Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Archives related to: Clark, Stephen Carlton, 1882-1960

titleArchives: Department of European Paintings
repositoryThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
descriptionCorrespondence File: Stephen C Clark

Information Source:
Weber, Nicholas Fox, (2007). The Clarks of Cooperstown : their Singer sewing machine fortune, their great and influential art collections, their forty-year feud. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
formatsCorrespondence
accessContact repository for restrictions and policies.
updated03/16/2023 10:29:51
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titleAlfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, 1927-1984
repositoryThe Museum of Modern Art
descriptionThe Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers are composed of files kept during Barr's tenure at the Museum of Modern Art, including personal and professional correspondence with museum officials, curators, writers, historians, critics, art associations, foundations, magazines, artists, and collectors such as John Canaday, Stanton Catlin, Camilla Gray, René d'Harnoncourt, John Hightower, Roland Penrose, and James Thrall Soby. Office files cover staff, exhibitions, publications and collections of MoMA, and abstract art, cubism and futurism (some related to Barr's book Cubism and Abstract Art, 1936.) There are files present on the Foundation for Arts, Religion and Culture (ARC), Barr's travels, lectures, speeches, exhibitions, publications, political controversies, and artists and collections in the U.S.S.R.; writings, including travel notebooks regarding his trip to Russia, 1959, visits with Pablo Picasso, 1956, and Henri Matisse, 1952; exhibition catalogs, clippings and printed material; and photographs.

Also included are materials collected by Margaret Scolari Barr, including Alfred's obituaries, A Memorial Tribute, 1981, an invitation and guest list to the memorial service, and condolence letters; and photocopies of autograph letters, ca. 1920s-1970s, from the Barr collection sold to Arthur A. Cohen in 1975.

Biographical Note
Alfred H. Barr, Jr. spent nearly his entire professional career with The Museum of Modern Art; following is brief chronology of his decades-long association with the Museum.

Location
MoMA Museum Archives
extent95 linear ft. (55 boxes)
formatsAdministrative Records Correspondence Ephemera Writings Subject Files
accessThe records are open for research and contain few restricted materials. Contact museum archivist for an appointment.
record linkhttp://moma.org/research/archives/EAD/Barrf.html
record sourcehttps://library.nyarc.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/ai54l4/alma991009761919707141
finding aidFinding aids in the repository.
acquisition informationTransferred from Barr's office, gifts of Margaret S. Barr, 1975-1980, and gift of Andrew W. Barr, 1986. Forms part of: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Archives. Records.
updated11/29/2022 15:49:50
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titleCollectors Records, 1929-1987
repositoryThe Museum of Modern Art
descriptionThe processed Collectors Records are contained in ten 5" document boxes (4 linear feet) and include correspondence; lists of private collections; notes about collections (frequently in Barr's handwriting); press clippings; photographs; and exhibition announcements, invitations, and brochures. The records date from 1929 through 1987; the majority of the material dates from the 1950s and 60s.

The bulk of the Collectors Records consists of correspondence between Museum staff and collectors. The principle staff correspondent is Barr, but the Record Group also includes material from Dorothy C. Miller (Curator, 1943-1967; Senior Curator, 1968-1969), and Betsy Jones (Executive Secretary 1952-1962; Executive Secretary and Assistant Curator, 1963-1966; Associate Curator and Executive Secretary of Collections, 1967-1969). Correspondence with the collectors participating in the Visits to Private Collections series and lists of the collections visited are also included.

Historical Note
During his tenure as Director of Museum Collections, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., and his staff maintained files on private collectors and collections (ca. 1947 through ca. 1967). This documentation reflects the Museum's interest in private collections from which it could potentially borrow, purchase, or receive gifts or bequests to enhance the Museum's collection.

