Rockefeller Center research. Clippings, 1933-1937, 1945-1951

Whether "The Golden Age of American Collecting" was Kimball's final choice for a book title is unclear. In a 1946 letter to Roger Butterfield, a writer for the Saturday Evening Post and Life Magazine, Kimball stated that he planned to write a book that would give the "full story of many matters" relating to art collections and museums. His tentative title was "The Art Racket," and he assumed it would be published posthumously. However, papers dated 1951 reveal his ideas for a work entitled "The Golden Age of American Collecting: 1900-1950." While the draft outline consists of various categories of art and their respective collectors and dealers, as well as museums and scholars, Kimball noted in the upper left corner that this scheme was "Boring--too encyclopedic," and that it would be best to "limit it to those [he] knew well." This sub-subseries begins with the fragmented documentation of the various titles, outlines and introductions Kimball considered as summation of his experiences with the art world. The remaining files consist of his draft writings and related research files of various individuals, institutions and topics. For some of his subjects, Kimball gathered a substantial amount of reference material, as exemplified by the files documenting Dr. Albert Barnes, his attacks of the Museum, and the foundation that oversaw his vast art collection. One of Kimball's lengthier manuscripts discusses the history of the Widener family collection and the legislation supposedly written to favor its disposition with the National Gallery. In regard to that museum, Kimball assembled numerous clippings about its founding. In addition to collectors, Kimball wrote about the art dealer Joseph Duveen, and several museums, including the Metropolitan. Several "chapters" chronicle specific events at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), such as "Exploiting the Depression," which describes the museum construction projects completed with WPA labor, and "The Struggle for Masterpieces," which details Kimball's pursuit of collectors such as Walter Annenberg. Finishing the sub-subseries are files of subjects for which Kimball assembled research material only.