Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Joseph F. McCrindle Papers, 1877-2013, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.mccrjose
Creators:
McCrindle, Joseph F.
Dates:
1877-2013
Languages:
The collection is in English.
Physical Description:
5.3 Linear feet
Repository:
The papers of New York art collector and philanthropist, Joseph F. McCrindle, measure 5.3 linear feet and date from 1877-2013. The collection documents McCrindle's art collecting, art donations, philanthropy, family affairs, and personal estate. Found are extensive art inventories, sales receipts, gift and loan documentation, and photographs of artwork. The papers also include Joseph McCrindle's estate records and wills, family papers, records from the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, correspondence with museums and galleries, and photographs of McCrindle and family members.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The papers of New York art collector and philanthropist, Joseph F. McCrindle, measure 5.3 linear feet and date from 1877-2013. The collection documents McCrindle's art collecting, art donations, philanthropy, family affairs, and personal estate. Found are extensive art inventories, sales receipts, gift and loan documentation, and photographs of artwork. The papers also include Joseph McCrindle's estate records and wills, family papers, records from the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, correspondence with museums and galleries, and photographs of McCrindle and family members.
Biographical and family materials include McCrindle's obituary, copies of printed programs from his memorial service, and legal documents dealing with his will. There are papers dealing with his grandparents, Joseph Fuller Feder and Edith Mosler Feder, his mother, Odette Feder Moffett, and blueprints and paperwork for his grandfather's yacht, the M.Y. Kihna.
Materials from the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation include the certificate of incorporation for the Henfield Foundation, change of name documentation to rename it the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, by-laws for the organization, waiver notices for special called meetings, minutes for annual and special meetings, financial statements, and gift lists. McCrindle corresponded heavily with various museums and galleries. Also found are letters from family, friends, and colleagues, such as Michael Levey, Brian Sewell, and Pinckney Benedict. Legal correspondence concerns McCrindle's estate. Sympathy and condolences are addressed to John Rowe on the occasion of Joseph McCrindle's death.
Personal business records concern McCrindle's art collection, sales, bequests, and his estate. The art collection is documented in extensive art inventories and lists, most of which is found in two large dismantled notebooks. Sales receipts are also found for McCrindles purchases as early as 1942. There are artwork appraisals, and documentation of McCrindle's gifts and loans of artwork to museums and galleries. There are early receipts and invoices for rare books, decorative items, antiques, and artwork purchases by Joseph and Edith Feder, McCrindle's grandparents.
Printed material includes a copy of the text, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Joseph F. McCrindle, donor reports, exhibition catalogs, clippings, assorted bulletins and newsletters, and programs from live performances.
Loose photographs are of Joseph McCrindle, from early childhood through adulthood. There are also photographs of his family, including his grandparents, Joseph and Edith Feder, his mother, Odette Feder Moffett, and his half brother, Antoine DuBourg. There are photo albums containing images of McCrindle as a child; of his mother as a child; family and travel photographs; and photographs taken during cruises on the family yacht, M.Y. Kihna. Three of the albums are dedicated to Kihna travels.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged into six series:
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Biographical and Family Material, 1913-2008 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1, OV 9)
  • Series 2: Correspondence, 1946-2012 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
  • Series 3: Personal Business Records, circa 1919-2010 (2.0 linear feet; Box 1-3)
  • Series 4: Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation Records, 1958-2012 (0.3 linear feet; Box 3)
  • Series 5: Printed Material, 1899-2013 (0.4 linear feet; Box 4)
  • Series 6: Photographic Material, 1877-2006 (1.8 linear feet; Box 4-6)

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Lifelong resident of New York City, Joseph Feder McCrindle (1923-2008) was a collector, art patron, publisher, and philanthropist. He founded the Transatlantic Review and The Henfield Foundation.
Born to John Ronald McCrindle and Odette Feder McCrindle on March 27, 1923, Joseph McCrindle was exposed to art appreciation at an early age. After his parents were divorced in 1924 and his mother remarried in 1928, he was raised primarily by his grandparents, Joseph F. Feder and Edith Mosler Feder. Summers were spent abroad in Europe, courtesy of the family yacht, where he developed his knowledge of art history and studied foreign languages.
McCrindle attended the St. Paul's School in Manhattan, followed by Harvard University, graduating in 1944. During World War II, McCrindle served with the Office of Strategic Services in London, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant. He went on to receive a law degree from Yale University in 1948.
After working briefly in the publishing world, McCrindle became a literary agent. In 1959, he started the Transatlantic Review, a London-based literary journal. He remained in place as editor and publisher until the company closed in 1977.
The Henfield Foundation, now known as the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, was established by McCrindle in 1958 to provide grants to organizations focused on the development of art, music, and social justice.
Joseph McCrindle was a notable art collector and donated and loaned many works of art to museums and galleries. McCrindle amassed 2,500 old master drawings in his lifetime, in addition to Italian baroque paintings, 19th-century drawings, British artwork, and more . Some examples of gifts and loans documented in the McCrindle papers include an extended a loan of John Singer Sargent's Landscape With Two Women in Foreground to the Yale Center for British Art in 1982, Salvator Rosa's The Torment of Tityus to the Museum and Art Gallery of Stanford University in 1992, and Luca Giordano's Saint Barnabas to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco in 2002.
Joseph McCrindle died on July 11, 2008. His collection was bequeathed to a number of institutions across the nation, such as the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Administration

Author
Alyse Minter
Sponsor
The Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation provided funding for the processing and digitization of the collection.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Joseph F. McCrindle papers were donated in 2012-2013 by Joseph F. McCrindle via John Rowe, president and CEO of the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation.
Existence and Location of Copies
The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2014 and is available via the Archives of American Art's website. Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation records and printed material have not been digitized.
Processing Information
The Joseph F. McCrindle papers were fully processed, arranged, and described by graduate intern Alyse Minter in 2013. Funding from the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation supported the processing and digitization of the papers.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Preferred Citation
Joseph F. McCrindle Papers, 1877-2013. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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.

Related Materials
The bulk of Joseph F. McCrindle's papers are housed at Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Blueprints Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Philanthropists -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sewell, Brian Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Moffett, Odette Feder Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Levey, Michael Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Henfield Foundation Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Benedict, Pinckney, 1964- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
DuBourg, Antoine Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Feder, Joseph Fuller Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lowe, John Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Feder, Edith Mosler Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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