purdy's blog

In honor of Women’s History Month, discover ten free e-books available through the Frick Art Reference Library’s catalog that celebrate a wide range of women artists, art historians, and collectors throughout history.

The Frick Art Reference Library contains materials beyond the scope of the Frick’s permanent collection, including extensive holdings on modernism. In this post, Interlibrary Loan Assistant Cori Edmonds-Hutchinson, inspired by the documentary Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, explores the library’s titles on the pioneering and enigmatic Swedish artist.

The 2020–21 symposium “Technological Revolutions and Art History” explores current topics in digital art history. For a deeper dive into the major themes of access and bias, Ellen Prokop, former Digital Art History Lead, interviews Luciano Johnson, Associate Chief Librarian for Preservation, Imaging, and Creative Services, and Dr. Stephen Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian.

The Frick Art Reference Library offers its first Reading List in celebration of Black History Month. Explore eight free e-book titles dedicated to the life, work, and legacy of Black American artists.

Henry Clay Frick and Adelaide Howard Childs were married one hundred and forty years ago this year, in December 1881. Recent research into portraits of the newly married couple sheds light on the early days of the Fricks' married life.

In celebration of The Frick Collection’s eighty-fifth anniversary, commemorating the museum’s opening to the public in December 1935, explore a list of surprising Frick facts—one for each of our eighty-five years—and put your Frick knowledge to the test.

On the occasion of the museum’s 85th anniversary, discover the colorful early press reactions to The Frick Collection’s 1935 opening.

Ars Longa is a blog series exploring lost, altered, and destroyed works of art that are preserved in the records of the Frick's Photoarchive. In this post, the Photoarchive helps us uncover the complex history of a painting by the circle of Peter Paul Rubens, two separate panels of which today reside in two different museums.

In this installment of Untold Histories, explore the relics of the Fricks' extensive annunciator system. This network of call bells connected the family to its staff and offers a glimpse into the rhythms of domestic service at 1 East 70th Street.

Housekeeper Minerva Stone is integral to the story of those who kept the Fricks’ Gilded Age home running. Though no personal accounts survive, we can paint a picture of Stone’s larger biography, lending context to the years she spent at the crossroads of her employer’s immense wealth and majority-immigrant staff.