Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Archives related to: Wilstach, Anna H.

titleW. P. Wilstach Collection records, 1886-1922.
repositoryPhiladelphia Museum of Art
descriptionThe records include correspondence of the Committee chairmen, the Custodians, and the conservators, lists, and clippings.

extent4 inches
formatsCorrespondence Clippings Ephemera
accessThe W.P. Wilstach Collection Records are the physical property of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Archives. The Museum holds literary rights only for material created by Museum personnel or given to the Museum with such rights specifically assigned. For all other material, literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for obtaining permission from rights holders for publication and for other purposes where stated.
record linkhttp://www.philamuseum.org/pma_archives/ead.php?c=WIL&p=tp
record sourcehttp://www.philamuseum.org/pma_archives
finding aidOnline and in repository.
updated02/14/2025 10:07:32
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titleThe Fototeca Berenson (Villa I Tatti Photo Archives)
repositoryBiblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti
descriptionThe collection contains about 300,000 photographs, many of them collected by Berenson himself from the 1880s until the time of his death in 1959. Many have notes on the back in his handwriting. Many show works of art before restoration, and others show images since destroyed.

An important section, "Homeless paintings", contains photographs of works whose current location is unknown. The photographs are almost exclusively black and white in a variety of photographic media, such as albumen, gelatine, or carbon.

About 3000 large-format photographs are stored separately. In addition, there is a considerable amount of documentary material in the form of clippings, notes and printed reproductions.

The photographs are arranged according to Berenson's original scheme, by school: Florence, Siena, Central Italy, Northern Italy, Lombardy, Venice, Southern Italy. Within each school they are arranged by artist, then by topography, followed by homeless. Paintings and drawings are arranged separately.

The main focus of the collection is on Italian painting and drawing from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. This part of the collection continues to be developed through the acquisition of new materials and through photographic campaigns. Later periods are also represented but in smaller scale, without systematic updating.

There is also material on medieval painting, arranged topographically; manuscript illumination, arranged according to present location; archeology; Byzantine art and architecture, arranged both by artist and by location; and non-Italian art, arranged by country. Finally a section of 8000 photographs is devoted to the art of the Far East, India and Islam.

In addition to the original Berenson nucleus, collections of prints, glass plates, negatives and transparencies have entered the Fototeca.

These include the collections of Emilio Marcucci (nineteenth-century projects for the completion of various Florentine monuments), George Kaftal (representations of saints in Italian painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), Henry Clifford (painting thirtheenth to seventeenth centuries), Giorgio Castelfranco (Italian art thirteenth to twentieth centuries), Giannino Marchig (restoration), Frederick Hartt (Michelangelo, Giulio Romano), Giuseppe Marchini (Italian art and stained glass), and Craig H. Smyth (Renaissance painting and drawing).

There is a small collection of micropublications and microfiche (162,386 frames): L=index photographique de l'art en France (95,648); Sotheby's Pictorial Archive - Old Master Paintings (45,472); Christie's Pictorial Archive Italian School (9,898); Christie's Pictorial Archive - New York 1977-95 Old Master Paintings & Drawings (11,368). The microfilm of the Bartsch Corpus comprises about 42,000 frames.

Notes
Most photographers not identified.

