Thomas Carr Howe papers

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Thomas Carr Howe papers

1932-1984

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw994ab802b-473d-4480-ad1e-12e76c5babda

The Thomas Carr Howe papers measure 4.4 linear feet and date from 1932 to 1984. Howe was director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco for nearly 40 years, and he served as one of the Monuments Men in the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives (MFAA) Section of the U.S. Army during World War II. The collection documents Howe's MFAA work in Germany and Austria locating and recovering cultural artifacts and artwork stolen by the Nazis. There is significant correspondence with friends and colleagues, as well as fellow Monuments Men such as Samson Lane Faison, Edith Standen, and George Stout. The papers also includes reports, inventories of stolen artwork, maps, annotated photographs, a scrapbook, and photographs. The papers also document Howe's later work at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.Biographical materials include articles and memorial tributes for Howe's father and grandfather, a short autobiography and resume, and the certificate for the copyright to his book.The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, the most voluminous of which are letters from Monuments Men S. Lane Faison, Patrick J. Kelleher, Andrew C. Ritchie, Edith Standen, George Stout, Marcelle Minet, Rose Valland, James Rorimer, and others. Additional correspondents include friends and colleagues such as Bernard Berenson, Hume Cronyn, Paul Mills, Christopher Forbes, Margaret Mallory, William A. McGonagle, and Otto Wittman, among many othersWritings include a brief summary of Howe's book <emph render="italic">Salt Mines and Castles</emph> and a sound cassette of his lecture about the book. Project, membership and travel files are primarily associated with his professional work at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor and include documentation of member art trips, a feasibility study for merging the California Palace of the Legion of Honor with the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, and a membership list of the Bohemian Club.The Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) Records and Looted Inventories series contain many records relating to Howe's military service as a Monuments Man. There are several inventory records which contain lists of the contents of Hermann Göring's collection of looted artwork, artwork destroyed in the Flak towers fire in Berlin, and artwork held at several of the central collecting points, though mostly at Weisbaden. There is also a small fold out map of the Altausse salt mines; a U.S. government issued manual of maps marking important cultural monuments and artwork in Germany; a book of U.S. government regulations pertaining to the MFAA section; a government information bulletin; and several official status reports and published U.S. government reports about art looting investigations and safeguarding cultural property.Professional files consist of papers relating to Howe's job as the director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor and art trips he organized. Documents include a survey of Los Angeles museum curator salaries, a questionnaire about Howe's work as a museum director, and a membership list of Bohemian Club artists. The bulk of the travel papers are itineraries.The photographs are divided into two subseries: MFAA Section images and personal photographs. The Monuments Men subseries includes photographs documenting bomb damage to cultural monuments in various countries, though mainly Germany; U.S. soldiers transporting recovered artwork such as Michelangelo's <emph render="italic">Madonna and Child</emph> from the Altaussee salt mines in Austria, and other looted art repositories such as Neuschwanstein Castle and Berchtesgaden in Germany; Weisbaden and Munich collecting points; and art recovery of <emph render="italic">The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb</emph> by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. There are many photographs of the Monuments Men including Thomas Carr Howe, George Stout, Stephen Kovalyak, Lamont Moore, Patrick J. Kelleher, Edith Standen, and Rose Valland. Personal photographs consists of portraits of Howe and photographs of events, mostly formal dinners and parties.Printed materials are clippings, postcards, fundraising pamphlets, essays, and memorial tributes for colleagues.

ger,

fre,

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630545

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 23 Entities related to this resource.

United States. Army. Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ps8n6j (corporateBody)

Howe, Thomas Carr, 1904-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60589c7 (person)

Museum director (San Francisco, Calif.). From the description of Thomas Carr Howe interviews, 1976 June 2-June 3. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 220180760 Art consultant; San Francisco, Calif. Former director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. From the description of Thomas Carr Howe papers, 1932-1981. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122502669 From the description of Thomas Carr Howe papers, 1932-1981. (Unknown). WorldCat reco...

United States

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f874hn (corporateBody)

Idaho became a state on July 3, 1890 with post offices being established as early as 1876. From the guide to the Franklin County, Idaho Post Office Location Records, 1876-1945, (Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives) These photographs document Region 4, started in 1910, of the US Forest Service, covering Utah, Nevada, Southern Idaho, and Western Wyoming. From the guide to the US Forest Service Photograph Collection., 19...

Ritchie, Andrew Carnduff, 1907-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b960wz (person)

Andrew Carnduff Ritchie (1907–1978) was a Scottish-born American art historian specialising in British 18th-century sculpture, a professor, museum director and post-World War II 'Monuments Man'. He was the director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., director of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, and director of the Yale University Art Gallery. Andrew Carnduff Ritchie was born in Bellshill in Scotland in 1907. In 1922 he moved with his family to Pittsburgh. At...

Berenson, Bernard, 1865-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tz45t8 (person)

Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book Drawings of the Florentine Painters was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large hand in some of the writings. Berenson was a major figure in the attribution of Old Masters, at a time when these were attracting new interest by American collectors, and his judgments were widely respected in the art world. Recent research has cast doubt on some...

Howe, Thomas C. Jr.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t56tm8 (person)

Thomas Carr Howe, Jr. (1904-1994) served as the director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco for nearly four decades and, during World War II, as an officer in the U.S. Army's Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives unit assisting with locating, recovering, and restituting cultural objects and artwork stolen by the Nazis. Howe was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1904. He studied at Harvard University where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees...

