Robert Lehman Papers
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Robert Lehman papers Finding aid prepared by Larry Weimer The Robert Lehman Collection Archival Project was generously funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc. This finding aid was generated using Archivists' Toolkit on September 24, 2014 Robert Lehman Collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue New York, NY, 10028 [email protected] Robert Lehman papers Table of Contents Summary Information .......................................................................................................3 Biographical/Historical note................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents note...................................................................................................34 Arrangement note.............................................................................................................. 36 Administrative Information ............................................................................................ 37 Related Materials ............................................................................................................ 39 Controlled Access Headings............................................................................................. 41 Bibliography...................................................................................................................... 40 Collection Inventory..........................................................................................................43 Series I. General Correspondence and Related Material............................................ 43 Series II. Invoices and Receipts................................................................................269 Series III. Exhibitions................................................................................................300 Series IV. Townhouse Art Installation and Events...................................................308 Series V. Object Files............................................................................................... 319 Series VI. Insurance and Inventories........................................................................ 511 Series VII. Interim Collection Administration Records............................................517 Series VIII. Print Matter........................................................................................... 521 Series IX. Film.......................................................................................................... 524 Series X. Memorabilia...............................................................................................526 - Page 2 - Robert Lehman papers Summary Information Repository Robert Lehman Collection Title Robert Lehman papers Dates ca. 1880s-1977 Extent 97.3 Linear feet in approximately 174 boxes of various sizes and 10 reels of film. About 150 of the boxes are standard letter-size document boxes. Language Principally in English, but substantial amounts in French, Italian, and German. Abstract The Robert Lehman papers primarily include the records related to the collecting of art by financier Robert Lehman (1891-1969) and his father, Philip (1861-1947), both of New York City. For almost sixty years, first Philip and then Robert built a collection that included among other objects, the 2,600 works that were donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art after Robert’s death in 1969. Documenting the acquisition and cultivation of the collection, the Robert Lehman papers includes correspondence, invoices, insurance records, object descriptions, and photographs, among other formats. The papers also include photographs, memorabilia, and other materials regarding the Lehman family, Robert’s military service and travels, etc. There is little material regarding the Lehman Brothers firm. Preferred Citation note [Title of item], [date], Box [number], Folder [number], Robert Lehman papers, Robert Lehman Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. - Page 3 - Robert Lehman papers Biographical/Historical note The Robert Lehman Collection On May 27, 1975, the newly-constructed Robert Lehman Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City opened to the public. The wing had been erected specifically to house and to display the Robert Lehman Collection, a collection of 2,600 works including paintings, drawings, manuscript illuminations, sculpture, glass, textiles, antique frames, majolica, enamels, and precious jeweled objects. The approximately three hundred paintings are particularly rich in the field of the Italian Renaissance, notably the Sienese school, as well as early Northern European works. Included in the 750 drawings ranging from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries is a significant group of eighteenth- century Venetian works, as well as other distinguished Italian, French, and Northern European examples. The collection is also renowned in several areas of decorative arts: Renaissance majolica, Venetian glass, and antique frames. The collection had been formed over the course of almost sixty years by two men who earned their wealth in the world of finance: Philip Lehman (1861-1947) and his son, Robert (1891-1969), both of the Lehman Brothers firm. At the time of his death in August 1969, Robert, who was Chairman of the Board and a longtime trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, had been in discussion with the Museum regarding building design proposals to house the collection, in anticipation of a donation. At his death, the greater part of Lehman’s collection was bequeathed to the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc., a philanthropic organization he had formed in 1943. The Foundation continued Lehman’s discussions with the Museum, leading to the announcement in September 1969 that the collection would be transferred to the Metropolitan with the stipulation that it be exhibited together as a collection, a condition satisfied with the completion of the Lehman wing in 1975. Set in galleries intended to evoke the ambience of private interiors and, in some instances, recreate the Lehman family residence, the Lehman Collection provides an example of twentieth-century American collecting. With the donation of the art collection, the Metropolitan also received the extensive records that Philip, Robert, and the various staff members they employed created and maintained over the decades in connection with the collection. It is these archival documents, now referred to as the Robert Lehman papers, that are the subject of this finding aid and that are described in it. The following biographical and historical sketch, while not comprehensive in scope, is intended to provide useful context and background information for researchers considering the use of these papers. Early Lehman Family History The Lehman family traces its roots to Bavaria and the birth of Abraham Lehman in 1778. Settling in the town of Rimpar, Abraham married Harriet Rosenheim and had several children, including the three sons Henry, Emanuel, and Mayer. In 1844, Henry emigrated to the United States, where he settled in Montgomery, Alabama, and started - Page 4 - Robert Lehman papers a dry goods business. In 1847, Emanuel left Bavaria, joining Henry in Montgomery. Shortly afterward, the third brother, Mayer, also came to America, and by 1850, the three brothers were together in business in Montgomery, forming the Lehman Brothers enterprise that would last into the early twenty-first century. During the 1850s, the Lehman brothers expanded their business into cotton brokerage, and, in 1858, Emanuel moved to New York City, establishing an office there, at 119 Liberty Street in lower Manhattan. Emanuel also started a family in New York, marrying Pauline Sondheim in May 1859. But there were setbacks. In 1855, the eldest brother, Henry, died. And the start of the Civil War in 1861 disrupted the business and the lives of the two surviving brothers, who supported the Confederacy. Emanuel left New York, possibly to join the Confederate Army, leaving his wife in the city, where their son, Philip, was born on November 9, 1861. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Emanuel returned to New York. Joined there by Mayer, the two brothers rebuilt the Lehman Brothers business, expanding it over the coming decades from cotton brokerage to a broader range of commodities trading. In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, the firm would expand further, into securities brokerage and merchant banking. By this time, Emanuel’s son, Philip, had joined the family firm in 1882, becoming a partner in 1887. In 1897, Mayer Lehman, the second of the founding Lehman brothers, died. Philip Lehman Philip Lehman married Carrie Lauer, daughter of Emanuel and Nannie (née Simon) Lauer, in New York in 1885, just a few years after joining Lehman Brothers. The Lauers were originally from Cincinnati, arriving in New York sometime in the 1860s or 1870s, with Emanuel succeeding in a clothing business. Philip and Carrie would have two children: Pauline, born about 1887, and Robert, born on September 29, 1891. In 1899-1900, Philip had a new residence built for his family at 7 West 54th Street, designed by prominent architect John H. Duncan. Among Philip’s neighbors were John D. Rockefeller and his family, across the street at 10 West 54th. (The Lehman house still stands, although no longer in the family, and was designated a Landmark by New York City in 1981.) At the beginning of the twentieth century, Lehman Brothers continued to do well as it also changed. The firm increasingly