Frances Mulhall Achilles Library

The most comprehensive research collection in the field of twentieth-century American art, the Frances Mulhall Achilles Library contains more than 37,000 books and exhibition catalogs as well as over 500 linear feet of vertical files on American art and artists.

Originally the personal collection of the Museum's founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the library has been collecting research materials on American artists for the past seventy years. The library catalog of book titles, WhitneyCat, is available online. Library visitors also have access to a wide variety of electronic resources, including periodical indices, auction databases and bibliographies.

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Special Collections

The Special Collections consist of artist’s books, portfolios, photographs, titles in the Whitney Fellows Artist and Writers Series (1982-2001), posters and the extensive documentation of American art compiled by thirty museums and college art departments between 1942 and 1948 under the auspices of the American Art Research Council.


Museum Archives

The Whitney Museum's Archives are the repository for the institution’s exhibition records, photographs, curator's research notes, artist's correspondence, audio and video recordings, Trustee's minutes and institutional papers from the Museum's early years to the present. These records document the evolution of the leading institution of twentieth-century American art and also shed light on the Whitney's mission and context: the story of American art itself. Please note: there may be restrictions on access to some of these files.

A recent scholarly review of the Archive's documents on Arshille Gorky, who had an interesting relationship with the Museum, is chronicled on the Whitney Museum website here.

The Archives also contain the Hopper Research Collection, an extensive collection of research materials gathered for the 1995 catalog raisonné. Included here are photographs of Hopper, documentary photographs of the Whitney's Hopper drawings, past exhibition records, curatorial files and notebooks. The Hopper Research Collection is available to scholars, by appointment only.

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Access to the Collections

Limited Library access is available to visiting scholars, by appointment only. If you wish to schedule an appointment, please call 212-570-3648 or email your request to library@whitney.org.

Research Assistance
Researchers without access to the Library may send simple reference questions relevant to our collection on twentieth-century American art. The Library staff will conduct brief searches to identify resources which may further scholarly research. Our highest priority will be questions about Whitney Museum exhibitions, publications and events.

To place a query by mail, please write to the Frances Mulhall Achilles Library, Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021. Questions can be faxed to (212) 570-7729 .