Medieval Art and Collections
Object Details
- Collection Creator
- Barnard, George Grey, 1863-1938
- See more items in
- George Grey Barnard papers
- Sponsor
- Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
- Extent
- 0.9 Linear feet (Boxes 4, 15, and OV 17)
- Date
- circa 1905-1958
- Archival Repository
- Archives of American Art
- Identifier
- AAA.barngeor, Series 5
- Type
- Archival materials
- Collection Citation
- George Grey Barnard papers, circa 1860-1969, bulk 1880-1938. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Arrangement note
- Files are grouped by material type and then arranged in chronological order.
- Collection Rights
- The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
- Existence and Location of Copies
- This series has been scanned in its entirety.
- Scope and Contents note
- Found in this series are documents that record Barnard's activities as a collector and dealer of Medieval art and artifacts, including collecting notes; inventories; invoices from galleries and dealers; and printed material related to the artist's collections of medieval art (the Cloisters and the Abbaye/Monastery), including signs for both. Other items of note include hand drawn floor plans, one of which appears to be a rough sketch of the layout of the original Cloister, while the other more finished floor plan may be a plan for a medieval cloister (perhaps one that Barnard had purchased in Europe to reconstruct in the United States). Finally there are files related to two projects with the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., the first being the Bishop Garden to which Barnard donated an ancient cross. Barnard may have been the dealer for those who donated other medieval artifacts and architectural elements that decorated the garden. There is a second proposal for a failed project to relocate Barnard's second collection of medieval art and architectural elements to the National Cathedral initiated after the artist's death in 1937 by his son Monroe Barnard. Barnard's "collecting notes" are found in one folder of loose notes and 13 notebooks of various sizes. These notebooks contain names of dealers, places to visit, as well as descriptions, sketches, and prices of the medieval and renaissance art and artifacts which he collected both for himself and to sell to others. Other notebooks act as shipping inventories. In most of the shipping inventory notebooks, objects are listed by case number and are identified with brief descriptions. The 1926-1928 notebook also identifies the sender, which in most cases appears to be the French galleries/dealers from whom Barnard acquired the objects. There are inventories of Barnard's collections, including a notebook that contains detailed handwritten descriptions of objects in the original Cloisters, as well as a typescript titled Descriptions of Art Objects in the Abbaye, which serves as a narrative guide to the collection. There is also a visitor's book from the Monastery (Abbaye).
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original papers requires an appointment.
- Record ID
- ebl-1503510132231-1503510132269-1
- Metadata Usage
- CC0