Introduction: ‘Historic libraries and the historiography of art’: articles arising from sessions held at the 107th College Art Association Annual Conference, New York, 13-16 February 2019, and the 108th College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, 12-15 February 2020

Abstract

How libraries have shaped the writing and reception of art history and criticism was explored in two sessions held at the College Art Association’s 2019 and 2020 annual conferences. The papers, revised and presented in the following pages, employ a range of methodologies to analyse key collections of books, prints and manuscripts. In so doing, their authors shed new light on the collections’ creation, organisation, and use. At the same time, the authors demonstrate that libraries constitute underutilized but vital resources for understanding the social, intellectual, and geo-political frameworks that have informed the development of art history as a discipline.