Acknowledgments

Sewell, Darrel

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Acknowledgments

Darrel Sewell (Editor)

Thomas Eakins

This exhibition and its catalogue are manifestations of a multifaceted project relating to Thomas Eakins that began at the Philadelphia Museum of Art five years ago. Its goal was to organize and catalogue the matchless research collection relating to Thomas Eakins that had been bequeathed to the Museum in 1987 by Lloyd Goodrich; to conserve and rephotograph all...

Author

Darrel Sewell (Editor)

PublisherPhiladelphia Museum of Art

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100276

Acknowledgments

This exhibition and its catalogue are manifestations of a multifaceted project relating to Thomas Eakins that began at the Philadelphia Museum of Art five years ago. Its goal was to organize and catalogue the matchless research collection relating to Thomas Eakins that had been bequeathed to the Museum in 1987 by Lloyd Goodrich; to conserve and rephotograph all of the works by Eakins in the Philadelphia Museum of Art in anticipation of the publication of a new handbook of the Museum’s Eakins collection; and to prepare this exhibition. As a result, we have had an opportunity to study Eakins’s works in an unusually thorough and wide-ranging way. Our initial work was made possible by generous grants from The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., The Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Endowment for the Arts, The William Penn Foundation, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and an endowment for scholarly publications established by grants from CIGNA Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition is made possible by Advanta and Strawbridge’s.

We have been exceptionally fortunate in securing loans. Our lenders kindly have agreed to everything we requested, except in a few cases of direct conflicts of dates. We thank them most gratefully and would like to recognize especially the Amon Carter Museum, Ball State University Museum of Art, and the University of Pennsylvania for lending their paintings for extended periods of study. We also would like to thank Morris Stroud and Richard York for their help in securing a key loan.

Many individuals have given their time to make Eakins’s works in their collections available for our research. For facilitating access to works of art and for aiding in their examination, the Department of American Art, the Conservation Department, and the catalogue authors would like to thank first of all Cheryl Leibold, who was boundlessly cooperative in making the Charles Bregler Collection and the Archives of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts available for study. Phyllis Rosenzweig also gave generously of her time to show the large collection of Eakins’s work at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution. We also are most grateful to Margaret Conrads, Wanda M. Corn, Daniel W. Dietrich II, Eric Greenleaf, Maxine Lewis, John Medveckis, Harvey S. Shipley Miller, and J. Randall Plummer. We would like to thank Jane Myers, Amon Carter Museum; Judith E. Throm, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; Judith Barter, The Art Institute of Chicago; Alain Joyaux, Ball State University Museum of Art; Linda Ferber, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Barbara Ward Grubb, Mary Leahy, Eric L. Pumroy, and Kathleen Whalen, Bryn Mawr College, Mariam Coffin Canaday Library; Sarah Cash and Dare Hartwell, The Corcoran Museum of Art; Ellen Sharp, The Detroit Institute of Arts; Stephanie Craighead and Theresa Stuhlman, Fairmount Park Commission; John Carr, Fairmount Park Preservation Trust; Joseph Binford, The Free Library of Philadelphia; Anne Morand, Gilcrease Museum; James Demetrion, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Lee Arnold and Jordan Rockford, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Gordon Baldwin, Julian Cox, Anne Lyden, and Weston Naef, The J. Paul Getty Museum; Jennifer Ambrose, James Greene, Philip Lapsansky, Jennifer Sanchez, John Van Horne, and Sarah Weatherwax at The Library Company of Philadelphia; Heather Lemonedes, Jeff L. Rosenheim, and H. Barbara Weinberg, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Michael Beam, The Mitchell Museum at Cedarhurst; Michelle Delaney and Shannon Perich, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; Dr. Adrienne Noe, National Museum of Health and Medicine of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology; Barbara Katus, Gail Rawson, Lorena Sehgal, and Sylvia Yount, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Charles S. Moffett, Eliza Rathbone, and Lily Steele, The Phillips Collection; John Hallmark Neff, Reynolda House; D. Scott Atkinson, San Diego Museum of Art; Julie Berkowitz, Thomas Jefferson University; Edward J. Flax, Martin F. Weber Co.; and Michael Kelly, Wichita State University Libraries.

