Laurance Page Roberts (LPR) records , 1938 - 1943

Laurance Page Roberts (1907-2002)

Laurance P. Roberts was born in Bala, Pennsylvania in 1907, the son of George Brinton and Alice Tyson Roberts. He received a B.A. degree from Princeton University, Department of Art and Archaeology, in 1929 and attended graduate courses at Princeton (1929-1930) and at New York University and Columbia University (1934-1937).

In 1930, he was hired by the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, first as a researcher and then as assistant in the Chinese Department; he was later promoted to Assistant Curator. In 1932-1933, he travelled and studied in Japan and China, returning to the Pennsylvania Museum at the end of 1933.

Director Philip N. Youtz, with whom Roberts had worked at the 69th Street Branch of the Pennsylvania Museum, offered him the position of Assistant Curator of Chinese Art at The Brooklyn Museum in Fall 1934. Roberts was soon promoted to full Curator. During Youtz's absences from the Museum, Roberts served as Acting Director and was appointed to that post once again upon Youtz's resignation in April 1938. In January 1939, Roberts was named Director of the Museum; he remained Curator of Oriental Art as well.

Although Roberts officially held the title of Director until his resignation in April 1946, his tenure at the Museum was interrupted by a lengthy military leave, while he served in the Signal Corps (January 1943 through April 1946). During this period, Isabel Spaulding Roberts, Laurance Roberts' wife and a former member of the Education Division staff, assumed the directorship, first as Acting Director/Curator-in-Chief and then as full Director. Museum Superintendent Albert N. Henricksen served concurrently as Acting Director during the first ten months of 1943 and then was appointed Assistant Director. Upon leaving the Museum, Laurance Roberts served as Director of the American Academy in Rome and was later involved in the founding of the New York State Council on the Arts in 1960-1961.

Roberts' curatorial orientation is clear in the focus of his administration. His predecessor, Philip N. Youtz, had reorganized, renovated, and reinstalled the entire Museum and its collections. Roberts wrote that the role of the Museum was to bring the collection to life and provide the public with activities related to the collection--to dramatize the collections with related programs (Annual Report, 1938). Two important policy changes were articulated during his administration: purchase funds were to be concentrated in areas in which the collections were already strong, particularly Egyptian art and American Art; and major, long-running exhibitions were to be produced, rather than the small, brief shows that had been crowding the Museum's schedule (Annual Report, 1939). The aim of presenting major exhibitions was fulfilled by a number of scholarly exhibitions with in-depth catalogs, organized by John I.H. Baur, Herbert B. Spinden, and Una Johnson.

While the organizational chart remained relatively stable during this period, some significant changes did occur. The Industrial Division, already intimated during previous administrations, was formally established in 1940-1941 under the leadership of Michelle Murphy. The Art School was transferred from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to the Museum in 1941. With the resignation of Carl O. Schniewind in March 1940, the Department of Prints and Drawings and the Art Reference Library were separated. The Dance Center, inaugurated in 1935, was closed in 1938. Finally, W.P.A. projects were gradually curtailed and then ended in 1941.

A series of Folk Festivals were produced by the Education Division, reflecting the Museum's interest in drawing in new ethnic groups and in dramatizing their connections to the collections. This community activism also shows in Roberts' commitment to encouraging local artists, which led to several exhibitions and demonstrations of artistic techniques. The opening of the Brooklyn Museum Art School also provided a forum for student and faculty exhibitions.

World War II affected the Museum in several ways, from practical matters such as safeguarding the collection and filling in for staff in the armed services to providing education and recreation for the public at home. The exhibition schedule reflects the latter, with a growing proportion of exhibits on war and international themes after 1941. Interest in Latin America is particularly evident, with extensive participation in Nelson Rockefeller's Committee for Inter-­American Cooperation and the opening of the Latin American Colonial galleries in 1943.

The Brooklyn Museum Quarterly was suspended in 1939; it was succeeded by the Brooklyn Museum Bulletin. A scholarly periodical, the Brooklyn Museum Journal, began publication in 1942.