Charles Morgan

Charles Hill Morgan

Charles Morgan
File:Portrait of Charles Morgan.jpgFile:Portrait of Charles Morgan.jpg File:Portrait of Charles Morgan.jpg
Born	(1902-09-19)September 19, 1902 Worcester, Massachusetts, US
💀Died	April 4, 1984(1984-04-04) (aged 81) Amherst, Massachusetts, USApril 4, 1984(1984-04-04) (aged 81)
Resting place	Wildwood Cemetery (Amherst, Massachusetts), US
🏫 Education	Hotchkiss School, Harvard University
💼 Occupation	William R. Mead Professor of Art, Emeritus, at Amherst College
Known for	Founder of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
👩 Spouse(s)	Janet Barton Morgan (m. 1929)
👶 Children	George S. B. Morgan, Audrey Leaf, and Prudence Morgan Fitts

Charles H. Morgan was the founding director of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. Over the course of his 40-year career at Amherst, Morgan came to be known as “the founder and builder of Fine Arts at Amherst College.” He founded the Mead Art Museum as part of his broader vision to integrate the study and teaching of studio arts and art history at Amherst, establishing both the museum and the foundations of what would become the present-day Department of Art and the History of Art.

Early Life and Education

Charles H. Morgan was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, to Paul Beagary (1869-1952) and Lessie Louise Morgan (1868-1940). He was named in honour of his grandfather, Charles Hill Morgan (1831-1911). He graduated from the Hotchkiss School in 1920 and then received a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Morgan pursued a master’s in Fine Arts after being offered a job tutoring in the department, deciding later to continue for a doctorate at Harvard. In the spring of 1929, he married Reverend Janet Barton Morgan (1907-1997), an Oxford University graduate from Worcester who became the first woman deacon of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. The couple had three children: George S. B. Morgan (1932-2022), Audrey Leaf (1930-2020), and Prudence Morgan Fitts (1938–).

In the spring of 1929, Morgan traveled to Greece to start excavation work with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. That year, he accepted a position for the following academic year as a lecturer at Bryn Mawr College.

At this time, Amherst College sought an instructor in the arts. Interest in the field grew after the end of the First World War, and the Carnegie Corporation offered grants to smaller academic institutions to support programs in the arts. In 1930, Morgan received and accepted an offer from Amherst College President Arthur Stanley Pease to teach at the college.

Arriving at Amherst

In September 1930, Morgan arrived at Amherst College to teach in the Fine Arts Department, located in Morgan Hall. Margaret Toole, a Smith College alumna, joined the department to work as curator of the collection, office manager, and secretary. There was no official record of the original works of art owned by the college, whereupon Morgan conducted a thorough search of all the college buildings. Identified in Converse Library through this campus-wide search were packing cases with a one-thousand-year-old wooden model of a Japanese pagoda from Baron Naibu Kana (Class of 1879), the upper third of one of the great Assyrian palace reliefs, and small genre friezes from the same period. An Egyptian sarcophagus was discovered in the attic of the Biology Building, and under the cellar stairs of Morgan Hall, small alabaster Assyrian fragments and a number of terra-cottas were identified. The Greek Department held assorted marble arms and legs of Asia Minor from Reverend Henry J. Van Lennep (Class of 1837). At this time, Morgan also received two dozen pictures from George Dupont Pratt’s collection of 19th- and 20th-century American art, which were initially held in the west storeroom of Converse Library before being relocated to the lower floor of Morgan Hall.

Morgan’s efforts to develop the Fine Arts led to a change in the academic credit system: as a result of a 1932 vote by the faculty of Amherst College, credit was given for studio work in the arts. The department expanded its course catalog, and by the 1934-1935 school year, around 150 students were enrolled in Fine Arts courses. The growing collection of artwork, housed in the lower floor of Morgan Hall, exacerbated the problems of space and the need for staff to maintain the collection.

During this period, Morgan developed a specific interest in the art of the United States. Gifts from George Pratt and his brother, Herbert L. Pratt, the latter of whom stated that he would be leaving nearly his entire collection of rare American portraits to the College, helped support Morgan’s interest.

