Records of the Registrar's Department
Scope and Contents
While primary responsibility for the generation and execution of exhibitions rests with the curatorial department, certain functions are performed by the Registrars office. Records reflecting these functions include loan agreements, outward loan forms, releases, receipts, insurance forms, packing and shipping orders and invoices, and condition notes.
The Registrars' exhibition files also include materials which parallel or augment curatorial files, such as lists of objects, appraisals, entry forms, catalog proofs, photographs, installation sketches and notes, press releases, loan forms, loan receipts, loan requests, insurance forms, checklists, memorandums, letters, lenders lists, condition reports, negatives, indemnity lists, exhibition contracts, artists lists, box/crate lists, shipping lists, shipping receipts, ephemera, floor plans, and invitations. Annotated catalogs are sometimes included (sale prices, purchasers, temporary loan numbers, or lender names, for example); these and any other published matter has been transferred to the Art Reference Library.
The series includes several files for exhibitions pre-dating the establishment of the Registrar's Office. These contain, in addition to a few memos, lists, and receipts contemporary with the exhibitions, Registrar's forms from later years (primarily 1936) when staff was attempting to formalize loan or return of exhibition materials still in the building.
In the first decade, many of the files include exhibition and object numbers; the exhibition numbers are recorded in the file number field in the database. These tie in to the "Special Exhibitions" card file in the Registrar's Office, an index to lenders. The numbers and numbering system, however, are not always consistent or understandable (many exhibitions, for example, have the exhibition number 30 with a suffix that seems to follow no logical order).
The records accessioned included two types of files: functional, documenting the work of the Registrar's Office, and reference, containing only materials received about exhibitions (press releases, brochures, flyers, catalogs). The former are included in this series; material from the latter group has been transferred to appropriate reference series in the Archives and Library.
The Archives write exhibitions like: Full title [opening date-closing date]. An example: Sculpture by Carl Milles [04/11/1932-05/15/1932].
Dates
- 1930 - 2002
Creator
- Brooklyn Museum (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Checklists are available for public use. Other files listed are restricted to staff only.
Biographical / Historical
The Registrars Department was created in June 1933 by the Museum's new Director, Philip N. Youtz. The appointment of a Registrar was part of sweeping staff changes and augmentations made by Youtz after the 20-year administration of William Henry Fox, the first Director of the Museum. It was known as the Office of the Registrar from the 1930s through the 1990s.
Prior to the appointment of Frederick A. Sweet, the first Registrar, registrarial functions were carried out by various members of the curatorial staff and Director William Henry Fox. Indeed, the tradition of curator/registrars held through the first two appointments: Sweet went on to become Assistant Curator of Renaissance Art and his successor, John D. Cooney, transferred to a curatorial position, serving in the departments of Ancient Art and Egyptology from 1937 until 1963.
The Office of the Registrar was considered an administrative department from 1933 until 1972 when, as a result of organizational changes under the new administration of Duncan Cameron, it came under the supervision of the Chief Curator.
The modern registrarial system was devised by Marilyn Kemp [Weidner] (1956-58); prior to this, accessioning was done by the Registrar, but functions such as insurance and shipping were handled by other departments (Finance and Shipping, respectively). Objects first accessioned under earlier systems were reacces¬sioned beginning in Kemp's administration; the old accession books and cards have been retained by the Registrar.
Museum Registrars and Head of the Department
- 6/1/1933-4/1/1934
- Frederick A. Sweet
- 12/1/1934- 1/1/1937
- John D. Cooney
- 10/1/1936-1/1/1937
- Laurence Steegmuller
- 3/1937-12/1940
- Grace Holian Henricksen
- 12/1940-12/1942
- Bartlett Cowdrey
- 1/1942-9/1953
- Ela T. Forbes
- 9/1953-5/1944
- Alberta Prescott
- 6/1944-8/1946
- Patricia Wooley
- 8/1946-10/1951
- Barbara Pond
- 10/1951-3/1956
- Suzanne Lebeck Fox
- 4/1956-6/1958
- Marilyn Kemp Weidner
- 6/1958-3/1961
- Lois G. Rosenfeld
- 3/1961-12/1962
- Arthur Walker
- 3/1963-1989
- Barbara LaSalle
- 1982-2017
- Elizabeth Reynolds: Assistant Registrar; Registrar; and Chief Registrar
- 02/2001-current
- Katie Welty: Registrar; Senior Registrar; Chief Registrar (beginning in 2017); Director of Registration and Collections Management; Senior Director of Registration and Collections Care
Extent
55 Linear Feet (36 records center cartons and 42 manuscript boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Spanish
Japanese
Chinese
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically by exhibit opening date.
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Records of the Registrars Department
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- In 2000 Deborah Wythe, Archivist; Peter Engelman, Archives Assistant; Ed McLaughlin, Volunteer; and Lucile Zuckerman, Volunteer processed the collection. Aleksia Taci, Archives Intern re-processed and created the finding aid.
- Date
- 2000, and 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Brooklyn Museum Archives Repository