Guides to Materials in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Records

This collection provides access to guides written for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Records. The materials that are described document the founding of the Clark in 1950; the administrative development of the institution; the Clark’s programs and exhibitions; and the general history and evolution of the museum. The collection continues to grow as institutional records are transferred to the Archives according to the Clark’s records retention policy. The Clark Archives and Records Management Program was founded in 2006 with the support of the Institute of Library and Museum Services, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Guides to Materials in the Sterling and Francine Clark Papers

This collection contains guides to materials in the Sterling and Francine Clark Papers. The papers document the lives of the Clark’s founders, especially Robert Sterling Clark’s interest in collecting art and breeding horses. The guides detail an archival collection containing diaries, correspondence, realia, financial records, and other items.

Through Shen-kan

Through Shen-Kan is the account of a 1908-09 expedition to the Shensi and Kansu provinces of northern China. The expedition was funded by Robert Sterling Clark, one of the heirs to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Clark was joined by the naturalist and writer, Arthur de Carle Sowerby, with whom he co-wrote the book. Published in 1912, the book recounts their journey, along with observations on geography, zoology, astronomy, geology, meteorology, and culture.

Turn the pages of Through Shen-Kan

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Exhibition Catalogs

This collection brings together digitized versions of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute’s earliest exhibition catalogs. Beginning in 1951 with a show of silver from the 16th through the 19th centuries, which took place at Williams College as the museum was under construction, the catalogs document the history of exhibitions at the Clark.

David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction

This collection documents the history of photomechanical printing from its development in 1826 through the perfection of three-color printing at the beginning of the twentieth century. All major intaglio, planotype, and relief printing methods are represented. The collection includes examples of virtually all categories of photographically-illustrated books, reports, accounts, treatises, catalogues, pamphlets, and ephemera. Pioneering firms and individual innovators are represented in equal numbers. While the subject matter is particularly rich in American material, numerous European examples, including Blanquart-Evrard's monumental survey of photography and photomechanical illustration, La photographie, ses origines, ses progres, ses transformations (1870) and the photolithographs of Simoneau and Toovey in Spa et ses environs (1863), round out the collection. The collection includes approximately 4500 digital images in 340 objects.

Lost Art - Masterpieces Destroyed in War

The Clark Photograph and Clippings Archive is a rich resource containing close to a million images that were used to teach and study art in the first part of the 20th century. The Lost Art collection draws on this archive to document works of art that were destroyed as a result of war and its aftermath. In many cases, the only documentation of these works are the black and white photographs and clippings in library and museum collections.

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library Exhibition Files

This collection contains records of displays held in the Clark library beginning in 2007. The library generally mounts thematic exhibitions based on its holdings four times a year. Recent displays have included works from Lapp Princess Press, early documents of the Pop Art movement, and images of the American West as seen by modern masters of photography.