Morgan Returns to Greece

Morgan was given a one-year leave of absence in 1933 to work as a visiting professor at the American School of Classical Studies. He was subsequently offered the position of Assistant Director for the 1935-1936 year, and then the Directorship for the following two years. During this time, Morgan worked on an excavation of the Agora of Athens, an ongoing project at the School.

Morgan wrote extensively on his excavations at Corinth, often sending his articles home to friends and family. During this trip, he also wrote his first book, The Byzantine Pottery (1942), on the uncovered pottery at Corinth. In 1938, Morgan returned to Amherst.

The Mead Bequest

Plans for a building dedicated to the Fine Arts began to develop in 1936 following the death of Olga K. Mead, the wife of the late William Rutherford Mead. Mr. Mead was a partner at the McKim, Mead, and White architectural firm. In 1920, he and his wife signed wills promising everything in their estate to Amherst College. Interpretations of their wishes and plans to execute them were developed between Morgan, architect James Kellum Smith, President Stanley King, and other faculty members and consultants. Mr. Mead’s basic intentions were to construct a museum, grow and maintain a permanent collection, and adopt an energized approach to teaching the arts. His vision for Amherst included a line written in 1924: “...such a study of art as may take the subject out of the realm of pedantry into the realm of actual life, and keep it there as something [followed] with feeling, with emotion, with love.”

Morgan was appointed chair of the Mead Professorship of Fine Arts at its establishment in 1937. As Morgan began to expand the College’s collection, he emphasized acquiring artworks that were most educationally valuable, as he sought to make art accessible and interesting to students.

Planning for an Art Building

Plans and logistics for a building were quickly put into action with the Mead Bequest. The most immediate question concerned the building's location. Several options were considered, including Stearns Chuch, Pratt Gymnasium, and the site of the present-day Charles Pratt Dormitory. No site provided the perfect location, but eventually Morgan and Smith settled on the site of the Stearns Church due to the space it offered for possible expansion to the east.

College architect Frederick James Woodbridge (Class of 1921) envisioned a Mead arts complex composed of two buildings, one for fine arts and one for music and drama, connected by an open-air theater. President King supported a joint building, or at least a site where they might all be near each other.

File:First Floor Plans for Fine Arts building.jpg

First Floor Plans for the Fine Arts Building at Amherst College by McKim, Mead, & White. April 19, 1940.

As the debate continued, hope for the construction of an arts building in the coming years began to wane. The Trustees of Amherst College had elected to postpone the construction of an art building due to increasing construction costs and concerns over an impending war in Europe. Official plans for the building would not resume until 1946. The final plans produced at the time were completed in April 1940 and included an art building on the site of Stearns Church with a markedly different layout from that of the Mead Museum today. The 1940 plans proposed a museum comprising four floors, including a sub-basement, and containing a library, five galleries, a tapestry room, a room dedicated to the Pratt gifts, an Assyrian relief room, two laboratories, a classroom, a lecture hall in the basement, and additional spaces.

Morgan Grows the Collection

In 1938, Morgan created an official proposal regarding the College’s permanent collection, composed of four main points: that the diversity of the collection reflect the diversity of the student body (although women were still excluded from the College and only a few students of color had been accepted), that its area of specialization be the art of the United States, that it be kept small and never become a “holding” operation, and that art on display be flexible and in constant rotation. Additionally, President King agreed to set up an advisory board for purchasing works.

Morgan’s collecting practices expanded. Morgan befriended Francis Henry Taylor, Director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upon finding an abundance of artworks sitting unused in storage, Taylor decided to begin loaning pieces to smaller institutions, the first being the collection at Amherst College. Taylor’s loans included the Medieval and Renaissance stained glass window panels, some of which feature prominently in the Mead Museum’s Rotherwas Room today. Crucially, “under [Taylor’s] powerful eye, no sensible dealer would short-change Amherst at the risk of losing favor with the Met.”

Further, Morgan had a knack for procuring gifts—his peers remarked about the large number of alumni who gave in to “Charlie Morgan’s gentle persuasion.” When bomb threats alarmed coastal cities during the war, Morgan housed artworks from major institutions along the East Coast, many of which would continue to loan pieces to the College in the future.

