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In the Company of Art: A Museum Director's Private Journals
Over the years as the director of the St. Louis Art Museum and later the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Perry T. Rathbone kept a journal. These are his unguarded and spontaneous expressions of the moment, not meant for publication—at least not in his lifetime.
Alone in his study at the end of a day, Rathbone wrote in a large, unlined sketchbook, unloading whatever was fresh on his mind. Whether a meeting at the museum, a business trip, or a party he had just returned from, he wrote about whom he met, what he thought of them, the ambiance, the conversation, the art, the wine, and the food.
Rathbone’s journals provide a window onto an era of seismic cultural change seen through the eyes of an art czar and a tastemaker. There are meetings with artists such as William de Kooning, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, Isamu Noguchi, and Alexander Calder, men of letters such as T.S. Eliot and Aldous Huxley. There are candid impressions of the collectors he courted, entertained, and forbore, such as Peggy Guggenheim and Joseph Pulitzer, and of the eccentric Boston Brahmin families with historic ties to the MFA—the Lowells, Lambs, Warrens, Coolidges, and Codmans. And of course he writes of the thrill of assisting Jaqueline Kennedy in the early 1960s with loans from the MFA to adorn the private quarters in the White House.
In the Company of Art opens with journal entries from the later years of Rathbone’s time at the St. Louis Art Museum in the early 1950s. But the greatest concentration of entries focuses on the early 1960s, during the banner years of Rathbone’s directorship of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (the meteoric “Rathbone Era”) when he began to enjoy the rewards of his achievements at the museum with new acquisitions, renovated galleries, rising attendance and membership. “Many of the museum's great acquisitions,” the Boston Globe wrote, “can be credited to Perry Rathbone, the legendary director of the MFA.”
Urbane and charismatic, Rathbone won renown as the dean of museum directors in the United States, rightly celebrated for his ability to transform museums from quiet repositories of art into vibrant cultural centers. This is a unique record of what he thought and how he felt along the way.
Alone in his study at the end of a day, Rathbone wrote in a large, unlined sketchbook, unloading whatever was fresh on his mind. Whether a meeting at the museum, a business trip, or a party he had just returned from, he wrote about whom he met, what he thought of them, the ambiance, the conversation, the art, the wine, and the food.
Rathbone’s journals provide a window onto an era of seismic cultural change seen through the eyes of an art czar and a tastemaker. There are meetings with artists such as William de Kooning, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, Isamu Noguchi, and Alexander Calder, men of letters such as T.S. Eliot and Aldous Huxley. There are candid impressions of the collectors he courted, entertained, and forbore, such as Peggy Guggenheim and Joseph Pulitzer, and of the eccentric Boston Brahmin families with historic ties to the MFA—the Lowells, Lambs, Warrens, Coolidges, and Codmans. And of course he writes of the thrill of assisting Jaqueline Kennedy in the early 1960s with loans from the MFA to adorn the private quarters in the White House.
In the Company of Art opens with journal entries from the later years of Rathbone’s time at the St. Louis Art Museum in the early 1950s. But the greatest concentration of entries focuses on the early 1960s, during the banner years of Rathbone’s directorship of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (the meteoric “Rathbone Era”) when he began to enjoy the rewards of his achievements at the museum with new acquisitions, renovated galleries, rising attendance and membership. “Many of the museum's great acquisitions,” the Boston Globe wrote, “can be credited to Perry Rathbone, the legendary director of the MFA.”
Urbane and charismatic, Rathbone won renown as the dean of museum directors in the United States, rightly celebrated for his ability to transform museums from quiet repositories of art into vibrant cultural centers. This is a unique record of what he thought and how he felt along the way.
201 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2024
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About the author
Perry T. Rathbone
22 booksPerry Townsend Rathbone was one of the leading American art museum directors of the 20th century. As director of the St. Louis Art Museum from 1940–1955, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1955–1972, he transformed these institutions from quiet repositories of art to vibrant cultural centers. Known for his sensitive installations as well as his bold publicity stunts, he increased the membership and attendance figures of both institutions exponentially, and also added significant works to their permanent collections across the board.
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January 23, 2026
A thoroughly compelling informal journal by a man of great taste and privilege. This book was edited by Perry Rathbone’s daughter Belinda, with the assistance of her siblings Peter and Eliza. It is an awe inspiring record of a rich life of such interwoven social connection and travel that it feels almost voyeuristic. As the pages turned and I found one account after another to be particularly resonant- Rathbone travels to Utica for a museum opening then on to Buffalo for an opening and parties that end in the wee hours with then Director Gordon Washburn and patron Seymour Knox. There is a thread that details his meetings with Jacqueline Kennedy and ends with an impromptu visit with Jackie O on Skorpios. And an entry on several days on Mount Athos. And then Kyoto, the studio of Noguchi and Tokyo. Rathbone becomes a museums liason for Christie’s and his daughter sums up the fact that Rathbone no longer had time for journal entries as he had at the height of his career as director of the MFA. He was interviewed at length for oral histories and those interviews, she says, offer a crisp and clear account of what - I believe- was an exceptional life in the arts.
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