In addition to the lenders, many other owners of Eakins’s works and related materials have welcomed us. For their assistance, we would like to thank: Peggy and Lewis Aumack, Dr. and Mrs. William W. Clements, Jr., Celia Eldridge, Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Hillas, Charles Isaacs, Robert and Peggy Macdowell Thomas, Mr. and Mrs. R. Lee Mastin, Elmer and Marjorie Pratt, David Sellin, and Kenneth Vorce. We would also like to thank Joanne Kuebler, Mary LaGue, Judy Larson, and Mark W. Scala, Art Museum of Western Virginia; Rick Wester, Christie’s; John V. Alviti, The Franklin Institute; Joseph R. Struble, George Eastman House/International Museum of Photography and Film; Penelope Smith and Brandon Rude, Joslyn Art Museum; Joseph Fronek and Virginia Rasmussen, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Todd Smith, The Mint Museum of Art; Margaret M. O’Reilly, New Jersey State Museum; Betty Krulik and Ira Spanierman, Spanierman Gallery; and Zenon Ganziniec, Wadsworth Atheneum.

For their aid with myriad research questions and for invaluable help in securing catalogue and other research photographs, we would like to thank the following: Linda Bantel, Joan Barnes, Eric Baumgartner, Perry Benson, Jr., Samuel L. Borton, Alan C. Braddock, Josephine R. Bull, Jeffrey Cohen, Patrick David Connors, Midge Eachus Cooper, Charles Cresson, Osborn Cresson, Lee Ann Daffner, Mr. and Mrs. James Dallett, F. Miles Day, Martha K. Denniston, the Dodge Family, David Dufour, Dorothea M. Dunifon, Margaret Deger Eachus, Kathleen Foster, Michael Fried, Ron Frishmuth, Benjamin A. G. Fuller, Paul and Harriet Fussell, Paula F. Glick, Hugh D. S. Greenway, Mary R. Hillas, Caroline Stephens Holt, S. Leonard Kent III, Kenneth Kloss, Robert Fulton Kurtz, Mack Lee, Janet Lehr, Michael Lewis, Leslie Lichtenstein, Michael McCue, Gridley McKim-Smith, Elizabeth Milroy, Col. Merl M. Moore, Jr., Mary Panzer, T. Sergeant Pepper, Carolyn Pitts, Cynthia Purvis, Karen Quinn, Henry M. Reed, Gainor and Nancy Roberts, Robert Sanders, Mr. and Mrs. Norman M. Schofield, Robert Schwarz, Gilian Shallcross, Marc Simpson, Linda Stanley, Patricia Tanis Sydney, Daniel Wolf, Erving and Joyce Wolf, and Gaile K. Wood. The following people also provided invaluable assistance: Robert McCracken Peck and Carol Spawn, The Academy of Natural Sciences; Virginia Dajani, American Academy of Arts and Letters; Terri Tremblay, American Antiquarian Society; Scott DeHaven and Roy E. Goodman, The American Philosophical Society; Daria D’Arienzo, Amherst College; Milan R. Hughston, Amon Carter Museum; Mark Taylor, Arden Archives; Bruce Laverty, Athenaeum of Philadelphia; Kathy Marquis and Malgorzata Myc, Bentley Historical Library, The University of Michigan; Teresa Carbone, Ruth Janson, and Deborah Wythe, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Charles Greifenstein, College of Physicians of Philadelphia; Wanda Magdeleine Styka, Chesterwood; Marisa Keller, The Corcoran Gallery of Art; Philip N. Cronenwett, Dartmouth College Library; Harriet Meminger, Delaware Art Museum; Michael E. Crane, Mary Galvin, and Tara Robinson, The Detroit Institute of Arts; Peter Kayafas, Eakins Press Foundation; George Tselos, Edison National Historic Site; Margaret Moore Booker, Egan Institute of Maritime Studies; Theresa Stuhlman, Fairmount Park Commission Archives; Irene D. Coffey, The Franklin Institute; Richard Boardman and William Lang, Free Library of Philadelphia; Lenore Rouse and Becky Simmons, George Eastman House/International Museum of Photography and Film; Eliza Callard, Germantown Historical Society; Melanie M. Halloran, Harvard University Archives; Amy Densford, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution; Sally Stassi, The Historic New Orleans Collection; Jackie Burns, The J. Paul Getty Museum; S. Christine Jochem, The Joint Free Public Library of Morristown and Morris Township; Brad Gernand, Library of Congress; John Peterson, Lutheran Theological Seminary; Jack Judson, Magic Lantern Castle Museum; Catherine Merwin Mayhew, Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society; Jane Spottheim, Maryland Institute, College of Art; Lu Harper, Grant Holcomb III, and Marjorie B. Searl, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester; Deanna Cross and Jeri Wagner, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Paul Richelson, Mobile Museum of Art; Sophia Hewryk, Moore College of Art and Design; Patricia J. Albright, Mount Holyoke College Archives; Laurence des Cars, Musée d’Orsay; Elizabeth Oldham, Nantucket Historical Association; Elizabeth Anderson, National Museum of American Art; Brandon Brame Fortune and Alan Fern, The National Portrait Gallery; Richard Cohen, Bill Patterson, and the members, Philadelphia Sketch Club; AnnaLee Pauls and Margaret Sherry, Princeton University Libraries; David L. Kencik and Martin E. Petersen, San Diego Museum of Art; Kim Walters, Southwest Museum; Helen Dark, Spring Hill Public Library; Polly Armstrong, The Stanford University Libraries; Sid Berger and Gladys L. Murphy, Rivera Library, University of California, Riverside; Daniel Meyer, University of Chicago Library; Annette Stott, University of Denver; James Curtiss Ayers, Martin J. Hackett, and Mark Frazier Lloyd, University of Pennsylvania Archives; David S. Azzolina, Heidi Heller, and Alan Morrison, University of Pennsylvania Libraries; Alex Pezzati, The University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania; Richard Guy Wilson, University of Virginia; Caryl Burtner and Dr. David Park Curry, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Anita Duquette, Whitney Museum of American Art; Mary Nelson, University Libraries, Wichita State University; Suzanne Warner, Yale University Art Gallery; Christine Weideman, Yale University Library; and Margaretta Richardi, Zoological Society of Philadelphia.