Morgan’s effective collecting practices and specialization in American art resulted in Amherst College having one of the finest repositories of American works among university art museums. Of the more than 5,000 works of art from the United States now held at the Mead Art Museum, many were purchased or arrived as gifts from key donors during his career.

Military Service

File:Charles Morgan's Military Portrait.jpg

Morgan's military portrait.

File:Charles Morgan in Uniform.jpg

Morgan speaking with other soldiers in uniform.

The onset of World War II halted every aspect of Morgan’s work at Amherst: gifts slowed to a near stop, and all plans for a Mead building in the near future ceased. Morgan joined the war effort on May 13, 1942, when he was appointed to the United States Army. Morgan served with the Air Force in combat intelligence in Libya, Tunisia, Sicily, Naples-Foggia, and during the air war over Normandy, Northern France, the Ardennes, Rhineland, and the German campaigns. On July 6, 1945, Morgan assumed the duties of Chief of Staff of the United States element of the Berlin Allied Kommandatura, where he organized and directed the four staff sections representing the military forces of the quadrupartite government governing the city of Berlin. As Chief of Staff, Morgan improved relationships between individual military governments of the four different sectors of Berlin, and the Central Civilian Government was standardized, supervised, and controlled effectively. He coordinated with the Allied Control Council on matters relating to areas outside the boundaries of Greater Berlin, specifically regarding the delivery of desperately needed food, coal, and materials to the city, which was successfully obtained. Morgan also aided in the interpretation and explication of the salient problems related to language barriers, technical and military governmental issues, and overall governmental policies that concerned the Kommandatura at its formation. He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre for his service.

The Building of the Mead

The Trustees approved the continued study of the Mead building on October 28, 1946. A review of the building plans from 1940, considering contemporary market building costs, revealed that much of the space, including the second floor, needed to be scrapped. Another significant change was the addition of the Rotherwas Room, a 17th-century Jacobean English dining room bequeathed by Herbert Pratt to the College in 1944, which necessitated the installation at an exterior corner of the building. Other necessities included: lecture rooms, a small auditorium, storage for books and slides, studio space, a large central exhibition space with adjustable partitions, an Assyrian relief room, and as much storage space as possible.

File:Final Plans for the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College from March 15, 1948.jpg

The final documented plans from March 15, 1948 by McKim, Mead, & White for the Mead Art Building were created before construction, although alterations continued to be made.

Morgan’s guiding principle for the building was that no visitor should ever have to ask, “Where is the art?” This required every student who entered the museum to have “inescapable exposure” to art. The first set of plans resembling the current Mead Art Museum was created on March 15, 1947.

Once Smith and Morgan agreed on a set of plans, they were then authorized by the Trustees of the college. They chose to demolish Stearns Church, but due to alumni attachment to the building, Morgan agreed to keep the Stearns Church Tower intact. Construction began in the fall of 1948 on what was then called the Mead Art Building.

Slabs and cinder blocks were laid by the spring of 1949, and the building was set to open on May 20, 1950. The Art Department curated an exhibition titled “Benjamin West, His Times and His Influence” for the opening day, featuring a significant portion of Herbert Pratt's collection.

More Business in Greece and Life at Home

File:Morgan Receiving an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Amherst President John William Ward.jpg

Morgan receiving an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Amherst President John William Ward (professor).

In 1948, Morgan became vice chairman of the managing committee of the American School in Athens. He divided his time between Corinth and Amherst. In 1950, Morgan became Chairman, inheriting an unfinished excavation project and a managing committee. The school had depleted its original funding backed by John D. Rockefeller. In three years, Morgan had secured the funds to continue working in the Agora and started rebuilding the Stoa of Attalos in 1953, dedicating it in 1956. For his work as chairman, Morgan was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Phoenix, appointed Councillor of the Archaeological Society of Athens, and granted honorary citizenship in the City of Athens.

File:Portrait of Charles Morgan Post-retirement.jpg

Morgan photographed after his retirement.

