Fiske Kimball records, 1908-1955.

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Fiske Kimball records, 1908-1955.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84145587

From 1925 to 1955, Fiske Kimball served as director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, steering the institution from what he described as "a minor provincial position to become one of the leading museums of America." The Fiske Kimball Records document Kimball's efforts in achieving this transformation in collaboration with the Museum's officers, staff, and the Fairmount Park Commission, and with the assistance of private benefactors and City funding. Comprised primarily of correspondence, these records also include photographs, mostly of objects, rooms and architectural elements offered for purchase; ephemera; newspaper clippings; notes; floor plans; installation drawings; legal documents; reports; minutes; press releases; and publications. Kimball's correspondents include preeminent leaders of art museums, universities, auction houses and professional affiliations, as well as government representatives, private collectors, scholars, and artists. Kimball's often successful courting of potential donors of objects and contributors of funds is well represented, as well as his efforts to secure labor supplied by the Works Progress Administration. In addition to the refinement and expansion of the Museum's holdings, the development of various departments and offices is also documented, and to a lesser extent other related facilities.

94.5 linear feet.

Philadelphia Museum of Art

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SNAC Resource ID: 8314944

Related Entities

There are 4 Entities related to this resource.

United States. Works Progress Administration

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67b4x1k (corporateBody)

Organizational History President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935 as a part of his New Deal to curtail the Depression's effects on the United States. The WPA attempted to provide the unemployed with jobs that allowed individuals to preserve skills or talents. The Federal Writers' Project (FWP), one branch of the WPA, provided work for over 6,600 unemployed writers, journalists, edit...

Philadelphia Museum of Art

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fv9986 (corporateBody)

In 1921, the Pennsylvania Museum of Art (later renamed the Philadelphia Museum of Art) held a special loan exhibition of colonial silver, mostly American pieces, with some European ones. A catalog of the exhibit was published as Bulletin number 68 in June 1921. There are no clues as to who assembled this special volume. From the description of Bulletin - Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Winterthur Library). WorldCat record id: 261233369 Art museum; Philadelphia, Pen...

Kimball, Fiske, 1888-1955

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69k4d90 (person)

Museum director, architect. Educated at Harvard (M.Arch. 1912) and University of Michigan (Ph.D. 1915). Founder and director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University (1923-1925). Director of Philadelphia Museum of Art (1925-1955). From the description of Papers of Sidney Fiske Kimball, 1918-1952 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 269301918 Sydney Fiske Kimball, b. Newton, Mass. Architect, architectural historian, professor of architecture and ...

Fairmount Park Commission (Philadelphia, Pa.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64f6m3m (corporateBody)

Researchers investigating the history of Fairmount Park properties should be familiar with the briefs of titles which accompany many of the title papers assembled during the 1860s and 1870s. This was when the City of Philadelphia acquired most of the initial properties which comprised Fairmount Park. These briefs were prepared in order for the Fairmount Park Commission to be assured that a good and clean title was assumed by them. In most cases, the briefs cover the entire history o...