Correspondence is primarily in the form of incoming letters to Birnbaum, with drafts or copies of some of Birnbaum's outgoing letters. Correspondence is with family members, friends and colleagues, including artists, clients, galleries, museums, scholars, writers, and publishers.
Found is significant correspondence with artists including Cecilia Beaux, Orland Campbell, Louise Dillingham, William Hunt Diedrich, Herbert Haseltine, Jan Hoowij, Malvina Hoffman, Leonebel Jacobs, Lois Mailou Jones, Rockwell Kent, Lenard Kester, Paul Manship, Gari Melchers, Maxfield Parrish, Janet Scudder, Carl Sprinchorn, Maurice Sterne, Albert Sterner, and Carl N. Werntz. Correspondence with Edward Bruce discusses Bruce's painting, and his relationships with Birnbaum and Scott & Fowles concerning the development of his private collection. Letters from John Singer Sargent relate to Sargent's own work and his interests in acquiring works of art by others. Letters from Maxfield Parrish provide details about the artist's life and work in Windsor, Vermont.
Also found is correspondence with noted art collectors including Edmund Davis and his brother Reginald Davis, Henry P. McIlhenny, Grenville Lindall Winthrop, and Edith Wetmore. Material relating to Winthrop includes drafts of many of Birnbaum's letters to Winthrop, telegrams regarding sales, price lists, and correspondence with Harvard University's Fogg Museum, all of which document Birnbaum's crucial role in the development of the Winthrop collection and Winthrop's ultimately transformative gift to the Fogg Museum. Correspondence with Harvard University and Kate Winthrop Morse also relates to the Fogg's interest in Morse's sister, sculptor Emily Winthrop Miles.
2 folders of letters document directly Birnbaum's relationship with Scott and Fowles, primarily with Stevenson Scott, from the 1920s to the 1940s.
Correspondence with writers, publishers, and others illustrate Birnbaum's important literary and social connections and friendships and includes letters from Upton Sinclair relating primarily to collaborations prior to the publication of The Last Romantic; correspondence with Vantage Press, Inc., regarding the publication of Angkor and the Mandarin Road (1952); letters from Edmund Dulac and W. B. Yeats regarding the serial publication of The Hawk's Well to be illustrated by Dulac; letters from Fenella Lovell, a model renowned for being the subject of a 1910 portrait by Gwen John; a folder of letters from Virginia Gerson who invited Birnbaum to many of her salons; and one letter each from from Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Thornton Wilder.
Letters from James St. O'Toole contain appraisals of artwork provided to Birnbaum. Letters from James Parmalee relate to Gari Melchers and their involvement in the Smithsonian's National Gallery of Art Commission. Correspondence with Metropolitan Museum of Art includes correspondence with Gisela Marie Augusta Richter, during her time as assistant curator for the Museum.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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:
Martin Birnbaum papers, 1962-1967, bulk 1920-1967. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art
No access restrictions. Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions. Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions. Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
This record unit documents the administration of William Henry Holmes, first Curator of the National Gallery of Art (NGA), 1907-1920, and Director of the Gallery, 1920-1932.
To a lesser extent, it also documents the administration of Ruel P. Tolman, Acting Director of NGA, 1932-1937, and the National Collection of Fine Arts (NCFA), 1937-1946,
and Director of NCFA, 1946-1948. A few records from the Thomas M. Beggs administration (1948-1964) are also filed here.
Records document the routine operations of the NGA when it was a department of the United States National Museum, when it became a separate bureau of the Smithsonian, and
when it became the NCFA. The files include internal correspondence and log books, as well as numerous public inquiries about artists, works of art, exhibitions, and donations
of art and bequests. The Charles Lang Freer collection gift, the effects of early copyright laws regarding photographing art, and the long campaign for an NGA building are
documented here. These records also include many photographs of staff, collections, exhibitions, and the galleries. Exhibition materials such as catalogs, installation photographs,
shipping forms, invoices, and condition reports mostly document loan exhibitions and some new acquisitions. Frequent sponsors of loan exhibitions included the Pan American
Union/League, the American Federation of Arts, the Pennsylvania Society Club, the Metropolitan State Art Contest, and the Society of Washington Artists.
In addition, these records document campaigns to raise public and private support for the national art collection. There is correspondence with art galleries and reports
of visits to galleries throughout the United States, including the Carolina Art Association and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Minutes and reports show the functions and
activities of the National Gallery of Art Advisory Committee, National Gallery of Art Commission, and Smithsonian Gallery of Art Commission.
Important Smithsonian correspondents include Charles G. Abbot, Cyrus Adler, Richard Rathbun, William deC. Ravenel, Charles D. Walcott, and Alexander Wetmore. There is also
considerable correspondence with Leila Mechlin of the American Federation of Arts with Florence N. Levy, who was affiliated with the American Art Annual, and with various
women's clubs that helped promote the NGA.
Historical Note:
The history of the National Gallery of Art (later named the National Collection of Fine Arts) begins well before the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution. The
Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences was established in 1816; and John Varden founded his own museum, later called the Washington Museum, in 1829. These
two organizations eventually merged with the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, created in 1840, and incorporated by Congress as the National Institute in
1842. The National Institute displayed its art works in the newly-constructed Patent Office Building, under the care of John Varden. It boasted a large collection of John
Mix Stanley and Charles Bird King Indian portraits.
When the Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846, Congress authorized its Regents to collect "all objects of art and of foreign and curious research." Although art
did not receive much focus until the early twentieth century, the collection slowly grew. Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian, purchased a large collection of
George Perkins Marsh etchings and engravings in 1849. In 1858 government-owned art works previously shown in the Patent Building were removed to the west wing of the Smithsonian
Institution Building ("Castle"), and in 1862, when the National Institute charter expired, its collections were transferred to the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian's small art
collection suffered a great setback in 1865, when most of the collection displayed on the second floor of the Castle was destroyed by fire. Surviving works were removed; prints
and drawings were stored at the Library of Congress, and paintings and sculptures at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (in the building now home to the Renwick Gallery).
Private contributions helped to rebuild the Smithsonian's art gallery. Most notably, Mrs. Joseph Harrison presented the Institution with a collection of George C. Catlin
Indian paintings in 1879, and the new works were shown in the Castle and in the newly-completed National Museum Building. In 1896 the remainder of the Smithsonian collection
was recalled from the Library of Congress and the Corcoran by Secretary Samuel P. Langley, and was added to the Catlin collection in the Castle and National Museum Buildings.
Langley also created an "Art Room" on the second floor of the Castle, which displayed reproductions of paintings, mostly portraits, by Old Masters, and a frieze of Parthenon
reliefs in plaster around the room.
At the turn of the century, however, a national gallery still did not exist in Washington, and pressure increased from outside the Smithsonian to create such an organization.
President Theodore Roosevelt campaigned for a National Gallery, but Congress failed to act on his request in 1904. In 1903 Harriet Lane Johnston, President James Buchanan's
niece and lady of the White House during his administration, bequeathed her large collection to a "national gallery of art." The trustees of her estate refused to release
her collection until such a gallery existed, and a legal battle ensued. In 1905 the District of Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the Smithsonian collection fell within the
description of a national gallery, and the Johnston collection was delivered to the Institution in 1906. The nucleus of the National Gallery consisted of the Johnston Collection
of European and American art and the William T. Evans Collection of contemporary American art (added in 1907 with President Theodore Roosevelt's influence). The new additions
greatly expanded the Gallery's holdings, but its growth would be severely hampered by the Smithsonian's lack of funds and an unwillingness to begin and support new ventures.
The National Gallery of Art (NGA) was administered under the United States National Museum's (USNM) Department of Anthropology. William Henry Holmes (1846-1933), artist,
topographer, archeologist, and geologist, was named first Curator of the NGA, in addition to his duties as Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) Chief (1902-1909), and later
as Curator of the Department of Anthropology (1910-1920). Holmes was a part of the Smithsonian most of his life. He was born near Cadiz, Ohio, in the same year as the Institution's
founding. A teacher and graduate of McNeely Normal School (1870) in Hopedale, Ohio, Holmes moved to Washington, D.C., in 1871 to study art under Theodor Kaufmann. During his
studies he became acquainted with another Kaufmann student, Mary Henry, daughter of Joseph Henry. On her suggestion, he visited the Smithsonian. Ornithologist Jose Zeledon
noticed Holmes as he was sketching two birds on exhibit, and Zeledon introduced Holmes to Fielding Bradford Meek, paleontologist and stratigrapher of state and federal surveys.
Impressed with his drawings, Meek immediately hired Holmes as an illustrator.
In his first years with the Smithsonian, Holmes joined Ferdinand V. Hayden's U.S. Survey of the Territories as an artist-topographer (1872) and was later appointed assistant
geologist (1874). This work inspired his career as an archeologist and his interest in Southwestern cliff dwellings. Between 1880 and 1889 Holmes worked with the U.S. Geological
Survey on the Charles Dutton expedition to the Grand Canyon, while also serving as Honorary Curator of Aboriginal Ceramics for the USNM. Holmes achieved great respect for
his scientific knowledge and artistic talent. By 1889 he was named Director of the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology.
In 1894 Holmes moved to Chicago to manage the BAE exhibitions at the Field Columbian Museum and to teach anthropic geology at the University of Chicago. During this time
he traveled with the Allison V. Armour expedition to the Yucatan. His stay in Chicago lasted until 1897 when he returned to the Smithsonian as Head Curator of the Department
of Anthropology. In 1902 he resigned to become the BAE Chief.
Holmes was the natural choice for the Gallery's first Curator. An accomplished artist and advocate of the arts, he was often consulted on questions of exhibition and art
before the NGA existed. Holmes can be placed within the tradition of American artist-scientists exemplified by Thomas Jefferson and Charles Willson Peale. His sketches of
natural history specimens were highly regarded and are still used by scientists today. As a painter, Holmes is grouped in the "Washington Landscape School." His style appears
impressionistic (especially his later work), although he would have rejected that label; Holmes was artistically conservative, and spoke against the aberrations of such artists
as Matisse. Leila Mechlin, Washington art critic, considered him one of the best watercolorists in the country.
During his tenure with the National Gallery, the collections grew considerably, adding the Johnston and Evans Collections, as well as the A. R. and M. H. Eddy Collection
of miniatures and paintings (1918), the Ralph Cross Johnson and Alfred Duane Pell Collections of European masters (1919), the Henry Ward Ranger bequest (1920), and the John
Gellatly Collection (1929), a significant gift of American Renaissance works, decorative arts, and European masters. Holmes also saw the addition of the National Portrait
Committee, formed in 1919 to document America's role in World War I.
Space for the national art works was always an issue for the Gallery. Holmes continually lobbied for a separate building to house the Gallery, appealing to America's patriotism
and belief in civilization. In its early years, collections were housed in designated areas throughout the Castle and the National Museum Building. When the new museum building,
now the Natural History Building, was completed in 1910, the Gallery was allowed space in its central skylighted hall, and a small opening was held March 17, 1910. This, however,
was inadequate, and limited both the Smithsonian's art and natural history interests. Donors often hesitated to give to the Gallery due to these space limitations. In 1923
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge led a Congressional motion to set aside space on the Mall east of the Natural History Building for a new American art and history building. The Smithsonian
was obligated to raise funds for construction. The Regents raised $10,000 for initial planning costs, and commissioned Freer architect Charles A. Platt to design the new museum.
National organizations, most significantly women's clubs, helped campaign for a Gallery building, but did not raise the necessary monies.
In 1920, the Regents established the National Gallery of Art as a separate Smithsonian bureau. Holmes ended his ties with the National Museum and became the Gallery's first
Director. As head of the NGA for nearly thirty years, Holmes assembled a remarkable program of exhibitions, organized the meager and scattered collections, and remained committed
to the artistic community. He was a member of several art organizations, including the Washington Water Color Club, and was a charter member of the Cosmos Club, in which he
promoted art interests.
Holmes retired from the National Gallery in 1932 and died in 1933. He was succeeded by Ruel Pardee Tolman (1878-1954). Tolman was born in Brookfield, Vermont, and educated
in California, where he studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, the Los Angeles School of Art and Design, and the University of California at Berkeley. Tolman moved
to Washington, D.C., in 1902, where he studied at the Corcoran School of Art (1902-1905) and at the National Academy of Design in New York (1906). He taught at the Corcoran
between 1906 and 1918 and was employed in the Graphic Arts Division of the USNM, where he eventually became Curator. He remained with Graphic Arts when he was named Acting
Director of the NGA (1932-1946); and later resigned his curatorship to become Director of NGA (1946-1948).
In the late 1930s Andrew Mellon donated his considerable collection for a new gallery of art. In 1937 his collection became the National Gallery of Art, administered by
an independent board of trustees, in cooperation with the Smithsonian, and housed in a new building at 7th Street and Constitution Avenue. The former National Gallery was
renamed the National Collection of Fine Arts (NCFA), with Tolman continuing as Acting Director and art works remaining in the Natural History Building "art hall." From the
1930s forward, the NCFA focused more exclusively on American art, and the new National Gallery concerned itself primarily with European Masters.
Tolman resigned from the NCFA in 1948, succeeded by Thomas M. Beggs. During Beggs's administration (1948-1964), Alice Pike Barney, Washington painter, donated part of her
collection (1951), which became the core of an extensive lending program later established by Natalie Clifford Barney and Mrs. Laura Dreyfus-Barney, and her Sheridan Circle
studio home for meeting purposes (1960).
In 1957 the NCFA, still without a home of its own, was granted use of the Old Patent Office Building, scheduled for demolition but preserved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The NCFA and the Portrait Gallery were transferred to the Patent Office Building in 1962 and opened on May 6, 1968. NCFA portraits were delegated to the Portrait Gallery,
decorative arts to the new National Museum of History and Technology, and other works to various Smithsonian bureaus. In 1972 Smithsonian-owned exhibits of crafts and design
were removed from storage in the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the U.S. Court of Claims into the new Renwick Gallery.
Chronology:
1816-1838 -- Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts & Sciences founded in Washington, D.C.
1829 -- John Varden Museum founded, later becomes Washington Museum (1836)
1840-1862 -- National Institution for the Promotion of Science is: founded (1840); combined with Varden collection and Columbian Institute (1840-1841); incorporated by Congress as the National Institute (1842)
1846 -- Smithsonian Institution founded
December 1, 1846 -- William Henry Holmes born near Cadiz, Ohio
1849 -- George P. Marsh etchings and engravings purchased by Secretary Joseph Henry
1858 -- Government art works moved from Patent Office Building
1862 -- Collections from National Institute are transferred to Smithsonian at expiration of charter
1865 -- Castle fire (January 24); surviving works moved to Library of Congress (prints and drawings) and to Corcoran (paintings and sculptures)
1865 -- Holmes receives teaching certificate in Ohio
1868 -- Ruel Pardee Tolman born in Brookfield, Vermont
1870 -- Holmes graduates from McNeely Normal School, Hopedale, Ohio
1871 -- Holmes hired by Smithsonian as illustrator
1872-1877 -- Holmes joins U.S. Survey of the Territories under Ferdinand V. Hayden as artist-topographer; appointed assistant geologist (1874)
1878 -- Cosmos Club founded, Holmes is charter member
1879 -- Catlin collection of Indian paintings donated
1879 -- National Museum Building completed (now Arts & Industries Building)
1879-1880 -- Holmes studies and travels in Europe
1880-1889 -- Holmes joins U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Charles Dutton expedition to Grand Canyon
1882-1889 -- Holmes is Honorary Curator of Aboriginal Ceramics, USNM
1883 -- Holmes marries Kate Clifton Osgood, genre painter, teacher at Madeira School (October); they have two children, Osgood and William Heberling
1889-1893 -- Holmes is Director of the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology
1894-1897 -- Holmes moves to Chicago as professor of anthropic geology at the University of Chicago, and Head Curator of Anthropology at the Field Columbian Museum; joins Allison V. Armour expedition to Yucatan (1894)
1896 -- Remainder of Smithsonian art works recalled to Castle; Secretary Langley creates "art room" on second floor displaying copies of masterpieces
1897-1902 -- Tolman studies at Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, the Los Angeles School of Art & Design, and the University of California at Berkeley
1897-1902 -- Holmes is Head Curator of the Department of Anthropology, USNM
1898 -- Holmes wins Loubat Prize for achievement in archeology
1902-1905 -- Tolman studies at the Corcoran School of Art
1902-1909 -- Holmes is Chief of Bureau of American Ethnology
1903 -- Harriet Lane Johnston bequeaths collection of European and American works to a "national gallery of art"
December 6, 1904 -- President Theodore Roosevelt proposes a National Gallery of Art, no Congressional action taken
1905 -- Holmes elected to National Academy of Sciences
1905-1906 -- Charles Lang Freer offers collection of Asian art to Smithsonian with conditions to bequeath art and building after his death; formally accepted by Regents in 1906; suit filed with District of Columbia Supreme Court over Johnston collection (February 7); court order gives collection to Smithsonian (July 18); collection delivered (August 3)
1906-1918 -- Tolman teaches at Corcoran and works in Graphic Arts Division of U.S. National Museum
1906 -- National Gallery of Art officially established
1906-1920 -- NGA administered by USNM, Holmes is Curator
1907 -- William T. Evans donates contemporary American art works
March 17, 1910 -- Natural History Building opened; small opening for NGA exhibition space
1910-1920 -- Holmes is Head Curator of Department of Anthropology, USNM
1912-1946 -- Tolman is Curator of Graphic Arts, USNM
1915 -- Group of French artists donate 82 drawings in appreciation of American assistance in WWI
1916 -- Charles Lang Freer authorizes the immediate construction of a building designed by Charles A. Platt to house his collection
1917 -- Approval given to add National Portrait Gallery to the NGA
1918 -- A. R. and M. H. Eddy donate collection of miniatures and paintings
1918 -- Holmes receives Doctor of Sciences degree from George Washington University
1919 -- Ralph Cross Johnson donates his collection of paintings, largely European masters; Rev. Alfred Duane Pell donates European masters
1919 -- Henry Ward Ranger bequests money for art works which are to eventually reside in the NGA
September 25, 1919 -- Charles Lang Freer dies
1919 -- Holmes wins second Loubat Prize
July 1, 1920 -- Congress establishes the NGA as a separate Smithsonian bureau
1920 -- Freer Gallery opens in December, John E. Lodge is Curator
1920-1932 -- Holmes is Director of National Gallery of Art
1923 -- Congress sets aside space on Mall east of Natural History for American history and art; lack of funds prevents construction of building designed by Charles A. Platt
1923 -- Walter Beck donates Civil War Portraits
1923 -- World War I portraits displayed in NGA; beginning of Portrait Gallery
1925 -- Kate Clifton Osgood Holmes dies
1925 -- Mrs. John B. Henderson offers land (4-5 acres) on Meridian Hill, facing 16th Street, for gallery building
1926 -- Resolution favors the establishment of the National Portrait Gallery as a unit of the NGA
1926 -- Holmes' left leg amputated as a result of blood poisoning
1929 -- John Gellatly Collection gift of over 100 American Renaissance works and decorative arts and old European masters promised to the NGA; the collection to remain in the Heckscher Building in New York City for four years
June 30, 1932 -- Holmes retires
1932-1946 -- Ruel P. Tolman is Acting Director of NGA
April 20, 1933 -- Holmes dies in Royal Oak, Michigan
1933 -- Gellatly Collection transferred to the Smithsonian (May 1); opened to the public (June 1)
1937 -- National Gallery becomes the National Collection of Fine Arts; the Andrew Mellon collection becomes the National Gallery of Art
August 26, 1937 -- Andrew W. Mellon dies
1937-1938 -- Smithsonian Gallery of Art competition, building never constructed
1938 -- Congress authorizes space on Mall across from Mellon National Gallery for NCFA use, no money is made available
July 28, 1946 -- Tolman named Director of NCFA
1948 -- Tolman resigns from NCFA (March 31); Thomas M. Beggs succeeds him (Assistant Director, July 30, 1947; Director, April 1, 1948-1964)
1951 -- Alice Pike Barney, painter, donates part of her collection, which is the foundation for an extensive lending program established by Natalie Clifford Barney and Mrs. Laura Dreyfus-Barney; and her Sheridan Circle studio home is later donated for conferences (1960)
August 24, 1954 -- Ruel P. Tolman dies
1957 -- Old Patent Office Building, scheduled for demolition, is granted by President Eisenhower to the NCFA and Portrait Gallery
1962 -- NCFA and Portrait Gallery transferred to new home
1965-1968 -- David W. Scott is Director of the NCFA
May 6, 1968 -- NCFA officially opens in the Old Patent Office Building
1969 -- Robert Tyler Davis becomes Interim Director of NCFA
Folder 12 Russian Art Exhibition, 1928-1929. Includes correspondence with members of the National Gallery of Art Commission concerning a proposed Russian Art Exhibition by art critic Christian Brinton.
Container:
Box 34 of 44
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 311, National Collection of Fine Arts. Office of the Director, Records
National Gallery of Art Advisory Committee, National Gallery of Art Commission, and Smithsonian Gallery of Art Commission, 1908-1960
Type:
Archival materials
Note:
The National Gallery of Art Advisory Committee, consisting of several artists and art representatives, was formed in 1908 to assist the Gallery with management and
acquisition decisions. Francis D. Millet was the Committee's first President. When the NGA became a separate bureau of the Smithsonian in 1920, the Committee changed its name
to the National Gallery of Art Commission; and when it became the NCFA, the group became known as the Smithsonian Gallery of Art Commission. This series includes agendas,
minutes, and reports of Commission meetings.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 311, National Collection of Fine Arts. Office of the Director, Records
