The records comprise files relating to J. Paul Getty Museum guest scholars, visiting conservators and general program files, dating 1978-1996, in addition to photograph albums dating 1979-2005. Files include general and personal information regarding visitors as well as information and photographs documenting their scholarly activities and their time at the Museum.

The J. Paul Getty Museum was established as a charitable trust in 1953 by billionaire J. Paul Getty in order to house his growing art collections. Getty had been collecting art since the 1930s. The J. Paul Getty Museum originally opened in 1954, with relatively little publicity, in two rooms of Mr. Getty's Ranch House in the Pacific Palisades near Malibu, California. By August 1955 the museum in the Ranch House had six gallery areas. In 1956 Mr. Getty began planning a new antiquities gallery, which was completed and opened to the public in mid-December 1957. Each year the number of museum visitors increased, and though Mr. Getty curtailed his art acquisitions activities beginning in 1958, the museum continued to grow.

7.25 linear feet (6 boxes and 9 binders)

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The records described in accession 2006.IA.25 are available for use by qualified researchers.