Mr. Nelson and his Art

Today marks the day that Nelson Rockefeller "died of a heart attack at his desk in New York City" in 1979. I'm not explaining the quotes. As most of you know, my first job in archives was working on Nelson's papers at the Rockefeller Archive Center and one of the first series I processed were the papers that documented his extensive Art Collection. In that collection of nearly 100 cubic feet were papers about all of the works of art Nelson collected, bought, sold, gave away, and donated to museums. It is an impressive collection of materials. You can read a description of them at the Archive Center's website here. You can also see the finding aid I created by searching the collections database here.

One of Nelson's prized works was Jackson Pollock's No. 12, which was significantly damaged in a fire in the Governor's Mansion. Nelson later donated it to the State of New York. I noted with great interest when I saw (as I do from most of the things I find on) kottke this story about Pollock's paintings. The kottke story links to a Smithsonian Magazine article about Pollock hiding his name in one of his many mural works.

In 1998, I gave a paper at the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting on Nelson's Art Collection. I recently came across the paper when I was doing some electronic file records management. I also talked about one of Henry Moore's Knife Edge sculptures in that paper, which Nelson owned and had installed on the family estate. Another is part of the National Gallery's permanent collection and is being restored.

So you still wondering about the quotes? Well he was in his office. He was near a desk. And he did die, so he's not saying what he may have been doing right before that.