Allen Memorial Art Museum Records

The interest of Oberlin College's faculty and students in art dates almost from the founding of the college. Oberlin's first art class was "a course in linear drawing for young ladies in the Junior Class of the Preparatory College" offered in 1836 (Laurine Bongiorno, "The Fine Arts in Oberlin, 1836-1918," AMAM Bulletin, Spring 1958, p. 101). Despite this early interest in art, Oberlin did not develop a significant collection until the death of Clevelander Charles Olney in 1904. Olney, a public school teacher, founder of the New York Teachers Association, and Vice President of the Cleveland School of Art, died in 1904 and bequeathed his paintings, ivories, and bronzes to the college because of "Oberlin's highest ideals in human character." The collection was stored in Cleveland for a year, and then moved to the third floor of Carnegie Library, with Warner Gymnasium and Rice Hall providing additional exhibit space. Olney's "heterogeneous accumulation of paintings, objets d'art, and curios" came without restrictions; therefore, only the better works were kept.  The remainder was sold over a period of several decades, "the funds so obtained being used to purchase objects of superior quality to which the name of Olney is attached" (Bongiorno, p. 114).

Within a decade, Olney's bequest was followed by two other major acquisitions. In 1912, Charles L. Freer of Detroit personally selected 100 Japanese and Chinese works of art from his private collection and gave them to Oberlin. Charles Martin Hall's 1915 bequest included a large collection of oriental rugs and fine porcelain. With those three major gifts and bequests, the makeshift storage and exhibition space at the college proved inadequate and the need for an art museum became increasingly apparent. This need was finally met when the Dudley Peter Allen Memorial Art Museum was dedicated on June 12, 1917. Dr. Dudley Peter and Elizabeth Severance Allen were the principal benefactors behind the new museum, which was designed by renowned architect Cass Gilbert. Dr. Allen worked with Gilbert on the plans until his death in 1915; his widow saw the project to completion. In addition to the building, Allen's will included a $100,000 endowment for the Adelia A. Field Johnston Professorship in Fine Arts.

The role of the new Art Museum at Oberlin College was three-fold: it provided adequate exhibition space, a library of books and slides for the students and faculty of the Fine Arts Department, and classroom and studio space. While the museum served, in effect, as a "laboratory" for the art department, it also provided adult education and instruction of children for the communities of Oberlin and Lorain County.

Both the Museum and the Art Department grew rapidly in programming and enrollment in the decade following the opening of the new building. By the mid-1930s, they were cramped for storage and exhibit space, classrooms, and studios. Elizabeth Severance Allen had married Francis Fleury Prentiss, but continued the support for the museum that she and Dr. Allen had begun. In 1937, Mrs. Prentiss gave $100,000 for an addition to the Museum. The new wing was designed by Clarence Ward, Director of the Art Museum and Chairman of the Art Department. It housed painting, printmaking, and silk-screen studios, a lecture hall, two classrooms, and administrative offices.

The expansion of the Art Museum was seen by Curator Hazel B. King as an appropriate time to follow the example of other major college and university museums (Harvard, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, and Wellesley) by establishing a voluntary society known as the Oberlin Friends of Art. In 1938, the organization had 50 members; by 1964 that number had grown to 700, and as of 1989, membership stood at 475. Revenue from member dues was used to purchase works of art selected and approved in meetings of the membership. The first purchase was Dancers, a drawing by Edgar Degas; subsequent purchases have included works by such major artists as Durer, Gorky, and De Kooning. An exhibition of paintings from college and university art museums and galleries celebrated both the dedication of the new wing and the founding of the Friends of Art.

Until the early 1940s, the Art Museum had depended upon relatively small gifts and bequests of individual donors and the Friends of Art for adding new works to the collection and supporting exhibits. In 1940, however, R. T. Miller, Jr., '91, gave $25,000 for the purchase of works of art. He continued making annual gifts for purchases until his death in 1958. By 1958, Miller's gifts to Oberlin totaled nearly $1 million, about half of which went to the Allen Art Museum. In January 1944, Elizabeth Severance Allen Prentiss died, leaving a trust fund of more than $434,000 to the Allen Art Museum.

