Acknowledgements
There are and were a vast number of individuals who were Edith’s friends and colleagues who spanned almost eighty years to recognize, hence, my hope is to be forgiven if some names have been omitted.
The late Maria Feder and Anni Bergmann were among the last of Edith’s earliest Austrian/German/New York friends—each could be found bantering and reminiscing over tea, about any range of obscure artists or clinical ideas. The late reclusive artist Emily Nelligan, was one of Kramer’s first friends in New York, with decades of being staunchly fellow artists. The Russian analyst Elena Makarova, was another close colleague and friend who wrote voluminous letters to Edith over the course of thirty years. Vera Zilzer, another brilliant eccentric, served as Kramer’s ‘chief’ art critic; the two could be found embattled over a single brushstroke, which I can attest, was something to behold. Karl Pallauf is to be lauded as the most fervent collector and representative of Edith’s art in New York and Europe. Herschel Stroyman, photographer and art therapist was first to document Edith’s exhibitions, including the photo of the exhibit ‘Art of the Troubled Child’ where Elinor Roosevelt is shown presiding. The late Elinor Ulman was her notorious ‘partner in crime’ as they helped develop the field of Art Therapy’s identity from its earliest tumultuous beginnings. As Kramer’s closest confident, Ulman was her editor, publisher of the first journal devoted to the field, and co-founder of the Art Therapy Program at George Washington University.
Laurie Wilson is acknowledged as one Edith’s ‘keepers’—she coped with the grand dame’s eccentricities, her ‘selective’ resistance to the boring curricular work required to co-found one of the first Graduate Art Therapy Programs at New York University. Ikuko Acosta, Wilson’s successor, was also a dear friend and colleague at NYU, who assisted Kramer’s teaching especially when she became hearing impaired. Judy Rubin, friend and colleague, was one of Kramer’s earliest students and authored scores of seminal books and films which widened her teachings. Charlotte Zwiauer from the University of Vienna, chronicled the definitive Kramer book, in a German-only translation. Laura McCann, conservator from New York University’s archives is credited for saving the collection of client art from the Wiltwyck years and presenting deep insights into Kramer’s art therapy methods. The Chief Archivists at New York University, first, the late Nancy Cricco and currently Janet Bunde, are to be thanked for her commitment for insuring the Kramer Collection remains accessible to the academic community in perpetuity.
Kramer also had what she termed her ‘Professor Class’—students from a certain time period who became nationally known professors in their own right. These include in no particular order, Profs. Acosta, Lani Gerity, Susan Ainlay Anand, Karin Dannicker, David R. Henley, Elizabeth Stone, Martha Haeseler, Michael Franklin, Yanne Mobuchon, Katherine Williams, Esther Kattan, Ellen Horovitz, Irene Rosner-David, and Patti Greenberg—all of these friends and art therapy professors championed the work of Edith Kramer in their own presentations, writings and teachings.