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Albert Mathias Friend Papers

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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Friend

Albert Mathias Friend, Jr., was an officer and a scholar. After his undergraduate years (Princeton Class of 1915) and a few semesters of graduate study at Princeton, Friend served a tour of duty in the first World War. As a graduate student, he was permitted by the University to remain in Europe, studying and salvaging the great works of art and architecture that may have been damaged by the fighting. After he returned, Friend often spent summers or years abroad, studying manuscripts in the National Libraries of France and Italy. When he had completed his graduate studies, President Dodds offered him a research-intensive professorship in Art and Architecture. Concurrently, he was offered the Directorship of Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, where he had contributed immensely to their Byzantine research and collections. With ties to both Princeton and Dumbarton Oaks, it was a difficult decision. Friend chose the professorship but continued his relationship with Dumbarton Oaks, where he was later appointed Chairman of the Administrative Committee. In this position, he tried to strengthen the research relationship between Princeton and Harvard, putting special emphasis on the annual Dumbarton Oaks symposia.

Consists of personal papers of Friend, ranging from 1914 to 1955, the year before he passed away. These include his undergraduate and graduate notebooks, course plans and lecture outlines for seminars and classes he gave at Princeton, correspondence and souvenirs from all aspects of his life (military, academic, and personal), papers he delivered at Dumbarton Oaks symposia, research notebooks from his time abroad, and his scholarly notes, drawings, photographs, and negatives. Professor Friend's notes and papers are primarily on the subjects of medieval iconography and the architecture of cathedrals and theaters in ancient Greece, Rome, and other Mediterranean cultures. The notes also cover medieval painting and mosaic, classical Greek sculpture, and Byzantine art and architecture. Negatives show Byzantine and Latin manuscripts; art and architecture from Greece, Rome, and medieval France; as well as some personal travel photographs.

Roughly sorted.

Transferred from Department of Art and Archaeology in 2002 (2003-19). Negatives were transferred in 2013 (2014-49).

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This collection was processed in 2002. Finding aid written in 2002.

No appraisal information is available.

Publisher
Manuscripts Division
Finding Aid Date
2002
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

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Collection Inventory

Notes, papers, photographs, correspondence and course materials, 1924-1942. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Notebooks, 1913-1934. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Notebooks, 1915-1936. 1 box.
Physical Description

1 box

Notebooks, notes, papers, course materials, photographs, 1934-1951. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Includes binders containing research notes on iconography, along with small drawings of border ornaments, notes on "Stuttgart Psalter", Friend's 1946 contribution to the Dumbarton Oaks Symposium on "Mosaics of Basil I in Hagia Sophia," along with a program and summaries of papers for various symposia from 1948 to 1951, teaching and lecture notes and a syllabus for a course on Modern Painting (Spring 1943 ART 312), lectures in Modern Painting February-May 1934 Vol. III, Dumbarton Oaks Lectures, Rabula Gospels and the Church of Sion, Mosaics of Basil I in Hagia Sophia I and II (1945 April 2-4 and 1946 May 3), along with files of writings on "Basis on Style," "Ancient Ornament (Archit. 509)," "Northern Renaissance," "Dürer and Hercules Borghese," "Rubens and the Antique," "Baroque," "Romantic and Realistic Spirit in Art," "Fact and Interpretation (Short form) D.P.H. 1944 (Aug 9, 1944)," "Art - [?] and meaning, Sept 1 1943," "Style," "Ancient Portraiture," and "Lecture (Bryn Mawr College Feb 21, 1950, 8:30 pm) The Holy Apostles Church, Restoration of Mosaics."

Physical Description

1 box

Notebooks and notecards, PULC, 1916-1950. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Includes various notes, writings, drawings, and lectures, including files labeled, "Holy Apostles Church Restoration of the Mosaics, A. M. Friend, Jr., Bryn Mawr Lecture, Feb. 21, 1950 (Feast of Orthodoxy, Feb. 26, 1950), St. Tarasius," a brown notebook labeled "Notes, Greek, MSS Paris, GR 70," notecards on various topics, mostly greek philosophers and writers, and notebooks labeled "Evangelists, Standing Type, Alexandria, Greek, Syriac, Antioch, Armenian, Slavonic, Russian," "Evangelists, Seated, Type, Greek, Ephesus," Greek, Ephesus", "Evangelists, Old Latin, Irish", "Evangelists, Cassiodorus, Alcuin," "Ancient, PTG., 1917," and "Ital. Paint., A M Friend Jr, 3A Campbell."

Physical Description

1 box

Notes, photographs, correspondence, 1915-1954. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Includes a report from Friend to Professor Paul J. Sachs, Chairman of the Administrative Committee, Dumbarton Oaks, November 2, 1946, along with files on materials on "Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks, A.M. Friend Jr., Saturday, April 26, 1947," "Iconography: Anastasis," "The Iconography of the Crucifixion, Part I., Evolution of the Byzantine Type, April 1916, A.M. Friend Jr., Princeton University," "Iconography: Metamorphosis (Sinai)," "Pskov – Mirozhsky Ch of Transfiguration," "Sion Church, Apse," "Constant Rhodes," "Mesarites," "Dumbarton Oaks Symposium of Iconoclasm (1951 April 26-28)," "Symposium 1946, Dumbarton Oaks," "Summaries of Symposium Papers for 1951 Symposium on Iconoclasm," which primarily contain handwritten notes along with some photographs.

Physical Description

1 box

Notes, photographs, correspondence, 1935-1955. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Includes correspondence from the 1930s through 1950s, along with files labeled "American Academy in Rome," "Bicentennial Arrangements," "Religion and the Plastic Arts," "American School at Athens (Alex Robinson)," "Byzantine Exhibition Baltimore," "A. G. Cotton, Leofric's Landevennec Gospels," "Notes: Cotton," "Cotton, Leofric Gospels," "Florovsky," "McCormick," "Mommsen," "Schwarzenberg," "Rome, Vatican, Museo profano, Ivory disc of poet," "G. A. Canini, Iconografia Tav 28 Sophocles-inscribed Pindaros," "Gerasa: Trans-Jordan, Nymphaeum," "Antioch Great Theater Restoration," "Ephesos Theater," along with many folders of photographs and text relating to ancient philosophers and poets and theaters.

Physical Description

1 box

Dovai Negatives, circa 1920-1955. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Black-and-white, 4x5"-8x10."

Physical Description

1 box

Stuttgart Psalter Negatives, 1-100, circa 1920-1955. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Black-and-white, 4x5"-8x10."

Physical Description

1 box

Stuttgart Psalter Negatives, 101-200, circa 1920-1955. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Black-and-white, 4x5"-8x10."

Physical Description

1 box

Greek Manuscripts and Art Negatives, circa 1920-1955. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Black-and-white, 4x5"-8x10."

Physical Description

1 box

Greek Manuscripts Negatives, circa 1920-1955. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

Black-and-white, 8x10."

Physical Description

1 box

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