Eliza G. Radeke, Museum Committee Chair (1893-1931) and President (1913-1931), led the development of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art assisted by L. Earle Rowe, RISD Director (1912-1929) and Museum Director (1929-1937). Working together and with the generosity and assistance of her family and friends including Edward Perry Warren, they established the foundation of the Museum’s collection of works of art. Her collection strengths were Japanese and Classical works of art and 19th century French paintings and drawings.
Helen M. Danforth followed her aunt serving as President (1931-1947) and Museum Committee Chair (1931-1947) as well as the Chairman of the RISD Board of Trustees (1947-1965). She joined the committee in 1927 beginning a long period of gifts and loans to the Museum. She worked with Rowe and his successors: Alexander Dorner (1938-1941), Gordon B. Washburn (1942-1949), and Roberta M. Alford (1949-1952) during the period covered by the Presidents’ and Directors’ correspondence.
Radeke’s brothers, Stephen O., Jesse H., and Manton B. Metcalf provided financial support as well as donations of works of art. Stephen and Jesse financed the construction of the Eliza G. Radeke Museum of Art building in 1926. The Lyra Brown Nickerson bequest (1916) provided substantial funding for purchases of works of art until World War Two.
The use of certain documents and collections may be restricted. Please consult the Archives staff for further details.
Permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from archival materials must be obtained in writing from the Archives. The researcher assumes full responsibility for use of material and for conformity to all applicable laws, including copyright.
Rhode Island School of Design. Museum of Art. Presidents' and Directors' correspondence, Rhode Island School of Design Archives.
The Rhode Island School of Design Presidents' and Museum Directors' correspondence documents their interaction with family, friends, gallery owners, art dealers, donors, collectors, artists, museum directors, and curators, 1889-1966, bulk 1900-1948. The records include correspondence, legal documents, inventories, photographs, invoices, receipts, and certificates of insurance, which document the consideration, acquisition, exhibition, conservation, and disposal of works of art, as well as the Museum of Art’s internal affairs.
The records serve as a primary source of documentation of works of art obtained by the Museum of Art prior to 1950. The series contains correspondence with artists, such as John Singer Sargent, as well as correspondence with numerous art collectors and dealers, including Martin Birnbaum of Berlin Photographic Company, Edward Perry Warren, and Vladimir Simkhovitch. The series also contains art appraisals and significant correspondence on Picasso's La Vie. Other notable correspondence includes that of Lucy Truman Aldrich, her sister Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and family members, Henry Dexter Sharpe of the tool manufacturing company, Brown and Sharpe, professor R. Meyer-Riefstahl, Japanese art dealer Yamanaka and Company, and the Metcalf and Danforth families.
Internal correspondence documents financial transactions and additions to the Museum of Art throughout the years, as well as renovations and events pertaining to the Carrington House, which was sold in 1961. A folder containing Carrington House photographs has been removed to the Photographs-Buildings and Open Spaces series.
Some contents of this series are in French, German, and Italian.
These records are arranged alphabetically in folders by personal or corporate correspondent, the contents of which are organized chronologically.
The bulk of the correspondence is available on microfilm, reels 3629-3645, from the Archives of American Art.
The Museum Registrar transferred the records to the Archives.
Carrington House photographs have been moved to the Photographs-Buildings and Open Spaces series.