Financial and Shipping Records
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Macbeth Gallery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Macbeth Gallery records
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 11.8 Linear Feet (Boxes 96-110)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1892-1956
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.macbgall, Series 2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: In general, financial records are arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by client.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The bulk of this series has been digitized. Items not digitized include some routine miscellaneous incoming bills not related to sales of artwork, including bills for utilities, insurance, framing, photo duplication, and advertising. Some folders have been identified for further conservation treatment and have not been digitized.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: This series provides a detailed record of the gallery's financial transactions through a variety of ledgers and account books. Although they lack systematic indexing and are somewhat awkward to use, these records provide an intriguing insight into art buying and collecting tendencies throughout the first half of the twentieth century. They also record the effect of fluctuations in the economy including, of course, the devastating Depression of the 1930s. Records in this series can be used more effectively in conjunction with the card files in Series 3: Inventory Records.

A large account book found here contains records dating from ca. 1918 to the 1930s with entries arranged alphabetically by the name of the person, corporate body or function (such as "Accrued Salaries") to which each account applies. The book lists the dates and descriptions of transactions along with debits, credits and balances on accounts. Each alphabetical letter group is preceded by an index of accounts that fall in that section of the alphabet.

Information regarding commissions and commission credits due to artists, businesses or individuals is recorded in three sets of volumes: Artist Credit Books; Purchase Books and Commission Credits; and Artist Commissions, Commission Credits and Purchases. Artist Commissions, Commission Credits and Purchases combine information that was previously contained in the other two types of ledgers. Details of purchases and commissions are arranged chronologically. There are also two unidentified volumes filed here as Artist Registers which appear to record information related to framing dating from ca. 1924 to 1954. The registers are arranged chronologically and then list artists as well as titles and dimensions of artwork and dates received.

Bills and statements consist of copies of outgoing bills and statements from the gallery and are arranged chronologically by year and alphabetically within those years

Cash Books provide a chronological list of cash transactions and Charge Books, also known as "Order Books" and "Sales Books," contain lists of charges for merchandise and order registers and are arranged chronologically. Miscellaneous incoming bills are arranged chronologically by year and alphabetically by client within each year. Many of the bills were previously folded together with brown paper labels which have been transferred to the folders preceding the records to which they apply.

One item of particular note is a small untitled notebook summarizing annual sales figures from 1892 to 1935. The notebook clearly shows the ongoing economic collapse of the 1930s with annual sales plummeting from $487,283.62 in 1929 to $92,659.02 in 1933.

The series also contains records of conisgnments from 1933 to 1951 and shipping records from the 1930s to the 1950s.