Harvard Art Museum / Research Centers

Conservators working on a triptych, Fogg Museum, ca. 1954. Courtesy Harvard Art Museum Archives

"Dear Mr. Forbes, I am glad that you have enjoyed my paintings. I too like very much the one that Stieglitz told me you liked. When you come to New York again would you call me ... and come for a cup of tea and a little talking. As you say, it is a long time since we have met. I remember enjoying my hours at the Fogg Museum with you so much." — Georgia O'Keeffe to Fogg Museum director Edward Forbes, May 10, 1938

Thousands of letters between influential individuals in the art community from 1895 to the present can be found in the Harvard Art Museum Archives. Whether in-depth or casual, amusing or somber, scholarly or social, these documents shed important light on the development of museums and museum education, and the relationships between museums and artists, collectors, and connoisseurs during a critical phase in the development of art historiography.

Documents and artifacts in the Harvard Art Museum Archives date from the opening of the Fogg Museum in 1895 to the present. Archival materials, crucial to the museum's institutional memory, mandate, and mission, supply a vital complementary narrative to the works of art themselves, recording their acquisition, history, and use.

The Archives collects, organizes, and preserves the institution's historical documents and makes them available to students, scholars, and interested members of the international art community. Its mission is to document and promote knowledge and appreciation of the museum's history, programs, and goals, and the professional and personal accomplishments of its principals.

Holdings include significant papers of individuals and groups associated with the museum's history, as well as comprehensive materials on the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler museums, which integrated to form the Harvard University Art Museums (now the Harvard Art Museum) in 1983. The Archives contains letters, photographs, scrapbooks, glass lantern slides, audio- and videotapes, motion picture films, architectural drawings, student works, and digital files, as well as over 3,000 printed volumes, consisting largely of museum publications, catalogues, and supporting materials.

The Archives provides insight into the formation of the Harvard Art Museum's collections and its mission as a teaching institution. Harvard was arguably the premier training ground in the country for curators, conservators, and other museum professionals; the Archives' collections of teaching-related materials serve as rich resources for the study of the pedagogical approaches of the museum's teaching staff.

Highlights include correspondence with collectors, gallery owners, museum professionals, and notables throughout the 20th century, including Alfred Barr, Bernard Berenson, Belle da Costa Greene, Lincoln Kirstein, Helen Frick, and Abby and John D. Rockefeller. The Archives is strong in documentation related to museum theory and practice, and also includes papers of artists Alfonso Ossorio, David Smith, Chaim Soutine, and Denman W. Ross, among others. In addition, the Archives holds the records of the Howard Wise Gallery, a major venue for kinetic art in the 1960s.

Accessing the Archives

While the building at 32 Quincy Street is closed for renovation, archival materials can be made available for research. Researchers must contact the Archives as far in advance of a visit as possible; a minimum of three weeks is requested. Research visits may be scheduled Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm by contacting the Archives at huamref@fas.harvard.edu or by calling 617-495-2384.