Collections : [Virginia Museum of Fine Arts]

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

VMFA Archives
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library
200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23220-4007
Primary Collecting Areas:
VMFA institutional records, Donor papers, Virginia Artists Archives, Oral histories, Artist subject files, Analog, and digital audiovisual collections
Description:

The Margaret R. and Robert M. Freeman Library provides access to a wealth of rare and unique primary source materials for scholars, researchers, and the public.

The Archives consists of a diverse and growing collection of permanent materials, covering museum history from its beginnings in the 1930s until today. The Archives includes institutional records from over 25 museum departments, thousands of artist and subject files, as well as donated collections related to the museum and the history of art in Virginia. The Archives also recently launched the Virginia Artists Archives, a collecting initiative that aims to create a rich, diverse, and unprecedented collection of Virginia artists’ papers to increase awareness about the contributions of Virginia artists, both past and present.

POC: Roxanne Winfield
Phone: (804) 340-1497
Phone: (804) 340-1495
Start Over Repository Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Level Item
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Lillian Thomas Pratt Personal Papers (SC-07), 1901/1947

1.5 Linear Feet 2 boxes (15 folders), 1 oversize item and 1 binder
The collection documents the formation of the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of Fabergé decorative artworks at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Bequeathed to the museum upon her death in 1947, Pratt's Fabergé collection consistently remains one of the highlights of the museum's permanent collection. Pratt purchased most of her Fabergé collection from the Schaffer Collection and Hammer Galleries, both of New York City, in the 1930s and 1940s. Comprised of correspondence, invoices, price tags, and detailed item descriptions, this collection illuminates Pratt's mind as a collector, as well as her relationship with one of her dealers, Alexander Schaffer.
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1006, 1936 1 page Box SC-07 Box 1, Folder 5, Item SC07.01.5.048

Transcription: [double-headed eagle] The Schaffer Collection of Russian Imperial Art Treasures ROCKEFELLER CENTER, NEW YORK February 1, 1936 #1006 Extremely interesting water color luncheon menu of the 21st of June, 1896, in the domain ""Eleenskole", which belonged to the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, uncle of Nicholas II, the late Czar of Russia. This menu was written and designed by the Grand Duchess Victoria Mellita of Hesse, wife of the Empress' brother, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludvig of Hesse, and who later became the wife of the Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich under the name of Victoria Feodorovna. The menu bears the following original signatures: Czar Nicholas II; Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna; Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich; Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, sister of the Czarina and wife of the Grand Duke Sergei; Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse, brother of the Czarina; Victoria Mellita, his wife; and Victoria, Princess of Battenberg, sister of the Czarina.

  1. Series 1: Schaffer Collection, 1934/1947
  2. Series 1.5: Item Descriptions, 1934/1945
  3. Folder 5

1017, 1935 1 page Box SC-07 Box 1, Folder 5, Item SC07.01.5.042

Transcription: [double-headed eagle] The Schaffer Collection of Russian Imperial Art Treasures ROCKEFELLER CENTER, NEW YORK October 29, 1935 #1017 Unusually beautiful solid gold cigarette case, elegantly embossed with sprays of leaves into which are mounted cabochon-cut rubies of beautiful color. A ruby of the same color, mounted in gold, serves as the catch which opens the case. It is signed by "Carl Fabergé", famous jeweler to the Russian Imperial family, who, because of his excellent craftsmanship and artistry, has often been termed the "Cellini" of the nineteenth century. From the belongings of Nicholas II, the late Czar of Russia. From the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

  1. Series 1: Schaffer Collection, 1934/1947
  2. Series 1.5: Item Descriptions, 1934/1945
  3. Folder 5
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Catalogs (PB-01), 1936/2020

63.25 Linear Feet 2,453 items
The collection is part of the Publications Archive, and is comprised of archival copies of all catalogs published by the museum, as well as catalogs for exhibitions that were shown at the museum, but produced by other institutions. Other catalogs highlight particular aspects of the museum's permanent collection.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Louis H. Draper Artist Archives (VA-04), 1945/2005

