Perry Townsend Rathbone papers, 1929-1985
Rathbone, Perry Townsend,
b. 1911
d. 2000
Arts administrator
Boston, Mass.
Collection size: 4.3 linear feet
Collection Summary: Biographical material, correspondence, subject files, writings, lectures, photographs and printed material.
Included in the biographical material are vitae, biographical and autobiographical sketches, passport, citations for honorary degrees and for his appointment as Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, and a memo to WBOS about his achievements as Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1972. Letters are from colleagues, artists, dealers, friends and the general public, including: Max and Mathilde Beckmann, Hanns Swarzenski, Curt Valentin, Jane Sabersky, Marian Willard, Xavier Gonzalez, Marino Marini, and a Christmas card from Oskar Kokoschka; and condolence letters about Curt Valentin's death from George Rickey, Louis Stern, William R. Valentiner, Ulfert Wilke, and others.
Subject file titles include: George Caleb Bingham drawings dispute; Brooks Memorial Gallery; Cambridge Arts Council; Chase Manhattan Bank Art Program; City Art Museum of St. Louis; Ford Foundation; Mass. Art Commission; Masterpieces of Art exhibition -NY World's Fair (containing photos of Katharine Cornell, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Eleanor Roosevelt); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Rhode Island School of Design; Horatio Shaw; Gilbert Stuart portraits dispute; and Hanns Swarzenski "Festschrift." The files contain correspondence, minutes, reports, photographs and printed material.
Writings consist of student papers for a Harvard fine arts course, drafts and typescripts for exhibition catalogs, museum publications, magazines and articles on art and artists, museums and various exhibitions, and notes and notebooks from European trips, 1966-1969. Also included is a draft by S. Lane Faison, "The Rathbone Years"; lectures on Max Beckmann and a translation of a lecture by him; and a transcript of an interview of Rathbone, 1967.
Photographs are of Rathbone, 1936-1971, of a drawing by Alexander Calder, "Just 2 Girls from Philly," and miscellaneous photographs of exhibitions at the Curt Valentin Gallery, the Buchholz Gallery and the Willard Gallery, 1950-1953, including a Beckmann exhibition. Printed material includes clippings, press releases and invitations.
Biographical/Historical Note: Museum director, New York, N.Y. Director of the City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1940-1955, and director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1954-1972. He was director of the auction house, Christie's USA, between 1973-1977, senior vice-president from 1977-1987, and a consultant beginning in 1987. He died Jan. 22, 2000 at age 88.
Donated 1977 and 1988 by Perry Townsend Rathbone.
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