Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records, 1883-1962, bulk 1885-1962

Exhibitions includes correspondence, lists, planning notes, and available catalogs related to 185 traveling and loan exhibitions held at the Museum of Art from 1901 to 1940. Of these, 82 are group, survey, regional, or topical shows and over 100 are one-artist shows. The museum's early interest in American painters are clearly evident under Beatty's directorship, with 22 of 32 shows falling into that category. Under Saint-Gaudens' directorship, the museum continued to showcase American and regional Pennsylvania painters, but also expanded to showcase mural decorators, architecture, crafts, printed books, and sculptures, in addition to exhibitions focused on Mexican, Itlaian, Canadian, German, French, Swedish, Dutch, and Spanish art.

The collaborative work involved in curating and hosting major exhibitions is documented throughout this series, particularly through the extensive exchanges with collectors, museums, galleries, dealers, shippers, and many of the artists themselves. Much of the correspondence centers on the availability or whereabout of works and requests for loans. Information regarding the provenance, ownership, and price, sales, and insurance values of artworks are frequently noted in letters or catalogs.

From 1907 to 1940, these files were originally boxed in two year periods, and within that, arranged numerically according to the star (*) filing number assigned by the Museum of Art. Records dating from 1895-1906 were boxed separately. All records have been rearranged into an alphabetical folder heading order with all the years merged and organized into chronological order. This series has been scanned in its entirety.