A Committee on the Museum Collections, established by the Board of Trustees in May 1944, consisted of approximately ten members, all of whom were collectors and/or Museum staff members. The founding members of the Committee were: Alfred H. Barr, Jr., William A. M. Burden, Stephen C. Clark, A. Conger Goodyear, Mrs. Simon Guggenheim, Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr., Mrs. Sam A. Lewisohn, Miss Agnes Rindge, James Thrall Soby (Chairman), James Johnson Sweeney (Vice Chairman), Edward M. M. Warburg, and Mrs. George Henry Warren, Jr. The Committee, which replaced the Acquisitions Committee, advised the Board of Trustees on which works to acquire, by gift or purchase, for the Museum's collection. Several members gave works of their own and/or financial contributions for purchases. Documentation on the collections of nearly all of the Committee Members can be found in this Record Group.

An annual series, Visits to Private Collections, was organized by the Department of Membership as a special privilege for Contributing Members. Members were invited to spend three afternoons a year touring the private homes and collections of select collectors, who were frequently members of the Committee on the Museum Collections. This series was suggested by a Membership Committee member in 1939, and the program lasted through 1966. Documentation for this program can also be found throughout the Record Group.

After Barr's retirement in 1967, the Committee on the Museum Collections was divided into five separate committees, each one focusing on a curatorial department: Painting and Sculpture; Prints and Illustrated Books; Photography; Architecture and Design; and Film. These five committees exist to the present day.

Related Collections at MoMA and Elsewhere
For related collections see also, The Museum of Modern Art Archives, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Papers, Series 1. Personal Correspondence; the James Thrall Soby Papers, Series III: Museum Matters; the Dorothy C. Miller Papers, Series III: Museum Matters; the Public Information Scrapbooks; catalogues of private collections and PASITMOMA in the Library; Object Files in the Department of Painting and Sculpture; and lenders records in the Department of the Registrar.

Preferred Citation
Collectors Records, [folder]. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.
extent4 linear feet
formatsClippings Correspondence Ephemera Photographs Administrative Records
accessThe records are open for research and contain no restricted materials.
record linkhttp://www.moma.org/research/archives/EAD/CollectorsRecordsf.html
record sourcehttps://library.nyarc.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/ai54l4/alma991007920159707141
finding aidIn the repository and on the Web site.
acquisition informationThe Collectors Records were compiled and maintained by Barr and his staff until his retirement in 1967, when they were brought under the aegis of the Department of Painting and Sculpture. They became part of the Museum Archives holdings in 1998 and were processed in June 1998.
updated11/29/2022 15:49:50
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titleMartin Birnbaum papers, 1862-1970.
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionThe papers of New York art dealer, critic, and author Martin Birnbaum measure 3.2 linear feet and date from 1862-1967, with the bulk of the material dating from 1920-1967.

The papers document Birnbaum's association with the firm of Scott and Fowles, the lives and activities of his friends and colleagues, and his literary work, through biographical material, correspondence, writings and notes, business records, printed material, a scrapbook, scattered artwork, and photographs of Birnbaum, friends and colleagues, and artwork.

REELS N698, N698A, and N698B: Correspondence primarily reflecting his association with the firm of Scott & Fowles, but also including details about lives and activities of his correspondents, among them Edward Bruce, Grover Cleveland, Norman Douglas, Rockwell Kent, Paul Manship, Upton Sinclair, Maxfield Parrish, Bernard Berenson, Augustus E. John, Jules Pascin, Carl Van Vechten, Hamilton Easter Field, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Gari Melchers, William Hunt Diederich, Elie Nadelman, Childe Hassam, John Quinn, Charles Ricketts, Nicholas K. Roerich, and Charles H. Shannon.

REEL 108: Primarily letters received by Birnbaum in New York, and throughout Europe from 1917-1943. Correspondents include Grenville L. Winthrop, Gisela Richter, Stevenson Scott, Paul Manship, Maurice Sterne, Edward Bruce, and Maxfield Parrish, Upton Sinclair, George Bellows, John Gregory, Augustus John, Ivan Mestrovic, Elizabeth Winthrop Miles, Robert McIntyre, Georgia O'Keeffe, Joseph Pennell, John Quinn, Charles Ricketts, William Rothenstein, Albert Rutherston, Pamela Colman Smith, Carl Sprinchorn, Pavel Tchelitchew, Schofield Thayer, T. Zoumpoulakis, and family members. Subject matter includes business concerns, art concerns, travel, and family affairs.

