The Americas Chapter was launched in November 2017 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. The occasion was the conference on J. P. Morgan as Collector. Our first event was a curatorial tour led by Dita Amory and Alison Nogueira of “Master Drawings from The Robert Lehman Collection,” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since then, we have organized many online lectures, tours of museums, auction houses, and private collections, and a two-day Provenance Research Workshop in collaboration with The National Gallery of Art. We have partnered with Master Drawings New York for seven years, hosting a “Collector Conversation” moderated by Jennifer Tonkovitch, Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator, The Morgan Library & Museum.
Although many of our activities are centered in New York City, we have organized visits to the Baltimore Museum of Art, Magazzino Italian Art, and the Print Study Room at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Provenance Workshop was held in Washington, DC. We aim to hold other such events. In 2019, we were accepted as an Affiliated Society of the College Art Association and have organized sessions at each subsequent annual conference.
Together with the West Coast Chapter, we aim to demonstrate to scholars, curators and the broader public that the field of the history of collecting is dynamic with myriad opportunities for new and exciting research. Through the events we organize, a network of colleagues in many disciplines and institutions has been formed, providing access to resources throughout the United States.
We have been recognized by the British Schools & Universities Foundations.
Americas Chapter Steering Committee
Head of the Americas Chapter: Dr. Elizabeth A. Pergam, Independent Scholar
Dr. Christine Brennan, Research Scholar and Collections Manager, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dr. Véronique Chagnon-Burke, Co-founder, WADDA Women Art Dealers Digital Archives
MaryKate Cleary, Curator of Provenance, Princeton University Art Museum
Kerri Pfister, Photoarchive Collection Specialist, Frick Art Research Library
Dr. Anne Nellis Richter, Independent Scholar and Adjunct Faculty with Smith College
Dr. Fulvia Zaninelli, Specialist Curatorial Records, National Gallery of Art
West Coast Committee
Head of the West Coast Committee: Dr. Sophia Quach McCabe, Curatorial Research Associate, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Professor Julie Codell, Art History, Arizona State University
Dr. Melinda McCurdy, Curator of British Art, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Americas Advisory Board
Eileen Brankovic, Senior Vice President, International Business Director, Restitution, Christie’s
Dr. Lynn Catterson, Researcher in Department of Art History and Archeology, Columbia University
Dr. Andria Derstine, Virginia N. and Randall J. Barbato Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Cleveland Museum of Art
Dr. Margaret Doyle, Head of Curatorial Records, National Gallery of Art
Professor Mark A. Meadow, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Mitchell Merling, Independent Scholar
Clement C. Moore, II
Alan Salz, former Director, Didier Aaron
Dr. Jennifer Tonkovich, Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator, The Morgan Library & Museum
Peter Trippi, Editor-in-Chief, Fine Art Connoisseur
Dr. Theodore Stebbins, Consultative Curator of American Art, Harvard Art Museums
Dr. Louisa Wood Ruby, Executive Director, PHAROS; former Director, Research, Frick Art Reference Library
Contact: americas@societyhistorycollecting.org
Collector Conversations: Talking Drawings: Meg Grasselli and David Leventhal
Master Drawings from The Robert Lehman Collection” tour with Dita Amory
Lynn Gumpert, Director, Grey Art Museum, NYU leads tour of “Americans in Paris”