extent300,000 + photographs
formatsPhotographs Reproductions Microfilm Artist Files
accessContact Ilaria Della Monica the archivist at the Berenson Library for restrictions and appointments.
record linkhttp://via.lib.harvard.edu/via/deliver/advancedsearch?_collection=via
record sourcehttp://itatti.harvard.edu/
finding aidCurrently, there is no catalog of the photographs at Villa I Tatti. In some cases, Artist Files, can be found school (i.e. Venetian, Lombard, Northern Italy, Central Italy, etc. . .) and some are cataloged in Harvard's online catalog, HOLLIS.
acquisition informationOriginally formed by Bernard Berenson the Library continues to add to the file.
updated02/14/2025 10:07:44
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titleDaguerreotype of Mrs. Wm. P. Wilstach, circa 1846
repositoryThe Historical Society of Pennsylvania
description Image: 1/4 plate; Seated woman with one arm resting on a cloth covered posing table a book clasped in the hand on her lap, hair parted in the center and covering her ears, dressed in a black silk dress with long narrow sleeves and frilled whitework undersleeves, with a whitework pelerine, a whitework collar, and a decorated neck ribbon clasped at the throat with a large brooch, wearing earrings, a cameo on her wrist, and three rings on her fingers, color applied to her cheeks and lips.
Preserver: [none] (pre-1847).
Mat: Oval with sandy finish (late 1840s).
Case: Leather-covered wood frame embossed with a floral design on the front and a geometric design on the back, with a red velvet pinchpad and a red velvet cushion embossed with a floral design (ca. 1850).

Contained in: Cased Photographs Collection [3139]

Digital image available online
extent1 item
formatsPhotographs
record linkhttps://digitallibrary.hsp.org/index.php/Detail/objects/5920
record sourcehttp://digitallibrary.hsp.org/
updated02/14/2025 10:07:48
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titleFiske Kimball Records, 1908-1955, n.d. (bulk 1925-1954)
repositoryPhiladelphia Museum of Art
descriptionFrom 1925 to 1955, Fiske Kimball (1888-1955) served as director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, steering the institution from what he described as "a minor provincial position to become one of the leading museums of America."

The Fiske Kimball Records document Kimball's efforts in achieving this transformation in collaboration with the Museum's officers, staff, and the Fairmount Park Commission, and with the assistance of private benefactors and City funding. Comprised primarily of correspondence, these records also include ephemera, clippings, notes, legal documents, reports, minutes, press releases, publications, floor plans, installation drawings, and photographs, mostly of objects, rooms and architectural elements offered for purchase.

Kimball's correspondents include preeminent leaders of art museums, universities, auction houses and professional affiliations, as well as government representatives, private collectors, scholars, and artists. Kimball's often successful courting of potential donors of objects and contributors of funds is well represented, as well as his efforts to secure labor funded by the Works Progress Administration.

In addition to the refinement and expansion of the Museum's holdings, the development of various departments and offices is also documented, and to a lesser extent other related facilities.
extent94.5 linear feet
formatsCorrespondence Clippings Ephemera Legal Papers Photographs
accessThe collection is open for research. Certain fragile material may only be consulted with permission of the Archivist.
record linkhttp://www.philamuseum.org/pma_archives/ead.php?c=FKR&p=hn
record sourcehttp://www.philamuseum.org/archives/findingaids.html
finding aidAvailable online
acquisition informationBequeathed by Fiske Kimball, 1955.
updated02/14/2025 10:07:48
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titleHenri Gabriel Marceau Director Records, 1955-1964
repositoryPhiladelphia Museum of Art
descriptionHenri Gabriel Marceau, an internationally known scholar, art historian and architect, was the Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 1955 to 1964. Prior to that appointment, he served nearly thirty years at the museum in a curatorial capacity and beginning in 1937 as well as Associate Director.

Marceau's Records consist mainly of correspondence with individuals, corporations, museums and universities, as well as subjects, and they are arranged chronologically by calendar years. Museums are filed under M (for Museum) and then by name for the larger Museums and, alphabetically by individual name for the smaller ones. There are several folders on the installation of the Japanese Tea House and the Kramrisch Collection of Sculpture (1955), as well as a file of condolences for Fiske Kimball in 1955 and 1956. There is a small Object File.
extent56.5 linear feet
formatsCorrespondence
accessThe collection is open for research.
record linkhttp://www.philamuseum.org/pma_archives/ead.php?c=MAR&p=hn
record sourcehttp://www.philamuseum.org/archives/findingaids.html
finding aidAvailable online
updated02/14/2025 10:07:48
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