Papers of Paul J. Sachs, 1903-2005

The papers in this collection document Paul Sachs' career at the Fogg Museum and in Harvard's Department of Fine Arts, his national and international travels, his role as a mentor to students and colleagues, his involvement on numerous boards and committees, and various other personal and professional endeavors and interests. The papers date from 1903 to 2005, with the bulk spanning the years 1915-1948, and consist primarily of sent and received correspondence. They also include photographs, printed material (including auction catalogs), newspaper clippings, blueprints and other architectural drawings, reports, financial records, letters of introduction and recommendation, field reports, lists, insurance records, maps, appeals for funding, meeting minutes, memoranda, certificates, invitations, exhibition brochures, page proofs, press releases, telegrams, and radiograms.

All materials in the collection have been re-housed into archival folders and boxes. Folders and their contents have been kept in their original order, and overstuffed folders have been divided among several folders for the sake of preservation and numbered to indicate that they represent a part of a larger whole (for example: "folder 1 of 2"). The original folder titles have been retained; any added information has been enclosed in square brackets by the processing archivist. The folders are filed alphabetically by title, and in most instances the papers within each folder are filed either in chronological or reverse chronological order. Occasionally the papers in a folder are filed alphabetically instead of chronologically.

Many of the folder titles in the collection consist of a personal name, followed by either "scholar" (or the abbreviation "sch."), "dealer," "museum course," "collector" or "artist." These categories indicate the primary capacity and context in which Sachs knew and interacted with each individual, but in many cases museum course students went on to become scholars, collectors were also dealers, and so forth. Dealers include both art dealers and booksellers. Some notes in the collection suggest that the folders were at one time filed separately according to these categories; i.e. all dealer files were kept together, artist files kept together elsewhere, collector files kept somewhere else, and so forth. It is unknown at what point these separate categories were interfiled to create the current arrangement, in which all are filed together. It is also indicated, via Sachs' own handwritten memoranda and margin notes, that he weeded the correspondence during the 1950s, disposing of what he considered unnecessary or redundant material.

Some folders contained notes of unknown origin and documents clearly added after Sachs' death, including archivists' memoranda. These added materials have been removed from the papers and maintained in separate files in the archives; they may be consulted upon request. The dates of these materials has been preserved in the folder titles, as a cue to researchers that added materials from a given folder can be found in a separate location. Researchers should also note that folder titles are not always entirely accurate or reflective of content. In cases where the folder title and content differ significantly, a note has been added at the folder level of the finding aid. Many folders contain correspondence with individuals not mentioned in the folder title. For this reason, the processing archivist has made notes about various individuals' correspondence in the collection; these notes are held in the archives and may be consulted upon request. While they are not exhaustive, they may be helpful in locating materials.

Acidic documents have been isolated with archival paper and in some cases enclosed in mylar. Fragile materials have been enclosed in mylar. Oversize materials have been filed in an oversize box and cabinet; separation sheets indicate their removal. These oversize materials may be consulted upon request, and their location is indicated in the detailed container list that follows. Some of the collection suffered water damage in a flood of the archives in 1998; as a result, many of the papers are wrinkled, some ink has run, and some are stuck together and in need of treatment by conservators.

The correspondence covers many topics, reflecting Sachs' involvement and interest in a wide range of activities. Topics covered include the following, among many others: the direction and staffing of museums and other cultural institutions; the sale, purchase and exhibition of works of art; the content and editorial management of scholarly publications; travel and the visitation of museums and private collections; collectors and collecting; books, libraries and typography; university education in art history and the fine arts; and the effects of the first and second World Wars on individuals and communities, including refugee scholars. Many of the folders contain a mixture of correspondence and other materials. Sachs retained a carbon copy of outgoing letters, and there are often handwritten drafts of letters, as well as transcriptions of received letters that are particularly difficult to read.

Almost every year between 1915 and 1938, Sachs traveled to Europe, where he met with friends, colleagues, dealers and collectors; purchased works of art; and visited museums and private collections. These travels were beneficial not only because they frequently resulted in acquisitions for the Fogg Museum's collection, but also because they enabled Sachs to develop and maintain a remarkably wide and important network of contacts around the world. Sachs also made purchases for his personal collections during his European travels, many of which were eventually donated to the Fogg. Many letters in this collection were written while Sachs was abroad and contain accounts of what he was seeing and doing as he traveled.

