Medieval Art and Collections
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Barnard, George Grey, 1863-1938
setName: label: See more items in
content: George Grey Barnard papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.9 Linear Feet (Boxes 4, 15, and OV 17)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1905-1958
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.barngeor, Series 5
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: Files are grouped by material type and then arranged in chronological order.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: This series has been scanned in its entirety.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: Found in this series are documents that record Barnard's activities as a collector and dealer of Medieval art and artifacts, including collecting notes; inventories; invoices from galleries and dealers; and printed material related to the artist's collections of medieval art (the Cloisters and the Abbaye/Monastery), including signs for both. Other items of note include hand drawn floor plans, one of which appears to be a rough sketch of the layout of the original Cloister, while the other more finished floor plan may be a plan for a medieval cloister (perhaps one that Barnard had purchased in Europe to reconstruct in the United States). Finally there are files related to two projects with the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., the first being the Bishop Garden to which Barnard donated an ancient cross. Barnard may have been the dealer for those who donated other medieval artifacts and architectural elements that decorated the garden. There is a second proposal for a failed project to relocate Barnard's second collection of medieval art and architectural elements to the National Cathedral initiated after the artist's death in 1937 by his son Monroe Barnard.

Barnard's "collecting notes" are found in one folder of loose notes and 13 notebooks of various sizes. These notebooks contain names of dealers, places to visit, as well as descriptions, sketches, and prices of the medieval and renaissance art and artifacts which he collected both for himself and to sell to others. Other notebooks act as shipping inventories. In most of the shipping inventory notebooks, objects are listed by case number and are identified with brief descriptions. The 1926-1928 notebook also identifies the sender, which in most cases appears to be the French galleries/dealers from whom Barnard acquired the objects. There are inventories of Barnard's collections, including a notebook that contains detailed handwritten descriptions of objects in the original Cloisters, as well as a typescript titled Descriptions of Art Objects in the Abbaye, which serves as a narrative guide to the collection. There is also a visitor's book from the Monastery (Abbaye).