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Personal Reflection/Anecdote

Solving the Mystery of

Leon Schulman Gaspard:

A Writer’s Journey

By Elena Ivanova and Nancy Newton

A recently published book, Leon Schulman Gaspard: The Real Story by
DKG member Elena Ivanova, unveils previously unknown facts
of the biography of a prominent Russian-American artist. In this

interview, member Nancy Newton asks the author about her
personal journey—including the support provided by DKG—as she
was researching and writing this book.

Ivanova, E. (2023). Leon Schulman Gaspard: The Real Story.
Mascot Books. ISBN-13:9781637552452. 392 pages.

Nancy: I must confess, my favorite part was “Epilogue,
How This Book Came About”—your description of your
research journey. I loved the information about how
your journey progressed, the process of writing, and the
struggles you’ve encountered. It was so revealing. What
a journey! Let’s start with statistics. How many miles did
you travel? How many nights did you spend away from
home and your family?
Elena: I traveled across the Atlantic every year starting with
the summer of 2014 through 2016 and then in 2018, and
each trip lasted from 1 to 2 ½ months. I went once to Paris,
and all other trips were to Minsk and Vitebsk in Belarus and
Saint Petersburg in Russia. I also traveled within the United
States—to Washington, DC, Lubbock and Houston in Texas,
and Des Moines in Iowa.

Nancy: Why was so much digging required in the
archives, museums, and countries?
Elena: I started with the closest place—the Archives of
American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,
DC. They have a file titled Leon Gaspard Papers, which was donated to them by the artist’s second
wife, Dora Kaminsky Gaspard Blackman. As I studied it, I realized that Dora (or possibly Gaspard
himself) “edited” the papers by scratching out the name “Schulman” and replacing it with “Gaspard” on
older documents. On the whole, the file had very few authentic documents, especially from the earlier
period of Gaspard’s life; it mostly contained newspaper clippings of reviews of his exhibitions and late
photographs. It was clear that, in order to find more information, I had to go to the places he used to live
before coming to the United States.

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