Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 17 lin. ft.

Summary

1. The Guy C. McElroy Papers provide information on his college education as he worked toward his goal of becoming an art historian, in addition to documenting the various positions he held in the museum and art history fields - particularly as guest curator for the exhibition "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940." Aspects of his personal life are represented in the papers as well.

Subject

1. McElroy, Guy C
2. Duncanson, Robert S., 1821-1872
3. Bethune Museum and Archives
4. African American artists
5. African American art
6. African American sculpture
7. African Americans in art
8. African Americans in art -- Exhibitions
9. Art, American -- Exhibitions
10. African American women artists
11. African American folk art
12. African American scholars
13. Museum attendance -- California -- San Francisco
14. Art -- Netherlands
15. Painting, Dutch

Call number

1. Sc MG 337

Note

1. Photographs transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division.
2. Videotape transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.
3. Slides and exhibit brochures transferred to Art and Artifacts Division.

Access (note)

1. closed until 2041 or until her death, whichever comes first.
2. closed until 2065.

Source (note)

1. Williams, Charles Q., Executor

Biography (note)

1. Guy Clinton McElroy, art historian and curator, specialist in African-American art.

Processing action (note)

1. Processed
2. Processed, cataloged

Author

1. McElroy, Guy C.

Title

1. Guy C. McElroy papers, 1969-1990.

Access

1. Letters from Lynn Purdles closed until 2041 or until her death, whichever comes first.
2. Personal letters closed until 2065.

Biography

1. Guy Clinton McElroy, art historian and curator, specialist in African-American art. Born in 1948, and raised in Fairmont, West Virginia, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Education from Fairmont State College in West Virginia (1970), and was awarded the Master of Arts degree in Art History, specializing in nineteenth century American and French art from the University of Cincinnati (1972). McElroy earned a second Master of Arts degree from Emerson College in Boston in Mass Communications, specializing in video production (1975). Between 1976 and ca.1980, he studied seventeenth century Dutch art, and later nineteenth century painting. Between 1983 and 1990 McElroy was enrolled at the University of Maryland as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Art, specializing in African-American art. A car accident which left him a paraplegic, led to his death in May, 1990.
2. McElroy held numerous art historian and curatorial positions in museums throughout the country during his twenty-year career. He held short-term positions at the following institutions: Cincinnati Art Museum (1970-1971), Utah Museum of Fine Arts (1972-1973), Emerson College (1973-1874), Museum of Afro-American History in Boston (1974), Walnut Creek Civic Art Gallery in California (1975), and the de Young Museum in San Francisco (1974-1976). From 1978-1982 he did administrative work and arranged and described the photograph archives. From 1982-1988 he served as Assistant Director.
3. McElroy made his most significant contribution to the art world in his capacity as guest curator at the Corcoran Galley of Art in Washington, D.C. (1986-1990). He curated the exhibition "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940," which opened in 1990. This show, which received national attention, examined the ways in which American artists, both African-American and white, "reinforced a number of largely restrictive stereotypes of black identity," as McElroy wrote in the accompanying catalog.

Finding aids

1. Inventory available.

Connect to:

1. Finding aid

Occupation

1. Art historians United States.
2. Museum curators United States.

Research call number

1. Sc MG 337