to the Salon featuring
Three Letters from Harrison Morris of PAFA
to Art Promoter Charles Kurtz

re J. William Fosdick's
1896 Exhibition and Lecture
at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
in Philadelphia

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Three Letters from Harrison Morris, Managing Director, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to Charles Kurtz, Art Promoter, re The March 1896 Exhibition of J. William Fosdick in Philadelphia

The three 1896 letters from Harrison S. Morris to Charles Kurtz displayed here offer a glimpse into the inner workings of a 19th Century exhibition. It seems remarkable that some of the major arrangements were still being made at such late dates, considering that both correspondence and transportation would have, in theory, been slower and less efficient back then.

Because we also have the catalogue for this exhibition and can see that there were more than 42 art objects to manage for Fosdick alone, including some very large panels, the whole operation seems even more impressive.

Six of the works in Fosdick's 1896 exhibit were studies or designs, while the Joan of Arc is actually three panels, each nine feet tall, and his Louis XIV is the size of a massive door.

By way of background, it seems that Charles Kurtz had been working with Harrison Morris specifically on the other part of this joint exhibition, that is, the Glasgow School of painters. And it was thanks to the Kurtz Papers in the collection of the Smithsonian's Library in Washington, D.C. that these letters, as well as one from Fosdick to Kurtz in 1902, all came to light. New York City was not Kurtz's home address but rather a place where he often stayed on business. Many of the letters in his collection showed that he was staying at the famous Lotos Club there (where Fosdick had a large and important exhibition in 1900). This address for Kurtz, however, does not appear to be that of the Lotos Club, but it is an ideal location right in front of New York's beautiful Central Park.

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If you have either any questions to ask or any additional information to offer on the exhibition, lecture or works by J. William Fosdick, please e-mail the E-Museum Curator.

You are leaving the exhibit of
Three Letters re arrangements for
J. William Fosdick's 1896 Exhibition and Lecture
in Philadelphia