March 4, 1931.

Dear Mr. Sanborn:

We have now an excellent librarian, Miss Gretta Smith, but she desires to accept a very interesting offer which will make it possible for her to carry on the work that interests her most, the popular type of circulating library. I should like to get a good man for this job, which will be open next August. I want some one with a real knowledge of library technique, a good understanding of the scope of such a library as ours, which leans to the scholarly side, and an agreeable and energetic personality, capable of directing others and working harmoniously with them. Do you know of such a person. Under the present circumstances I am able to offer a salary of $3000. a year and one month's vacation.

I wish that we could get away for a little trip to Boston. It would be a pleasure to us both to see you and Mrs. Sanborn. In any case our best and cordial remembrances, and forgive me for laying the onus of a letter on you.

Cordially yours,

THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

OFFICE OF
THE CHANCELLOR

June 8, 1927

Dear Dr. Clapp:

You may remember that there is a gray brick
house on the northwest corner of the 14-acre quadrangle.
This might, it seems, make fairly satisfactory temporary
quarters for the Department of Fine Arts. On the first
floor there are four rooms, the largest of which is about
28 feet by 16 feet. Upstairs there are five rooms and bath.

The house is well located for convenience to
students. It can, I think, be fixed up attractively. The
chief objection is that during part of the time it may
be noisy as a result of building operations immediately
to the rear and east.

It occurs to me that you and Mrs. Clapp might
fit up two rooms in the upper floor of this house in which
to live while you are here. If this is agreeable to you,
we should be glad to let you have the rooms without cost.
I think you might make yourself quite comfortable here
in this way.

Next week I am leaving for a considerable vacation.
My boy John and I go to Australia, and from there to London,
and home. I am sorry not to be here when you arrive. You
will find, however, that Miss Smith, in my office, and
Mr. Weber, Supervising Engineer, will cooperate with you
heartily in working out your department as you may desire.

With kind wishes to both of you, I am

Faithfully yours,

JohnH.Burnham

Dr. F. M. Clapp

ASBTON SANBORN
SECRETARY OF THE MUSEUM

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
BOSTON, MASS.

14 January 1928

Dear Mr. Clapp,

Your letter of the 8th reached me on Wednes-
day, and I have given it attentive thought.

From the time of our first conversation I
have realized quite clearly the nature of your immediate
problem in connection with the library of your new Depart-
ment, and that you were looking for a man whose main acti-
vity would be to organize its mechanism so that your large
annual purchases of books should pass smoothly and quickly
to their proper places on the shelves. The details of re-
ceiving, checking, accessioning, classifying, and catalogu-
ing three thousand books a year and of supervising the in-
creasing use of such a rapidly growing library would, in my
opinion, occupy the entire time and the best energies of
both a librarian and a cataloguer. I was filled with admi-
ration when I saw what you and Miss Cummings have accomplished
during the past few months.

My interest in a library springs from the cre-
ative effort involved in assisting its growth, and my interest
would be very keen in a position combining university teach-
ing with the general supervision of a library and with the
opportunity to build up in particular the branches relating
to my special field. On whichever side the balance might fall
at the beginning, I should not be willing to undertake this
dual work, however, without definite assurance that ultimately
I could devote at least half my time to teaching. Nor could
I incur the increased responsibilities entailed by moving to
Pittsburgh for the position and salary of an Assistant Profes-
sor.

I speak thus frankly because I wish to make
quite clear my recognition of the fact that in relation to
your present plans and to your present budget I do not repre-
sent the solution of your problem. I knew this at the con-
clusion of our first talk together, and I should not have
ventured to accept Dr. Bowman's generously cordial invitation
to visit Pittsburgh (in which Mrs. Sanborn also was included)
if he had not told me to wipe clean away whatever had already
been said to me and any decision I might have made.

Our visit remains memorable for the pleasure
we experienced in being with Mrs. Clapp and yourself, as well
as in seeing the extraordinarily successful start you have
made in a truly great undertaking. I hope that we did not
unjustifiably tax your time and attention.

ASHTON SANBORN
SECRETARY OF THE MUSEUM

The enclosed statement of travelling expenses in-
cludes our railway fares with sleeper from New York to
Pittsburgh, hotel room in Pittsburgh, and the cost of a
return trip direct from Pittsburgh to Boston,-a total of
$105.80. Meals and incidental expenses amounted to $7.00
additional, but I do not wish you to include this item
unless it seems to you entirely right to do so.

Mrs. Sanborn joins me in kindest regards to you
both.

P.S. Have you thought of applying to the School of Library Science at Simmons College for a cataloguer? Miss June Donnelly is head of the school and it was through her that I secured the very efficient young woman who is now cataloguer here in the Museum.

Professor Frederick Mortimer Clapp,
5519 Wilkins Avenue,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

JANUARY 8, 1928.

Dear Mr. Sanborn:

This letter should have been written yesterday but it
will perhaps even now reach Boston before you get there.

I need not say anything about the proposed opening from the
point of view of environment and the like. You will have your
own impressions of that. I can only add, as I told you, my own
faith in it as something quite out of the ordinary.

As to the nature of the work I believe you would like the
chance it involves of creating something and teaching at the same
time. The latter would perhaps be rather elementary to begin with
but expansion and deepening will come, if we envisage the situation
with imagination. I should like to have a course given on Greek
Art, say from Cretan through Hellenistic times and another on
ancient art perhaps from the Sumerian period to the Ptolemies.
The details and scope of these, as well as the number of hours devoted
to each can be arranged later. As you think into the situation
and see what time you could spare from the library all such questions
would fall into place. Both Hovey and I give two courses of three
hours a week each. We might even begin with a course on classic
art, organize that and add the other later.

