Brooklyn Museum Archives

Abstract The Records of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences span from 1823-1983. This collection largely documents the administrative and financial decisions that helped to lead the Brooklyn cultural instituions under its umbrella organization. These institutions include the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children's Museum, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Material types include meeting minutes, correspondence, financial ledgers, scrapbooks, publications, annual reports,...

Scope and Contents

The Brooklyn Museum Artifacts collection largely contains awards and honors given to the museum and museums taff. The collection contains medals, plaques and paper awards. Also of note are printing blocks from Museum publications, commemorative coins from Israel given to the museum in 1969, and a flagpole donated by the Grand Army of the Republic.

Scope and Contents This artifical collection contains information on Brooklyn Museum staff events, activities, and demonstrations outside of work, or loosely related to work. It continues to expand and grow. Of special interest is the 1936 newsletter and press release that were created by the Communist Party Unit of the Brooklyn Museum which advocated for the Museum to pay for guards uniforms, as well as for staff to join anti-war and anti-fascist organizations. The newsletter was called Museum...

Abstract

The Brooklyn Museum Ephemera collection contains ephemera created by and about the Brooklyn Museum from 1895-2023. Records from this collection mainly include paper items, such as: advertisements, informational brochures, exhibit announcements, museum maps, as well as objects from the Museum’s gift shop. This collection traces the development of the Museum as a cultural institution and active participant in the Brooklyn community.

Abstract

The Chief Curator records consist of the files and records documenting the activities of the Chief Curators of the Brooklyn Museum between 1969 and 2002. Types of documents include: correspondence, inner office memos, exhibition planning, collection policies, and meeting minutes.

Abstract

This is an artificial collection that aims to document materials created by people/organizations outside of the Brooklyn Museum, but is about the Brooklyn Museum. It was largely created through anonymous donations of protest materials, that didn't have a specific place in the Brooklyn Museum Archives. This collection will likely grow to include other materials and it is not solely focused on protest materials.

Abstract The Stewart Culin Archival Collection documents the life and work of ethnologist and museum curator Stewart Culin (1858-1929); his role in developing the collections of the Department of Ethnology at the Brooklyn Museum; his efforts to present the collections to the public through exhibitions, installations, and public program; and his research on Native American, Asian, and Eastern European cultures. The materials found here are a composite of both personal papers and institutional records,...