At Amherst College in 1950, Morgan organized a course titled “Introduction to Music, Fine Art, and Drama.” Known for its unorthodox but popular material, it examined and compared the vocabulary and methodology of creative expression across disciplines. In 1962, Morgan started working on a biography of American artist George Bellows. He traveled extensively to research and connect with family and friends of the artists, and George Bellows: Painter of America was published in 1965.

Morgan retired from teaching in 1968 and from directorship of the Mead in 1969. In the following years, he gave frequent tours of the Mead to local groups, taught public courses on subjects such as Michelangelo, published on classical pottery, architecture, and the history of the Amherst art collection. Charles H. Morgan died of a heart attack in Amherst on April 4, 1984. He is buried at Wildwood Cemetery (Amherst, Massachusetts).

Published Works

Books

1. Morgan, Charles H. The Byzantine Pottery. Published for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Harvard University Press, 1942.
2. Morgan, Charles H., Margaret C. Toole, and Mead Art Building. Benjamin West: His Times and His Influence. Art in America, 1950.
3. Morgan, Charles H., and Margaret C. Toole. Notes on the Early Hudson River School. [Publisher not identified], 1951.
4. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and Charles H. Morgan. Ancient Corinth: a Guide to the Museum. Third edition. [Publisher not identified], 1956.
5. Morgan, Charles H. The Life of Michelangelo. Reynal, 1960.
6. Morgan, Charles H. George Bellows: Painter of America. Reynal, 1965.
7. Morgan, Charles H., and Amherst College. The Development of the Art Collection of Amherst College, 1821- 1971. Amherst College Press, 1972.
8. Morgan, Charles H. and John William Ward. The Drawings of George Bellows. First edition. Borden Publishing Co., 1973.

Articles

1. Morgan, Charles H. “The Terracotta Figurines from the North Slope of the Acropolis.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 4, no. 2 (1935): 189–213.
2. Morgan, Charles H. “The Style of Lysippos.” Hesperia Supplements 8 (January 1949): 228–461. https://doi.org/10.2307/1353896.
3. Morgan, Charles H. Phidiasprobleme Ernst Langlotz. Vol. 55. 1951. https://doi.org/10.2307/500269.
4. Morgan, Charles H. “Pheidias and Olympia.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 21, no. 4 (1952): 295–339. EBSCOhost.
5. Morgan, Charles H. “The Corinth Museum Reorganized.” Archaeology 6, no. 4 (1953): 239–41.
6. Morgan, Charles H. “Investigations at Corinth, 1953-A Tavern of Aphrodite.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 22, no. 3 (1953): 131–40.
7. Morgan, Charles H. “Footnotes to Pheidias and Olympia.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 24, no. 2 (1955): 164–68.
8. Morgan, Charles H. “Amherst College Collection.” Art Journal 20, no. 1 (1960): 40–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/774331.
9. Morgan, Charles H. “Sabrina.” Art Journal 21, no. 3 (1962): 170–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/774416.
10. Morgan, Charles H. “The Sculptures of the Hephaisteion: I.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 31, no. 2 (1962): 210–19.
11. Morgan, Charles H. “The Sculptures of the Hephaisteion.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 32, no. 1 (1963): 91–108.
12. Morgan, Charles H. “Classical Collection at Amherst College.” Archaeology 20 (January 1967): 2–8.
13. Morgan, Charles H. “The End of the Archaic Style.” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 38, no. 2 (1969): 205–12.
14. Morgan, Charles H. Fouilles de Xanthus, III. Le Monument Des Nereides. L’architecture Pierre Coupel Pierre de Margne. Vol. 74. 1970. https://doi.org/10.2307/503114.
15. Morgan, Charles H. Olympia. The Sculptures of the Temple of Zeus Bernard Ashmole Nicholas Yalouris. Vol. 74. 1970. https://doi.org/10.2307/502919.
16. Morgan, Charles H. The East Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Marie-Louise Säflund. Vol. 76. 1972. https://doi.org/10.2307/503626.
17. Morgan, Charles H. “Kouros Head in Kansas City.” Hesperia 43 (October 1974): 467–69. https://doi.org/10.2307/147493.

References

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