Museums, between 1953-1985

Records generated by the Director's Office of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts (now the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) during the tenure of Laurence Sickman (1953-1977), the second director of the museum. The materials primarily include correspondence with trustees, donors, art dealers, members of the public, and other museum professionals relating to museum administration, activities, collections, community relations, exhibitions, and acquisitions, and the greater world of art and art institutions. Subject files include correspondence, reports, printed materials, and other materials that deal with topics similar to the correspondence series described above, as well as museum expansion and galleries, publicity, the Friends of Art, gifts and bequests, objects offered, and Sickman’s participation in the Association of Art Museum Directors and other professional groups, among other subjects. Exhibition files document selected shows during his tenure, with the bulk related to the Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China held at the Nelson-Atkins in 1975. Files from the museum’s 50th anniversary in 1983 comprise correspondence, publicity, planning documents, ephemera, and other documents. Finally, some of Sickman’s personal files primarily include correspondence; there is often overlap with his professional correspondents and pursuits. Also found intermittently are records reflecting his tenures as Curator of Oriental Art (1935-1978), Assistant Director (1946-1953), and Director Emeritus (1977-1988).