Internships

A small section of the Berenson Library’s photo archive, as yet unstudied, relates to the art and culture of indigenous populations in Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas. The photographs themselves date to the first half of the twentieth century and include images of pre-Columbian objects, sculpted figures and masks from sub-Saharan Africa, views of Caribbean islands, and mummified human remains found in Peru. In conjunction with the preparation of a new catalogue of non-Western art at I Tatti, the intern will work with this “hidden collection,” using both printed and electronic library resources to research the history of the photos, investigating Bernard Berenson’s interest in these cultures, and helping to prepare a detailed inventory.

The intern working on Mediterranean cookery and produce will gain experience in the production and preparation of seasonal ingredients and dishes. Interns will assist I Tatti's experienced team of Italian chefs in food preparation and the art of pasticceria (pastry-making.) I Tatti relies on its organic garden to produce a colorful selection of herbs, fruit, and vegetables, and interns will learn about the correct preparation of these ingredients while helping to create innovative and fresh Italian and Mediterranean recipes for the scholarly community. The internship also involves the preparation of written content concerning the history of I Tatti's olive oil and wine, soon to be sold at Harvard, and assisting with the production of an upcoming booklet of recipes from I Tatti's kitchen. Applicants must be proficient in Italian. Some experience in the basics of food preparation is desirable.

Mary Berenson was the wife of Bernard Berenson, one of the most famous and influential connoisseurs of Italian Renaissance paintings and drawings, who bequeathed his library of some 50,000 volumes, his collection of artworks, and the villa that housed them to Harvard University. Mary was herself a scholar of Italian Renaissance art, but like the wives of other prominent art historians such as Dora Panofsky and Margot Wittkower, Mary’s own professional and personal accomplishments have been subsumed by the singular focus on her husband’s achievements. In fact, Mary was involved in the women’s movement in the US and England, wrote essays and made speeches on suffrage and the role of women in politics, and published art historical journal articles and pamphlets. Working with a collection of thirty diaries compiled by Mary Berenson, interns will help bring to light her contributions as both an independent scholar and as Bernard’s collaborator in his research, writing, lecturing, and business affairs. Working with primary and secondary sources, interns will be introduced to archival research and cultural criticism, uniquely familiarizing them with the Berensons’s vast network of friends and intellectual relations (including figures such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, Edith Wharton, and Kenneth Clark) that proved so significant for 20th-century art history.

 

The more than 600 letters exchanged between Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) and Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) comprise one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating sets of correspondence. Written by Belle Greene, the formidable and brilliant Librarian and Director of the Morgan Library, to the preeminent art historian of the age, Bernard Berenson, the letters open a window onto the compelling world of rare books, art, and society in New York, 1910–1950.

The Berenson Library, which holds Greene’s letters to Berenson (unfortunately she destroyed his letters to her), is collaborating with The Morgan Library Collection in New York on a project to transcribe and make available online these extraordinary sources. In making the Greene-Berenson letters accessible to all online, this project promises to open up new avenues of research related to the historiography of art and collecting, to Berenson’s related activity and influence, to the history of librarianship in America, and to Greene's career as a librarian and scholar of medieval and Renaissance studies. Interns will participate in the review and correction of transcriptions and the identification of personal names, works of art, and books and manuscripts mentioned in the letters.