The Frick Art Research Library created the Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America to assist researchers in locating primary source material about the history of collecting in the United States from the 18th century to the present by identifying the repositories that hold the archival records of American art collectors, dealers, galleries, auction houses, agents, artists, and advisors. For a visual graph of the coverage by decade, see the Data Snapshot.
Archives related to American collectors of the fine and decorative arts, including antiquities and non-Western art, are included. Information about collectors who concentrated on folk art, books, manuscripts, autographs, stamps, sports memorabilia, or other collectibles is only included if they also collected in the categories covered by the Directory. Each record provides information about specific archival collections including their location, links to finding aids or catalog records when available, and repository contact information.
Information gathered for the Directory has been compiled from obituaries, newspaper and magazine articles, books, authority records, library catalog records, and published archival finding aids. Examples of specific sources include the New York Times, NewspaperARCHIVE.com, the Getty Provenance Index, Library of Congress authority records, and The National Gallery of Art. Sources consulted in locating specific archival collections include: The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), The AAM Guide to Provenance Research, WorldCat, and individual repository catalogs such as the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System, the Getty Research Institute Research Library Catalog, and the New York Art Resources Consortium's Discovery. Researchers are advised to contact relevant local surrogate courts or their equivalent to obtain copies of wills and estate inventories concerning specific art collectors, as this information is not recorded in the Directory.
The Directory database consists of three related data tables: 1) a collectors file (includes dealers, galleries, private collectors, artists, and auction houses), 2) a repository file (includes archives, libraries, and other research institutions), and 3) an archival holdings file. The collectors and repository files function as authorities, while the archival holdings files contain collection-level information about archival holdings as described by repositories in online catalogs and publications. Library of Congress authority record headings are applied where available. Where these headings are unavailable, subject, personal, and corporate names comply with RDA standards. Records for collectors, dealers, and advisors include the life dates of the individuals when known, whereas records for institutional entries such as galleries and auction houses provide dates of operation when they can be determined.
The Directory can be searched by keyword in the search box available on every page or by using the Advanced Search or Map Search features.
The Keyword field is searchable by personal and corporate names, subjects, and geographic locations. Repositories are not searchable by keyword, but can be queried using either the Repository Name or Repository City fields.
Role refers to subject's role in the art market, chiefly "dealer," "gallery," "artist," "patron," and "collector."
Name refers to either a personal or corporate name, and can be searched by any combination of first and last name, or by any word within the name of a firm or organization. A truncated version of a name will return the broadest set of results. For example, "wild" will yield Wildenstein and "ken" will return both Kennedy Galleries and Mitchell Kennerley.
City refers to the location where the subject's activity occurred and can be searched by all or part of the city name. For example, “bos” will return records for dealers and collectors who were active in Boston.
State names are abbreviated (e.g. "NY"").
Country names are not abbreviated (n.b. This search will only find countries outside of the United States. "United Kingdom" is used instead of England or Great Britain). Searching by location is facilitated more efficiently using the Map Search feature.
The Historical Notes field searches the biographical and historical information within a subject's record, often taken directly from a collection's finding aid.
Decade(s) refers to the decades that a dealer, gallery, collector, auction house, etc. were active in their respective roles in the art world. For example, Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer's life dates are 1855-1929, but she did not begin collecting art until the 1870s while traveling through Europe. She continued to collect until the decade of her death. Therefore, her activity decades in the Directory are listed as 1870-1880, 1880-1890, 1890-1900, 1900-1910, 1910-1920, and 1920-1930.
Individuals are divided by Sex. Associations, galleries, and auction houses are listed as "N/A".
Repository Name refers to the institution where archives are physically located. Both Repository name and Repository City may be searched by either the full name or part of the name.
Archive Notes queries the descriptive information in the archival holding files.
We ask that you cite the Archives Directory in your scholarly research and publications. Below is a suggested format and sample citations.
- Frick Art Research Library, YYYY. [the most recent publication date can be found in the "updated" field]. "Title of Entry" [name of the entry, including dates] in Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America. New York: Frick Art Research Library. "Entry's URL."
Examples
The Directory database and website were created by the Frick Art Reference Library's Center for the History of Collecting and edited by Samantha Deutch, then its Assistant Director and now the Library's Digital Art History Lead. When the Center closed in 2021, responsibility for the Directory was transferred to The Frick Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives, which continues to collaborate with the Digital Art History Lead. Copyright © 2013-2025 The Frick Collection. All Rights Reserved.
