Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
J. Paul Getty Trust Oral History Transcripts, 1999-2009
IA10024
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Getty oral history transcripts
Date (inclusive): 1999-2010
Number: IA10024
Creator/Collector:
J. Paul Getty Trust
Physical Description:
1.35 Linear Feet
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Institutional Records and Archives
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
Abstract: Records comprise the final transcripts and three videos of oral histories conducted with Getty staff, trustees, and associates
by Oral Historian Eric Abrahamson between 1999 and 2010.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical material described in this inventory through its corresponding
library catalog record and click "Request." Click here for
general library access policy . See the Administrative Information section of this finding aid for access restrictions specific to the records described
below. Please note, the records are stored off site; advanced notice is required for access to these materials.
Language: Collection material is in
English
The J. Paul Getty Trust Oral History Project was launched in the fall of 1999 to capture the insights and perspectives of
individuals who made critical contributions to the development of the Trust and its programs. These interviews have been conducted
to provide a rich resource of perspectives on the history of the Getty as an institution; they are intended to help future
generations of Getty leaders understand the organizational dynamics that shaped and will continue to shape the J. Paul Getty
Trust. For historians and managers, they also provide the rich detail and color that makes the stories of the past inspire
a new generation to carry on the work of the moment.
No oral history project will be an exhaustive or comprehensive resource for the history of the Trust. The project focused
on the development of the Trust's strategy and structure and the organizational culture that affected the realization of the
Trust's broadest goals. Although it has touched on specific activities of the programs, it has done so in an effort to explore
the dynamics of the Trust as a whole. Documentation of the specific Trust Programs, or of projects undertaken by various
Trust entities, is not included. Therefore, the project to date has focused on institutional organization and dynamics rather
than on the Getty's specific activities, accomplishments, and influence.
Work on the project has been continuous since the late 1990s, with a few periods of heightened activity. Altogether, 60 former
trustees, current and former staff members, and outside advisors have been interviewed for the project, comprising 65 interviews.
The project had four phases:
Formative Years, 1976-1997 (Interviews in 1999-2001): This first phase focused on Trustees and Trust executives who were
involved in shaping the Trust's strategy and structure following the death of J. Paul Getty in 1976. Conceived by the project's
sponsor Stephen Rountree (Vice President and Chief Operations Officer), this phase was intended to document the President
Harold Williams' years. The interview list was developed in close cooperation with the President's Office and included nearly
all of the members of the Board of Trustees whose service concluded in these years along with the top management of the Trust,
including chief executive officers, program directors, and some senior staff. Of all the individuals contacted, only one former
trustee declined to participate. This phase was completed by 2001 and comprised 25 interviews.
Formative Years Staff Interviews, 1954-1997 (Interviews in 2001-present): As budget and schedules permitted, interviews were
conducted with former and current staff members whose tenure with the Getty began prior to 1984. Priority was generally given
to the longest serving employees to capture the history of the earliest days of the institution. These interviews have been
occasional and were intended to supplement the record established with the first phase. The selection was somewhat opportunistic,
because it was decided not to interview people until after they had left the Getty's employment. This phase comprised 16 interviews.
Getty Villa Program Planning, 1984-1997 (Interviews in 2007-2009): Stimulated by the re-opening of the Getty Villa, this
phase was designed as a case study in the Getty's management history; it intended to explore the institution-wide process
undertaken to define a new program for the renovated Villa. Interviewees were chosen from a research survey of documents
related to Villa program planning during the formative years in the mid-1990s. Seven interviews were conducted and a draft
narrative created. Work to finalize these interviews was put on hold until the oral history program was re-evaluated.
Transition Years of the Trust, 1998-2006 (Interviews in 2008-2010): Interviews focused on the restructuring of the Trust's
programs in the years following the opening of the Getty Center and under a new president and CEO. Under the project's sponsor,
President James Wood, this effort sought to document the President Barry Munitz years using a methodology analogous to the
initial oral history project focused on the Williams years. This phase encompassed interviews with 17 different individuals.
All interviews for the oral history project have been conducted by Dr. Eric John Abrahamson, president and principal historian
with Vantage Point Historical Services, Inc.. Abrahamson received his doctorate in history from Johns Hopkins University.
In addition to the Getty Trust, Abrahamson has conducted oral histories for the Canadian Center for Architecture, the Samuel
and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, the Connecticut Audubon Society, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Pacific
Telesis Group. In addition, he is the author or co-author of a number of organizational histories including
Anytime, Anywhere: Entrepreneurship and the Creation of a Wireless World with Dr. Louis Galambos (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and
Spirited Commitment: The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation with Dr. Roderick MacLeod (McGill-Queens University Press, 2010). Abrahamson's book
Building Home: Howard F. Ahmanson and the Politics of the American Dream was published by the University of California Press in January 2013. He is currently writing and editing a series of books
to be published in conjunction with the Rockefeller Foundation's centennial.
