The collection is arranged as four series:
Adelyn Dohme Breeskin (1896-1986) was an art historian and museum curator in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. She was the first woman to be named director of a major American museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Adelyn Dohme took her first museum job in the print department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she worked with Kathryn B. Child under the supervision of William Mills Ivins. She left the museum in 1920 to marry violinist Elias Breeskin, and the couple had three children before divorcing in 1930.
Following her divorce, Breeskin returned to her native Baltimore and took a position as a curator with the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1942 she was appointed director of the museum and remained in that position until 1962. As director she gave Milton Avery and Mary Cassatt's graphics their first museum shows.
Breeskin served as commissioner for the American contingent of the Venice Biennale in 1960 and was director of the Washington Gallery of Modern Art from 1962-1964. She then became a special consultant in twentieth-century art for the Smithsonian's National Collection of Fine Art and served as the museum's curator of contemporary painting and sculpture from 1968 to 1974.
Breeskin authored two catalogue raisonnés of Mary Cassatt's work, and conducted extensive research for a monograph on Loren MacIver, although the monograph was ultimately not published. In 1985 Breeskin received the Smithsonian Institutions highest award, the Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, and at the time of her death in 1986, was senior curatorial adviser.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the
Portions of the collection were donated to the Archives of American Art in a series of gifts from Adelyn Breeskin, 1979-1985. Material relating to Loren MacIver was donated 1979-1987 by Breeskin and Robert Frash, who had possession of Breeskin's research materials on MacIver for an exhibition on MacIver he curated in California. Letters from Georgia O'Keeffe, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, and Lawrence Calcagno, an exhibition catalog for Calcagno, and the file on Milton Avery, were donated by the National Museum of American Art on January 28, 1981. The birthday book was a gift from Breeskin's daughter, Gloria Breeskin Peck, in 2015. The sound recordings were transferred from the National Museum of American Art, circa 1984.
Adelyn Dohme Breeskin papers, circa 1934-1986. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Stephanie Ashley in 2019.
The papers of Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington D.C. art historian and museum curator Adelyn Dohme Breeskin, measure 2.5 linear feet and date from circa 1934-1986. The papers provide scattered documentation of Breeskin's career, focusing on writings and lectures delivered in the United States and abroad, and briefly documenting her work as an art exhibition juror, as a consultant, and as a teacher of a community art course. The collection also includes papers documenting some of Breeskin's research on Loren MacIver, Mary Cassatt, and others, and is comprised of biographical material, personal and professional correspondence with artists, friends, and colleagues, manuscript and lecture notes and drafts, professional files, sound recordings, and a few photographs.
The Archives of American Art also holds oral history interviews with Adelyn Breeskin conducted by Paul Cummings in 1974, and Julie Haifley in 1979.
Portions of the collection are available on 35mm microfilm reels 2227 and 2787 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
The sound recording of the lecture "Artists I Have Known," has been been copied for research access and digital copies are available in the Archives of American Art offices.
Found in this series is a "birthday book" of letters, cards, and artwork given to Breeskin on the occasion of her 90th birthday, with illustrated greetings from artists including Grace Hartigan and Jacob Kainen; family estate papers; news clippings about Breeskin; and resumes and employment related documents including a federal employment application and correspondence related to the professional opportunities Breeskin was exploring in preparation for resigning her position at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1962.
Photographs include a studio portrait of Breeskin by Leonard L. Greif taken just prior to her retirement from the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1962, and photographs of Breeskin with others including with Betty Parsons in March 1973; with Edwin A. Daniels, Raphael Soyer, William Finn, and Joseph Hirshhorn after receiving an honorary degree at the Maryland Art Institute in 1975; and with Charles C. Cunningham, Tatayana Grossman, and Clyfford Still at an unidentified event, circa 1970s. Also found is a sound recording of a farewell dinner held for Breeskin at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1962, and a sound recording of a 1969 interview with Sally Avery.
Correspondence is personal and professional and includes correspondence with friends and artists such as Joseph Albers, Milton Avery, Lawrence Calcagno, Georgia O'Keeffe, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, and Yulla and Jacques Lipchitz; correspondence with museums, art societies, and arts administrators such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, Currier Gallery of Art, R. Sturgis Ingersoll, the National Society of Arts and Letters, the Royal Society of Arts, the Toledo Museum of Art, and many others. Also found are letters related to Breeskin's Stuart Alumnae Association scholarship to attend Katherine B. Child's school in Italy with nine negatives labeled "Dorothy Breeskin and friends," and correspondence with Marian King related to a proposed book on art by King.
Records are arranged alphabetically by correspondent, followed by congratulatory letters and a small amount of correspondence related to Breeskin's membership in societies and on committees.
This series is arranged as two subseries.
This series documents three of Breeskin's writing projects. There are drafts of, and notes related to, a catalog and a brief guide prepared by Breeskin at the request of Maryland's Governor Ritchie for visitors to the State House in Annapolis, following the 1933 restoration of some of the paintings in the State House.
Records relating to Breeskin's unpublished monograph on Loren MacIver include correspondence between Breeskin and MacIver (primarily copies); correspondence with Breeskin's publisher, the Pierre Matisse Gallery, and others primarily regarding reproductions for the book; research files containing photocopies of correspondence and records related to MacIver's work for the WPA; photocopies of the Museum of Modern Art's file on MacIver's mural done on the SS Argentina; 13 poems, many concerning works by MacIver written by her husband, Lloyd Frankenberg; and manuscript drafts, including a chronology and lists of art works.
Material relating to Mary Cassatt includes copies and typescripts of letters written by Cassatt to Mathilda Brownell, Adaline Havemeyer, Julie Manet, and others, presumably used by Breeskin in her research on Mary Cassatt.
Correspondence
Copies
Manuscript Draft, Chronology and List of Illusrations
Manuscript Draft, Text
Manuscript Draft, Text
Museum of Modern Art Material on MacIver's Mural on the SS Argentina
Poems by Lloyd MacIver
This series includes handwritten drafts and typescript drafts of manuscripts and lectures by Breeskin, as well as correspondence related to the lectures such as travel arrangements and other details.
Also found is a sound recording of a 1981 lecture delivered by Breeskin at the National Museum of American Art, entitled "Artists I have Known." The sound recording has been digitized for research access.
Researchers may access digitized audiovisual materials in the Archives' Washington, D.C. or New York, N.Y. Research Centers by appointment.
Professional files provide scattered documentation of Breeskin's career as a director, consultant, and teacher. They include notes, correspondence, and reports relating to Breeskin's work as a consultant to the National Collection of Fine Arts (later the National Museum of American Art); a letter, a memorandum, and a transcript of a news clipping briefly summarizing Breeskin's work as Commissioner of the American Pavilion at the 1960 Venice Biennale; correspondence, notes, and course outlines for an art appreciation course Breeskin taught at Johns Hopkins University in the late 1940s; a sound recording of a lecture delivered by Ilya Bolotowsky and introduced by Breeskin at the National Museum of American Art; and correspondence and other documentation relating to arrangements for travel by Breeskin in the USA and abroad, generally related to speaking engagements and participation in art juries.