William Rockhill Nelson Trust Office Records

The records of the William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 1933-1989, relate to its oversight of operations of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and, to an even greater extent, the management of the real estate properties and Sni-A-Bar Farm that were originally part of William Rockhill Nelson’s estate and additional properties purchased by the trust as investments. Includes correspondence with art advisors Langdon Warner and Harold Woodbury Parsons; museum staff Director Paul Gardner, Acting Director Ethlyne Jackson, Asian Art Curator and Director Laurence Sickman, and Acting Curator Lindsay Hughes; trust lawyer John Wilson; the University Presidents; among the University Trustees themselves; property manager E.L. Fleming, contractors, and builders, and renters; W.A. Cochel, manager of Sni A Bar farms; and the Kansas City Star Company. Also found are minutes, legal and financial files, real estate records, museum reports, and records related to Sni-A-Bar Farms and the sale of the Kansas City Star.

A group of unprocessed records is comprised of taxes, invoices, canceled checks, real estate records, bank statements vouchers, daily reports, working papers, payroll records, and "general correspondence," all grouped by year. Within "general correspondence" each year, the Trust Office largely created the same subject folders. Folders/topics/correspondents generally include the Nelson Gallery, University Presidents and University Trustees and Paul Gardner, Harold Woodbury Parsons, and Laurence Sickman (during the years they were active). Not all files under this heading are strictly correspondence, however, and minutes, real estate records, invoices, taxes, insurance, payroll, and inventories may also be found here.