REELS 1023-1025: Over 1600 letters received. Correspondents include: Cecelia Beaux, Sven Berg, Gutzon Borglum, Edward Bruce, Lodewyk Bruckman, Beniamino Bufano, Mabel Choate, Stephen C. Clark, Royal Cortissoz, Walter Damrosch, Edmund Davis, Reginald Davis, Louise Dillingham, Edmund Dulac, Anne Goldthwaite, Magnus Gross, Herbert Haseltine, Malvina Hoffman, Jan Hoowij, Benjamin Javits, Rockwell Kent, Lenard Kester, Paul Manship, Elisabeth Marbury, Henry McIlhenny, Gari Melchers, Houghton P. Metcalf, Emily Winthrop Miles, Kate Morse, Georgia O'Keeffe, James Parmelee, Maxfield Parrish, Harold Woodbury Parsons, Jules Pascin, Albin Polasek, Alfred B. Potterton, Edward G. Robinson, J. F. Rock, John D. Rockefeller, Emanuel G. Romano, John Rothenstein, John Singer Sargent, Stevenson Scott, Janet Scudder, Carl Sprinchorn, Maurice Sterne, Albert Sterner, R.A. Walker (Georges Derry), Elsie Weil, Carl N. Werntz, Millicent Werntz, Edith Wetmore, Thornton Wilder, Ellis Wilson, Stanley Wilson, Grenville Lindall Winthrop, and Carl Zigrosser.

REELS 1025-1026: Business and financial documents; legal documents, certificates, and passports; writings by Birnbaum and others including a manuscript for Birnbaum's book The Last Romantic, with notes by Upton Sinclair; one scrapbook of clippings, loose clippings regarding Edward Dulac, and other printed material; sketches; bookplates; notes, letters, and printed material relating to Aubrey Beardsley; lists and descriptions of works of art; a notebook of addresses; travel itineraries and maps; and programs.

REEL 1027: 287 photographs of Birnbaum, and art related people, including Maurice Sterne, Edward Bruce, Leo Stein and Alfred Potterton at Anticoli Corrado, and Cecilia Beaux, Robert Chanler, Philip de Laszlo, Despiau, Norman Douglas, Lord Duveen, Herbert Haseltine, Augustus John by Arnold Genthe, Paul Manship by De Witt Ward, Gari Melchers, Elie Nadelman, Mrs. Gustave Radeke, William Rothenstein, Stevenson Scott, Clare Sheridan, Albert Sterner, Abraham Walkowitz, Mrs. Leonard Volkman Webb, and Grenville Lindall Winthrop; 82 travel photographs primarily of Greece; and 142 photographs of works of art.

UNMICROFILMED: Three tape recordings, two containing information about The Last Romantic, dictated in 1952, and one unidentified.