Sachs' network of contacts and relationships, fostered by his work at the museum, his teaching and his travels, included art collectors and dealers, booksellers, art historians and other scholars, museum curators and administrators, publishers, former students, and friends and colleagues from other fields. He also maintained contacts in the realms of business and finance as a result of his years at Goldman Sachs and his family connections. These papers include correspondence with hundreds of individuals from across this network and reveal Sachs' influential role as advisor, mentor and colleague. He advised colleagues throughout the U.S. on matters of acquisitions and staff for both public and private art collections and was often called upon to recommend personnel for open positions. Sachs successfully placed hundreds of former students in positions and continued to advise them as their careers progressed. He was respected for his ability to judge individuals' strengths and weaknesses, as well as his understanding of the needs of an extensive range of organizations and his practical background in business administration. Sachs was often called upon for recommendations and opinions, notably in regard to potential grants and other funding, by both the Carnegie and Guggenheim Foundations.

The collection includes correspondence with many art dealers, in the United States and abroad. These include: Martin Birnbaum, Joseph Brummer, G. J. Demotte, Joseph Duveen, Maurice Gobin, César de Hauke, Bernard d'Hendecourt, Alphonse Kann, Dikran Kelekian, Paul Mallon, Gus Mayer, Walter Pach, R. Meyer Riefstahl, Paul Rosenberg, André Seligmann, Jacques Seligmann, Josef Stránský, André Weil, E. Weyhe, and many other individuals at firms including Colnaghi & Obach, Doll & Richards, Durand-Ruel, Durlacher, Knoedler & Co., P. W. French & Co., Parish-Watson & Co., Scott & Fowles, Yamanaka, and Wildenstein & Co. Correspondence with dealers covers a range of topics, from the discussion of objects for sale to negotiations of exchange for purchased objects to loans for exhibitions held at the Fogg Museum and elsewhere. Sachs also provided colleagues and students letters of introduction to these dealers, for use during their travels.

Also of interest is correspondence with scholars from across the globe. Many of Sachs' correspondents were museum curators and/or scholars of art history, but he also maintained correspondence with friends and acquaintances from a range of other disciplines. Among the art historians, curators and other scholars with whom he corresponded are: A. Everett (Chick) Austin, Marcel Aubert, Alfred Barr, Jr., Emil Baerwald, Bernard Berenson, W. G. Constable, Henri Focillon, Hetty Goldman, Belle da Costa Greene, Marcel Guerin, Alfred Hamill, William Ivins, Horace Jayne, Fiske Kimball, Charles Kuhn, Sir Eric Maclagan, Agnes Mongan, Charles Rufus Morey, Adam Paff, Erwin Panofsky, F. Mason Perkins, Arthur Kingsley Porter, Alan Priest, John Rewald, Daniel Catton Rich, Agnes Rindge, Jakob Rosenberg, Theodore Sizer, Georg and Hanns Swarzenski, Daniel V. Thompson, John Walker III and Langdon Warner. Many of these individuals were Sachs' former students.

The collection also includes correspondence with various artists and writers, including: George Grey Barnard, Joseph Coletti, Stuart Davis, Georg Grosz, Marsden Hartley, Charles Hopkinson, Edward Hopper and his wife Josephine, Philip Johnson, Henry Moore, John Singer Sargent, Maurice Sterne, Alfred Stieglitz, Max Weber, Harold Weston and Andrew Wyeth. The papers also include correspondence with Ray Nash, a graphic-arts historian and accomplished typographer, and Bruce Rogers, renowned book designer and typographer, reflecting Sachs' longstanding interest in books, graphic design and typography.

The papers also include correspondence with prominent collectors, including: Robert Woods Bliss, Helen Frick, James Hazen Hyde, Arthur Lehman, Philip Lehman, Robert Lehman, James Loeb, Charles Loeser, Robert Treat Paine, Jr., Duncan Phillips, Luis Plandiura, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Arthur Sachs, Edward M. M. Warburg, Felix Warburg, Maurice Wertheim and Grenville Winthrop. Sachs gave advice regarding potential acquisitions and the conservation of objects in these private collections; he also frequently advised collectors to give or bequeath their collections to museums and other public institutions. He encouraged students and colleagues to visit private collections and wrote many letters of introduction that enabled them to do so. Along with Edward Forbes, Sachs served as advisor to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in the selection of artists to create works for Rockefeller Center and in the design and creation of the Cloisters, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe.