For analytical support, the Department of Conservation would like to express their appreciation to Douglas Yeats; to William Romanow and Fred A. Stevie of Cirent Semiconductors; to Ron M. A. Heeren of MOLART; to Peter Eastmen of Rohm & Haas; to Lucile Giannuzzi of the University of Central Florida; and to Janice Hickey Friedman and Marsha Bischel of the Analytical Laboratory, Winterthur Museum.

This exhibition and catalogue exist because of the dedicated work of many people whose talents comprise one of the major resources of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the American Art Department, W. Douglass Paschall had a hand in every aspect of the exhibition: coordinating research, assisting with the selection of photographs and arranging for their framing, providing information to the catalogue authors and the editors, and ultimately reading and fact-checking the entire catalogue manuscript. Audrey Lewis assembled all the photographs for the publication, and Amanda Clifford provided assistance with myriad details and handled much of the correspondence relating to the exhibition. Kathleen Brown, Mike Hammer, and Akela Reason helped with research and organization of the exhibition in its early phases.

The scope of the Eakins project offered the Museum’s Conservation Department an unusual opportunity to exercise the range of their expertise, and they took full advantage of it. In the field of decorative arts and sculpture, Melissa Meighan undertook research into Eakins’s methods and materials and into the complexities of dating casts of some of his sculptures. She organized a program of major treatments for most of Eakins’s sculptures in the Museum’s collection, with Sally Malenka, Holly Salmon, Julie Solz, and Catherine Williams.

Mark Tucker and Nica Gutman pursued extensive investigations of Eakins’s painting techniques and working methods, and, with Teresa Lignelli, carried out major treatments of paintings in the Museum’s collection and elsewhere, assisted by Pam Betts, Nancy Croft, Elise Effmann, and Mathew Skopek. Works on paper were examined and treated by Nancy Ash, Dana Mossman Tepper, and Faith H. Zieske. The conservators received technical support from Beth A. Price and benefited from the advice and encouragement provided by Andrew Lins. The progress and finished results of all conservation processes were recorded photographically by Joe Mikuliak, who also devised a technique for scanning the original glass negatives for many of Eakins’s photographs and printing them for exhibition. Reconsideration of the framing of Eakins’s paintings also was part of the conservation project, and Michael Stone repaired many frames, provided useful information about others, and constructed several new ones, including the re-creation of a spectacular frame for The Crucifixion. He was assisted by Dean Kahn. Gary Hiatt matted and framed the majority of the large number of photographs and works on paper. A video project, funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, was conceived by the conservators to present their discoveries in the context of Eakins’s life and work. In cooperation with members of the Conservation and American Art Departments, Suzanne Penn wrote the script and directed the video.

