Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Harkness, Edward Stephen, 1874-1940
| title | Letters of Miles Poindexter, 1923-1928. | repository | Library of Congress |
| description | Correspondence with Bertram Lee regarding the provenance of Edward S. Harkness collection of Mexican and Peruvian manuscripts. bio/ hist note: U.S. senator and representative of Washington, lawyer, and jurist. |
| extent | 1 microfilm reel. |
| formats | Microfilm |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://catalog.loc.gov |
| acquisition information | Microfilm of originals in the University of Virginia Library (Charlottesville). |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:55 |
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| title | Harkness collection, 1525-1651 | repository | Library of Congress |
| description | Documents and papers (1525-1609: 2,939 folios) relating to the history of the Spanish in Mexico, though chiefly pertaining to the conquistador, Hernan Cortés, and members of his family. Topics include the Cortés-Avila Conspiracy (1566); a 1531 lawsuit involving testimony from the Nahuas of Huejotzingo, Mexico; other legal matters; family lands in Oaxaca, Mexico; and proceedings of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Also includes documents and papers (1531-1651: 1,405 folios) relating to the history of the Spanish in Peru. Includes decrees, proclamations, orders, instructions, contracts, agreements, commercial accounts and letters, minutes of municipalities, manumissions, and material on the Pizarro and Almagro families. |
| extent | 900 items, 34 containers plus 1 oversize, 10 microfilm reels. |
| formats | Microfilm Legal Papers Writings Correspondence Financial Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ |
| finding aid | Finding aid and calendar published by the Library of Congress, 1932-1974. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:55 |
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| title | The Harkness collection in the Library of Congress. Documents from early Peru, the Pizarros and the Almagros, 1531-1578. | repository | New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division |
| description | "Second in the series of publications made by the Library of Congress from the great collection of early Spanish manuscripts concerning the new world, presented to it in 1929 by Mr. Edward S. Harkness."--Pref. Spanish and English. The documents have been transcribed, translated and annotated by Stella R. Clemence. cf. Introd. pref. signed: J. F. Jameson, chief of the Division of manuscripts. Location OFFSITE - Request in Advance Call Number Status HHK (United States. Library of Congress. Manuscripts Division. Harkness Collection. Harkness collection in the Library of Congre 1936 |
| extent | xi, 253 p. 26 cm. |
| formats | Printed Materials |
| access | Apply in Special Collections Office. |
| record link | http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b12660092~S1 |
| bibliography | Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1936. |
| record source | http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b12660092~S1 |
| acquisition information | published manuscript held at the Library of Congress. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:55 |
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| title | Edward S. and Mary Stillman Harkness collection, ca. 1400-1945. (MssCol 1318) | repository | New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division |
| description | Collection consists of holograph manuscripts, autograph letters, documents, and signatures representing artists and literary and historical figures. Includes 15th-century illuminated Book of Hours and letters and documents of all American presidents from Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt, except for Herbert Hoover. Items are accompanied by typed transcripts, portrait photographs and illustrations, and related letters, clippings and other materials. Persons represented include Shirley Brooks, Frances H. Burnett, Thomas Carlyle, Walter Crane, George Cruikshank, General Henry Dearborn, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Louise, Empress of France, Mary, Queen of Scots, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, John Ruskin, William M. Thackery, Henry D. Thoreau, Samuel Clemens, George Washington, John G. Whittier, and Captain Isaac Woods. Note Edward Stephen Harkness (1874-1940) was a trustee of the New York Public Library. His wife and co-collector, Mary Stillman Harkness, died in 1950. |
| extent | 3.3 linear feet (29 v.). |
| formats | Correspondence Manuscript |
| access | Apply in Special Collections Office for admission to the Manuscripts and Archives Division. |
| record link | http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/harknesse.pdf |
| record source | http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b12358322~S1 |
| finding aid | Collection guide available in repository and on internet. |
| acquisition information | June and. Octoker, 1950. received from Edward S. and Mary Stillman Iiarkness |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:55 |
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| title | Photograph collection of Edward S. Harkness, Class of 1897, Yale College, documenting student life at Yale, ca. 1894-1903 (inclusive). | repository | Yale University Library |
| description | The collection consists of photographs depicting Yale scenes, student life, classmates, and various Kappa Psi reunions. Harkness graduated from Yale College in 1897. Location: SML, Manuscripts and Archives (Non-Circulating) Call Number: RU 670 |
| extent | .25 linear feet. |
| formats | Photographs |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record link | http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/redirect/findaid.php?num=0670&typ=ru |
| record source | http://orbis.library.yale.edu/ |
| finding aid | Guide in repository and on the repository's Web site. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of Yale Record Group 48-A (YRG 48-A), Yale pictorial records and collections. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:55 |
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| title | Yale Peruvian Expedition papers, 1908-1948 | repository | Yale University Library |
