Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Delmonico, L. Crist
| title | Art Collecting Files of Henry Clay Frick, 1881-1925, undated | repository | The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library |
| description | Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), a Pittsburgh industrialist who made his fortune in coke and steel, cultivated a lifelong interest in art collecting, beginning with his first purchase in 1881. Upon his death, he bequeathed his New York City residence, along with his extensive collection of paintings, furniture, and art objects, to be established as a museum called The Frick Collection. The Collection has been open to the public since December 1935. These papers consist of correspondence, one letterpress book, invoices, vouchers, canceled checks, inventories, notes, and printed material documenting the selection, purchase, and disposition of Henry Clay Frick’s art collection. Note Forms part of the Frick Family Papers. Arrangement Materials are arranged in six subseries: I. Purchases, II. Inventories and Lists, III. Catalogs and Works Exhibited, IV. Correspondence V. Works Not Purchased, and VI. Sale Catalogs and Miscellanea. Files are arranged chronologically within each subseries. Location Frick Archives Call Number HCFF.1.1 |
| extent | 8.9 linear feet |
| formats | Correspondence Financial Records Inventories Notes Printed Materials |
| access | These records are open for research under the conditions of The Frick Collection/Frick Art Reference Library Archives access policy. Contact the Archives Department for further information at archives@frick.org |
| record link | https://www.frick.org/sites/default/files/FindingAids/ArtCollectingFiles.html |
| record source | https://library.frick.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/1qqhid8/alma991010196349707141 |
| finding aid | Unpublished finding aid available at the repository. |
| acquisition information | Part of the Papers of the Frick Family, placed on deposit by the Helen Clay Frick Foundation, December 2001. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:30:05 |
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| title | Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records, 1883-1962, bulk 1885-1940 | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | The records of the Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art are complete record of the museum's work, starting with the planning of the first loan exhibition in 1885 and ending with the cancellation of the International at the start of World War II in 1940. The museum's day-to-day relationships with all aspects of the contemporary art world are documented within the historical context. Extensive correspondents related to the art world include artists, dealers, galleries, collectors, museum directors, , shipping and insurance agents, and museum trustees museum staff, art directors, associations, societies, clubs, critics, press, and governments. These exchanges include general requests for information; requests related to the museum's exhibitions, including the International; letters regarding the museum's involvement in the events of other art organizations; loan, sales, and provenance information for specific works of art; and information regarding the events of other art organizations. Series 1: Correspondence, 1883-1962, (Boxes 1-153, OV 267; 152.5 linear feet) Series 2: Department of Fine Arts, 1896-1940, (Boxes 153-184, OV 268; 31.6 linear feet) Series 3: Exhibitions, 1901-1940, (Boxes 184-204; 20 linear feet) Series 4: International, 1895-1940, (Boxes 204-234, 265-266; 30.2 linear feet) Series 5: Letterpress Books, 1900-1917, (Boxes 235-251; 17 linear feet) Series 6: Card Catalogs, 1895-1940, (Box 252-264; 11 linear feet) The Exhibitions and International Series (Series 3 and 4) and the correspondence of directors John W. Beatty and Homer Saint-Gaudens were digitized in 2011 and are available via the Archives of American Art's website. Blank pages, blank versos of photographs, photographs of artwork, and duplicates have not been scanned. In most cases, only the cover, title page, and individual relevant pages have been scanned from published materials. |
| extent | 264 Boxes, 264.3 Linear Feet |
| formats | Electronic Resource Correspondence Administrative Records Exhibition Files Catalogs |
| access | Use of original papers requires an appointment. |
| record link | http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/carnegie-institute-museum-art-records-7343/more |
| record source | http://www.aaa.si.edu |
| finding aid | Available online: http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/carnegie-institute-museum-art-records-7343/more |
| acquisition information | The Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records were loaned for microfilming in 1966 and later donated to the Archives of American Art in 1972. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:15 |
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| title | Charles M. Kurtz papers, 1843-1990 (1884-1909). | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | Primarily correspondence and printed material, but also diaries, legal and financial material, notes and writings, photographs, and works of art reflect Kurtz's involvement with the National Academy of Design, the art departments of the Southern, World's Columbian, St. Louis, International Universal (Paris), and Louisiana Purchase Expositions, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, and his activities as a collector and private dealer. Biographical material consists of reminiscences, certificates, and obituaries. There is approximately 15 ft. of professional and personal correspondence, dated 1843-1990. Of particular interest is correspondence with artists: Du Bois F. Hasbrouck, Robert Macaulay Stephenson and Patty Thum; administrators: Luigi Palma di Cesnola, Sara Hallowell, Halsey C. Ives and