Oral history interview with John Davis Hatch
name: label: Interviewee
content: Hatch, John Davis
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Albany Institute of History and Art
label: Names
content: American Artists Depository
label: Names
content: American Federation of Arts
label: Names
content: Berkshire Museum
label: Names
content: Gallery of Fine Arts (Seattle, Wash.)
label: Names
content: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
label: Names
content: Museum Directors Association
label: Names
content: Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences (Va.)
label: Names
content: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
label: Names
content: Bluemner, Oscar, 1867-1938
label: Names
content: Bruce, Edward, 1879-1943
label: Names
content: Callahan, Kenneth, 1905-1986
label: Names
content: Carr, Emily, 1871-1945
label: Names
content: De Creeft, José, 1884-1982
label: Names
content: De Forest, Lockwood, 1850-1932
label: Names
content: Du Pont, Henry Francis, 1880-1969
label: Names
content: Durchanek, Ludvik, 1902-
label: Names
content: Fairbanks, Avard T. (Avard Tennyson), 1897-1987
label: Names
content: Hills, Laura Coombs, 1859-1952
label: Names
content: Montgomery, Charles Franklin, 1910-
label: Names
content: Morris, Carl, 1911-1993
label: Names
content: Pratt, Dudley, 1897-1975
label: Names
content: Price, C. S. (Clayton S.), 1874-1950
label: Names
content: Tobey, Mark
label: Names
content: Varley, Frederick Horsman
label: Names
content: Wharf, John
label: Names
content: Woodbury, Charles H. (Charles Herbert), 1864-1940
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Art, American
label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Museum directors -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These interviews are part of the Archives' 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 others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Hatch, John Davis
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: John Hatch (1907-1996) was an art historian, collector, art consultant, and museum director.
function: label: Function
content: Museums -- United States
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 6 Sound tape reels (Sound recording, 5 in.)
label: Extent
content: 307 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1979 Aug. 30-1980 Nov. 7
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.hatch79
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound tape reels
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of John Davis Hatch conducted 1979 Aug. 30- 1980 Nov. 7, by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Hatch recalls his childhood in California and training as a landscape architect, including an apprenticeship with Lockwood de Forest. He discusses his appointment as director of the Gallery of Fine Arts in Seattle at age 21 and his efforts there to develop an Asian focus for the museum and cultivate artists of the region, including Mark Tobey, Dudley Pratt, Kenneth Callahan, Emily Carr, Jose de Creeft, Frederick Varley, and Avard Fairbanks. He describes his interest in studying museums across the country and abroad and the roles played in the museum scene by the American Federation of Arts and the Museum Directors Association.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Hatch recalls his work as assistant director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and as director of government art projects in New England in the 1930s, when he worked with Edward Bruce, Oscar Bluemner, Charles Woodbury, John Wharf, and Laura Coombs Hills, among others. He describes an attempt to form the American Artists Depository, a precursor to the Archives of American Art, and his activities collecting American drawings, organizing travelling exhibitions, and promoting American art history as a discipline.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Hatch speaks of his tenure as director of the Albany Institute of History and Art and his efforts to advance an appreciation of local Dutch history and the work of Thomas Cole. He remembers encounters with Henry Francis Du Pont and Charles Franklin Montgomery. Hatch describes the start of his teaching career in Oregon and his involvement with local artists C.S. Price, Carl Morris, and Ludvik Durchanek. He talks about a stint as director of the Norfolk (Va.) Museum of Arts and Sciences and his work as a consultant to museums, especially as it pertained to the development of arts programs at black colleges in the South.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Hatch concludes with a discussion of museums near his home in Lenox, including the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the Berkshire Museum.