| description | Correspondence, administrative records, scientific reports, writings, and illustrative material on the three expeditions to Peru sponsored by Yale University between 1911-1915. The most celebrated discoveries, the finding of Machu Picchu and of Vitcos, the last capital of the Incas, were studied during the expeditions by scientific specialists who were drawn principally from the Yale faculty. The papers include their diaries, manuscripts, and published reports of their work, as well as the writings of Hiram Bingham III, professor of Latin American history at Yale, and leader of the expeditions. Among Bingham’s papers are the official reports of the expedition, and essays and manuscripts of his books. A collection of glass slides showing views of Peru and other parts of South America makes up a part of the visual documentation. Other illustrative materials are maps, clippings, scrapbooks, and photographs of the sites, of Quechua Indians, and of Peruvian artifacts. Among the prominent members of the expeditions were: Isaiah Bowman, Orator F. Cook, George F. Eaton, William G. Erving, H. W. Foote, Herbert E. Gregory, Edmund Heller and Philip Ainsworth Means. Correspondents included scientists and government officials both in South America and the United States. Among these are: Sir Clements Markham, Alberto A. Giesecke, Edward C. Pickering, Thomas Barbour, Pliny E. Goddard, A. B. Leguia (President of Peru), F. A. Prezet, and Edwardo Higginson. Location: LSF-Request for Use at Manuscripts and Archives Call Number: MS 664 |
| extent | 16.25 linear ft. (42 boxes) |
| formats | Administrative Records Correspondence Writings Illustrations Ephemera |
| access | Box 33A is closed pending preservation assessment. Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record link | http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/redirect/findaid.php?num=0664&typ=ms |
| record source | http://orbis.library.yale.edu/ |
| finding aid | Finding aid is available in repository and on Internet. |
| acquisition information | Gift of Hiram Bingham III in 1936. Additional materials given by Bingham and his sons, Woodbridge and Alfred M. Bingham, through the 1970s. Some material was transferred from the Bingham Family Papers (MS 81) in 1977. The papers of H. B. Ferris were transferred from the Yale Medical School Library in 1977. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:55 |
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| title | Records of the Director's Office: William Mathewson Milliken, 1930-1958 | repository | The Cleveland Museum of Art |
| description | The records of the Director's Office are the primary source for understanding the decisions made and actions taken at the highest level of the museum's administration. In addition, they constitute one of the most valuable, unified resources for researching the early history of the museum and its art collection; initial construction and expansion of the museum building; changes in the museum's administrative hierarchy; personalities and activities of individual staff members; artistic and social movements of the first half of the twentieth century; and the museum's relationship with civic, cultural, and educational institutions throughout the country and the world. Background Information Early History of the Museum and the Director's Office The founding of The Cleveland Museum of Art was truly a collaborative effort. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, wealthy Cleveland businessmen John Huntington, Horace Kelley, and Hinman Hurlbut left substantial bequests in their wills to establish an art museum. In 1892 Jeptha Wade II gave eight acres of land to the city of Cleveland "for the construction and maintenance of an art gallery and school." Over the next two decades the trustees of the Huntington, Kelley, and Hurlbut estates worked towards reconciling the legal stipulations of the wills to finance the construction of a single art museum on the land that Wade donated. In June 1905 the trustees reached a preliminary agreement. Encouraged by the progress of the negotiations, E.R. Perkins, president of the Huntington trust, appointed a six-man building committee to select an architect and review prospective building plans. The committee subsequently chose the local firm of Hubbell & Benes to design the new museum, but it also retained Edmund Wheelwright, consulting architect for Boston's newly completed Museum of Fine Arts, as an advisor to the project. In July 1910, their assigned task completed, members of the first building committee wrote a final report to the three trusts in which they recommended that a new committee be formed to hire contractors and oversee actual construction. They further urged that the committee be given the authority to hire a director for the museum as soon as possible. The director would be responsible for giving his "undivided attention" to the building of the museum, fostering the community's interest in the project, and securing donations of art and funding for art purchases. "In brief," the report concluded, "we need a man both to help us in the building of the Museum itself, and in the meantime, to prepare the way for the Museum." The position of director was first offered to Henry Watson Kent, who was then secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kent turned the position down but nonetheless played a very prominent role in the museum's design and construction, acting as consultant to the building project and serving as secretary of the new building committee until a director was hired. In addition, in 1913 the board of trustees of the newly incorporated museum voted to give Kent $25,000 for four years "for the purpose of bringing together a nucleus for collections." It was also Henry W. Kent who recommended Frederic Allen Whiting as a viable candidate for the position of director of The Cleveland Museum of Art. William Mathewson Milliken Whereas Whiting helped to build a museum, William Mathewson Milliken laid the foundations for its world-class art collection. Born in 1889 in Stamford, Connecticut, of Scotch-American parents, Milliken graduated from Princeton in 1912. After two unsatisfactory years in the business world, he accepted an unpaid position in the cataloguing department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and subsequently became an assistant and then assistant