Co-Creator:
Beardsley, Aubrey, 1872-1898
Beaux, Cecilia, 1855-1942
Bellows, George, 1882-1925
Berenson, Bernard, 1865-1959
Berg, Sven
Borglum, Gutzon, 1867-1941
Bruce, Edward, 1879-1943
Bruckman, Lodewyk
Bufano, Beniamino, 1898-1970
Chanler, Robert Winthrop, 1872-1930
Choate, Mabel, 1870-1958
Clark, Stephen C. (Stephen Carlton), b. 1882
Cleveland, Grover, 1837-1908
Cortissoz, Royal, 1869-1948
Damrosch, Walter, 1862-1950
Davis, Reginald
De Laszlo, Philip A., 1869-1937
Derry, Georges, 1886-
Despiau, Charles, 1874-1946
Diederich, William Hunt, 1884-1953
Dillingham, Louise
Douglas, Norman, 1868-1952
Dulac, Edmund, 1882-1953
Duveen, Joseph Duveen, Baron, 1869-1939
Field, Hamilton Easter
Genthe, Arnold, 1869-1942 photographer.
Goldthwaite, Anne, 1869-1944
Gregory, John, 1879-1958
Gross, Magnus
Haseltine, Herbert, 1877-1962
Hassam, Childe, 1859-1935
Hoffman, Malvina, 1887-1966
Hoowij, Jan, 1907-
Javits, Benjamin A. (Benjamin Abraham), 1894-1973
John, Augustus, 1878-1961
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971
Kester, Lenard, 1917-
Luhan, Mabel Dodge, 1879-1962
Manship, Paul, 1885-1966
Marbury, Elisabeth, 1856-1933
McIlhenny, Henry P.
McIntyre, Robert G.
Melchers, Gari, 1860-1932
Meštrovi , Ivan, 1883-1962
Metcalf, Houghton P.
Miles, Emily Winthrop, 1893-1962
Morse, Kate
Nadelman, Elie, 1882-1946
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986
Parmelee, James
Parrish, Maxfield, 1870-1966
Parsons, Harold Woodbury, 1883-1967
Pascin, Jules, 1885-1930
Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926
Polasek, Albin, 1879-1965
Potterton, Alfred B.
Quinn, John, 1870-1924
Radeke, Eliza G., 1855-1931
Rerikh, Nikolai Konstantinovich, 1874-1947
Richter, Gisela Marie Augusta, 1882-1972
Ricketts, Charles S., 1866-1931
Robinson, Edward G., 1893-1973
Rock, Joseph Francis Charles, 1884-1962
Rockefeller, John D., 1906-
Romano, Emanuel, 1897?-1984
Rothenstein, John, Sir, 1901-
Rothenstein, William, Sir, 1872-1945
Rutherston, Albert Daniel, 1881-1953
Sargent, John Singer, 1856-1925
Scott, Stevenson
Scudder, Janet, b. 1873
Shannon, Charles Hazelwood, 1863-1937
Sheridan, Clare, 1885-1970
Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968
Smith, Pamela Colman
Sprinchorn, Carl, 1887-1971
Stein, Leo, 1872-1947
Sterne, Maurice, 1878-1957
Sterner, Albert, 1863-1946
Tchelitchew, Pavel, 1898-1957
Thayer, Scofield, b. 1889
Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964
Walkowitz, Abraham, 1880-1965
Ward, De Witt photographer.
Webb, Leonard Volkman, Mrs
Weil, Elsie
Werntz, Carl N. (Carl Newland), 1874-1944
Werntz, Millicent
Wetmore, Edith
Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975
Wilson, Ellis, 1899-1977
Wilson, Stanley
Winthrop, Grenville Lindall, 1864-1943
Zigrosser, Carl, 1891-
Zoumpoulakis, T.
Berlin Photographic Company (New York, N.Y.)
Fogg Art Museum
Scott & Fowles (Firm)
extent4.3 linear ft. (partially microfilmed on 9 microfilm reels) reels N698, N698a, N698b, 108, and 1023-1027
formatsCorrespondence Financial Records Photographs Electronic Resource Notes
accessUse requires an appointment. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm copy.
record sourcehttps://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/AAA.birnmart.pdf
acquisition informationDonated/lent 1967-1975 by Birnbaum and his great-nephew, Jerome Ziegler. Material reel 108 donated anonymously.
updated02/24/2020 16:51:22
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titleOral history interview of Margaret Scolari Barr concerning Alfred H. Barr, 1974 Feb. 22 - May 13.
repositoryArchives of American Art
descriptionAn interview of Margaret Scolari Barr conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art. The interview primarily concerns her husband, Alfred Hamilton Barr, Jr., the director of the Museum of Modern Art, but also touches upon her childhood in Italy, her educational background, and teaching at Vassar. She discusses her husband's career with the Museum of Modern Art, including his travel and entertaining for the museum, borrowing works of art, installing exhibitions, his work methods and published writings, the Rescue Committee for European Artists in World War II, and the 1958 fire at the Museum of Modern Art.