Moore, Lamont

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sq9fx3 (person)

Lamont Moore (1909-1998) was a historian from New London, N.H. who was involved in the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Historic Monuments in War Areas. From the description of Salt Mines and Castles : lecture, 1983 October 11/ by Lamont Moore. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122370541 ...

M.H. de Young Memorial Museum

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d55g2v (corporateBody)

Art museum; San Francisco, California. Founded 1896. Originally named the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. From the description of M.H. De Young Memorial Museum records, 1894-1971. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 86122850 ...

Wittmann, Otto, 1911-2001

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6320403 (person)

Otto Wittman, 1911-2001, museum director and consultant of Toledo, Ohio. From the description of Oral history interview with Otto Wittmann, 1981 Oct. 25. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 646397653 Director of the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art during World War II, Otto Wittmann served as a member of the Art Looting Investigation unit of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), within the U.S. War Department. The Art Looting Investigation unit was authorized as a project of the OSS...

Rorimer, James J. (James Joseph), 1905-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n87dfx (person)

Museum director and art historian; New York City. Rorimer was the motivating force in the development of the Cloisters. Educated at Harvard University and the Ecole Gory in Paris, his employment by the Metropolitan Museum of Art began in 1927 and continued until his death. He was curator of the Department of Medieval Art (1934-1955), director of the Cloisters (1949-1966) and director and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1955-1966). During WWII, Rorimer served i...

Mills, Paul Chadbourne, 1924-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cj8tjw (person)

Edwin Deakin was an artist of the English "Picturesque" style. Deakin arrived in San Francisco, Calif. in 1870. From the description of Edwin Deakin's missions of California : typescript, 1987 Feb. 9. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 52235630 ...

Faison, S. Lane (Samson Lane), 1907-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bz6gd1 (person)

S. Lane Faison (1907-2006) was an art historian of Williamstown, Mass. From the description of Oral history interview with S. Lane Faison, 1981 Dec. 14. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 710018659 S. Lane (Samson Lane) Faison, Jr., born Washington, D.C. 16 November 1907; died Williamstown, Mass. 11 November 2006; Williams College Class of 1929; member of the Williams College Art Department, 1936-1976, chair of the Department, 1940-1970; Director of the Williams College Museum o...

Cronyn, Hume

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qc2wd1 (person)

Hume Cronyn: actor, producer, and director. Born 1911; died 2003. Jessica Tandy: actress. Born 1909; died 1994. Cronyn and Tandy married in 1942. From the description of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy papers, 1885-2007 (bulk 1935-2000). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70982277 ...

Stout, George L. (George Leslie)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gb2ggf (person)

George Leslie Stout (1897-1978) was an art consultant, conservator, and museum director from Menlo Park, Calif. From the description of Oral history interview with George Leslie Stout, 1978 Mar. 10-21 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 613315438 Art consultant, conservator, museum director (Menlo Park, Calif.); b. 1897; d. 1978. From the description of George Leslie Stout interviews, 1978 Mar. 10-Mar. 21 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat recor...

California Palace of the Legion of Honor

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gj3qvq (corporateBody)

Art museum; San Francisco, California. From the description of California Palace of the Legion of Honor records, 1910-1945. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122394118 ...

Göring, Hermann, 1893-1946

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c53hvh (person)

Reichsmarschall of Germany, 1940-1945. From the description of Hermann Göring interrogation transcript, 1946. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754866992 Göring was born in Prussia in 1893. Attended School of Cadets and in 1912 served with 4. Baden Infantry Regiment and the Prince Wilhelm no. 112 Regiment (1913-14). Became a flight observer with Reconnaissance Flight Detachment 25 (1914-15). Was trained as a pilot, wounded in battle of Somme (1916) and reassigned to a Pursuit...

Kelleher, Patrick J. (Patrick Joseph), 1917-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6806b4h (person)

Patrick J. Kelleher was the Director of the Princeton University Art Museum from 1962-1973. In his tenure he oversaw the construction and dedication of a new museum building in 1966, as well as served on the committee that oversaw the selection and installation of the Putnam Memorial Sculptures on campus. From the description of Patrick J. Kelleher papers 1962-1973. (Princeton University Library). WorldCat record id: 84676151 ...

Mallory, Margaret, 1911-1998

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65n969v (person)

Valland, Rose

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r003v3 (person)

Allied Forces

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66b1jj9 (corporateBody)

Hancock, Walker Kirtland, 1901-1998

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63t9r3w (person)

Walker Kirtland Hancock (1901-1998) was a sculptor from Gloucester, Mass. Hancock was born in 1901 in St. Louis, Mo. He studied at Washington University for one year before moving on to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under Charles Grafly. He taught at PAFA from 1929 to 1967. From the description of Oral history interview with Walker Hancock, 1977 July 22-Aug. 15. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 80335389 Sculpt...

Bohemian Club (San Francisco, Calif.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q85cn2 (corporateBody)

Standen, Edith Appleton

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67m85dp (person)

Curator; Metropolitan Museum of Art. Born 1905, Halifax, Nova Scotia. From the description of Oral history interview with Edith A. Standen, 1994 Jan. 6-Jan. 13. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78748260 ...