curator in the decorative arts department. One of his responsibilities at the Met was to catalogue the vast J. Pierpont Morgan collection, an experience that fostered his love for and expertise in small art objects, especially those of the medieval and Renaissance periods. After serving as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War I, he joined The Cleveland Museum of Art in 1919 as curator of decorative arts. In 1925 he assumed the additional position of curator of paintings. Not long after his arrival in Cleveland, Milliken became known for his brilliant acquisitions in medieval art, which set a new, high standard for the types of works that the museum would collect. In 1922 he acquired a remarkable group of German ivory reliefs from a portable altar, in 1923 the Spitzer enamel cross, in 1925 the Strogonoff ivory plaque, and in 1926 an enamel reliquary. This facet of Milliken's collecting activities culminated in 1930 with the purchase of the Guelph Treasure. Milliken also made some astute decisions about paintings--arranging the purchase of Bellow's Stag at Sharkey's, Eakins's Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake, and other important contemporary American works--although his interest in paintings seems always to have been secondary to his affection for the decorative arts. The Board's decision to choose Milliken as Whiting's successor was no doubt influenced by his collecting prowess as well as his outgoing, energetic personality. Appointed director in August 1930, William Milliken continued many of the programs initiated under his predecessor. In 1931, he demonstrated his commitment to education by hiring educational pioneer Thomas Munro to succeed Rossiter Howard as curator of education. In addition to broadening the museum's roster of activities for children, Thomas Munro developed a rich adult education program that emphasized non-representational art, non-Western art forms, and all of the visual arts. He also served on the faculty of Western Reserve University, thus cementing more tightly an already existing relationship between the two institutions. Other notable employees served under Milliken, many of whom remained at the museum for a very long time. Walter Blodgett revitalized and expanded the museum's program of musical performances as curator of musical arts from 1942 to 1974; Dorothy Shepherd worked in the textiles department--as assistant curator and later as curator--for a total of 34 years; Lillian Kern, hired by Whiting, became registrar in 1937 and eventually retired in 1973; and in 1949 Albert Grossman began his 37-year career in the museum's business office, first as cashier, then as comptroller, and finally as operations administrator. Most auspiciously, in 1952 Milliken appointed Sherman Emery Lee as curator of oriental art and in charge of Egyptian and classical art. Six years later, Lee was chosen to be Milliken's successor as director, a position he held until 1983. Under Milliken the May Show also became firmly entrenched as a Cleveland tradition. Assigned to organize the first show in 1919 as a fledgling curator, Milliken nourished its growth during his long tenure as director, providing a highly visible venue and means of monetary support to local painters and sculptors as well as those working in the more traditional "crafts." The international reputations of some Cleveland potters, silver- and goldsmiths, enamelists, and weavers are in great part the result of William Milliken's sustained patronage of these then-neglected arts. In recognition of his knowledge of the local arts community, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Milliken regional director of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), one of numerous programs established under the New Deal to provide work for destitute artists. Milliken served as an advisor to the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), as Ohio chief for national WPA-sponsored Art Weeks, as commissioning agent and local representative for the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), and as chairman of many regional juries supervising competitions for post office murals across Ohio under the aegis of the Section of Painting and Sculpture. Milliken was involved in other cultural organizations, both local and national. He served as a trustee of Karamu House and the Cleveland Art Association and as an advisor of the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was also president of the Association of Art Museum Directors as well as the American Association of Museums, and first vice president of the International Council of Museums and the Academie International de la Ceramique. In recognition of his myriad contributions to the arts, he was decorated by the Hungarian, Italian, Swedish, French, and Spanish governments, and received many honorary degrees. Retirement was not a time of inactivity for Milliken. Succeeded by Sherman Emery Lee on 1 April 1958, in 1959 Milliken helped plan Australia's National Gallery building in Melbourne, and in 1960 he completed a 20-lecture tour of Canada. He organized the Masterpieces of Art exhibition at the Seattle World's Fair of 1962 and in 1963 served as Regent Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Even in his eighties, William Milliken was an avid skier, making annual month-long ski trips to Sun Valley, Idaho. He died at the age of 88 on March 14, 1978. More detailed information about the early history of the museum and its directors can be found in the resources listed in the bibliography at the end of this guide. |
| extent | 20.3 cubic feet, 66 boxes, 6 reels of microfilm |
| formats | Microfilm Administrative Records Correspondence Ephemera Scrapbooks |
| access | Access may be restricted because of the records' physical fragility and level of confidentiality. At minimum, records are closed for 35 years after creation. At the end of the restricted period, the records will still be subject to the review of the archivist before access is granted. |
| record link | http://library.clevelandart.org/museum_archives/finding_aids/milliken/index.php |
| record source | http://library.clevelandart.org/ |
| finding aid | The finding aid is in the repository and on the repository's web site. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:11 |
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