Patricia Hills papers
name: label: Creator
content: Hills, Patricia
label: Names
content: Women's Caucus for Art
label: Names
content: Johnson, Eastman, 1824-1906
label: Names
content: Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000
label: Names
content: Neel, Alice, 1900-1984
label: Names
content: Sargent, John Singer, 1856-1925
label: Names
content: Stevens, May, 1924-2019
topic: label: Occupation
content: Educators -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Occupation
content: Museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: African American artists
label: Topic
content: Art, American -- 19th century
label: Topic
content: Art -- Political aspects
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women educators
label: Topic
content: Women art historians
label: Topic
content: Women museum curators
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated in 2006, 2018, 2019 and 2022 by Patricia Hills.
creator: label: Creator
content: Hills, Patricia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Patricia Hills papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of art historian, curator, and educator Patricia Hills measure 46.7 linear feet and 2.19 GB and date from circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Central to this collection are project files documenting professional work that resulted in lectures, publications, exhibitions, art history courses on numerous artists including Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, May Stevens, Rudolf Baranik, Eastman Johnson, and John Singer Sargent. These files and files documenting Hills's tenure at the Whitney Museum of American Art include planning documents, research files, correspondence, manuscripts and accompanying publications, as well as other printed materials. Some of this material is in digital format. The collection also contains correspondence with art historians, artists, curators, and others, notably Lawrence Alloway, Lowery Stokes Sims, Lucy R. Lippard, T.J. Clark, Leon Golub, and Donald Kuspit; professional files documenting grants and residencies awarded and consulting work; artist and subject files; other writings; and printed and digital material. Membership and affiliation records document Hills' service to the profession, including Women's Caucus for Art and the Visual Culture/Art History Caucus of the American Studies Association.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Patricia Hills (1936-) is an art historian, curator, and Professor Emerita of American Art and African American Art at Boston University. Hills obtained a B.A. from Stanford University in Modern European Literature, an M.A. from Hunter College in 1968, where she was advised by Leo Steinberg, and her PhD. from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Hills worked as Associate and later Adjunct Curator of 18th and 19th Century American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1972 until 1987. During that time she organized exhibitions including John Singer Sargent (1986) while progressively becoming more invested as an educator, with teaching positions at Hunter College and the Institute of Fine Arts. In February 2011 she received the Distinguished Teaching of Art History award from the College Art Association.

Hills served as the Director of the Boston University Art Gallery from 1980-1989, and began her tenure in the art history department as Associate Professor in 1978. She was co-founder of the Boston Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art and was highly active in the College Art Association and American Studies Association. She has held fellowships at numerous institutions including the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

As a principal author she is responsible for organizing a number of monograph and exhibition catalog publishing efforts including Painting Harlem Modern: The Art of Jacob Lawrence (2010), May Stevens (2005), Eastman Johnson:  Painting America (co-authored, 1999), John Singer Sargent (1986), Alice Neel (1983), Social Concern and Urban Realism: American Painting of the 1930s (1983), Turn-of-the-Century America: Paintings, Graphics, Photographs, 1890-1910 (1977), The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910 (1974), and The American Frontier: Images and Myths (1973).  In addition, Patricia Hills has authored numerous articles for art publications, served as reviewer for College Art Association's CAA Reviews, and has contributed greatly as a peer reviewer and editor. From 1990 to 1999, she served as series editor for six books in the Cambridge Studies in American Visual Culture series, published by Cambridge University Press.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 46.7 Linear Feet
label: Extent
content: 2.19 Gigabytes
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1900-2022
label: Date
content: bulk 1968-2009
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.hillspat
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Gigabytes
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 12 series.

Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1958-2019 (2.6 Linear Feet; Boxes 1-2, 25)

Series 2: Project Files, circa 1900-2011 (15.2 Linear Feet; Boxes 3-13, 25-30, 41-50, OV24, 2.11 GB; ER01-ER02, ER06-ER09)

Series 3: Whitney Museum Files, circa 1900-2015, bulk 1973-1987 (4.1 Linear Feet; Boxes 13-16, 30) 

Series 4: Boston University Files, circa 1974-2015 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 30-31)

Series 5: Professional Files, circa 1959-2019 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 17-18, 32)

Series 6: Membership and Affiliation Records, circa 1969-2013 (2 linear feet; Boxes 18-20, 32)

Series 7: Museum of Fine Arts Restructuring Files, circa 1997-2005 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 32-33)

Series 8: Writings, circa 1962-2019 (5.4 linear feet; Boxes 20-21, 34-38, 0.068 GB; ER03, ER05)

Series 9: Teaching Files, circa 1974-2019 (0.9 linear feet; Box 39)

Series 10: Artist Files, circa 1958-2014 (0.9 Linear Feet; Box 21)

Series 11: Subject Files, circa 1961-2007 (1.0 linear Feet; Box 22, 0.004 GB; ER04)

Series 12: Printed Material, circa 1970-2010 (1.0 linear Feet; Box 23)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Ryan Evans in 2018, with the 2019 addition processed in 2020, and the 2022 addition processed in 2023 by Ryan Evans. In 2020, the collection donated by Patricia Hills in 2006: Papers relating to the restructuring of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997-1999, was merged with her papers. Born-digital materials were processed by Kirsi Ritosalmi-Kisner in 2020 with funding provided by Smithsonian Collection Care and Preservation Fund. Additional born-digital materials from the 2022 addition were processed by Ryan Evans in 2022.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of art historian, curator, and educator Patricia Hills measure 46.7 linear feet and 2.19 GB and date from circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Central to this collection are project files documenting professional work that resulted in lectures, publications, exhibitions, art history courses on numerous artists including Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, May Stevens, Rudolf Baranik, Eastman Johnson, and John Singer Sargent. These files and files documenting Hills's tenure at the Whitney Museum of American Art include planning documents, research files, correspondence, manuscripts and accompanying publications, as well as other printed materials. Some material is in digital format. The collection also contains correspondence with art historians, artists, curators, and others, notably Lawrence Alloway, Lowery Stokes Sims, Lucy R. Lippard, T.J. Clark, Leon Golub, and Donald Kuspit; professional files documenting grants and residencies awarded and consulting work; artist and subject files; other writings; and printed and digital material. Membership and affiliation records document Hills' service to the profession, including Women's Caucus for Art and the Visual Culture/Art History Caucus of the American Studies Association.