Summary
- Collection ID:
- AAA.hillspat
- Creators:
-
- Dates:
-
circa 1900-2022
bulk 1968-2009
- Languages:
-
- Physical Description:
-
- Repository:
-
The papers of art historian, curator, and educator Patricia Hills measure 47.5 linear feet and 0.113 GB and date from circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Central to this collection are project files documenting professional work that resulted in lectures, publications, exhibitions, art history courses on numerous artists including Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, May Stevens, Rudolf Baranik, and John Singer Sargent. These files and files documenting Hills's tenure at the Whitney Museum of American Art include planning documents, research files, correspondence, manuscripts and accompanying publications, as well as other printed materials. Some of this material is in digital format. The collection also contains correspondence with art historians, artists, curators, and others, notably Lawrence Alloway, Lowery Stokes Sims, Lucy R. Lippard, T.J. Clark, Leon Golub, and Donald Kuspit; professional files documenting grants and residencies awarded and consulting work; artist and subject files; other writings; and printed and digital material. Membership and affiliation records document Hills' service to the profession, including Women's Caucus for Art and the Visual Culture/Art History Caucus of the American Studies Association. There is an 8.4 linear foot unprocssed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes Patricia Hills' research material regarding Eastman Johnson, consisting of biographical information; professional correspondence; printed material; institutional, exhibition, subject and genre files for Eastman Johnson's works of art; photographs of works of art; writings and lectures; catalog cards; and files regarding works not by Johnson.
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
The papers of art historian, curator, and educator Patricia Hills measure 47.5 linear feet and 0.113 GB and date from circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Central to this collection are project files documenting professional work that resulted in lectures, publications, exhibitions, art history courses on numerous artists including Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, May Stevens, Rudolf Baranik, and John Singer Sargent. These files and files documenting Hills's tenure at the Whitney Museum of American Art include planning documents, research files, correspondence, manuscripts and accompanying publications, as well as other printed materials. Some material is in digital format. The collection also contains correspondence with art historians, artists, curators, and others, notably Lawrence Alloway, Lowery Stokes Sims, Lucy R. Lippard, T.J. Clark, Leon Golub, and Donald Kuspit; professional files documenting grants and residencies awarded and consulting work; artist and subject files; other writings; and printed and digital material. Membership and affiliation records document Hills' service to the profession, including Women's Caucus for Art and the Visual Culture/Art History Caucus of the American Studies Association.
There is an 8.4 linear foot unprocssed addition to this collection donated in 2022 that includes Patricia Hills' research material regarding Eastman Johnson, consisting of biographical information; professional correspondence; printed material; institutional, exhibition, subject and genre files for Eastman Johnson's works of art; photographs of works of art; writings and lectures; catalog cards; and files regarding works not by Johnson.
Arrangement
Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 13 series.
- Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1958-2019 (2.6 Linear Feet; Boxes 1-2, 25)
- Series 2: Project Files, circa 1900-2011 (15.2 Linear Feet; Boxes 3-13, 25-30, OV24, 0.041 GB; ER01-ER02)
- Series 3: Whitney Museum Files, circa 1900-2015, bulk 1973-1987 (4.1 Linear Feet; Boxes 13-16, 30)
- Series 4: Boston University Files, circa 1974-2015 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 30-31)
- Series 5: Professional Files, circa 1959-2019 (2.4 linear feet; Boxes 17-18, 32)
- Series 6: Membership and Affiliation Records, circa 1969-2013 (2 linear feet; Boxes 18-20, 32)
- Series 7: Museum of Fine Arts Restructuring Files, circa 1997-2005 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 32-33)
- Series 8: Writings, circa 1962-2019 (5.4 linear feet; Boxes 20-21, 34-38, 0.068 GB; ER03, ER05)
- Series 9: Teaching Files, circa 1974-2019 (0.9 linear feet; Box 39)
- Series 10: Artist Files, circa 1958-2014 (0.9 Linear Feet; Box 21)
- Series 11: Subject Files, circa 1961-2007 (1.0 linear Feet; Box 22, 0.004 GB; ER04)
- Series 12: Printed Material, circa 1970-2010 (1.0 linear Feet; Box 23)
- Series 13: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1970-2022 (8.4 linear feet; Boxes 40-49)
Biographical / Historical
Biographical / Historical
Patricia Hills (1936-) is an art historian, curator, and Professor Emerita of American Art and African American Art at Boston University. Hills obtained a B.A. from Stanford University in Modern European Literature, an M.A. from Hunter College in 1968, where she was advised by Leo Steinberg, and her PhD. from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Hills worked as Associate and later Adjunct Curator of 18th and 19th Century American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 1972 until 1987. During that time she organized exhibitions including John Singer Sargent (1986) while progressively becoming more invested as an educator, with teaching positions at Hunter College and the Institute of Fine Arts. In February 2011 she received the Distinguished Teaching of Art History award from the College Art Association.
Hills served as the Director of the Boston University Art Gallery from 1980-1989, and began her tenure in the art history department as Associate Professor in 1978. She was co-founder of the Boston Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art and was highly active in the College Art Association and American Studies Association. She has held fellowships at numerous institutions including the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
As a principal author she is responsible for organizing a number of monograph and exhibition catalog publishing efforts including Painting Harlem Modern: The Art of Jacob Lawrence (2010), May Stevens (2005), Eastman Johnson: Painting America (co-authored, 1999), John Singer Sargent (1986), Alice Neel (1983), Social Concern and Urban Realism: American Painting of the 1930s (1983), Turn-of-the-Century America: Paintings, Graphics, Photographs, 1890-1910 (1977), The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910 (1974), and The American Frontier: Images and Myths (1973). In addition, Patricia Hills has authored numerous articles for art publications, served as reviewer for College Art Association's CAA Reviews, and has contributed greatly as a peer reviewer and editor. From 1990 to 1999, she served as series editor for six books in the Cambridge Studies in American Visual Culture series, published by Cambridge University Press.
Administration
Processing Information
The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Ryan Evans in 2018, with the 2019 addition processed by Ryan Evans in 2020. In 2020, the collection donated by Patricia Hills in 2006: Papers relating to the restructuring of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1997-1999, was merged with her papers. Born-digital materials were processed by Kirsi Ritosalmi-Kisner in 2020 with funding provided by Smithsonian Collection Care and Preservation Fund.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated in 2006, 2018, 2019 and 2022 by Patricia Hills.
Using the Collection
Preferred Citation
Patricia Hills Papers, circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Terms of Use
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
Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Conditions Governing Use
Writings by Patricia Hills: The donor has retained all intellectual rights, including copyright, that she may own.
Keywords
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