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Fairmount Park Art Association records
The Fairmount Park Art Association records span from 1872, when the association was formed, until 1972. The collection includes the association’s constitution, meeting minutes, correspondence, committee files, reports, financial records, contracts, membership records, photographs, scrapbooks, essay...
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| Corporate Author: | |
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| Collection: | Fairmount Park Art Association Records |
| Collection Number: | 2045 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects and Genres: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
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| Item Description: |
Processing Information: The creation of the electronic guide for this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" Project.
Finding aid entered into the Archivists' Toolkit by Garrett Boos and Courtney Smerz. |
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| Physical Description: |
84.0 Linear feet |
| Access: |
This collection is open for research use. |
| Summary: |
The Fairmount Park Art Association records span from 1872, when the association was formed, until 1972. The collection includes the association’s constitution, meeting minutes, correspondence, committee files, reports, financial records, contracts, membership records, photographs, scrapbooks, essay drafts, and printed materials. There are also files about special exhibitions and many of the sculptures, historic sites, and artists represented in Fairmount Park, and other items.
The collection’s arrangement was established either before or shortly after it was deposited with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1975. At that time, the records were organized into nineteen groups, which have now been formalized into numbered series, as detailed below. There is a significant amount of overlap between the series. For example, there is a specific series titled Photographs but there are also photographs spread throughout the collection.
List of series:
1. Artists - biographies of the artists with whom the association worked to put their work on display, arranged alphabetically (Boxes 1-19)
2. Books [including non-printed volumes] and other printed materials - pamphlets and clippings relating to different works of art, letter press books, minute books, and scrapbooks (Boxes 20-39)
3. Draft Essays for Sculpture of a City (Box 40)
4. Financial Records - arranged chronologically (Boxes 41-45a)
5. Fountain Competition and Correspondence (Box 46)
6. Philadelphia Fountain Society - arranged chronologically (Boxes 47-50)
7. General Correspondence - arranged chronologically (Boxes 51-52)
8. General Miscellaneous files (Boxes 53-67)
9. Historical sites and related files - arranged alphabetically (Boxes 68-69)
10. Letters concerning special exhibitions, etc. - chronologically arranged (Boxes 70-96)
11. Membership - arranged chronologically (Boxes 97-100)
12. Memorials - includes Ericcson, Price, and Shakespeare memorials, among others; arranged alphabetically (Boxes 101-110)
13. Receipts - arranged chronologically (Boxes 111-115)
14. Sculpture - mainly clippings, articles, photos (Box 116)
15. Sculpture exhibitions (Boxes 117-118)
16. Samuel Memorial:
a. General Files - arranged chronologically (Boxes 119-124)
b. Sculptors Associated with Samuel Memorial (Boxes 125-127)
17. Smith Memorial (Boxes 128-132)
18. Treasurer’s Office Files - includes monthly statements, information on different funds (Boxes 133-134)
19. Photographs - subdivided into Cities, General, and those used in Sculpture of a City (Boxes 136-150, Flat file 1 [contains two found, unidentified drawings]) The Fairmount Park Art Association (FPAA) was the United States' first private, nonprofit organization that worked to integrate public art and urban planning. Founded in 1872, the FPAA initially focused on enhancing Philadelphia's Fairmount Park by purchasing and commissioning sculpture, but by 1906 it had embraced a broader goal: "to promote and foster the beautiful in the City of Philadelphia, in its architecture, improvements and general plan." The FPAA supported city planning projects that incorporated outdoor sculpture and advocated the establishment of Philadelphia's Art Jury, which later became the Philadelphia Art Commission. In 2012, the Fairmount Park Art Association changed its name to the Association for Public Art. The Fairmount Park Art Association records span from 1872, when the association was formed, until 1972. The collection includes the association’s constitution, meeting minutes, correspondence, committee files, reports, financial records, contracts, membership records, photographs, scrapbooks, essay drafts, and printed materials. There are also files about special exhibitions and many of the sculptures, historic sites, and artists represented in Fairmount Park, and other items. |