Grant Period: July 2014–December 2016

This grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), awarded through its Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program, enables the Getty Research Institute to accelerate processing and partial digitization of the Knoedler Gallery Archive.

The Knoedler Archive is one of the most important resources for research and scholarship on the evolution of the American art market and the formation of the great American museums. Consisting of nearly 3,043 linear feet of the firm's records, it documents the business of one of the country's oldest galleries from the mid-19th century to 1971, and traces shifting American tastes and the changing role of art in American society. In addition to its art-historical significance, the archive provides critical insight into broader economic, social, and cultural histories and into the nation's evolving sense of place in the world.

The archive includes stock books, sales books and commission books; correspondence with collectors, artists, art dealers, and other associates; photographs of the artworks sold by the gallery; records from the firm's offices in London, Paris, and other cities; exhibition files; framing and restoration records, and records of the firm's Print Department. As a result of this grant, the Research Institute was able to rehouse, preserve, and partially digitize the archive, as well as develop an online finding aid and make the archival materials freely available to scholars and the general public through numerous points of access, including this website.