This is a critical moment for the Archives of American Art. We are poised to receive significant collections from art makers and thinkers from the late 20th century and beyond. We seek funds to preserve these documents, including those produced digitally. Your investment in the Smithsonian Campaign will enable us to catalog and digitize these valuable collections to share on our website worldwide.

Your Archives of American Art is the preeminent institution documenting the history of art in America. It has a wealth of material from artists, collectors, dealers and scholars, all essential to understanding the nation’s full story.

Our growing collection of letters, sketchbooks, diaries, emails, photographs and home movies spans the 18th to the 21st centuries and continues to grow. It is the most comprehensive collection of its kind and includes the largest inventory of art-related oral histories in the world.

What will you find at the Archives? Visit our website and read George Catlin’s notebooks of his travels with the American Indians. See photos of the Monuments Men packing a stolen Michelangelo sculpture for return to its owners. And hear Chuck Close talk about the first set of paints he received as a child.

These and millions of other important personal histories bring richness and depth to our shared visual culture—and they would have been lost or remained hidden had we not taken action to gather and share them with the world.

Together, we will build and preserve the Archives’ collections, experience our treasures online with people worldwide and nurture tomorrow’s discoveries. Please read our case for support and match your passions with our gift opportunities.

Thank you.

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  Kate Haw

  Director, Archives of American Art
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  Wendy Jeffers

  Chair, Board of Trustees

Thousands visit our centers in New York and Washington, D.C., annually and our website receives more than 2 million visits a year. As our collection expands and more of it is available online, the potential for new discoveries and scholarship in American visual arts is exciting.

Leadership Endowments
The Archives seeks to endow four key leadership positions: the director, national collector, New York collector and chief of reference services. Gifts to endow the director’s position will signify a commitment to quality leaders and innovation, strengthening the Archives’ prominence in the art world.

Endowment gifts for a national collector will enable us to pursue important collections around the country. A collector in New York is especially important since the city is the epicenter of the art world.

Researchers rely heavily on the Archives’ reference services. The chief of reference services is critical to understanding the full range of the Archives and helps advance scholarship in a digital age.

Oral History Endowment
Our collections include more than 2,200 interviews with artists, scholars, collectors and dealers. Their stories have shaped the art world—and there are new stories to tell every day. An investment to endow this program will allow us the flexibility to document significant narratives before they are lost and use new technologies to broaden access to this unique resource.  

Preservation and Access
The Archives has collected prolifically since 1954. By investing in archival preservation and staying current with digitization and evolving technologies, the Archives’ resources will be strengthened and more information will be accessible. Our work will shape the future direction of scholarship in American art history with new collections and more information available online.