Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series exhibition records

Duncan Phillips was impressed by Jacob Lawrence‟s combination of abstraction and socially relevant subject matter and felt it would fit in well with his ever-expanding definition of American Modernism. The Migration Series, although focused on the migration of African Americans from the South to the North, it, as Charles Moffett writes in the exhibition catalogue‟s forward, “also addressed matters of migration and immigration that are part of the experience of the nation as a whole.” This is made abundantly clear in this curatorial collection, particularly in the interviews with and essays by Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Lonnie Bunch, III and Spencer Crew, Diane Tepfer (a portion of her doctoral thesis on Edith Halpert and the Downtown Gallery may be found in Box 1, folder 12 of the Catalogue Series), Deborah Willis and others. These consultants and others were brought in for planning meetings and interviews that involved not only the exhibition catalogue and the exhibition itself, but also the children‟s book and video based on the exhibition. Please note that most of the records of the consultants who wrote essays are in the catalogue series. Additional material on these and the other consultants and some other subjects, including education and events, will be found throughout all five series, due to this crossover.

This exhibition opened at The Phillips Collection September 23, 1993 and continued through January 9, 1994, moved to the Milwaukee Art Museum January 28, 1994 through March 20, to the Portland Art Museum April 19 through June 12, to the Birmingham Museum of Art July 10 through September 4, to the Saint Louis Art Museum September 30 through November 27, 1994 and to The Museum of Modern Art, New York January 11 through April 11, 1995. The exhibition continued touring to the High Museum of Art April 25 through June 25, 1995, the Denver Art Museum July 15 through September 10, 1995, the Chicago Historical Society September 22, through November 26, 1995, and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens August 4 through September 29, 1996, and the Arkansas Art Center November 14, 1996 through January 12, 1997.

Records in this collection were created and collected by curatorial staff of The Phillips Collection.

The collection consists of the catalogue, exhibition, children‟s book, video planning and production and the research files of The Phillips Collection. These records consist of research materials assembled, as well as catalogue, exhibition, children‟s book and video planning and execution documents such as checklists, correspondence, legal and financial records, loan requests and responses, publicity, publishing, reviews, schedules and audio/visual records.