As for the library I should like its organization taken
up in a vigorous way and I have hope that I can find a young
instructor who, in addition to giving courses on phases of art
still uncovered would interest himself in the rapid and expert
handling of the slides and photographs under your direction.

We shall need a cataloguer of first class ability, some
one like the young woman you have in the Museum. I suppose it
would be heresy to tempt her? If you have any ideas or recom-
mendations on this subject I shall be glad to have them. We
should like this person, if we can find her, to come immediately.
We have pressing need of her at once. We already have a typist
who seems to be developing and may prove satisfactory for the
writing of lists, labels and cards.

I have bought 3000 books up to date and I imagine that a
like number, depending, of course, on the nature of the acqui-
sitions, will be added each year. Arrangements are being made
that will probably end in a new and larger class room as well
as in more than doubling the floor space at our disposal. These
quarters will be temporary but in the tower, two years from now,
we will have a setting worthy of the best, for which we can
create the arrangement of the rooms, lighting, stacks and de-
coration. In everything Doctor Bowman and the University are
standing behind this undertaking in the most enthusiastic way.

As to Mrs. Sanborn's work, Doctor Langer told Mrs Clapp
yesterday that the West Penn Hospital is doing bacteriological
research that puts the eye out of the Singer Foundation. But
the reality in such a case would need the appraisal of an ex-
pert.

It was nice to see you both in any case and I wish that
you would send me an account of your expenses for railway,
sleeper and hotel. Please address me 5519 Wilkins Avenue.

With kind regards from us both,

Sincerely yours,

Do you think that you could manage with such a staff
as I have indicated above as this is all our budget can be
stretched to at present?

1 Elm Row, Hampstead,
London, N.W.3,
January 5, 1927.

Dear Dr. Bowman,

Your letter of introduction, which is
exactly suited to the purposes in hand has just come.
I have been hard at work on the question of books and
photographs and am rather horrified to learn in the
most indirect way that other universities in America
are placing orders for the important books on oriental
art. I must try to get them before they do. Will you
let me know what sum I have available for this purpose
to know how far I can go. Stein's Serindia published in
1921 at 12 gns is now 60.

I am sending you very shortly a brief
synopsis of the courses it is proposed to give in the
Fine Arts for next year's catalogue.

With our best wishes that 1927 may be
a memorable and happy year (we both are looking forward
to it),

Sincerely yours,

The blue prints of the tower that you spoke of sending
have never come.

1 Elm Row, Hampstead,
London, N. W.3,

November 8, 1927.

Dear Dr. Bowman,

I sent you a cable the night before last
asking what sum you will finally have available for books
on Oriental art. I have made every effort to get quotations
on the books that would form the foundation of a library
on this subject which is bound to be so important in the
coming years that the prices for all books related to it
are rising more rapidly than I expected. This includes
also, to a certain extent, books on the philosophy and
religios of the East which are indispensable to the study
of its art. I have found, as I wrote, that other institutions
are in the field for these books most of which have been
published in limited and expensive editions due to size
and plates. When copies come in the booksellers in some
cases will not hold some of the rarest of these items for
two days, there being such a demand for them. I do not see
how they can ever be less expensive. I wonder in fact
whether we can now afford, even if we can find them, some
of the most important Japanese publications. A set of Nos.
1-337 Of the Kokka is now quoted at $1375. If I knew the
sum at my disposal I could parcel it out among the most
necessary items and begin ordering. I wish we could get
a group of subscribers interested in this matter who would
support it for a few years. I hope that we will be able to
work this when I come back.

The quotations for books on European art
are coming in. I am sifting them as far as one can and
fitting them into the sum I have for that purpose.

With the best wishes and remembrances for
the New Year from us both,

Sincerely yours,

December 25, 1926.

Dear Dr. Bowman,

I have got quotations on about 105 titles
amounting to 167 volumes of the books included in the list
of those relative to Oriental Art that I sent to you on
landing. On many of these I have a promise of a discount
of 10%. I had hoped to get more but it appears that in
England, on account of the booksellers' agreement, no dis-
count is supposed to be given even for large orders to
libraries and public institutions. The total for these
167 volumes will be about $1600, the shipping extra.

For the books that are most expensive and
difficult to get, representing more than half the list,
I have not received quotations yet. They will, if still
to be had, represent the main outlay of the sum I mentioned
to you in New York. I rather fear it is too late to some
of them but if we persist they must turn up in time.

How shall we proceed with this matter?
Would you like to authorize me to forward those books on
Oriental art that I can get hold of now and could you
tell me what the total sum was that you finally put aside
for books on this subject?

I have had the lists out for some time now
of the books on European art but due to the Christmas rush
the reports are slow in coming in.

With very kind regards and best wishes for
the New Year,

Perseverance

On Board President Harding,

November 20, 1926.

Dear Dr. Bowman,

I have just finished copying the bibliography
of Oriental Art you asked me to make. You will see that I have
not confined myself to works on art and archaeology in India,
because, in a way, some of the finest grafts from that tree flou-
rished elsewhere in the East. I shall naturally have to revise
this list, adding to and taking away according to present market
values, and also because in a sketch like this, made in the last
days of my stay in New York, there must necessarily be room for
improvement.

It is exciting that you promptly saw the need
of making a beginning in this very important and fascinating
field of the history of art, where so many books are even now
out of print, I shall get estimates from Oriental booksellers
as soon as they can give them after my arrival in London.

Your will notice that various works by the same
authors do not come together. That is because they are roughly
classified according to subject.

I am copying the other bibliographies as we
lurch along through high seas.

Sincerely yours,