Diaries provide scholars with unique revelations and important contextual information for studying art of certain time periods and cultural circles. Painter Jervis McEntee worried about his status as an artist, assemblage artist Joseph Cornell struggled with the weakness of words to hold life's evanescence, and collector Desmond Fitzgerald pondered the effect of Monet's failing eyesight on his water lily pictures.
The Guide to Diaries summarizes close to 1,300 volumes totaling over 250,000 pages found throughout the collections in the Archives of American Art. Written by hundreds of artists, art historians, critics, collectors and others, they provide day-to-day firsthand accounts of appointments made and met, travel itineraries and work in progress, and are laced with personal ruminations and the all-important name dropping.
The Guide to Diaries in the Archives of American Art was made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., along with a companion website providing in-depth access to the Diaries of 19th century painter Jervis McEntee.
