North America - U.S.A.

Freer Gallery of Art / Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution -- Phase 1 --

Website

Freer and Sackler Library


Address

Smithsonian Institution
MRC 707, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, U.S.A.


contact

Reiko Yoshimura
Head Librarian
Tel: +1 202-633-0481
Fax: +1 202-786-2936
e-mail: yoshire@si.sedu

Beth Duley
Head, Collection Management
Tel: +1 202-633-0342
Fax: +1 202-357-4911
e-mail: duleyel@si.edu


Size of collection

a)Library : Books & manuscripts: ca. 400 titles / 1900 volumes.
b)Art collection : Books 950 titles, 1586 volumes, Single - Sheet Items ca. 5000 sheets

Collection description

    a) Library Collection
  • Originally purchased at beginning of the 20th century, by the donor of the Freer Gallery collection, Charles Lang Freer. Includes mainly woodblock-printed illustrated books and manuscripts from the Edo and Meiji periods. The creators include such ukiyoe artists as Okumura Masanobu, Kitao Masanobu, and Suzuki Harunobu. The two largest numbers of works are by Ando Hiroshige (13 titles) and Katsushika Hokusai (37 titles). Also, included works by Tani Bunchō, Sakai Hōitsu, and Kawamura Bunpō. Other significant groups of books are books and manuscripts on tea ceremony and flower arrangement and travels.
  • Robert O. Muller collection
    An art dealer and collector around the Boston area, Muller donated approximately 100 volumes of woodblock-printed illustrated books from the Meiji period in 2003.
    b)Art collection
  • Woodblock prints (ukiyoe prints) and album leaves from the Edo and Meiji periods
  • Robert O. Muller collection : Woodblock prints from the Meiji and Taishō periods
  • Pulverer Collection
    Acquired in 2007, a collection of Japanese illustrated books (950 titles, 1586 volumes) from a German collector, Gerhert Pulverer. The collection, assembled since the 1970s is the most important private collection of Japanese illustrated books outside Japan. The books date mainly from the Edo period (1615–1868) and Meiji era (1868–1912), the golden age of woodcut printed books. The subjects of printed books range far more widely that the familiar single-sheet prints, which focus mainly on the "floating world" of actors and courtesans.Major artists of the Rinpa, Maruyama-Shijō, and Nanga schools who never designed commercially-published prints were active in book illustration and design.The Pulverer collection is an incomparable a vast resource of images, poetry, prose, and calligraphy.


Access to bibliographic data

Online catalogues
Library Catalog ( see also OCLC )
Art collection

B)Printed catalogues

  • Freer Gallery of Art Library. Dictionary catalog of the Library of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. 2nd enl. ed. Microfiche. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991. 252 fiches.
  • Freer Gallery of Art Library. Dictionary catalog of the Library of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1967. 6 v.


How can researchers gain access to the material?

By appointment.


Select bibliography of publications about the collections (books, articles)

  • Suzuki, Jun. "Furia Bijutsukan shozō Takao Tayū ni tsuite." In Kyōkai to Nihon bungaku: proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Japanese Literature. Kokubungaku Kenkyū Shiryōkan, 2000. (Includes discussion on: Masanobu Kitao, Shin bijin awase jihitsu kagami).
  • Suzuki, Jun. "Kōrin gafu kō." Ukiyoe geijutsu, no. 145 (Jan. 2003)


Is reproduction of the material permitted ?

Library : No photocopy allowed. Digitizing or scanning should be done by gallery staff. Charges are only for actual cost. For publishing purpose, treated same as reproductions of art collection objects.

Art collection : Requires permission from the gallery by submitting a designated form. Fees vary depending on the form and purpose of reproduction. Contact Dept. of Rights & Reproductions

NOTE : Publishing any images owned by the galleries requires appropriate acknowledgement.