George Heard Hamilton Papers

The George Heard Hamilton Papers consist of correspondence, course materials, writings, and newspaper clippings relating to Hamilton's career as a professor of art history, art gallery curator and administrator, and author.

The alphabetically arranged correspondence, which forms the largest part of the collection, pertains to Hamilton's administrative and teaching activities at Yale; his involvement with educational art associations; and his writing of histories of art. Hamilton corresponded with curators of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and other art museums and galleries regarding exhibits and illustrations for his publications; with colleagues at Yale and at other universities regarding administrative and professional activities; and with members of the international art community including Katherine Dreier, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp, the founders of the Sociètè Anonyme, whose collection catalogue Hamilton edited. (The papers of the Société Anonyme are in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.)

Folders containing course materials from Hamilton's art history courses, short writings, newspaper clippings relating to the 1937 donation of the Jules S. Bache art collection to the state of New York, and a notebook containing listings of Hamilton's collection of Tennyson first editions, form the remainder of the collection.