The records comprise written documentation and photographs documenting the exhibitions of the J. Paul Getty Museum from the early 1980s to 2004. Materials include black-and-white and color photographic prints, slides, negatives, transparencies, and digital images (TIFFs).

The J. Paul Getty Museum was established as a charitable trust in 1953 by oil tycoon 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.

14.8 linear feet (36 boxes)

Due to rights restrictions, reproductions cannot be provided for materials in this collection.

The records described in accession 2007.IA.36 and 2011.IA.43 are available for use by qualified researchers. Access is limited to in-person consultation in the Research Library Reading Room.