Scope and Content of Collection

The records comprise interviews that were conducted by the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP) and Brown University's Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS) in 1986 and 1988. The interviews consist of discussions with experts and researchers in the history of art and architecture. Materials include bound transcripts of the majority of the interviews as well as some of the original sound recordings.

In 1986 interviews were conducted with art historians as part of a nine-month study that examined research concerns and practices as a basis for discovering what kinds of automated tools and networked resources would enhance their scholarly work. The study resulted in the text Object, image, inquiry: the art historian at work by Elizabeth Bakewell, William O. Beeman, and Carol McMichael Reese (Getty Art History Information Program). Bakewell (Social Science Research Analyst in the Office of Program Analysis at IRIS), Beeman (Director of the IRIS Office of Program Analysis), and Marilyn Schmitt (Program Manager in charge of scholarly coordination of art historical projects at AHIP), conducted these interviews.

The 1988 interviews were conducted with architectural historians as a postscript to the earlier interviews. In contrast to the more general investigation that characterized the 1986 interviews, the purpose of this second round of interviews was to examine research practice in a specialized area of art history. The 1988 interviews were conducted by Marilyn Schmitt, Carol McMichael Reese (Research Consultant, AHIP), and Deborah N. Wilde (Research Associate, AHIP).

Arrangement

These materials are intellectually arranged in two categories: art historians and architectural historians. Within those categories the materials are arranged alphabetically by the historians' surnames. The audiocassettes are housed separately for preservation purposes. Digitzed copies of the transcripts are available online.