She describes Alfred Barr's firing from the Museum of Modern Art in 1943. She recalls Steven Clark, Rene D'Harnoncourt, Henry Russell Hitchcock, Philip Cortelyou Johnson, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller and others.
extent2 sound tape reels ; 5 in. (69 p. transcript)
formatsSound Recording Transcript Online Transcript
accessTranscript online and in repository.
record sourcehttp://www.siris.si.edu/
acquisition informationThese interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
updated11/12/2014 11:29:55
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titleM. Knoedler & Co. records, approximately 1848-1971
repositoryThe Getty Research Institute
descriptionThe records of M. Knoedler & Co. document the business of the prominent American art dealer from the mid-19th century to 1971, when the Knoedler Gallery was acquired by Armand Hammer. The archive traces the development of the once provincial American art market into one of the world's leading art centers and the formation of the private art collections that would ultimately establish many of the nation's leading art museums, such as the Frick Collection and the National Gallery of Art.

It brings to the foreground the business side of dealing as artworks shuttled back and forth among Knoedler, fellow dealers, and collectors, documenting developments in art connoisseurship, shifting tastes, the changing role of art in American society, and the essential role of private collectors in the formation of public American art collections.

The records provide insight into broader economic, social and cultural histories and the nation's evolving sense of place in the world. The Knoedler Gallery became one of the main suppliers of old master and post-Impressionist paintings in the United States. Financial records of the firm provide crucial provenance information on the large number of artworks in American museums that were sold by the gallery. The archive includes stock books, sales books and commission books; correspondence with collectors, artists, art dealers and other associates; photographs of the artworks sold by the gallery; records from the firm's offices in London, Paris and other cities; exhibition files; framing and restoration records, and records of the firm's Print Department.

Selected portions of the archive have been digitized and made available online. Connect to selected digitized portions of the archive.

Arranged in 14 series:
Series I. Stock books;
Series II. Sales books;
Series III. Commission books;
Series IV. Inventory cards;
Series V. Receiving and shipping records;
Series VI. Correspondence;
Series VII. Photographs;
Series VIII. Exhibition files;
Series IX. American Department records;
Series X. Framing and restoration records;
Series XI. Print Department records;
Series XII. Other financial records;
Series XIII. Library cards, scrapbooks, and research materials;
Series XIV. Knoedler family papers


Biographical/Historical Note:
M. Knoedler & Co. was a successor to the New York branch of Goupil & Co., an extremely dynamic print-publishing house founded in Paris in 1827. Goupil's branches in London, Berlin, Brussels, and The Hague, as well as New York, expanded the firm's market in the sale of reproductive prints.

The firm's office in New York was established in 1848. In 1857, Michael Knoedler, an employee of Goupil and a manager for the firm, bought out the interests in the firm's New York branch, conducted the business under his own name, and diversified its activities to include the sale of paintings. Roland Knoedler, Michael's son, took over the firm in 1878 and with Charles Carstairs opened galleries in Paris and London.

In 1928, the management of the firm passed to Roland's nephew Charles Henschel, Carman Messmore, Charles Carstairs and Carstairs' son Carroll. In 1956 Henschel died, and E. Coe Kerr and Roland Balaÿ, Michael Knoedler's grandson, took over. In 1971 the firm was sold to businessman and collector Armand Hammer. The gallery closed in November 2011.

extent3042.6 linear feet (5550 boxes, 17 flat file folders).
formatsAuction Catalogs Business Records Correspondence Financial Records Ephemera
accessOpen for use by qualified researchers, with the following exceptions. Boxes 77, 262-264, 1308-1512, 1969-1974, 3592-3723 are restricted due to fragility. Box 4468 is restricted until 2075.
record linkhttp://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2012m54
record sourcehttp://primo.getty.edu/GRI:GETTY_ALMA21129976460001551
contact informationContact gallery's archivist
finding aidAt the Getty Research Institute and over their website.
acquisition informationAcquired in 2012.
updated05/29/2018 14:44:15
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