Personal correspondence and biographical material, 1895-1939

The George Grey Barnard Papers are comprised primarily of correspondence and financial and business records documenting Barnard’s collecting and creation of art. The collection includes a significant amount of personal correspondence, biographical information, and family financial records as well.

The records of his collecting are notable in that they reveal a side of museums mostly unknown to people: how they acquired what they have. Barnard corresponded with museums, often desperately trying to sell his sculpture and his collections. The records of his Cloister Collections, one of which found a home at the Metropolitan Museum's Cloisters and the other at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, provides a rich background to two current museum treasures.

In debt most of his life, Barnard was often scurrying to avoid creditors and bankers. His personality, fame as an artist, and influential friends rescued him in times of difficulty, as is evidenced in his financial papers and his personal and business correspondence.

Of particular note are the “Correspondence,” “Sculpture,” and “The Cloisters/Collections” series. These series contain business related letters, agreements, and photographs related to Barnard’s art purchase, collecting, and sculpture. There are many letters with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Washington Cathedral. The “Sculpture” series comprises of correspondence, photographs, sketches, financial records regarding Barnard's Lincoln statue, Rainbow Arch, and Harrisburg capitol works. Barnard’s correspondence when creating the Lincoln statue with his patrons, his casting foundry, and his models provide insight to the intricacies of sculpture production. “The Cloisters/Collections” series includes inventories of the objects in Barnard's cloisters collections, correspondence with prospective purchasers, descriptions of the objects, and correspondence regarding the Abbaye exhibitions of 1937 and 1940. The later series document the more personal side of Barnard. Particularly, the “Work Miscellany” series includes notes, memos and writings that reflect Barnard's daily routine and thought processes. Additional descriptive information can be found within the series and sub-series notes.