Rudolf Paul Berliner served as Curator of Decorative Arts, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1946-1953. Born in Ohlau, Germany 1886 April 14, Berliner studied at the University of Heidelberg and received his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 1910 under Josef Strzygowski and Max Dvorak. He served as a Research Fellow, 1912-1919, and Chief Curator, 1920-1935, at the Bavarian National Museum, Munich except for military service during World War One. Arrested and sent to the Dachau Concentration Camp in 1933 July, Berliner was released after two weeks through the efforts of his professional colleagues. He retained his position in Munich until 1935 when he was purged because of his Jewish heritage. He and his wife Maria immigrated to the United States in 1939 July joining their two sons who had left Germany early for their education and safety. Records indicate that Berliner had traveled to the US in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1938.
Berliner obtained, with the assistance of Paul J. Sachs, the position of Keeper of Prints and Drawings, Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, New York in 1939, the same year that D. Graeme Keith joined the staff as an Assistant in Exhibitions. He left in 1946 because of the return of Curator Calvin S. Hathaway from his service in Europe, to become the first Curator of Decorative Arts at the RISD Museum of Art. His primary function was to survey, study, inventory, and catalogue the extensive decorative arts works that had been collected during the previous fifty years. He created the Textile Study Room for faculty and students and collected works through his extensive relationships with dealers, galleries, and collectors in Europe. He returned to Europe in 1951 and 1952 to purchase works with the aid of RISD benefactors.
Berliner resigned taking a final leave of absence 1953 January-June and returned to Europe, living primarily in Rome and Germany and working on research projects. He returned to the US in 1955 joining the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University in 1956 to give seminars in decorative arts and the museum course. He worked at the Textile Museum, Washington, D.C, from 1962 until 1967 when he returned to Germany. He died 1967 August 26 in Bischofswiesen near his family's home in Berchtesgaden.
For a list of Berliner's writings see:
D. Graeme (David Alexander Graeme) Keith joined Berliner at RISD in 1948 as Assistant to the Curator after Director Gordon B. Washburn received a recommendation from Hathaway. Born in Toronto, Canada 1912 September 21, Keith received degrees from Western Reserve University, BA (1934) and MA (1935), attended Paul J. Sachs' Museum Course at Harvard, 1935-1937, and took courses toward a Ph. D at New York University, 1946-1952. His doctoral research concerned the history of 19th century American printed textiles. He worked for the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts as a curator, 1937-1939, before joining Cooper Union in 1939/1940 to work with exhibitions and publicity. He became Acting Curator of Decorative Arts in 1953 upon Berliner's resignation.
Keith served as Curator, 1955-1958, and taught Summer Sessions at the University of California, Berkeley in 1956. Keith left in 1958 to become Curator of Decorative Arts at the M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, where he served until his retirement in 1977. He died in Port Townsend, WA 2003 July 14.
Note:
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Rudolf Berliner and D. Graeme Keith records, Rhode Island School of Design Archives.
The collection documents the formation of the Decorative Arts Department and the activities of Curators Rudolf Berliner and D. Graeme Keith, 1946-1958, as well as other Museum employees, 1913-1964. The bulk of the collection contains correspondence, 1913-1960, bulk 1946-1960, with patrons, RISD employees, institutions, dealers, galleries, and family members documenting loans, purchases, exhibitions, research, travel, inventories, family, and administrative matters. Additional records include committee reports, inter-office memos, photographs, and speeches. There are a few records, 1914-1960, created by other Museum employees including Elizabeth T. Casey and Eleanor Fayerweather. Indices, 1947-1952, document the Berliner correspondence.
The collection arrived at the Archives in a disorganized state with many letters misfiled according to Berliner's filing system documented in the Indices. The original order, per the Indices, was restored during processing. The folder arrangement follows a file cabinet list found in Series V.
The records are arranged in five series.
The Archives received the records from the RISD Museum of Art's Curator of Decorative Arts.
The Correspondence series, 1913-1960, documents loans, exhibitions, research, purchases, potential gifts and acquisitions, rough drafts of reports and talks, and the Museum Committee. Correspondents include donors, institutions, Museum employees, professional colleagues, and family members. Photographs, illustrations, receipts, inventories, letters, and reports document Berliner's trips to Europe and his health issues, the Edith Wetmore Room, the Lucy T. Aldrich Collection of Staffordshire Pottery, Cooper Union, and Berliner and Keith's interaction with Museum employees, trustees, donors, galleries, and other institutions. There is correspondence from Berliner's son Michael Bever, Directors Gordon Washburn, Roberta Alford, and John Maxon, and curator Eleanor Fayerweather (1958-1960) and Acting Curator Elizabeth T. Casey (1958). Berliner's correspondence is indexed. See Series V.
The Dealer correspondence, 1946-1960, contains letters, receipts and invoices for works of art, deaccession records, and shipping records. Letters may document loans, purchases, proposed acquisitions, research, costs of works of art, and deaccessions. The Gimbels - Deaccessions, 1947-1948, folder documents the work of the Committee on Disposal and contains lists of objects to be sold through Gimbel Brothers (NYC). Organized by department, the lists include the accession number, object description, acquisition (donor or purchase), and the expected price. The correspondence is indexed. See Series V.
The Subject files include Museum Committee meeting records (1946-1960), inter-office memos (1946-1952), department reports (1946-1956), and sculpture photographs. The meeting records are primarily lists of gifts and rejected works with the curator's recommendation as well as a 1947 December 1 report of the future of the department written by Berliner. A separate file contains his 1948 February 26 report on the progress of the department. The exhibition records include correspondence, press releases, clippings, and ideas for future exhibitions. The inter-office memos from the Director and other staff document purchases, loans, budgets, travel, and staffing.
The Department files is an artificial series comprised of records not found on the list of file cabinet contents (box 6, folder 23). The series includes correspondence, lists, photographs, and reports for the Rhode Island Treasures/Hobby Show (1939-1940), World of 1930s (1956) and Modern Interior Design (1957-1958) exhibitions, Rudolf Berliner's expenses for his 1952 trip to Europe, and the Wetmore Room donated to the Museum of Art by Edith Wetmore. Elizabeth T. Casey's correspondence (1930-1955) includes letters to Lucy T. Aldrich and accounts of Aldrich's loans to the Museum. Other records document routine administrative matters and gifts or metalwork (circa 1924-1939) and oriental art works (undated).
The Indices, 1947-1952, document incoming and outgoing correspondence chronologically. Each incoming letter has a number (for example, 47-112) and the responding outgoing letter has the same number. The indices list the number, date, correspondent, subject, and file location. The series includes an alphabetical index, 1947-1950, listing the correspondent and all corresponding letter numbers and separate alphabetical indices for 1951 and 1952. The is an accessions index, 1947-1949, listing by Museum Committee meeting date all accessions with number, description, price, dealer, gallery, or donor, and source of funds.