Mr. Miller's gifts and Mrs. Prentiss's bequest enabled the Art Museum to begin systematically selecting and purchasing works of art from its own funds for the first time. According to Wolfgang Stechow, Professor of Art, an acquisitions policy was developed at about that time: "In accordance with the specific set-up of our art department, it was decided to consider the needs of practical as well as historical art instruction and to offer our students as complete a survey of the art production of the past and the present as possible, with respect to task, technique, epoch, and country...[Only] characteristic and well-preserved works of really good masters should be allowed to enter the collection." ("Oberlin Art Collection Grows in Importance," Alumni Magazine, January 1944, p. 9).

A Committee on the Purchase and Sale of Art Objects was established within the Prudential Committee in 1940 to implement the acquisitions policy and to oversee expenditure of Mr. Miller's gifts, as well as other gifts and endowments that subsequently became available.

During the period from 1940 to the mid-1970's, the Allen Art Museum emerged as one of the finest college art museums in the country. Among the many special programs offered by or associated with the museum, two in particular stand out for their uniqueness. In 1940, art librarian and instructor Ellen Johnson developed an "art rental" program in the belief that living with art is an essential means of developing critical judgment. The program allowed students and townspeople to rent works of art each semester for a nominal fee. At first, the rental collection contained only reproductions.  The collection now consists of more than 300 original works of art, including works by Picasso, Matisse, and Chagall. In 1952, the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) was founded as the nation's first cooperative art conservation laboratory.  Although the ICA has, since its inception, been housed on the campus of Oberlin College, the ICA has never been owned or operated by the college. An independent alliance of eighteen museums in seven states, of which Oberlin is a founding member, the ICA provides conservation services and historical and technical information to its members.

Allen Memorial Art Museum has traditionally taken an active role in promoting contemporary art.  In 1951, the museum initiated a biennial exhibition entitled "Young Americans" to showcase major contemporary American artists. In 1982, the Ruth Coates Roush Fund for Contemporary Art was established by the Buckeye Trust and has been used primarily to underwrite the biennial "Young Americans" show, produce related publications, and purchase works of art for the museum from that show. The Buckeye Trust was established through the estate of Ruth Coates Roush, a fine arts major in the Class of 1934 who anonymously gave large amounts of money to the Art Museum from 1965 until her death in 1979.

By the early 1970s, the Allen Art Museum was once again badly in need of space and a fundraising drive was underway for the construction of a new wing. In 1975, a benefit auction in honor of Ellen Johnson was held at Castelli and Sonabend Galleries in New York City. The exhibit/auction, organized by museum director Richard Spear, raised enough money to break ground on the new addition. Ruth Roush and her husband Galen, co-founder of Roadway Express, then gave $1.7 million toward the construction project, along with 113 works of contemporary art, including Oldenburg's "Giant Three-way Plug." The new wing, designed by Robert Venturi, was dedicated on January 14, 1977. It increased the museum's exhibit space by fifty percent, adding the Ruth Coates Roush Gallery for the display of modern art and the Clarence V. Ward Art Library.

When M. Kirby Talley, Jr., was appointed director of the Allen Art Museum in 1984, he was the first full-time director. (In the early decades of the Art Museum, the director also served on the faculty of the Art Department.) Talley remained at Oberlin for less than a year. He was succeeded by William J. Chiego in August 1985. As director, Chiego had overall responsibility for planning and implementing exhibits, developing educational programs, recommending purchases to the Collections Committee, meeting with potential donors, developing close ties with other cultural organizations in the region, and soliciting grant support for museum programming. Under Chiego, the Museum staff was expanded, and included a chief curator, curator of modern art, curator of education, registrar, preparator, special events coordinator, museum security supervisor, an administrative assistant, two graduate interns, and a varying number of student assistants.

