Guide to the Grolier Club Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Committee Records

Title:
Grolier Club Institutional Records, Record Group 4, Series II, Subseries A: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Committee

OCLC/RLIN No. (Unique ID):
NYGG05-A10022 ; OCLC 984694435

Dates:            
1901-[ongoing]

Bulk Dates:
1979-1982

Extent:
1 box; .5 linear feet

Abstract:
Materials relating to the activities of the Grolier Club Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Committee, including minutes, reports, inventories, exhibition documentation, and records of auction sales.

Access Restrictions:
Some items in this collection may be restricted at the discretion of the Librarian. Copyright restrictions may apply; please contact repository for requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce the materials.

Preferred Citation:
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Grolier Club Prints, Drawing, and Photographs Committee Records, 1901-[ongoing]. The Grolier Club of New York.

About the Finding Aid:
This collection was reprocessed and the finding aid prepared by Sophia Dahab in Microsoft Word at the Grolier Club, July 2016.

Provenance:
Materials in this collection were created by committee chairs, members and Grolier Club staff in the normal course of committee activities.                                          

Access Points:
Grolier Club
Kennedy, Edward G. (Edward Guthrie), 1849-1932
Black-and-white prints (prints on paper)     
Color prints (prints)
Image-making processes and techniques

Biographical/Historical Note:
The Grolier Club Prints, Drawings, and Photographs (PDP) Committee began as an Ad-Hoc Committee, created in 1979 at the January Annual Meeting. It was a sub-committee of the Library Committee until it was formally established as its own program committee in 1995. As stated in the Grolier Club Constitution, the PDP Committee has oversight of “purchase or acquisition, by gifts or otherwise, of works of art, and for their proper safe-keeping, arrangement, classification, maintenance and repair, and for the proper use of this aspect of the Club’s collection.  The term ‘works of art’ is defined as encompassing prints, drawings, posters, photographs, paintings, sculpture, bronzes, marbles, medals, and plaques”.  The committee is also responsible for periodic review of the collection, arranging the sale of materials which no longer suit the purposes of the Club, and for planning various events and activities both within the Club, and with other similar institutions. [1]

            The Grolier Club’s print collection was built largely from the generous donations of its members, including E.G. Kennedy, Samuel P. Avery, William Loring Andrews, William F. Havemeyer, Beverly Chew, Frank Altschul, and Marshall C. Lefferts, among many others. In 1939, the Society of Iconophiles, which had been housed in the Grolier Clubhouse, ended its activities and donated its materials to the Club, including a collection of photographs of old New York.  Growth of the collection waned after 1940, until interest was rekindled and the committee became active in the 1980s.[2]

 

Scope and Content Note:
Minutes, agendas, reports, appraisals and auction records Also a copy of List of Paintings and Prints Now Displayed on the Walls of the Grolier Club, compiled by Edward G. Kennedy in 1931.

Related Collections at the Grolier Club:
Grolier Club Institutional Records, RG 4 – Collections
Grolier Club Institutional Records, RG 3 – Exhibitions          
Grolier Club Institutional Records, RG 7 – Events and Activities

 Arrangement Note:
Materials in this collection are arranged into the following series. Within series, folders are arranged chronologically.

I.                 Reports and Minutes
II.               Projects and Events
III.             Inventories, Appraisals, Sales and Acquisitions
IV.            General Correspondence

Container List:

Series I: Reports and Minutes

Box	Folder	Contents	Date
1	1	Minutes & Agenda	1979-2011
1	2	Committee Reports to Council, House, and Library Committees	1980-2009

Series II: Projects and Events

1	3	Exhibitions	1979-1982
1	4	Conservation	1980-1982
1	5	“Print Collection” Article Draft – Schimmel & Cate	1983?
1	6	Asaf – Cataloging Database	1986
1	6a	N. Harrison Exhibition	2007
1	7	PDP Collection Development Policy	2012-2016

 

Series III: Acquisitions, Sales, Appraisals, and Inventories

1	8	Acquisitions	1901-2010
1	9	Valuations and Appraisals	1927-1981
1	10	“A List of Paintings and Prints now Displayed on the Walls of the Grolier Club” compiled by E.G. Kennedy	1931
1	11	Inventories and Checklists	1980s
1	12	Auctions – Christie’s	1979-1981
1	13	Auctions – Christie’s and Swann	1982-1983

Series IV: General Correspondence

1

14

General Correspondence

1960-2012?