In 2008, members of the Print Council of America (PCA) began interviewing their senior colleagues to document a history of the professions of North American graphic arts curators, conservators, and scholars. The oral histories preserve these individuals’ life stories, their contributions to the field, and their perceptions of their field and how it has changed over the course of their careers.
Below is a selection of some of these interviews. Transcripts are added as they are completed. Hard copies of the transcripts and the audio files are held at the Archives of American Art, where they are available for research.
Louise Richards (1920–2013) retired in 1986 as Chief Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), where she had served as a curator for thirty-four years. The interview was conducted by Jane Glaubinger, Curator of Prints at the CMA, on April 13, 2008, at Kendal at Oberlin, a retirement community in Oberlin, Ohio.
Richards speaks about her undergraduate studies with F. Champion Ward at Denison University in Granville, Ohio; working on her MA in art history at Oberlin College during World War II, when the Morgan Library’s collection of Rembrandt’s prints was sent to the college for safekeeping; studying with Clarence Ward and Wolfgang Stechow; befriending Elaine (Evans) Dee; working for Hazel King at Oberlin’s Allen Memorial Art Museum; and spending a winter in Boston examining prints at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. At the CMA, Richards worked with Henry Sayles Francis, Sherman Lee, and Leona Prasse and enriched the collection with old master and modern works. She describes how museums have changed over the decades and reflects on the PCA’s early years. Richards was elected a member of the PCA in 1967.
Download the interview with Louise RichardsSue Welsh Reed (born 1936) is Curator Emerita of Prints and Drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, where she worked for forty-six years, and was president of the PCA from 1981 to 1985. The interview was conducted by Aprile Gallant, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at Smith College Museum of Art, on July 24, 2008, at the MFA.
Reed talks about briefly working at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art before being hired in the Print and Drawing Department at the MFA with an undergraduate degree from Smith College (1958), where Professor David Huntington was a formative influence, and about her MA studies at Harvard University (1965). She describes her mentors at the MFA, her collaborative projects with Barbara Shapiro and others, her relationships with collectors, and her scholarly exhibitions and publications, which covered topics ranging from Italian and French prints to American drawings and watercolors. Reed, who retired in 2006, recalls the many prominent women who were heads of print and drawing departments as she entered the field and the early days of the PCA.
Download the interview with Sue Welsh ReedRoy Perkinson (born 1940) is Emeritus Head of Paper Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, where he worked from 1967 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2006. The interview was conducted by Joan Wright, the Bettina Burr Conservator at the MFA, on May 11, 2009, at the MFA.
Perkinson describes art-related experiences from his childhood in Texas and the multifaceted path he took to the field of art conservation. He recalls working at a frame shop while attending art school in Dallas, formative experiences that led to a fascination with art materials and techniques. He describes his studies and mentors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SB, physics and philosophy; Irving Singer) and at Boston University (MA, art history; Samuel Edgerton), reviews his beginnings in the MFA’s Conservation Department as an assistant to Francis Dolloff, and recounts his 1973–76 tenure at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where he established a paper lab. Among the topics covered are the rise of interest in conservation as a discipline, the importance of curatorial collaboration, the rewards of mentoring students, and his philosophy of conservation. Perkinson also reflects on being a practicing artist in retirement.
Download the interview with Roy PerkinsonElizabeth E. Roth (1919–2023) was Keeper of Prints, Rare Books, and the Spencer Collection at the New York Public Library from the 1940s until her retirement in 1981. The interview was conducted by Richard S. Field, retired Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs and Associate Director of Yale University Art Gallery, on June 15, 2009, in Zurich, Switzerland.
Roth, who was born in New York City and raised in Zurich, discusses her parents and the crucial intellectual example they set. She describes her schooling in Switzerland and her return to the United States, where she served as an au pair on the East Coast before obtaining a library degree from the University of Minnesota during World War II. This led to a position at the New York Public Library, initially as a children’s book librarian. In 1947, a facility for languages helped land Roth a job with the Print Department headed by Karl Kup. She recalls her associations with Kup (whom she replaced upon his retirement in 1968) and his predecessor, Frank Weitenkampf, as well as her experiences familiarizing herself with the department’s collections of prints, illustrated books, and reference materials. She discusses the demands of serving the public users of the Print Department by answering reference questions and helping to identify privately owned prints, the thematic exhibitions organized by her department, and her desire to create balanced holdings through select acquisitions.
Download the interview with Elizabeth E. Roth