Laurance Page Roberts was born in Bala Cynwyd, PA, 1 October 1907. His grandfather, George Brook Roberts (1833-1897) had been President of the Pennsylvania Railroad and his father, George Brinton Roberts, a coal magnate. Laurance Roberts attended the Montgomery School in Philadelphia and St George's School in Rhode Island before entering Princeton in 1925. He graduated from Princeton University in 1929 (magna cum laude), a classmate and friend of John D. Rockefeller III (1906-1978). After a year of post-graduate work, Roberts accepted a position at the Pennsylvania Museum of Art (now the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Without specialized training in Asian art, Roberts was asked if he would work in the Chinese department in 1930. Two years later his father sent him on a study tour of Japan and China. In China he met Harold Acton (1904-1994) who was teaching at the National University in Beijing. In 1934 Laurance Roberts was appointed curator of the Oriental art department of the Brooklyn Museum. In 1937 he married Isabel Milliken Spaulding, a Vassar alumna in the Education Department. She was born in Springfield, 10 July 1911, to Morrill Spaulding and Helen Marie Amstrong. The two traveled widely for the museum and their research. In 1938 Roberts was appointed Director of the Museum, a position he held until World War II. Beginning in 1942, Roberts served as a captain in army intelligence, his wife taking over his museum duties until 1946. That year the Roberts moved to Rome, where he was director of the American Academy. In 1960 Roberts retired, returning briefly to New York to be the first director of the State Council of the Arts, 1960-61, before moving back to Europe, living in Venice, Paris and London. In 1967 Roberts published his Connoisseur's Guide to Japanese Museums. His Dictionary of Japanese Artists, published in 1976, remains an important resource for biographies of artists from Japan. In 1988 the Roberts moved to Baltimore where Laurance died in 2002, and Isabel three years later, in 2005.
The papers in this collection document Laurance and Isabel Roberts's personal and professional life, their international travels, their vast network of contacts and relationships, and Laurance’s career, publishing projects, and involvement on boards and associations. The papers date from 1910 to 2005, with the bulk spanning the years 1937-2000. The documentation includes financial and health-related records, correspondence, diplomas, travel material, object lists, negatives, photographs, printed material, newspaper and journal clippings. All materials in the collection have been re-housed into archival folders and boxes. The original folder titles have been retained; any added information has been enclosed in square brackets by the processing archivist. Acidic documents have been isolated with archival paper and in some cases enclosed in mylar. Fragile materials have also been enclosed in mylar. Oversize materials have been filed in an oversize box and cabinet; separation sheets indicate their removal. These oversize materials may be consulted upon request, and their location is indicated in the detailed container list that follows. A group of 8 mm motion pictures, for the years 1958-1961, documenting trips of American Academy Fellows and of the travels of Roberts have been converted into DVD format.