Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: King, Fanny Tewksbury Thrall
| 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 | 02/14/2025 10:07:35 |
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| title | King Family Scrapbooks |
| repository | The Cleveland Museum of Art |
| description | The records in the box include two scrapbooks, a hand signed photograph of Ralph Thrall King, and photographs of the King family homes, not specifically identified. The two scrapbooks appear to have been assembled by Francis King, and/or Fanny Tewksbury King, as the clippings are dated primarily from the time of Mr. King's death forward. They are comprised primarily of King's memorial tributes, especially CMA tributes; clippings regarding the King estate; children's weddings; the military career of King's third son; clippings about prominent Cleveland figures, perhaps friends; and various clippings regarding the art world. There are five folders containing the original items or photocopies of items from scrapbooks I and II. Both scrapbooks were disassembled and preservation photocopies were made of deteriorating papers which were then discarded. When possible, the originals were saved and if an item contained an original autograph, this then was also saved without regard to condition. The first scrapbook is contained in two folders and the items within are dated ca. 1926 to 1966. The second scrapbook is contained in three additional folders. The items in this scrapbook are dated primarily ca. 1915-1948 with some material dated as early as 1895. All pages in the second scrapbook were photocopied. Due to their deteriorated condition, originals where necessary to maintain, were placed in a third folder and interlaced with protective tissue paper. Background Information The scrapbooks in this collection were most likely assembled by the daughter of Ralph Thrall King (1855-1926), Francis King (Mrs. Gilbert) Schafer. Ralph Thrall King was a prominent Cleveland businessman and the President of Realty Investment Co., the largest holder of downtown Cleveland real estate at the turn of the century. Ralph T. King was married to Fanny Tewksbury King of Lexington, Michigan in Detroit in 1897. The couple shortly thereafter located to Cleveland. Mr. King both created the Cleveland Museum of Art's Prints Department and helped organize the Print Club in 1919. He also served as the volunteer curator of the Prints Department from 1919-1921. Together the Kings donated 870 items to the CMA. One of their many gifts was Rodin's "Thinker" (1917.42) located at the South entrance of the museum today. They were also recognized as important early contributors and founders of the Oriental Art Department. In 1919, Mr. King replaced Mr. Jeptha Wade II as the First Vice President of the Museum Board of Trustees and also served for a short period as Acting President of the CMA Board of Trustees following Mr. Wade's death and before his own sudden death in March of 1926. Mrs. Fanny Tewksbury King served on the Advisory Council of the CMA from 1926 until her death in 1949, at which time her daughter Frances King (Mrs. Gilbert) Schafer began serving on the council. Mrs. Schafer served on the Advisory Council until 1968. She was an active board member of Rainbow Hospital, the Visiting Nurse Association, Family Health Association, and Church Home of the Episcopal church. A family tree is located at the conclusion of the finding aid. |
| extent | 1 box |
| formats | Scrapbooks |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://library.clevelandart.org/museum_archives/finding_aids/king_scrapbooks/index.php |
| updated | 02/14/2025 10:07:44 |
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