These records are the official minutes of the Board. They are compiled at the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, who is also secretary to the Board, after
approval by the Regents' Executive Committee and by the Regents themselves. The minutes are edited, not a verbatim account of proceedings. For reasons unknown, there are no
manuscript minutes for the period from 1857 through 1890; and researchers must rely on printed minutes published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution instead.
Minutes are transferred regularly from the Secretary's Office to the Archives. Minutes less than 15 years old are closed to researchers. Indexes exist for the period from
1907 to 1946 and can be useful.
Historical Note:
The Smithsonian Institution was created by authority of an Act of Congress approved August 10, 1846. The Act entrusted direction of the Smithsonian to a body called
the Establishment, composed of the President; the Vice President; the Chief Justice of the United States; the secretaries of State, War, Navy, Interior, and Agriculture; the
Attorney General; and the Postmaster General. In fact, however, the Establishment last met in 1877, and control of the Smithsonian has always been exercised by its Board of
Regents. The membership of the Regents consists of the Vice President and the Chief Justice of the United States; three members each of the Senate and House of Representatives;
two citizens of the District of Columbia; and seven citizens of the several states, no two from the same state. (Prior to 1970 the category of Citizen Regents not residents
of Washington consisted of four members). By custom the Chief Justice is Chancellor. The office was at first held by the Vice President. However, when Millard Fillmore succeeded
to the presidency on the death of Zachary Taylor in 1851, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney was chosen in his stead. The office has always been filled by the Chief Justice
since that time.
The Regents of the Smithsonian have included distinguished Americans from many walks of life. Ex officio members (Vice President) have been: Spiro T. Agnew, Chester A.
Arthur, Allen W. Barkley, John C. Breckenridge, George Bush, Schuyler Colfax, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Curtis, George M. Dallas, Charles G. Dawes, Charles W. Fairbanks, Millard
Fillmore, Gerald R. Ford, John N. Garner, Hannibal Hamlin, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garret A. Hobart, Hubert H. Humphrey, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, William R. King, Thomas
R. Marshall, Walter F. Mondale, Levi P. Morton, Richard M. Nixon, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, James S. Sherman, Adlai E. Stevenson, Harry S. Truman, Henry A.
Wallace, William A. Wheeler, Henry Wilson.
Ex officio members (Chief Justice) have been: Roger B. Taney, Salmon P. Chase, Nathan Clifford, Morrison R. Waite, Samuel F. Miller, Melville W. Fuller, Edward D. White,
William Howard Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan F. Stone, Fred M. Vinson, Earl Warren, Warren E. Burger.
Regents on the part of the Senate have been: Clinton P. Anderson, Newton Booth, Sidney Breese, Lewis Cass, Robert Milledge Charlton, Bennet Champ Clark, Francis M. Cockrell,
Shelby Moore Cullom, Garrett Davis, Jefferson Davis, George Franklin Edmunds, George Evans, Edwin J. Garn, Walter F. George, Barry Goldwater, George Gray, Hannibal Hamlin,
Nathaniel Peter Hill, George Frisbie Hoar, Henry French Hollis, Henry M. Jackson, William Lindsay, Henry Cabot Lodge, Medill McCormick, James Murray Mason, Samuel Bell Maxey,
Robert B. Morgan, Frank E. Moss, Claiborne Pell, George Wharton Pepper, David A. Reed, Leverett Saltonstall, Hugh Scott, Alexander H. Smith, Robert A. Taft, Lyman Trumbull,
Wallace H. White, Jr., Robert Enoch Withers.
Regents on the part of the House of Representatives have included: Edward P. Boland, Frank T. Bow, William Campbell Breckenridge, Overton Brooks, Benjamin Butterworth,
Clarence Cannon, Lucius Cartrell, Hiester Clymer, William Colcock, William P. Cole, Jr., Maurice Connolly, Silvio O. Conte, Edward E. Cox, Edward H. Crump, John Dalzell, Nathaniel
Deering, Hugh A. Dinsmore, William English, John Farnsworth, Scott Ferris, Graham Fitch, James Garfield, Charles L. Gifford, T. Alan Goldsborough, Frank L. Greene, Gerry Hazleton,
Benjamin Hill, Henry Hilliard, Ebenezer Hoar, William Hough, William M. Howard, Albert Johnson, Leroy Johnson, Joseph Johnston, Michael Kirwan, James T. Lloyd, Robert Luce,
Robert McClelland, Samuel K. McConnell, Jr., George H. Mahon, George McCrary, Edward McPherson, James R. Mann, George Perkins Marsh, Norman Y. Mineta, A. J. Monteague, R.
