Department of Prints and Drawings Records

In July of 1960, George McKenna, who had been the museum’s acting registrar since 1953, was appointed Assistant Curator of Prints. In his new role, McKenna surveyed the collection to facilitate better management and display and advocated for more space and resources to exhibit the works more regularly. In 1973, he became Associate Curator of Prints and was promoted to Curator of Prints in 1982. Upon accepting this new role, McKenna resigned from his duties as the museum’s registrar and was able to completely focus his efforts on the department as its new full-time curator. He worked to add to the collection and initiated a renewal of interest in the photography collections by organizing multiple exhibitions to support them. That same year, he launched the large-scale exhibition, Repeated Exposure: Photographic Imagery and the Print Media, which showcased prints that had been inspired by photographs.

During McKenna’s 36 years overseeing the department, it held over 237 exhibitions, many of which McKenna organized and which brought the department national attention. Some of these exhibitions included Ninety Prints by Henri Matisse: The Legend of Pasiphae (1983), Expressionism in the Graphic Arts (1986), Art by Chance: Fortuitous Impressions (1989), and Thirty Years of Print Purchases for the Permanent Collection (1989), the latter of which amassed a selection of prize acquisitions from the 156 impressions McKenna acquired for the museum between 1960 and 1989. In 1996, McKenna published a complete and fully-colored catalog of the museum’s print collections. He retired that same year but continued to work as a part-time consultant with the department.

McKenna, who died in 2007, was the first and only curator of prints in the museum's history.