Descriptive Summary
Biographical/Historical Note
Administrative Information
Scope and Content of Collection
Descriptive Summary
Title: Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf papers
Date (inclusive): 1925-1981
Number: 840024
Creator/Collector:
Middeldorf, Ulrich
Alexander
Physical Description:
71.72 Linear Feet
(172 boxes)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: German-American art historian who
specialized in the areas of sculpture, bronzes, and the applied arts. The bulk of the
collection consists of Middeldorf's research files: clippings and bibliographic notations
about the arts, particularly sculpture, drawings, Renaissance medals, and applied arts such
as costumes, textiles, furniture, and metalwork.
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Language: Collection material is in English
and German.
Biographical/Historical Note
Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf, born in 1901, was a German-American art historian who
specialized in the study of sculpture, medals, and the minor and applied arts. He was
director of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Longhi Institute, and then served as the
director and librarian of the Kusthistorisches Institute until his death in 1983.
In addition to his research specializations, Middeldorf had an abiding interest in Italian
art, and a collector's passion for the connection between art and fiction. He assembled a
collection of fiction, much of it popular, paperback works, which include characters or plot
lines that relate to art (artists, art history, forgery, etc.). This collection of Art in
Fiction was acquired by the Getty Research Institute Library in 1984. Middeldorf's
correspondence with Sybille Pantazzi about his art in fiction collecting and other interests
(1966-1983) may be seen in Special Collections Accession no. 950004.
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf Papers 1925-1981, Getty Research Institute, Research Library,
Accession no. 840024.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa840024
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 1984.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Ulrich Alexander Middeldorf papers contain some correspondence, many clippings, also
photographs, postcards, bibliographic and research notes, as well as articles, offprints and
annotated books, dating from ca. 1925 -1981. These papers document his research interests
and contacts with other art historians and some students. His interests in Italian art,
sculpture, medals and the applied arts are evident in the research files which cover
costume, architecture, textiles, graphic arts, Italian artists, decorative arts, as well as
sculpture and medals. The collection comprises ca. 55 linear ft.
Arrangement note
The papers are organized in five series:
Series I. Clippings files (boxes 1-17);
Series II. Letters and bibliographic notes (boxes 18-21);
Series III. Journals and
offprints (boxes 22-38);
Series IV. Annotated books (boxes 39-48, 167-172);
Series V. Bibliographic files (boxes 49-166).