During the first four years of Chiego's tenure (1985-89), museum attendance grew on average 20% to 30% annually. Grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other agencies increased considerably. A docent program was initiated in 1985-86 allowing volunteers to participate in a three-hour training session and devote from three to fifteen hours per month to conducting tours, greeting visitors, and participating in discussions with art specialists and faculty members.

In 1987, two committees were established which marked the beginning of a new period in the administration of the Allen Art Museum.  The Collections Committee was formed to replace the Committee on the Purchase and Sale of Art Objects that had existed, at least in name, since 1940. Committee members are invited to serve by the president on the recommendation of the museum director, with a trustee and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences serving ex officio. Other members are curators and art museum professionals from outside the college with specialties in a variety of fields. The Collections Committee role is to review and comment on proposed art purchases and collection management policies. In addition to the Collections Committee, a Visiting Committee composed of "distinguished men and women from the world of visual art" acts in an advisory capacity to the museum director and the president on matters of policy and long-range planning (Annual Report of the President, 1986-87).

In 1991 William J. Chiego resigned as Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum.  He was succeeded by Anne Moore as acting director. Moore was named Director in May 1992, becoming the first woman to hold the Director's post. Moore was followed by three directors, all women.  See the list of directors below.

Directors

Clarence Ward, 1917-1949; Acting 1952-1953

Charles Percy Parkhurst, 1949-1962

John Spencer, Acting 1962-1963; 1963-1971

Richard Spear, Acting 1971; 1972-1983

Chloe H. Young, Acting 1977-1978,1980

William Olander, Acting 1983-1984

M. Kirby Talley, Jr., 1984-1985

Kimberlie Gumz Fixx, Acting 1985

William J. Chiego, 1986-1991

Anne Moore, Acting 1991-92; May 1992-December 1996

Marjorie E. Wieseman, Acting 1997-October 1998

Sharon Patton, October 1998-February 7, 2003

Katherine Solender, Acting February 1, 2003-June 30, 2004

Stephanie Wiles, July 1, 2004 - November 6, 2011

Katherine Solender, Acting November 7, 2011-June 14, 2012

Andria Derstine, June 15, 2012-November 30, 2023

Chief Curators

Hazel Barker King, 1928-1952

Chloe Hamilton Young, Acting 1952-1954; 1954-1984

Patricia Anne Rose, Acting 1959

Elizabeth Shepard, Acting 1983-1984

Larry Feinberg, 1986-1991

Sources on the History of Art at Oberlin

Artz, Frederick B. "The Renaissance of the Oberlin Art Museum." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, undated

Blodgett, Geoffrey. Oberlin Architecture, College and Town.  Oberlin College, 1985.

Bongiorno, Laurine. "The Fine Arts in Oberlin, 1836-1918." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin, Spring 1958, pp. 101-115.

Feigenbaum, Gail. "Benefit New York Auction Supports Art Museum Expansion." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, May/June 1975, pp.

Keeler, Harriet L. The Life of Adelia A. Field Johnston.  Cleveland, 1912.

King, Hazel B. "Alumna Leaves Chinese Art Treasures to College." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, March 1947, pp. 3-5.

King, Hazel B. "The Cause of Art is the Cause of the People." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, February 1929, pp. 135-36.

Parkhurst, Charles P. "Building a Museum." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, May 1962, pp. 8-13, 25.

Stechow, Wolfgang. "Oberlin Art Collection Grows in Importance." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, January 1944, pp. 9-10.

"Visiting Committees Established." Oberlin Observer, February 1987, pp. 1-2.

Ward, Clarence. "Addition to Art Building Completed." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, April 1938, pp. 2-5, 14.

Zerby, Eleanor. "Oberlin Friends of Art Contribute New Art  Treasures." Oberlin Alumni Magazine, May 1955, pp. 12-13.