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Jennifer E. Neal
Scope and Contents
The papers of art critic, author, and historian, Robert Hughes measure 16.60 linear feet and date from 1952 to 2012. The collection provides a glimpse of Hughes' personal life and documents his extensive career through biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, interviews, journals, writings, project files related to books and television programs, research files, personal business records, printed material, and photographic material.
Biographical material includes address books and day planners, stationery, sound recordings, memoirs, academic memorabilia, and a scrapbook documenting the National Gallery of Australia's tenth birthday in 1992. Correspondence includes letters, emails, and post cards from personal and professional contacts, including friends, family, colleagues, and fans. Interviews include video and sound recordings, transcripts, and clippings related to Robert Hughes interviewing others or Robert Hughes being interviewed for various publications and television programs. Journals include excerpts from the 1970s and sound recordings that document Hughes' travels around the world. Writings include notes, notebooks, and draft articles, essays, lectures, speeches, and manuscripts written by Hughes. Some of the lectures were recorded. Project files include clippings, transcripts, draft scripts, digital files, sound and video recordings, photographs, proposals, outlines, notes and correspondence related to various publications and television programs. Research files include notes, correspondence, drafts, clippings, translations, and a sound recording of Australian convict ballads. Personal business records include sound recordings, photographs, legal files, a description of events related to a 1999 car crash that left Hughes in critical condition, lists of travel expenses and publications, a lecture contract, email correspondence related to litigation, and legal files related to a defamation claim and some of Hughes' writings. Printed material includes clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, press releases, and a published poem. Photographic material includes slides, photographs, and negatives documenting Hughes' travels, friends, family, his Shelter Island home, self-portraits, and works of art.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated in 2021 by Doris Downes, Robert Hughes' widow.
Processing Information
The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jennifer E. Neal and Lewis Tio in 2022. Additional finding aid description of the video and sound recordings was completed by Kirsi Ritosalmi-Kisner in 2024.