Oral history interview with Richard McLanathan
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 52 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: McLanathan, Richard B. K.
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Choate School -- Students
label: Names
content: Harvard University -- Students
label: Names
content: Phillips Academy -- Students
label: Names
content: Forbes, Edward Waldo, 1873-1969
label: Names
content: McLanathan, Jane Fuller
label: Names
content: Pope, Arthur Upham, 1881-1969
label: Names
content: Porter, Arthur Kingsley, 1883-1933
label: Names
content: Post, Chandler Rathfon, 1881-1959
label: Names
content: Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph), 1878-1965
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- Maine -- Interviews
label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- Massachusetts
label: Occupation
content: Arts administrators -- Massachusetts
label: Occupation
content: Authors -- Massachusetts
label: Topic
content: Art, American
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Additional interview sessions are planned.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: McLanathan, Richard B. K.
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Richard B.K. McLanathan (1916-1998) was an art historian, administrator, and writer. McLanathan received a Ph.D from Harvard in 1951. Ass't Curator of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1946-1948, and Secretary, 1949-1956; Director, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, 1957-1962; Curator of the Art Exhibit of the American National Exhibition, Moscow, Russia, 1959; New York State Council on the Arts,1960-1964; Director, American Association for Museums, 1976-1978; author of numerous publications on art.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3 Items (Sound recording: 3 wav files (1 hr., 52 min.), digital)
label: Extent
content: 39 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1994 August 31
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.mclana94
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Interview of Richard B.K. McLanathan, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Phippsburg, Maine, on August 31, 1994.
label: Scope and Contents
content: McLanathan speaks of his parents and his childhood in Methuen, Massachusetts and then Andover, Massachusetts; the frequent presence of formidable aunts and uncles who entertained Episcopal bishops; attendance at a "dame school" there, then at classes given by a retired teacher at Phillips Academy, Andover; the trauma of one year at Phillips Academy with its large classes and severe teachers; the effects his father's ruin in the financial crash of 1929 had on his family; attendance at Choate (graduated 1934) and Harvard College (graduated 1938) on scholarships; his several years teaching in Manhattan at a small private school and marriage (1942) to Jane Fuller, a prominent designer of knitwear; his disqualification from the military because of flat feet and his teaching in night schools as a form of alternative service; and his matriculation (1943) as a graduate student in fine arts at Harvard. McLanathan also recalls Chandler Post, Arthur Pope, Paul Sachs, Edward Forbes, and Arthur Kingsley Porter, and others.