Curatorial Department Records

This collection contains records of curatorial activities and the curatorial department from 1936-1991, though the bulk of the records reflect the 1964-1991 time period. Records creators are: Susan Barnes, Senior Curator of Western Art; Joan Davidow, Acting Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art; Sue Graze, Curator of Contemporary Art; Richard Foster Howard, Director (1936-1942); John Lunsford, Senior Curator; Irene Martin, Assistant Chief Curator; Anna McFarland, Associate Curator of Exhibitions; Maureen McKenna, Assistant Chief Curator; Robert Murdock, Curator of Contemporary Art; Steven Nash, Deputy Director / Chief Curator; Carol Robbins, Curator of Textiles and Associate in New World Cultures; Merrill Rueppel, Director (1964-1973); Emily Sano, Deputy Director; Rick Stewart, Chairman of American Painting and Decorative Arts; Carolyn Tate, Associate Curator, Pre-Columbian Art; Charles Venable, Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts; and Alvia Wardlaw, Adjunct Curator, African-American Art. The records have been arranged into three series: chronological correspondence, art refused, and deaccessions & miscellaneous. Chronological correspondence is record of outgoing external correspondence and internal memoranda, arranged chronologically - may include copies of attachments/enclosures and letter responding to; includes correspondence sent by curatorial assistants and secretaries. Chronological corrsepondence for senior curators and reading file includes logs of outgoing correspondence. The Art Refused series contains offers of works of art not accepted by the DMA from galleries and dealers, individuals, and artists. The series consists of two time periods for dealers and individuals, 1964-1978 and 1978-1991. 1964-1978 contains correspondence by Merrill Rueppel, Robert Murdock and John Lunsford; 1978-1991 contains correspondence by Steve Nash, John Lunsford, Rick Stewart, Sue Graze, Charles Venable, Assistant Cheif Curators (Geyer, Martin, McKenna), and various curatorial assistants and secretaries. The artist series dates 1984-1990 and contains correpondence by Sue Graze and Joan Davidow. All subseries content is arranged alphabetically.

The third series is deaccessions and miscellaneous. The deaccessions document early sales of works from the collection at auction or via a gallery, 1948 and 1966-1968. Deaccessions are arranged chronologically, though the dates on most overlap. The miscellaneous materials cover the 1984 vandalism and research on a 1936 object.