Cleveland Museum of Art construction records for the 1916 building

Collection

Identifier: 1111.064

Staff Only

Scope and Contents note

This is an artificial collection comprised of records pertaining to the construction of the Cleveland Museum of Art 1916 building, including the records of the temporary committees formed to plan the building and the records of the department that would evolve into buildings and grounds. The collection reflects the contributions of four different corporate entities, two of which were associated with the museum only during the initial construction. Buildings and Grounds records consist of general office files including correspondence among the architects, the superintendent for architects, engineers, contractors, inspectors, consultants, suppliers and the superintendent of the CMA; lists of equipment and furnishings; financial statements and calculations, cancelled checks, shipping invoices; personal materials of Victor E. Thibaud - including correspondence, financial statements, tax bills, and receipts; sketches of furnishings and equipment; CMA superintendent's office diary March 17, 1916 - July 24, 1916; personal correspondence of John W. McCabe; files of the Building Committee including correspondence, minutes, agreements, financial statements, calculations, lists of equipment and furnishings; and specifications. A who's who of the individuals named in the collection is as follows:

Allen & Haworth Providers of interior marble Anderson, Alex Vice President, Blue Ridge Marble Company Cornell, W. G. Engineers & Contractors Crowell-Lundoff-Little Co. General Contractors Building Construction Crowell & Murray Inspectors of iron, steel, cement & building materials Crowell and Sherman Co. General Contractors Eveleth, C. F. Consulting Engineer (French & Hubbard) French (Hollis) & Hubbard (Allen) Consulting Engineers (Boston) Fuller, C. W. Secretary, Building Committee Gilman, H.F. Superintendent, Crowell-Lundoff-Little Co. Harmon, Arthur L. Architect Holden, Liberty E. Chairman, Building Committee Hubbell & Benes Architects Jessop, William Sales Manager, George Marble Company Kelley, Hermon A. Secretary, Cleveland Museum of Art Little, Bascom Secretary, Crowell and Sherman Lundoff, Clemens W. Vice President, Crowell and Sherman McCabe, J. F. Superintendent, Buildings and Grounds, CMA McCabe, John W. Superintendent, Buildings and Grounds, CMA McCreary, A.R. Chief Engineer, Crowell and Sherman Ranney, H. C. President, CMA Thibaud, Victor Emile Superintendent for Architects, released April 1916 Wheelright, Edmund M. Consulting Architect (Boston) Whiting, Frederic Allen Director and Secretary of the Building Committee

Dates

Majority of material found within Bulk, 1915-1917
1905-1923

Conditions Governing Access note

Subject to review by archives staff. For more information or to access this collection contact archives staff at archives2@clevelandart.org.

Biographical/Historical note

The founding of The Cleveland Museum of Art was a collaborative effort. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, wealthy Cleveland businessmen John Huntington, Horace Kelley, and Hinman Hurlbut left substantial bequests in their wills to establish an art museum. In 1892 Jeptha Wade II gave eight acres of land to the city of Cleveland "for the construction and maintenance of an art gallery and school." Over the next two decades, the trustees of the Huntington, Kelley, and Hurlbut estates worked towards reconciling the legal stipulations of the wills to finance the construction of a single art museum on the land that Wade donated.

In June 1905 the trustees reached a preliminary agreement. Encouraged by the progress of the negotiations, E.R. Perkins, president of the Huntington trust, appointed a six-man building committee to select an architect and review prospective building plans. The committee subsequently chose the local firm of Hubbell & Benes to design the new museum, but it also retained Edmund Wheelwright, consulting architect for Boston's newly completed Museum of Fine Arts, as an advisor to the project. The museum opened to members on June 6, 1919 and to the public on June 7, 1916.