American Academy in Rome records, 1855- 2012

Collection Information

Size: 66.1 linear feet

Summary: Correspondence, treasurers' records, officers' records, miscellaneous records, printed mater, legal documents, Board of Trustees committee minutes, staff records, rosters, photographs, and personal papers and ephemera.
REELS 5749-5750: Records of the predecessor institutions, the American School of Architecture in Rome, 1894-1898 and the American School of Classical Studies in Rome, 1895-1913. Includes Managing Committee records, correspondence, financial records, and printed matter from both schools. Among the papers is information concerning the reorganization of the two schools into the American Academy in Rome.
REELS 5750-5777: Records of the Board of Trustees consisting of legal documents, minutes, reports, committee records, officers' records, and records of individual trustees. Legal documents consist of by-laws and amendments, certificate of incorporation, and constitution and amendments. Records of Officers consist mainly of correspondence files and reports, with large numbers of transcriptions and carbon copies. Records of individual Trustees, 1902-1946 and undated, consist of material relating to official Academy business that was created or maintained by each in his capacity as trustee. Included are records of: Presidents Charles F. McKim, William R. Mead, Charles A. Platt, John Russell Pope, and James Kellum Smith; Vice Presidents Theodore N. Ely, George B. McClellan, and Henry James; Secretaries H. Siddons Mowbray (Secretary/Treasurer), Frank D. Millet, C. Grant La Farge, William B. Dinsmoor, and H. Richardson Pratt; and Treasurers William R. Mead, William A. Boring, Leon Fraser, and Lindsay Bradford; trustees Chester H. Aldrich, Gilmore D. Clarke, James C. Egbert, Barry Faulkner, Allan C. Johnson, William M. Kendall, C. Grant La Farge, Edward P. Mellon, Charles Dyer Norton, Charles A. Platt, John Russell Pope, Edward K. Rand, John C. Rolfe, James Kellum Smith, S. Breck Trowbridge, Ferruccio Vitale, John Quincy Adams Ward, Andrew F. West, and William L. Westerman. Many of these individuals also served as officers or staff of the Academy, and their records documenting those functions will be found in the appropriate series.
REELS 5777-5795: The New York office records consists of records of staff, rosters, printed matter, photographs, personal papers, Association of Alumni of the American Academy in Rome, and miscellaneous records. Records of staff include the office files of Executive Secretaries Roscoe Guersney, Meriwether Stuart, and Mary T. Williams; Librarian George K. Boyce; and Endowment Fund Campaign Secretaries Phillilps B. Robinson and Edgar I. Williams. Photographs are organized into the categories of works of art, people, buildings, places, events, and miscellaneous. Personal Papers, Memorabilia, and Ephemera were donated to the American Academy in Rome or otherwise left on its premises. None are official records generated by the institution. Included are: Ernest Lewis' photograph album/scrapbook; Allan Marquand's papers; Charles F. McKim's memorabilia, photographs, printed matter, and artifacts; Charles R. Morey's correspondence; and Elihu Vedder's Bible. Miscellaneous records are writings and architectural records. Writings consist of published and unpublished manuscript material about the American Academy in Rome and its history, and article by H. Siddons Mowbray advising on ornamentation, and text and illustrations for the Art and Archaeology issue on the Academy. Also included are fragments of unidentified letters. Architectural records [oversize] include property and floor plans of Villas Aurora, Chiaraviglio, Ferrari, and Ludovisi.
REELS 5795-5800: The Rome office records consist of records of staff and personal papers. Records of staff include the office files of Directors H. Siddons Mowbray, George Breck, Jesse Benedict Carter, Gorham Phillips Stevens, James Monroe Hewlett, Chester H. Aldrich, Amey Aldrich [Acting Director, very briefly, perhaps unofficially], Charles R. Morey, and Laurance P. Roberts; and records of two members of the School of Fine Arts faculty, Frank P. Fairbanks, Professor of Fine Arts, and Felix Lamond, Professor of Music. Also surviving are the personal papers of Director Gorham Phillips Stevens consisting of correspondence, financial records, and documentation of professional and charitable activities.
Addition received in 2014 (31.6 linear feet) includes correspondence and subject files of officers and executives based in the New York office of American Academy in Rome (1933-2002).

Biographical/Historical Note

The American Academy in Rome is an art school in Rome, Italy and New York, N.Y. Organized in 1894 as the American School of Architecture in Rome. In 1897, it was dissolved and its assets turned over to the newly established American Adademy in Rome, not a traditional school, but a place where architects, painters, and sculptors could work in close association. After merging with the American School of Classical Studies (f. 1895) on the last day of 1912, the American Academy in Rome consisted of the School of Fine Arts and the School of Classical Studies. The School of Fine Arts soon expanded its scope to include fellowships in landscape architecture (1915), musical composition (1920), and history of art (1947). The Academy's New York office is now located at 7 East 60th St., New York, N.Y. (2001).

Provenance

Material on reels ITRO 2-3 & 11-13 were lent for microfilming at the Academy in 1965. Records of predecessor institutions, the Board of Trustees, and the New York office, including photographs and personal papers were donated 1982 by the American Academy in Rome, through Calvin G. Rand, president. An addition of Rome office records and personal papers of Gorham Phillips Stevens was donated 1990 by the Academy via Calvin G. Rand, President, and an addition of New York office records donated 2014 by the Academy via Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Director.

Related Materials

Also in the Archives is material lent for microfilming (reels ITRO 2-3 and 11-13) including annual reports, exhibition catalogues, a history of the American Academy in Rome, the American Academy in Rome at the World's Fair and the Golden Gate Exposition and newsletter.

Chaloner Prize Foundation records, 1915-1974 (microfilm reels 5664-5669) were received with the American Academy in Rome records. The records have been arranged and described as a separate collection.

Valentine, Lucia and Alan Valentine. The American Academy in Rome, 1894-1969. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1973.

Location of Originals

• Reels ITRO 2-3 & 11-13: Originals in American Academy in Rome Rome, Italy.