37.5 Linear Feet 170 boxes; 6,605 items
The extensive collection documents the life and work of Richmond-born photographer and educator Louis Draper (1935–2002). Manuscript and photographic materials document Draper's experience and work as an African American photographer, including his recognition of his photography as a form of "engaged resistance" that not only bore witness to leaders of the civil rights movement, but also offered a richer and more diverse perspective of African American life than provided by the mainstream media. In 1963, he was a founding member of the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of African American photographers, and the collection includes significant materials from the early years of the Kamoinge Workshop and document his perspective on the professional challenges that he and the collective confronted in the process of finding publications that would publish photographs of African Americans made by African Americans. His photographs of significant 20th-century artists, writers, musicians, and performers reflect the wide array of personal connections that Draper made after moving to New York from Richmond, Virginia in 1957. Printed photographs and contact sheets in Draper's archive show a broad view of city life and the everyday interactions between people and also offer a unique vision of African American neighborhoods in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Leslie Cheek, Jr. Personal Papers (SC-02), 1931/1993

19.4 Linear Feet 16 boxes; 596 folders and 48 oversized items
This collection documents a portion of the life of Leslie Cheek, Jr., the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' second and longest-tenured Director (1948-1968). One series includes material from his early career and activities before the VMFA, as well as his tenure at the museum, and through his retirement. Two series document the publication of two photobiographies about Cheek, "Living by Design" and "Designing for the Arts." Another series is comprised of materials about Skylark Farm, the house and tree farm located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, owned, designed and furnished by the Cheeks between 1967 and 1977 when it was donated to Washington and Lee University. Other series document the Cheeks' personal world travels in the 1950s-1980s, some of Cheek's awards, and finally, a number of framed architectural drawings done by Cheek as a student in the 1930s.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Robert S. Telford Personal Papers (SC-05), 1959/2008

0.4 Linear Feet 1 box, 4 folders; 60 items
The collection documents the life and career of Robert (Bob) S. Telford from 1959-2008. Telford, director of the Virginia Museum Theatre from 1955-1966, helped to strengthen the program and is known for casting African American actors in productions with white actors at a time when interracial casting was illegal in Virginia.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Benjamin L. Wigfall Artist Archives and Mary Carter Wigfall Personal Papers, 1880/2023

21.875 Linear Feet 50 boxes; 63 folders
The collection documents the life and work of Benjamin L. Wigfall, African American abstract expressionist artist. Benjamin L. Wigfall was the second African American artist to have a painting aquired by the VMFA, as well as the youngest ever artist to do the same. In addition to his work as an artist, Wigfall also taught and mentored in both Virginia at Hampton Institute, as well as New York at SUNY New Paltz and in his own community. Additionally, the collection contains documents related to the life and career of artist and educator, Mary Carter Wigfall, Benjamin L. Wigfall's wife. Mary C. Wigfall founded and directed the Migrant Childcare Center in New York from the early 1970s until her retirement in 1992.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Records of the Camera Club of Richmond (SC-22), 1920/1972

1.25 Linear Feet 5 cases; 117 items
The collection is comprised of over 100 mounted exhibition prints by members of the Camera Club of Richmond. Almost all of the prints were taken by Philip M. Luce, however there are several prints by William Edwin Booth (co-founder of the Club in 1932) and Vallie L. Booth.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Frederic H. Morgan, Jr. Photo and Postcard Collection, 1943/1945

1 box 1 box
This collection contains 23 photographs and 111 photo postcards from Frederic H. Morgan, Jr.'s personal collection that he amassed during his World War II military service on New Caledonia, an island in the South Pacific.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Records of Virginia Arts Organizations (SC-03), 1888/1942

0.5 Linear Feet 1 box, 12 folders; 113 items
The collection documents the rich history of Richmond's artistic culture and community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawing upon the legacy of the first Academy of Fine Arts in the United States, founded in Richmond in 1786, the Richmond Academy of Arts was revived in 1930, and records created throughout the organization's history comprise the majority of the collection. The Academy provided the most cohesive and active arts organization in Richmond before the founding of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Even after the museum's opening in 1936, the relationship between the Academy and the museum is notable; from the correspondence between Thomas C. Colt, the museum's first Director, and two Presidents of the Academy, to the creation of Richmond's first "Salon des Refuses," and to the repeated overlapping of artist and patron names within the organizations.
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Collateral and Other Publications (PB-05), 1952/2023

34 Linear Feet 1,418 items and 52 boxes of uncounted items
The collection is part of the Publications Archive, and is comprised of archival copies of collateral and numerous other types of publications created by the museum, including theater programs, gallery guides, statewide services catalogs, marketing reports, and Council publications.
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