Harvard Art Museums Archives

With collections dating from 1895 to the present, the Harvard Art Museums Archives is the official repository for institutional records and historical documents related to the Fogg Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
Fogg Museum, exterior from the roof of Robinson Hall, circa 1942.
Harvard Art Museums Archives, Harvard University

Collections at the Harvard Art Museums Archives are comprised of significant papers of individuals and groups associated with museums' history, including:

Paul J. Sachs teaching in the Naumburg Room, Fogg Museum. Photograph by George S. Woodruff, 1944.
Paul J. Sachs teaching in the Naumburg Room, Fogg Museum. Photograph by George S. Woodruff, 1944.
Harvard Art Museums Archives, Harvard University
  • Professional and personal papers of former museum administrators, which include correspondence with artists, collectors, gallery owners, and art world figures such as Alfred Barr, Bernard Berenson, Belle da Costa Greene, Lincoln Kirstein, Helen Clay Frick, and Abby and John. D. Rockefeller
  • Photographs, ephemera, and audio and video recordings of the museums' past exhibitions, gallery installations, and special events
  • Teaching materials and student works documenting the museums' teaching mission and the pedagogical approaches of staff members, among them Edward Waldo Forbes, Paul J. Sachs, Rutherford Gettens, Arthur Pope, and Langdon Warner
  • Materials documenting the formation and the function of the Fogg Museum's Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, the first fine arts conservation treatment, research, and training facility in the United States

The Archives also acquires special collections that support the Harvard Art Museums' mission and complement and contextualize its fine art collection:

Seated students with Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," Warburg Hall, Fogg Museum, 1941.
Seated students with Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," Warburg Hall, Fogg Museum, 1941.
Harvard Art Museum Archives, Harvard University
  • Artist papers of Alfonso Ossorio, Denman Waldo Ross, Gary Schneider, David Smith, Christopher Wilmarth
  • Collections centered on the study of art from Germany and German-speaking countries, including the papers of artist Lyonel Feininger, architect Walter Gropius, and art historian and professor Alexander Dorner, as well as records related to the Bauhaus
  • Personal papers of former curators and important donors, such as Grenville Winthrop

Read more about the Archives in the Harvard Art Museums' online magazine, Index, and watch for Archives programming on our Calendar.

Accessing These Materials

Collections are catalogued in HOLLIS for Archival Discovery. Read more about the Archives.

The Harvard Art Museums Archives are open to all, with visits by appointment only. Please contact us to request an appointment a minimum of three weeks in advance.

Contact

Harvard Art Museums Archives