Agency history, 1971-

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Subject

  • Brooke, Anna
  • McCabe, Cynthia Jaffee
  • Protka, Jacqueline
  • Hirshhorn, Joseph H
  • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library
  • Smithsonian Institution Libraries Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library
  • Smithsonian Libraries Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library
  • Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library

Category

Agency History

Notes

  • This is an agency history. It does not describe actual records. The Smithsonian Institution Archives uses these histories as brief accounts of the origin, development, and functions of an office or administrative unit to set that unit in its historical context. To find information on record holdings, please double-click the highlighted field "Creator/Author", which will open on a brief view of relevant records.
  • Guide to the Smithsonian Archives, 1996
  • http://www.si.edu/hirshhorn/start.htm, 03/16/2000
  • E-mail from Anna Brooke to Mike Willens, 03/17/2000
  • Smithsonian Libraries, Staff, Jacqueline Protka, https://library.si.edu/staff/jacqueline-protka, accessed September 9, 2021.
  • Smithsonian Libraries, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library, https://library.si.edu/libraries/hirshhorn, accessed May 26, 2023
  • Email, "Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Executive Leadership Team Updates," September 23, 2022.
  • The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library Research Center supports the museum's exhibition program and the permanent collection research, by acquiring, cataloging, and presenting the materials to researchers. The emphasis of the collections is international modern and contemporary art. The library research center houses more than 60,000 monographs, exhibition catalogs, catalogues raisonnés, serials, artists' books, and 2,000 files of ephemeral materials. The collections cover the documentation and interpretation of major international participants, events, trends, and critical discourse of modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, film, installation, performance, and emerging art forms from 1880 to the present. The onsite collection particularly focuses on artists in the Hirshhorn's collection and on artists featured in the museum's exhibition program.
  • Originally founded in 1971 as part of Joseph H. Hirshhorn's private collection, the library collection moved to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden after the opening of the museum in 1974. In 2000 the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library came under the administration of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, later known as the Smithsonian Libraries. In 2020, after the merger of the Smithsonian Libraries and the Smithsonian Institution Archives, it became part of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. In 2022, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives renamed their libraries as library research centers.
  • The library was formally opened in April 1971 when Anna Brooke was hired as Librarian. She served as Librarian, 1971-2016. Prior to the formal Library opening, much of the work was handled by Cynthia Jaffee McCabe in the curator's Office. The current Librarian is Jacqueline Protka, 2016- .
  • For a history of the larger creating unit, refer to "Forms part of above."

Repository Loc.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Capital Gallery, Suite 3000, MRC 507; 600 Maryland Avenue, SW; Washington, DC 20024-2520

Date

  • 1971
  • 1971-

Topic

  • Museum libraries
  • Art
  • Art museums
  • Art libraries
  • Librarians
  • Art, Modern

Form/Genre

Mixed archival materials

Local number

SIA AH00180

Full Record

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