Much of the correspondence is related, either directly or indirectly, to "the Museum Course." The collection includes correspondence with hundreds of his former students. It also includes a set of detailed notes from Museum Course lectures and sessions, taken in 1930-1931 by student Calvin Hathaway.

Correspondence throughout the collection relates to both the first and second World Wars. Sachs served as a Major with the Red Cross in Paris during the first world war, and letters in the collection provide insight into his experiences during that time. From the inter-war years, particularly the 1930s and early 1940s, there is significant correspondence about the efforts of Sachs and others to assist refugee scholars and others displaced by the Nazi regime, both financially and in relocating to the United States and securing employment. Sachs advocated for many people, particularly scholars and art historians; he helped them find lecture engagements and appointments as well as teaching positions in American universities. Refugee scholars in whom Sachs took a particular interest include: Otto Benesch, Otto Brendel, Adolph Goldschmidt, Hans Huth, F. W. Lenz, Friedrich von Lorentz, Walter L. Nathan, Alfred Neumeyer, Jakob Rosenberg, Otto Georg von Simson, Clemens Sommer, Georg Steindorff, Charles Sterling, Georg Swarenski and Emanuel Winternitz. There is also correspondence from European museum directors and other professionals about the evacuation of works of art during World War II. During and after the second World War, Sachs was a member of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, also known as the Roberts Commission.

The correspondence between Sachs and Edward W. Forbes, director of the Fogg Museum, is particularly rich. The two corresponded regularly - at times daily - during the years of their co-directorship of the Fogg, and these letters are full of information about museum affairs and decisions; fund-raising, in particular the joint campaign with the Harvard Business School and Chemistry Department; art objects they had acquired or that were for sale; the student-run Harvard Society for Contemporary Art; museum employees, colleagues and committees; museum-sponsored expeditions in China, "Jugoslavia" and elsewhere; dealers in America and abroad; displaced scholars in need of assistance; Sachs' involvement in the so-called "Albertina Affair," an attempt in 1935 to buy Archduke Albrecht's collection of prints and drawings on behalf of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Fogg Museum; and a wide range of other topics. Correspondence between Sachs and other staff members at the Fogg Museum, notably Frederick Robinson and Mary Wadsworth, provides a good deal of factual and anecdotal information about daily life at the Fogg Museum.

Sachs was active in the Harvard community beyond the Fine Arts department and the Fogg Museum. He corresponded regularly about the institutions Dumbarton Oaks and Villa I Tatti, notably with their primary benefactors, Robert Woods Bliss and Bernard Berenson, and he was heavily involved in the donation of both properties to Harvard and related negotiations. He was also a member of the committee formed at Harvard in 1922 to consider the so-called "Jewish Problem." Harvard's then-President, A. Lawrence Lowell, had proposed a quota to restrict the admission of Jewish students to the University, and Sachs was one of three Jews on a thirteen member committee appointed by Harvard's Overseers to study the "problem." This committee rejected Lowell's proposed quota but agreed that "geographic diversity" in the student body was desirable; the resulting geographic distribution requirements for incoming students effectively lowered and limited the percentage of Jews granted admission to Harvard. Sachs received letters from many individuals about the committee and its task, including: Judge Julian Mack, Amy Loveman, President Lowell, George Sarton, Alfred Hamill, Walter Pollack, Julius Rosenwald, Julius Sachs, Herbert Lehman, Paul Warburg and Maurice Wertheim.

Sachs was actively involved in many professional organizations. He served as President of the American Association of Museums and of the Harvard-Princeton Fine Arts Club. He also served as vice-president of the College Art Association and as delegate to the International Congress of the History of Art. Collaboration between Harvard and Princeton resulted in the publication Art Studies: Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern from 1923 to 1931; it was edited by Belle da Costa Greene, and the collection contains much correspondence about this joint publication. There is also significant material about Sachs' role as a founding member of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), including correspondence with members of its board and with its first director, Alfred Barr, Jr., who was hired upon Sachs' recommendation. The papers also include correspondence related to Sachs' involvement with the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.

In addition to letters to and from Sachs, the collection also includes correspondence between Meta Sachs and various individuals, as well as correspondence with the spouses and other family members of various correspondents. These letters are interspersed throughout the collection.