The records are correspondence covering 11 years of his administration. Subjects include the WPA, acquisitional negotiations, funding the Museum, solicitation of City support and aid from the General Education Board. The records show a close working relationship with Director Fiske Kimball. With WPA craftsmen, period rooms were installed and galleries completed.
In the three decades he served as director, Fiske Kimball worked tirelessly to complete the museum's construction begun in 1919 and to fill the new building with encyclopedic collections of American and international art, architecture and decorative arts. These records document Kimball's devotion to the museum and its staff and his boundless energy to guide his institution through an economic depression, the resulting federal relief programs, a world war, a cold war, and an awakening to the art being created in response to these world-changing events of the 20th century.
Particularly valuable is the sub-series Rooms and other architectural elements, 1908, 1920-1954, undated.
As Assistant Director, Jolles' files include records and plans for the Bicentennial, records of the reinstallation in 1975, Corporate and Departmental Committee records and general correspondence on period rooms and doors.
Compiled by previous archivists, the purpose of this collection was to provide easy access to information that is most often requested. This collection contains, as either the original or a photocopy: administrative reports; biographical materials for staff, officers, and others associated with the museum; museum and department histories; building records for all museum buildings and the parkway; museum news releases and publications; clippings; exhibition and event ephemera; subject files for specific artists, park houses, and general topics; and visual resources related to the buildings, artists, employees, and special events. The bulk of the materials were collected from archival and museum happenings from the 1970s to the early 2000s.
Containing a sub-series of period rooms and gallery elevations and sections, this larger series is composed of accession inventories. An accession is a group of materials deposited with an archives. In the interest of researcher access, the archives publishes inventories when possible
