Call Number:

C0038

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

93 boxes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1917-1947 (bulk) and 1827-1970 (inclusive)

Creator:

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. (Ananda Kentish) (1877-1947)

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century, Notebooks., Photographs, Original., and Research notes.

Abstract:

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was a noted art historian and champion of Ceylonese and Indian culture. This collection covers a broad spectrum of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy's work in the fields of art history, philosophy, religion, and social criticism.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was a noted art historian and champion of Ceylonese and Indian culture. Born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), in 1877, Coomaraswamy moved to England in 1879 and attended Wycliffe College, a preparatory school, from the age of 12. In 1900, he graduated from University College, London, with a degree in geology and botany, and in 1906, he received a doctor of science for his study of Ceylonese mineralogy. He served as director of the Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon from 1902 to 1907 before moving to the United States to serve as curator of Indian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where he stayed for the remainder of his life. Coomaraswamy devoted himself to the study of traditional Ceylonese and Indian arts and crafts, the cataloging of Indian art collections, and research on Indian art, religion, metaphysics, and culture. He died in 1947.

This collection covers a broad spectrum of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy's work in the fields of art history, philosophy, religion, and social criticism. Present in these papers are typescript drafts, proofs, and revised published copies of many of his articles and a few of his books, A New Approach to the Vedas (London: Luzac, 1933), Time and Eternity (Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1947), Yaksas (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 1928). Many retyped and edited versions of Coomaraswamy's work prepared for the Bollingen Foundation by Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy after her husband's death may be found with the manuscripts, as well as many illustrations which accompany the works that appear in these papers.

In addition, the collection houses an assortment of notebooks, subject files, and loose notes, correspondence (mostly with colleagues and editors), memorabilia including a tribute to Coomaraswamy compiled by S. Durai Raja Singam, a group of photographs and miscellaneous illustrations, a large group of reprints of Coomaraswamy's articles, plus a smaller group of miscellaneous printed material. A significant portion of the collection consists of Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy's writings, notes, and correspondence. Of special interest is Mrs. Coomaraswamy's correspondence with Wallace Brockway and Alvin Moore which details her editorial methods in her work for the Bollingen Foundation.

A large group of photographs documenting Indic temples and artwork and dance from India and Southeast Asia, is also present, along with drawings, clippings, negatives, postcards, and research notes kept throughout Coomaraswamy's tenure at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

There is no Box 41 in the collection.