This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
The papers of abstract artist and art conservator Felrath Hines measure 1.3 linear feet and date from 1954 to 2002. The bulk of the papers include project files concerning his work as a conservator. These files may include correspondence, condition and treatment reports, financial records, photographic materials, and printed material. Also found is scattered biographical material, general correspondence, and photographs of conserved works--many of which are unlabeled.
Felrath Hines (1913-1993) was an African American painter and painting conservator in Washington, DC.
Felrath Hines was born in 1913 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early-1930s and subscribed to art correspondence courses. He did not begin formal art education until 1945 when he enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. Hines created abstract landscapes influenced by Cubism, and in the 1960s he was a member of Spiral, a group of Black artists concerned with the role of African American artists in politics and the civil rights movement.
In addition to his personal art career, Hines was a skilled conservator and served as chief conservator at the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. His clients included the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa Collection), Fisk University, Museum of Modern Art, Waddell Gallery, and many other institutions and individuals.
Felrath Hines died in 1993 in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Dorothy Fisher donated her late husband's papers to the Archives of American Art in 2002.
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
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Felrath Hines papers, 1954-2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2021.
Found are applications sent to Hines concerning potential apprenticeships; artifacts from the conservation of works of art including metal letters; general correspondence from colleagues including Georgia O'Keeffe; and project files relate to the conservation of works of art arranged by collector or institution. These files may contain correspondence, condition and treatment reports, financial records, photographic materials, and printed material.
Also found are photographs, negatives, and slides of works of art, many of which are identified. Printed material includes a exhibition material from the showing of Hines's artworks.