Object Details
- Creator
- Stout, George L. (George Leslie)
- Subject
- Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph)
- Gardner, G. Peabody (George Peabody)
- Ivins, William Mills
- Marceau, Henri
- Hall, Ardelia Ripley
- Howe, Thomas Carr
- Sizer, Theodore
- Buck, Richard D.
- Warner, Langdon (1881-1955)
- Constable, W. G. (William George)
- Moore, Lamont
- Worcester Art Museum
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
- Allied Forces. Supreme Headquarters. Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section
- Fogg Art Museum
- Place of publication, production, or execution
- United States
- Physical Description
- 6.4 Linear feet
- Arrangement
- This collection is arranged as 9 series. Series 1: Biographical Materials, circa 1919-1977 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1) Series 2: Correspondence, 1922-1978 (2.5 linear feet; Box 1-3, OV 8) Series 3: Writings, 1927-1978 (0.5 linear feet; Box 3-4) Series 4: Subject Files, 1918, 1943-1978 (1 linear feet; Box 4, OV 8-9) Series 5: Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives Section Files, 1918, 1942-1955, 1972-1975 (0.5 linear feet; Box 5, 10) Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1938-1978 (0.1 linear feet; Box 5) Series 7: Printed Materials, 1926-1977 (0.8 linear feet; Box 5-6, OV 9) Series 8: Sketchbooks, circa 1924-circa 1938, 1970-1977 (0.1 linear feet; Box 6) Series 9: Photographic Materials, circa 1855, 1897-1978 (0.2 linear feet; Box 6-7)
- Access Note / Rights
- This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
- Summary
- The papers of conservator and museum director George Leslie Stout measure 6.4 linear feet and date from 1855, 1897-1978. Stout was head of the conservation department at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum, director of the Worcester Art Museum and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Massachusetts, and a member of the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives (MFAA) Section of the U.S. Army during World War II. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with family, friends, colleagues and professional associations. There are letters from fellow Monuments Men who served in the MFAA section such as Thomas Carr Howe, Ardelia Hall, Lamont Moore, Theodore Sizer, Langdon Warner and several other prominent arts administrators. The papers also contain biographical materials, writings, sketches and one sketchbook, military records, printed materials, and photographs. There is a 0.2 linear foot addition to this collection acquired in 2020 that includes four diaries, 1944-1946, kept by George Stout as a member of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section (MFAA) of the U.S. Army (known as the Monuments Men). The diaries describe Stout's experiences surveying war-caused damages in France, Germany, and Japan, and the recovery of Nazi impounded art works. Also included is a hand-made booklet that includes a "Glossary of Cha-no-yu Terms," which consists of quotes about Japanese art and tea drinking.
- Citation
- George Leslie Stout papers, 1855, 1897-1978. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Additional Forms
- Portions of this collection and material lent for microfilming are available on 35 mm microfilm reels 1378, 1420-1425, and 1427 at Archives of American Art offices, and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the microfilmed order does not reflect the current arrangement of the papers.
- The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2022 and is available on the Archives of American Art website.
- Funding
- Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided in part by the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Walton Family Foundation, and private donors.
- Use Note
- The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
- Related Materials
- Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with George Stout conducted by Paul Karlstrom in 1978.
- Biography Note
- George Leslie Stout (1897-1978) was a museum director and prominent art conservator in Massachusetts. Stout was head of the conservation department at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum, and director of the Worcester Art Museum and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Massachusetts. During World War II, Stout served in the U.S. Army Monuments, Fine Art and Archives (MFAA) and played a leading role in the protection, location, and recovery of art work stolen by the Nazis.
- Born in Winterset, Iowa in 1897, George Leslie Stout was the oldest of six children and attended Winterset High School and served in the U.S. army during World War I. Following the war, Stout studied at the State University of Iowa, received his B.A. in 1921, worked for a few years, and married Margaret Hayes in 1924 with whom he had two sons, Robert and Thomas. He attended Harvard graduate school in 1926 and graduated with a Master of Art in 1929. Stout began working as a lecturer and conservator at Harvard's Fogg Art Museum, later becoming the head of the conservation department in 1933, a position he held until 1947.
- During World War II, Stout re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy, having served in the reserves since World War I. Stout was one of the first members of the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives (MFAA) Section of the U.S. army. He was appointed to the MFAA Section for the Twelfth Army Group in 1944 and was one of the first Monuments Men to arrive at Normandy, France. He was later appointed Lieutenant Commander of the MFAA Section. Many of the Monuments Men's stolen art recovery achievements were directed by George Leslie Stout. Stout supervised the inventory and removal of looted art hidden by the Nazis in the salt mines of Merkers and Ransbach in Thuringia, Germany. Stout oversaw the organization, packing, and shipping of several thousand objects including paintings by Rubens and Goya, along with precious antiquities. At the Altaussee salt mines in Austria, he was in charge of the unit that recovered a large cache of stolen artwork that included Michelangelo's Madonna and Child and the Ghent Altarpiece or The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. There, he also worked very closely with fellow Monuments Men Thomas Carr Howe. Stout went on to locate and recover looted artwork in other repositories in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. He maintained a relationship with many of his fellow Monuments Men after the war.
- Stout left Europe in the latter half of 1945, then went to Japan where he served as the Chief of the Arts and Monuments Division at Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Tokyo until the middle of 1946. After the war Stout received the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for his army service and work as a Monuments Man in Europe.
- Stout resumed his position as the head of the conservation department at the Fogg Art Museum when he returned to America. In 1947 he became the director of the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts where he stayed until 1955, when he became the director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston where he worked until his retirement in 1970. Stout wrote numerous articles about art conservation and wrote two books: Painting Materials, A Short Encyclopaedia (1942), co-authored with Harvard colleage R. J. Gettens, and Care of Pictures (1948). Stout died in Menlo Park, California in 1978 and was widely recognized as a distinguished art conservator.
- Language Note
- The collection is in English, with a few materials in French, Japanese, Italian, and Thai.
- Provenance
- George Leslie Stout donated his papers to the Archives of American Art in 1978. In that same year, Robert Stout, son of George Leslie Stout, loaned four diaries to the Archives of American Art for microfilming. The four diaries were acquired at auction by the Archives in 2020 with generous donations from Paul Neely, David Copperfield in memory of Kelly Asbury, Deborah Lehr and John Rogers, Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman, The Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Foundation, Jeffrey P. Cunard and Mariko Ikehara; The Elbrun and Peter Kimmelman Family Foundation, Inc.; Peter and Paula Lunder; William and Christine Ragland in memory of William McKenzie Ragland Lt. JG, U.S. Navy, Pacific Theater, WWII; The Kurin Family in honor of WWII Veteran Saul Kurin, Paul and Corine Wegener, and Judy and Bob Huret.
- Digitization Note
- This site provides access to the papers of George L. (George Leslie) Stout in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2023, and total 10,494 images.
- Location Note
- Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
- Record number
- (DSI-AAA_CollID)13421
- (DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)211684
- AAA_collcode_stougeor
- Type
- Photographs
- Sketches
- Sketchbooks
- Theme
- Diaries
- Diaries
- Research and writing about art
- Archives of American Art
- Topic
- Museum directors -- United States
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war
- Art -- Conservation and restoration
- Theme
- Diaries
- Diaries
- Research and writing about art
- Record ID
- AAADCD_coll_211684