The J. Paul Getty Trust is a not-for-profit institution, educational in purpose and character, that focuses on the visual
arts in all of their dimensions.
The origins of the J. Paul Getty Trust date to 1953, when J. Paul Getty established the J. Paul Getty Museum as a California
charitable trust to house his growing art collections. Originally a small, private institution located in Mr. Getty's ranch
house near Malibu, the museum moved to the newly constructed Getty Villa in grounds adjacent to the ranch house in 1974. When
most of Mr. Getty's personal estate passed to the trust in 1982, the trustees decided that, given the size of the endowment,
it should make a contribution to the visual arts and humanities that would reach even beyond the museum. Out of this resolve
grew an expanded commitment to the arts in the general areas of scholarship, conservation, and education. Harold M. Williams
was the first president and CEO of the trust, serving from 1981 through 1998. Williams supervised the Trust's development
of new programs, with the advice and recommendations of advisors such as Lani Duke and Nancy Englander. The programs included
the Center for the History of Arts and Humanities, Art History Information Institute, Conservation Institute, and Center for
Education in the Arts, as well as smaller programs, such as the Museum Management Institute and the Program for Art on Film.
In 1983 the Trust's name was changed from the J. Paul Getty Museum to the J. Paul Getty Trust to reflect its broader scope,
with the museum becoming an operating program of the Trust. As of 2010 the Trust supports and oversees four programs: the
J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Foundation, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Research Institute.
Due to expanded operations and limited space at the original J. Paul Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades (near Malibu), the
various programs of the J. Paul Getty Trust were located at different sites throughout the Los Angeles basin during the 1980s
and mid 1990s. The Trust's vision was to bring together most of their programs at a single site. A roughly 750-acre property
in Brentwood (west Los Angeles) was purchased by the Trust in 1983 and the following year the architectural firm Richard Meier
& Partners was chosen to design the Getty Center, to house the Trust, its newly created programs, and an additional space
for the Museum. Currently, the J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from both locations: the Getty
Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa near Malibu, California.
Restrictions are noted at the individual/transcript level and were designated by the participants. When known, the date on
which an interview will open for research has been noted.
Access to the hard copy transcript is available in the Reading Room of the Getty Research Institute.
The following types of records are permanently closed: records containing personal information, records that compromise security
or operations, legal communications, legal work product, and records related to donors. The J. Paul Getty Trust reserves the
right to restrict access to any records held by the Institutional Archives.
[Cite the item and series (as appropriate)], J. Paul Getty Trust Oral History Transcripts, 1999-2010. Institutinal Archives,
Getty Research Institute, IA10024.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifaia10024
The collections contains material from the following accessions: 2000.IA.02; 2001.IA.09; 2002.IA.07; 2002.IA.10; 2008.IA.28;
2009.IA.24; 2010.IA.25; 2011.IA.11; 2014.IA.24; and 2015.IA.18.
The inventory was initially created by Nancy Enneking in 2008 and updated on a regular basis thereafter. The inventory was
made available to the public in 2016.
Scope and Content of Collection
Records comprise the final transcripts and three videos of oral histories conducted with Getty staff, trustees, and associates
by Oral Historian Eric Abrahamson between 1999 and 2010. Though the interviews were conducted for specific projects, the
same individuals were interviewed for several projects and the results, in many cases, have been combined into a single transcript
for an individual. For this reason, the resulting transcripts have been listed by individual and not project. All interviews
that have been finalized are listed below with the date on which it will open for research. Several interviews are still
in the process of being finalized.
The interviews focus on the development of the Trust's strategy and structure and the organizational culture that affected
the realization of the Trust's broadest goals. Although discussion touches on specific activities of the programs, it has
done so in an effort to explore the dynamics of the Trust as a whole. Therefore, the interviews emphasize institutional organization
and dynamics rather than the Getty's specific activities, accomplishments, and influence.
Transcripts are listed in alphabetical order by the name of the participant.
Getty Conservation Institute
Getty Education Institute for the Arts
J. Paul Getty Trust
Getty Information Institute
Getty Research Institute
Getty Foundation
J. Paul Getty Museum
Art museums -- Administration
Museums -- Management
Conservation and cultural heritage
Research institutes
Art museums -- Design and construction
Art museum curators -- Interviews
Oral histories (document genres)
Transcripts
Interviews -- United States -- 20th century
J. Paul Getty Trust