baylor University, who was a fellow artist. The Dreyers moved to New York, where they operated an art gallery and sold their paintings. Dreyer was a contemporary photographer as well as a painter; he favored discarded items as his subjects. His wife was a sculptor as well as a painter. Both taught in the Art Department of Old Dominion University beginning in 1966. Wallace was an adjunct assistant professor and director of the photography program. Evelyn Gay was an Assistant Professor of Art. Both retired in 1980. Wallace Dreyer died in Norfolk, Virginia on March 13, 1993 and his wife, Evelyn Gay Dreyer died in Waco, Texas on February 26, 1995.

Note written by Kay Creef

Acquisition information:

Melanie Mathewes, Executive Director of the Hermitage Museum Gardens

Gift. Accession #A2009-29

Processing information:

The collection was processed and finding aid created by Kay Creef in 2009.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into four series: Series I: Professional; Series II: Personal; Series III: Certificates, Awards and Yearbooks; and Series IV: Miscellaneous.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard