Rhode Island School of Design. Museum of Art. Presidents' and Directors' correspondence. (23.1.1)

The Rhode Island School of Design Presidents' and Museum Directors' correspondence documents their interaction with family, friends, gallery owners, art dealers, donors, collectors, artists, museum directors, and curators, 1889-1966, bulk 1900-1948. The records include correspondence, legal documents, inventories, photographs, invoices, receipts, and certificates of insurance, which document the consideration, acquisition, exhibition, conservation, and disposal of works of art, as well as the Museum of Art’s internal affairs.

The records serve as a primary source of documentation of works of art obtained by the Museum of Art prior to 1950. The series contains correspondence with artists, such as John Singer Sargent, as well as correspondence with numerous art collectors and dealers, including Martin Birnbaum of Berlin Photographic Company, Edward Perry Warren, and Vladimir Simkhovitch. The series also contains art appraisals and significant correspondence on Picasso's La Vie. Other notable correspondence includes that of Lucy Truman Aldrich, her sister Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and family members, Henry Dexter Sharpe of the tool manufacturing company, Brown and Sharpe, professor R. Meyer-Riefstahl, Japanese art dealer Yamanaka and Company, and the Metcalf and Danforth families.

Internal correspondence documents financial transactions and additions to the Museum of Art throughout the years, as well as renovations and events pertaining to the Carrington House, which was sold in 1961. A folder containing Carrington House photographs has been removed to the Photographs-Buildings and Open Spaces series.

Some contents of this series are in French, German, and Italian.