Collection Information
Size: 17 Microfilm reels
Summary: Correspondence, writings and notes, business records, scrapbooks and printed material.
"The Rhode Island School of Design: A Half Century Record (1879-1928)," by Elsie S. Bronson, A.M., 1928, providing historical information on the founding, organization, and activities of the school and museum; excerpts from RISD yearbooks pertaining to the museum, 1877-1944, including exhibitions (complete listing after 1901), loans, gifts, lectures, and prizes awarded from year to year; "Lists of articles belonging to RISD, 1898," a notebook containing handwritten lists of donations and donors and receipts of purchases of works of art and supplies needed for teaching;
Six volumes of minutes of the Museum committee, 1894-1950, also included within the volumes are museum "rules adopted before 1901," correspondence regarding the acquisition of a Chinese fresco, 1949, and a six-page undated list of "European Acquisitions" of drawings and prints including prices paid, names of dealers, and countries represented. Presidents' and Directors' correspondence with dealers, artists, curators, donors, educators, and others. Included in the Isaac Comstock Bates correspondence file are his will, a three-page memorial tribute to him, and a list of articles willed to the school by him. Also included are correspondence and writings of Heinrich Schwartz, Curator of Prints and Drawings;
exhibition files, 1885-1950, containing catalogues, price lists, checklists, insurance valuations, clippings, a few letters, an incomplete list of exhibitions (1885-1951), and a list of artists and titles of paintings in annual fall exhibitions; a scrapbook of Isaac Comstock Bates, 1877-1889, containing letters from artists and dealers; and 27 scrapbooks, 1877-1889, containing clippings, notices, and catalogues relating to the school and museum.