Born on December 11, 1854 in Augusta, GA, Eliza G. Radeke graduated from Vassar College in 1876. That same year, she assisted her mother Helen Metcalf's work for the Rhode Island Women's Centennial Commission organized for the Philadelphia Exposition. Radeke married Dr. Gustav Radeke, an immigrant from Hamburg, Germany, in 1880. She and her husband took an active role in RISD soon after. Until his death in 1892, Gustav Radeke worked to organize an Industrial Museum. Elected to the Board of Directors in 1886, Eliza Radeke assisted her mother on the Committee of Management that year, and then permanently beginning in 1890. She served as Chair of the Committee, 1895-1931, and President, 1913-1931. In addition, she was a member of the Museum Committee, 1893-1931, and served as Acting Director, 1907-1908. Eliza G. Radeke died at home on Prospect Street, Providence, RI 1931 March 17.
Eliza Radeke worked closely with artists, dealers, and Museum Directors, especially L. Earle Rowe, to develop the Museum of Art's extensive collection. She compiled the Museum's cast collection and funded the building of the Japanese Gallery, designed by Charles Platt. The strength of her collection lay in 19th century French paintings and drawings. Other interests included Japanese prints, Native American pottery, and the antiquities, particularly Greek and Roman works.
In 1900, in honor of their father, Radeke and her siblings created the Jesse Metcalf Memorial Fund for the purchase of works of art. Funded by her brothers Stephen and Jesse, the Eliza G. Radeke Museum of Art opened in 1926. The Radeke Memorial Garden within the Museum courtyard opened in 1934.
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Eliza G. Radeke records, Rhode Island School of Design Archives.
This collection contains correspondence to and from Eliza Radeke, notes, speeches, a diary (1886-1887) and RISD records, 1860-1942, bulk 1880-1931. The records were collected by the Archives staff from a variety of sources, 1997-1999, and organized alphabetically by subject for ease of use. Subject files include Commencement speeches (bulk 1914-1928), correspondence regarding the hiring of Eleazer B. Homer as the first RISD Director, and a diary recording the difficulties surrounding the tenure of Gardner C. Anthony, Head of the Mechanical Department, 1886-1887.
The Museum records document the acquisition of the Museum's cast collection, the construction of the Japanese Gallery designed by Charles Platt (1903-1906), and Radeke's correspondence with artists and dealers including John LaFarge, Charles W. Stetson, Frank P. Sauerwein, and Sogo Matsumoto. Acquisitions documented by correspondence and receipts include peasant pottery, the Pendleton Collection, Japanese prints, American antiques, and Classical pieces.
The Wanskuck files contain primarily RISD corporate records including deeds, committee reports, and bequest records, 1860-1930, bulk 1890-1924. The records include deeds and correspondence for RISD properties, Radeke's Providence home, and land purchased by Dr. Radeke in Texas, bequest records, Endowment Committee reports (1902 and 1910), and financial records. The file descriptions' numbers in [brackets] refer to the lot numbers on the Providence Assessor's 1915 plat map #12. See Treasurer's records, 5.0, for associated documents.
The Arthur Leslie Green correspondence contains primarily letters between Eliza G. Radeke and Newport, RI collector/dealer Arthur Leslie Green regarding the purchase, care, and installation of Colonial furniture and wood room paneling, circa 1916-1931. The file labeled "Bills" contains letters, receipts, telegrams, and detailed lists of purchases. There is one file containing newspaper clippings including her obituary, a photograph of a portrait (person unknown), and an undated handwritten list describing Asian religious statues. The series contains one letter dated 1935 from Green to William S. Appleton, Society for the Preservation of New Englnd Antiquities, regarding the Weaver-Franklin House, Newport, RI. and telegrams from Green to the Museum of Art dated 1942. The papers are not in chronological order and many of Green's letters are not dated; however, the correspondence apparently began in 1916. See box 9, folder 3. Additional letters from this correspondence are found in the Museum of Art, Presidents' and Directors' correspondence, 1889-1966, bulk 1900-1948.
The materials in this collection are organized into four series:
Records comprising series one and two were discovered by the Archives staff in the Woods-Gerry attic and in a walk-in safe located in the College Building. The Wanskuck files, microfilmed in 1985 as part of an Archives of American Art project, were transferred to the Archives by the Museum of Art. The Arthur Leslie Green files were transferred to the Archives by the Museum's Department of Decorative Arts.
The Wanskuck files, 1860-1930, were transferred from the Wanskuck Company to RISD Treasurer Murray Danforth in 1955. He kept the records in his office until transferring them to the Museum of Art in 1984.