Oral history interview with Laurance P. Roberts
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 22 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Roberts, Laurance P.
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: American Academy in Rome
label: Names
content: Brooklyn Museum
label: Names
content: New York State Council on the Arts
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art historians -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Museum directors -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Museum curators -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These interviews are 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 others.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Roberts, Laurance P.
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Laurance P. Roberts (1907-2002) was an art historian and art administrator in New York, Rome, and Philadelphia.
function: label: Function
content: Art museums -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Items (sound cassettes (2 hr., 22 min.))
label: Extent
content: 67 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1985 July 26-29
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.robert85
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
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: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Laurance P. Roberts conducted 1985 July 26-29, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Roberts speaks of his education at Princeton University; his first employment as a cataloger working on the John G. Johnson Collection for the Philadelphia Museum of Art; studying in China in the 1930s; working as Curator of Near and Far Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum (1934-1938) and then becoming Director there (1938-1942); his years as Director of the American Academy in Rome (1946-1959); writing a report advocating the establishment of the New York State Council on the Arts and Humanities for Governor Nelson Rockefeller; writing a guide to Japanese art museums and a dictionary of Japanese artists; living in Italy.