| Admin/Biog History | Nicolson spent the last four months of 1938 viewing pictures in public and private collections in the USA. The majority of this time (1 October - 21 December) was spent in Boston, where he also worked at the Fogg museum. He also spent brief periods in New York (15 - 30 September; 23 - 28 November; and 22 - 21 December) alongside making fleeting trips to New Haven and Philadelphia. |
| Description | In which Nicolson begins a tour of the USA viewing and studying the pictures in both public and private and collections in New York and Boston. Arrives in New York in September and spends time studying the pictures and manuscripts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Frick Gallery; Morgan Library and the Museum of Modern Art. Stays at the Knickerbocker and Harvard Clubs and socialises with - amongst others - a descendant of John Singleton Copley, Aubrey Morgan, Stuart Preston, Mrs Montgomery, Mrs Coster; and the Morrow and Walton Martin families.
Travels to Boston in October and spends time studying pictures at the Fogg museum where he is given the task of compiling colour notes for the new museum catalogue. Also studies the pictures at the Boston Museum of Fine Art; views the pictures in several private collections; attends various exhibitions; records his views on the new X-ray technique employed by Alan Burroughs; works on an attribution to Antonio Veneziano; begins to compile a theory on Ugolino Lorenzetti and starts writing his book on Seurat.
Socialises with - amongst others - Bill Tyler, Stuart Preston, Eric Schroeder, Rose Nichols, Philip Hofer, Bobby Leveridge, Margaret Gilman, Helen & Molly McGlade, Byba Coster, the Hekscher brothers and Roger Mynors. Attends numerous lunch, dinner and evening parties; visits night clubs, the theatre, ballet and the opera.
Also writes about the European political crisis; his experience of American society; and his views on art history and cricticism. As this diary exclusively concerns Nicolson's tour of the USA none of the entries concern his family (except when reporting on news received by letter).
Of particular note:
September
-15th: discusses the European polictical situation writing of Chamberlain's impending meetitng with Hitler that 'nothing so important had taken place since the fall of the Roman Empire'; arrives in New York
-16th-18th: spends the weekend with the Walton Martin family in Cornwall, Connecticut
-20th: meets Lincoln Kirstein & Stuart Preston
-21st: meets Frederick Mortimer Clapp at the Frick
-22nd: stays with the Morrow family in Englewood, New Jersey
-24th: visits the Brewster family in Mount Kisco with Stuart Preston
-25th: dines with Thomas Lamont and family at their home in Englewood [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
-26th: hears the Duchess of Atholl address the Cosmopolitan Club [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
-27th: views the Jules Semon Bache collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; visits the Morgan Library & meets Belle Greene; lunches with Mina Curtiss and Glenway Wescott; attends a pre-view party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of surrealist photographs and Rouault lithographs for a book
-28th: visits the Chester Dale Collection of modern French pictures
-29th: visits the Maitland Griggs Collection, the Museum of Modern Art and the Platt Collection
October
-1st: arrives in Boston; stays with John Thacher in Cambridge
-3rd: meets the staff of the Fogg Museum including Paul Sachs, Bill Tyler, Margaret Gilman and Edward Forbes
-8th: attends a game of American Football with Morgan Preston
-9th: lunches with Rose Nichols; dines with Philip Hofer
-11th: lunches with Archy McLeish; dines with Roger Mynors
-12th: dines with Felix Frankfurter
-15th: lunches with Alfred Nicholson; visits the Isabella Stewart Gardner collection
-16th: has tea with Margaret Gilman and others including Bill Tyler; attends a talk given by Harold Laski
-21st-22nd: visits Jim Whitall a 'repressed and rich homosexual' at his house in Kingston, Rhode Island, and is propositioned
-23rd: dines at Edward Forbes' house with other guests including Eric Schroeder
-24th: accompanies Eric Shroeder to an exhibition of works 'by a friend of his called Littlefield'
-25th: visits an exhibition of pictures by Picasso and Matisse in Boston Island
-31st: lunches with Stuart Preston and Roger Mynors
November
-3rd: has tea with Sally Fairchild
-4th: dines with Helen McGlade and other guests
-8th: meets W.G. Constable
-9th: is proposed for the position of curator at the Art Museum of Baltimore
-10th: attends a cocktail party hosted by Bill Cummings & writes about his views on American painting; dines with Miss Carpenter who - being 'indifferent to people's thoughts and occupations but merely interested in their behaviour and ancestry' - represents the old decaying social order
-11th-12th: visits New Haven and Yale; meets Robin Brewster; views the Jarves Collection; visits the Wadsworth Atheneum
-13th: hears Klaus and Erika Mann give a talk at Ford Hall
-17th: attends a lecture given by Mrs Vavala at the Fogg museum; attends a dinner party at Edward Forbes' house where W.G. Constable gives an address on art criticism
-18th: attends a lecture about Giotto given by Mrs Vavala
-19th: spends all day looking at the Fogg museum pictures with Mrs Vavala and Miss Gilman; dines with Alfred Nicholson
-20th: visits St Paul's school in Concord, New Hampshire; references his sexuality
-24th: lunches with Belle Greene and Bobby Leveridge in New York
-25th: visits an exhibition of works by Piero di Cosimo and an exhibition of works by Gros, Delacroix and Gericault; meets Samuel Kress and views his private collection; views the private collection of Robert Lehman [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
-26th: socialises with Frederick Hartt [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
-27th: spends the day with Henry & Esther Clifford at their house in Radford, Philadelphia; returns to Boston [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
December
-3rd: dines with Roger Mynors
-11th: dines with the Mr & Mrs McCain in Beverly
-14th: visits Boston with Roger Mynors
-17th: dines with a large group of young Americans who were 'typical anti-Roosevelt, anti-Jew, isolationist, sentimental about England and very anxious to hear my reactions about America'
-18th: attends a party at Shady Hill, hosted by Paul Sachs
-22nd: travels to New York; attends a party organised by the Morrow family
-23rd-26th: views some of the pictures from the collection of Randolph Hearst in a shop on 57th Street; stays with the Morrow family at Englewood, New Jersey; meets David Ogilvy
-27th-28th: views the private collection of Granville Winthrop with staff of the Fogg museum
-29th: views an exhibition of French manuscripts at the Morgan library; visits the site of the World Fair exhibition; meets Mary Churchill (daughter of Judge Learned Hand)
-30th: views the private collection of George Blumenthal
31st: reflects on the past year and summarises what he has learnt. For example: 'I cannot live in the pure air of Bloomsbury intellectualism which died in 1929'; spends the evening at Byba Coster's house in Warwick [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
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| Image Caption | Journal entry for 25-26 September concerning a visit to the United States, 1938 |
| Journal entry for 25-28 November concerning a visit to the United States, 1938 (3pp) |
| Journal entry for 31 December, concerning reflections on the past 6 months, 1938 (2pp) |