Charles Ward Rhodes; dealers: Samuel P. Avery, Alexander Reid, Charles Sedelmeyer; collectors: Thomas B. Clarke, John Wanamaker; organizations: American Art Association, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; family and friends, notably his wife, Julia Stephenson Kurtz, father, D.B. Kurtz and the Starkweather family. Requests for submissions of works of art are forms, and a few letters, returned by artists describing the works they wish to exhibit for the Southern Exposition, 1886, the St. Louis Expositions, 1893-1897, and exhibits of the Glasgow School at St. Louis, 1895, and at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1905. Forms are arranged by exposition, and thereunder alphabetically by artist. Legal and financial material consists of agreements, a will, inventories and price lists of the Kurtz's collection, ledgers, 1877-1886, and lists of art related expenses, 1884-1919. 5 vol. of diaries, Mar. - May 1894, Jan. - Dec. 1897, Feb. 1899, Mar. 1899, and Jan. - Mar. 1901 contain detailed entries regarding travels, daily activities, art related events, and expenses. The Feb. 1899 volume describes a sale of paintings from Thomas Benedict Clarke's collection. Notes and writings include drafts of "Art: Its Evolution, Influence and Mission," lecture notes, writings on theory, aesthetics, criticism, collecting, artists and other topics, short stories, comic operas and other compositions, address books, and exposition gallery plans. Twelve volumes of scrapbooks, 1878-1909, contain clippings of Kurtz's columns from the New York Star, Tribune and other papers, and clippings and printed material regarding the Southern and St. Louis Expositions, and the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, and other art related clippings. Extensive printed material includes catalogs for various exhibitions, mostly from New York galleries; catalogs for the sale of Kurtz's collection, 1910; clippings; catalogs and other material relating to the Southern, World's Columbian, St. Louis and Louisiana Purchase Expositions; calling cards; brochures; invitations; and programs. Photographs are of Kurtz, his wife, and others, paintings in his collection, exposition buildings and installations. Some of the photographs were copied from glass plate negatives received with the collection. REEL 4912: Notebook written by Charles Kurtz in 1891, and revised in 1895, chronicling the Glasgow School of Painters. Kurtz details the debut of this group of painters in London and Munich in 1890, discourses on the contemporary Scottish art world, describes the struggles and accomplishments of the School, and ends with extensive characterizations of the artists. UNMICROFILMED: Material which was not microfilmed includes a D.B. and E.L. Kurtz letterpress book, 1877-1887; financial material, including cancelled checks and stubs, and an inventory of the library of Kathrine Woodford Simpson; miscellaneous writings by others; and printed material, including non-art related exposition publications, proof sheets for catalogs, National Academy Notes (1889) and Academy Notes, v.1-v.4 (1905-1909), reproductions of works of art, menus, including one for a dinner for Edwin Austin Abbey with a signed photogravure by Abbey and autographs of 19 attendees including James Smillie, Childe Hassam, and Herbert Vos (with caricature), 1902, and other miscellaneous printed matter. Also, photographs of works of art, and a series of 12 photographs of young men and women taken by Guglielmo Pluschow; and art work, ca. 1876-1902, measuring 23 x 35.2 cm or smaller, including sketches, ink illustrations for Academy Notes, a lithograph by Robert J. Wickenden (signed), an engraving, 6 etchings, including 3 etched invitations to gallery openings of Mary Curtis Richardson, Benoni Irwin and others, a portrait of a man by Jay Hambidge (tempera on paper), and 1 landscape painting (oil on canvas). |
| extent | 27.6 linear ft. (partially microfilmed on 24 reels) reels 4804-4826 and 4912 |
| formats | Correspondence Financial Records Photographs Diaries Inventories |
| access | Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm. Use of unmicrofilmed portion requires an appointment. Reel 4912: Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce must be obtained from: Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., Box 2120 Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06520. |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| finding aid | Online and in repository. |
| acquisition information | All but reel 4912 was donated in 1988 by Isabel Kurtz, daughter of Charles Kurtz, and by her estate through E.W. Dann Stevens, executor, l99l. Some of the correspondence was damaged by fire, and was photocopied for microfilming purposes. Microfilm copy of Kurtz's notebook (reel 4912) was given to AAA for duplication in 1994 by the Yale Center for British Art, which had received it as a gift from the Isabel Kurtz estate. Reel 4912: Original in the Yale Center for British Art New Haven, Connecticut. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:30:15 |
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| title | M. Knoedler & Co. records, approximately 1848-1971 | repository | The Getty Research Institute |
| description | The 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. |
| extent | 3042.6 linear feet (5550 boxes, 17 flat file folders). |
| formats | Auction Catalogs Business Records Correspondence Financial Records Ephemera |
| access | Open 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 link | http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2012m54 |
| record source | http://primo.getty.edu/GRI:GETTY_ALMA21129976460001551 |
| contact information | Contact gallery's archivist |
| finding aid | At the Getty Research Institute and over their website. |
| acquisition information | Acquired in 2012. |
| updated | 05/29/2018 14:44:15 |
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