Call Number:

C1514

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 2 boxes
• 0.8 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); William C. Seitz Notebooks, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1949-1950 (inclusive)

Creator:

Seitz, William Chapin

Form:

Notebooks -- 20th century

Abstract:

William Chapin Seitz (1914-1974) was an art historian, painter, and museum curator who received the first PhD in modern art from Princeton University in 1955. The collection consists of ten notebooks Seitz kept for his early courses on ancient art and architecture in Princeton University's Department of Art and Archaeology in 1949 and 1950.

William Chapin Seitz (1914-1974) was an art historian, painter, and museum curator who received the first PhD in modern art from Princeton University in 1955. He wrote his dissertation on Abstract Expressionism following a yearlong debate over his topic within the Department of Art and Archaeology due to the faculty's divided views. Seitz remained at Princeton as an assistant professor until 1960 when he left to become a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The collection consists of ten notebooks kept by William C. Seitz as a graduate student in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Notebooks include reading and lecture notes, sketches of ancient sculptures and buildings, test booklets, course syllabi, and assignments for his early courses on ancient art and architecture in 1949 and 1950. They contain both typescript and manuscript notes, chronologies, and outlines, including frequent annotations, drawings, and clippings from art history textbooks. Notebooks also contain notes and reflections on lectures by Princeton professors including E. Baldwin Smith and Richard Stillwell.