Letters to the stockholders discuss the financial condition of Beard Art Galleries. Letters from European and American galleries, such as the Vose Gallery and Keppels Print Shop, concern exhibitions. Other materials include clippings, exhibition catalogs and announcements, biographical information on Harington Beard, and photographs of the gallery.
Biographical / Historical:
Harington Beard owned a gallery in Minneapolis, Minn. Beard was born in England and moved with his family to the United States in 1879. When his father's business was destroyed by the Chicago fire, Beard and his brothers opened a stationery store. In 1886, Beard married, moved to Minneapolis and opened the Harington Beard Fine Art Shop. The name was later changed to Beard Art Galleries and the gallery operated continuously until Beard's death in 1940. Richard Beard Thompson reopened the gallery around 1980.
Provenance:
Microfilmed in 1990 as part of AAA's Philadelphia Arts Documentation Project. Harington Beard's daughter, Margaret Beard Gilpin, organized the family papers into six scrapbooks which cover the Beard and Gilpin families. Only selections relating to Harington Beard and the gallery were filmed.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