Walton Moore, Walter H. Newton, Robert Dale Owen, James Patterson, William Phelps, Luke Poland, John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn, B. Carroll Reece, Ernest W. Roberts, Otho Robards
Singleton, Frank Thompson, Jr., John M. Vorys, Hiram Warner, Joseph Wheeler.
Citizen Regents have been: David C. Acheson, Louis Agassiz, James B. Angell, Anne L. Armstrong, William Backhouse Astor, J. Paul Austin, Alexander Dallas Bache, George
Edmund Badger, George Bancroft, Alexander Graham Bell, James Gabriel Berrett, John McPherson Berrien, Robert W. Bingham, Sayles Jenks Bowen, William G. Bowen, Robert S. Brookings,
John Nicholas Brown, William A. M. Burden, Vannevar Bush, Charles F. Choate, Jr., Rufus Choate, Arthur H. Compton, Henry David Cooke, Henry Coppee, Samuel Sullivan Cox, Edward
H. Crump, James Dwight Dana, Harvey N. Davis, William Lewis Dayton, Everette Lee Degolyer, Richard Delafield, Frederic A. Delano, Charles Devens, Matthew Gault Emery, Cornelius
Conway Felton, Robert V. Fleming, Murray Gell-Mann, Robert F. Goheen, Asa Gray, George Gray, Crawford Hallock Greenwalt, Nancy Hanks, Caryl Parker Haskins, Gideon Hawley,
John B. Henderson, John B. Henderson, Jr., A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Gardner Greene Hubbard, Charles Evans Hughes, Carlisle H. Humelsine, Jerome C. Hunsaker, William Preston
Johnston, Irwin B. Laughlin, Walter Lenox, Augustus P. Loring, John Maclean, William Beans Magruder, John Walker Maury, Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, John C. Merriam, R. Walton
Moore, Roland S. Morris, Dwight W. Morrow, Richard Olney, Peter Parker, Noah Porter, William Campbell Preston, Owen Josephus Roberts, Richard Rush, William Winston Seaton,
Alexander Roby Shepherd, William Tecumseh Sherman, Otho Robards Singleton, Joseph Gilbert Totten, John Thomas Towers, Frederic C. Walcott, Richard Wallach, Thomas J. Watson,
Jr., James E. Webb, James Clarke Welling, Andrew Dickson White, Henry White, Theodore Dwight Woolsey.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of the collection was funded by the Getty Grant Program; digitization of the collection was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Papers of art collectors Pauline Baerwald Falk (1910-2000) and Myron Samuel (Johnny) Falk Jr. (1906-1992). This collection includes correspondence; art collection documentation; research materials; photographs (slides and prints) and audiovisual materials; financial information; biographical data; records of philanthropic and social activities; travel records; and appointment books.
Arrangement:
Organized into five series:
• Series 1: Biographic Materials
• Series 2: Travel
• Series 3: Correspondence
• Series 4: Collection Files
• Series 5: Slides
Biographical / Historical:
Pauline Baerwald was born in New York City in 1910, living there until her death in 2000. In 1932 she graduated from Smith College and went on to the School of Social Work at Columbia University. Pauline's father, Paul Baerwald, was a German-Jewish banker and philanthropist, as well as an executive board member of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an agency chartered to provide refugee services for European Jews who were victims of persecution throughout Russia and Europe. Pauline was an active volunteer with the JDC throughout World War II. After the war she was one of the founders of the National Refuge Service (later the New York Association for New Americans) as well as the Jewish Social Service Association. She also served as president of the Jewish Family Services, a predecessor agency of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services. In 1935 Pauline Baerwald married Myron "Johnny" S. Falk, Jr., and raised three children: Patricia, Michael and Nancy. Pauline, with support from Johnny, was a founder of the New Lincoln School in Manhattan, having attended the Lincoln School as a child. They maintained connection to charitable social work throughout their lives.
Myron "Johnny" S. Falk, Jr., son of Myron S. Falk, was born in New York City in 1906. In 1928 he earned a degree at Yale and a B.S. in Engineering from MIT in 1929. During World War II Johnny was a commissioned officer in the army, posted to the Pentagon ordinance section, applying his engineering and management skills to the task of munitions production. The family moved to Washington, D.C. during the war. In addition to his professional career as an investment banker with Ralph E. Samuels and Co., Johnny was a director of the New York Foundation and Hebrew Technical Institute. He was a board member of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and Bennington College.
Pauline and Johnny were both introduced to Chinese art early in life. Johnny's father collected Chinese porcelain to decorate his New York home. In keeping with the taste of the times, most of his pieces were Kangxi blue and white porcelains. On his sixtieth birthday he divided his porcelains among his three children. Several years later Johnny and his sister, Mildred, gave many of those Kangxi porcelains to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to be permanently installed, together with many other porcelains, to re-create the original appearance of the Whistler Peacock Room.
Pauline was introduced to Chinese art by her uncle, Emil Baerwald, who took her to the Metropolitan Museum to see the Bishop Collection and on visits to Yamanaka and Company on Fifth Avenue, where Mr. Shirai would take them into the private rooms to see the rarest pieces. Emil Baerwald lived in Europe, and, as an active collector of Chinese ceramics, he became acquainted with leading Chinese art collectors there, including George Eumorfopoulos and Sir Percival David. He provided introductions to collectors when Pauline and Johnny visited England in 1950.
In 1937 Pauline and Johnny made their first trip to China on Pan Am's Clipper, flying from San Francisco to Manila. It was during their first visit to China that Johnny and Pauline began buying early Chinese pottery and works of art. Pauline referred to this trip as the one trip that formed their collection. On this flight they met K.C. Chung, a consultant and friend for years to come. Pauline's uncle, Ernst Baerwald, lived in Tokyo and was well connected in the arts. Through his introductions they met significant art dealers, including Mathias Komor, who became an advisor to them.
Pauline and Johnny were contributors the founding of many Asian art organizations in America during the years following World War II and the Korean War. They participated in the establishment of the Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America in 1945, a scholarly journal which was renamed Archives of Asian Art in 1966 and continues publication today.
Pauline and Johnny were strong supporters of the Asia Society, where Johnny was a trustee. In 1971 they were among the first participants in the Japan Society and were founding members of the Friends of Japan House Gallery. Johnny was also a trustee of the Research Laboratory of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1966 until his death. In 1950 Pauline and Johnny attended a meeting of the Oriental Ceramic Society (OCS) of London, and a few years later Johnny became the OCS representative in North America, a post he held for more than thirty years.
Johnny Falk died in 1992 and Pauline Baerwald Falk passed away in 2000, the same year the collection of approximately 700 items was assigned to Christie's.
Provenance:
Gift of the Falk family.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., maintained extensive files to track important clients and collectors in the art world. The files within this series reflect the wide scope of contacts and collector references maintained by the firm throughout its operating years. The series is further subdivided into several subseries based on type of reference file.
The first and largest subseries, titled Collectors (Series 2.1), traces artwork owned and sold by private American and European collectors and galleries, with descriptions and sale prices noted, present location of works of art, when known, along with photographs of art pieces and occasional physical descriptions and exhibition text. The Museum Files (Series 2.2) reflects a similar function and arrangement as the Collectors (Series 2.1) files but mainly concerns artwork held, donated to, or purchased by major American and European museums.
Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., acted as agents in the sales of several large and important art collections. Files in the Duc d'Arenberg Collection (Series 2.3) document the involvement in the late 1940s of Jacques Seligmann & Co. in the sale of objects from the d'Arenberg family's manuscript collection and the firm's activities in arranging for treatment and eventual sale of a select group of paintings that included Jan Vermeer's Portrait of a Young Girl Antoine Watteau's Marriage Contract and Rembrandt van Rijn's Tobias Healing His Father. The firm also conducted sales for the executors of the Estate of Clarence H. Mackay (Series 2.4) in 1939. As a wealthy American collector of Renaissance art and antiquities, Mackay had amassed a large and impressive collection, but many of the items lacked complete documentation. Seligmann & Co. undertook the task of describing, photographing, and documenting the collection in preparation for its dispersal through gallery sales and auction. The Mortimer L. Schiff Collection (Series 2.5) documents the 1937-1938 sale at Christie's of London auction house that was arranged by Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., to handle the disposition of the vast art collection of American banker Mortimer L. Schiff. The collection consisted of important oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Flemish, French, and German masters, English drawings and watercolors, Beauvais tapestries, Gothic and Renaissance sculpture and bronze, Chinese porcelains, Gothic and Renaissance arms and armor, and decorative arts. The Prince of Liechtenstein Collection (Series 2.6) documents the 1953 purchase by Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., of seven Italian marble sculptures from the Prince of Liechtenstein. The sculptures were subsequently sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1954.
Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., maintained a variety of records to track the location of important pieces of art as well as background material and addresses of collectors of note. Old Collectors of Interest (Series 2.7) consists of documents that were originally contained in two looseleaf volumes, generally compiled circa 1938-1952, but there are infrequent sales data from earlier dates. The information includes names and addresses of collectors, details of artwork or collections owned by the collectors, along with references to listings or reproduction in art catalogs. Most of this information appears to come directly from the catalogs, but some items record the observations and impressions of Germain Seligman after personally viewing the collection or object. Materials in the Blue Book of Collectors (Series 2.8) were originally contained within a blue-covered looseleaf notebook. Entries list collectors along with their address and occasional details of the artwork they owned. The entries date largely from 1956. Collections Books (Series 2.9) includes four looseleaf notebooks dating from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s that maintained information related to the holdings of art collectors, individual works of art, and negotiations related to the sales or purchases of works of art. The first volume serves as an index to the other three volumes and is arranged by artist and collector or collection. The other three volumes contain memoranda for the record by Germain Seligman, letters and telegrams, lists of works viewed by Seligman along with his opinions about them, and his accounts of conversations held with owners regarding their willingness to sell items. Prospective Clients (Series 2.10) consists of records from five looseleaf binder notebooks. The books contain entries made between the mid-1930s and the mid-1950s by Germain Seligman concerning people he viewed as potential clients, along with notations as to why he viewed them that way. File cards were subsequently made from these files and added to Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., mailing lists. Reserve Notebooks (Series 2.11) consists of records from four spiral notebooks that list client, artwork under consideration, and related material. Entries from the mid-1960s to early 1970s document clients who expressed an interest in a particular work or type of art as well as actual customer requests to reserve a particular work. People of Interest (Series 2.12) consists of additional files maintained on people viewed as potential clients that were largely compiled by Germain Seligman and other staff members during their trips to visit museums, collections, or individual owners or buyers of art. The information centers on American clients, but occasional European customers are also included. The records largely date from 1930 to 1950, with the records regarding Paris and the French provinces dating from 1963 to 1974. European Collectors (Series 2.13) has information similar to that in People of Interest (Series 2.12) but for European and South American regions and in a card file format. The records cover the period from the mid-1930s to the early 1970s.
The Collectors Files series is arranged into the following subseries. More detailed descriptions for each of the subseries follow with a corresponding box and folder inventory.
Arrangement note:
The bulk of this series has been scanned. Details of exceptions are provided in the arrangement notes for each subseries.
2.4: Clarence H. Mackay Collection, 1907, 1920-1943
2.5: Mortimer L. Schiff Collection, 1921-1947, undated
2.6: Prince of Liechtenstein Collection, 1948-1969, undated
2.7: Old Collectors of Interest, 1930-1954, undated
2.8: Blue Book of Collectors, 1947-1958, 1971
2.9: Collections Books, 1929-1954, undated
2.10: Prospective Clients, 1934-1956
2.11: Reserve Notebooks, 1952, 1965-1974
2.12: People of Interest, 1921-1974, undated
2.13: European Collectors, 1935-1974, undated
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of the collection was funded by the Getty Grant Program; digitization of the collection was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., was contracted by John M. Schiff, son of American banker Mortimer L. Schiff, to handle the disposition of his father's vast collection of artwork. The 1937-1938 sale was arranged through the auction house of Christie's of London, as Germain Seligman believed that the type of artwork in the collection would generate more buyers in Europe than in the United States. The auction was held June 1938. The collection consisted of important oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Flemish, French, and German masters, English drawings and watercolors, Beauvais tapestries, Gothic and Renaissance sculpture and bronze, Chinese porcelains, Gothic and Renaissance arms and armor, and decorative arts. Included in the sale were a glazed terracotta, Madonna and Child , by Giovanni della Robbia, and Carlo Crivelli's Portrait. A collection of Italian majolica, not for sale, was lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an exhibition.
This subseries consists of correspondence with Christie's, general correspondence regarding the collection, insurance policies, auction catalogs, clippings, lists, research notes, and photographs.
Arrangement note:
Arrangement is by subject heading and, thereafter, chronologically. This series has been scanned in entirety.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, bulk 1913-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of the collection was funded by the Getty Grant Program; digitization of the collection was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
