Network Analysis and Forming a National Collection The Case of Charles Lang Freer

Library Digital Scholarship Program, Fall 2022
This presentation will showcase network analysis through the case study of the pioneering American collector Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), who bequeathed his collection of American, Asian, ancient Near Eastern, and Islamic art to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC in 1906 establishing the Smithsonian’s first art museum and formed the foundational collection of today’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA).
As participants to the 2019-2022 Network Analysis and the Digital Art History Workshop supported by the Getty Foundation, the speakers examine Freer’s efforts to collect ancient Near Eastern and Islamic art from 1907 to 1909 and discuss the findings about the complex relationships between Freer and the artists, business associates, collectors, dealers, and scholars he interacted with in the United States, Europe, and the Near East through the data compiled from Freer’s diaries, museum records, photographic materials and contextual research to understand the key developments in the formation of a national museum collection.

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