In the library and archives, Allen Townsend, Susan Anderson, Josephine Chen, Lilah Mittelstaedt, and Jesse Trbovich were unfailingly patient and helpful with innumerable details of research.

Graydon Wood and Lynn Rosenthal photographed all of Eakins’s works belonging to the Museum and to many of the lenders, utilizing new digital photographic equipment purchased with a grant from the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Conna Clark, Stacy Bomento, Kate Laepple, and Terry Fleming Murphy catalogued this photography and dealt with questions of rights and reproductions relating to the exhibition. Mary Wasserman organized the thousands of slides that were generated by the project.

The daunting task of editing and producing a catalogue for a large exhibition with many contributors fell to Jane Watkins and Richard Bonk, and they carried it out with extraordinary patience and finesse, assisted by Jane Boyd and Jessica Murphy. Graphic materials were designed and produced by Matthew Pimm, Jane Spencer, and Maia Wind.

To realize the exhibition in its physical form, Suzanne F. Wells coordinated planning for the entire project and administered the budget, assisted by Krista Mancini. Packing, insurance, transportation, all unusually complicated by the fact that the exhibition will take slightly different forms at each of its three venues, were arranged by Irene Taurins and Sara Detweiler Loughman, assisted by Clarisse Carnell, Michelle Povilaitis, and Trine Vanderwall.

A capacious and elegant design for the exhibition spaces and the lighting was conceived by Jack Schlechter, assisted by Andrew Slavinskas. Construction was planned by Joseph Revlock and carried out by Anthony Abruzzese, Jim Batten, Donato Colavita, Merv Crawley, Carmine Deluca, Carmen DiGiorgio, Nick Fanty, Krzsztof Heljak, Jesse Moore, James Murphy, Joe Naimoli, Kirk Pavoni, Steve Ponti, John Redding, Rich Reyes, Jim Torpey, and Robert Venezia. For the installation proper, Martha Masiello and Michael A. McFeat planned the schedule for unpacking and installing Eakins’s work and carried it out, assisted by Erin Boyle, Randall Cleaver, David Gallagher, Eric Griffen, Anthony Horney, George Johnson, Alane Salvatore, and Laura Singewald.

Danielle Rice, Elizabeth A. Anderson, and Caroline Cassells prepared the audio tour, brochure, and lecture series that accompany the exhibition.

Alexa Q. Aldridge, Betty J. Marmon, Kim Sajet, and Linda Jacobs secured funding for the exhibition, and Charles Croce and Norman Keyes devised the program of marketing and public relations that accompanied the exhibition.

Other departments of the Museum have provided useful information and assistance. We would like to thank especially Dilys E. Blum and H. Kristina Haugland in the Department of Costumes and Textiles, and Innis H. Shoemaker and Katherine Ware in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.

Overseeing it all, with an eye for both the small detail and the big picture, was Anne d’Harnoncourt, whose commitment to every aspect of the Eakins project from the beginning has made this exhibition possible.

Besides the individuals named above, many others provided advice, encouragement, support, and tangential information of all kinds. For this, individual authors would like to thank Kenneth Finkel, Neil Harris, Jules Prown, Jonathan Weinberg, Vida Welsh, as well as Marion Stroud-Swingle and the Acadia Summer Arts Program, Doug Munson and Toddy Munson of the Chicago Albumen Works, and the Philadelphia Girls Rowing Club.

Finally, all of the authors would like to express their indebtedness to William Innes Homer for providing each of them with copies of Eakins’s known letters; to Elizabeth Johns, whose book, Thomas Eakins: The Heroism of Modern Life, published in 1983, signaled a new era in Eakins research; and finally to Lloyd Goodrich, who wrote the first biography of the artist and whose research and writings continue to be invaluable resources for anyone interested in the life and career of Thomas Eakins.

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