The Institutional Archive of the American Academy in Rome was established in 1992 with the aim of collecting, preserving, maintaining, and providing access to records which document the origins, evolution, activities, and accomplishments of the Academy and its surrounding community. Based in the New York office, the archive consists of over 500 linear feet of paper and electronic records, including correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, plans, publications, photographs, oral histories, audio and video recordings, architectural drawings, newspaper clippings, and ephemera. Of particular interest are the “Fellows Files”—approximately 80 linear feet of application materials, correspondence, and other documentation related to the Academy’s distinguished fellows, dating back to 1902.

Since 1965, AAR has collaborated with the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art (AAA), completing four deposits of materials, with materials ranging in date from 1855 to 2012. Included are the records of the Academy’s predecessor institutions—the American School of Architecture in Rome and the American School of Classical Studies in Rome—as well as the records of executive staff, faculty, and Board of Trustees. A portion of the records from 1855 to 1981 have been digitized from microfilm and are accessible through the Institutional Archive or on the AAA website.

To view all Academy materials at the Archives of American Art, please visit the AAA website.

For more information about the Institutional Archive or the history of the American Academy in Rome, please contact the Academy archivist at archives [at] aarome.org (archives[at]aarome[dot]org).

The Photographic Collection of the AAR Institutional Archive is preserved at the Photographic Archive in Rome and it documents the Academy's activities as an International cultural organization dedicated to the arts and humanities; it includes documentation related to the Fellow's Work, the Academy life, buildings, events, and exhibitions.

For more information about the Photographic Collection, please contact the photoarchive [at] aarome.org (Photo Archive.)

The Institutional Archive is subdivided into nine record groups: (1) Corporate Structure and Documentation; (2) Officers, Directors, and Executives; (3) Operations; (4) Other Collections, Related Entities, and Special Projects; (5) Printed Material; (6) Reference and History; (7) Media; (8) Artifacts and Memorabilia; and (9) Rome Photograph Collection.  

You may browse or search through our institutional archives through ArchivesSpace at https://archive.aarome.org.

If you are interested in viewing a record, please send the full citation to the Academy archivist at archives [at] aarome.org (archives[at]aarome[dot]org).

You may also consult the Finding Aids below or contact the Academy archivist at %20archives [at] aarome.org (archives[at]aarome[dot]org) with your specific research questions.

Related archival collections located in Rome consist of materials dating back to the first half of the twentieth century, including manuscripts, papers, correspondence, diaries, and guest books from Academy figures including Gorham Phillips Stevens, Albert William Van Buren, and William Oliver Strunk. A description of these materials can be found below under “Further Research.” Please contact Sebastian Hierl, the Drue Heinz Librarian, at s.hierl [at] aarome.org (s[dot]hierl[at]aarome[dot]org) for research requests. 

The Photographic Collection of the AAR Institutional is composed of photographs of the various seats the American Academy in Rome had from its founding, images on the construction of the McKim, Mead & White Building (1913–14), interior and exterior views of the building, Villa Aurelia (early twentieth century), and other AAR properties. The “Academy Life” shows all major events of the Academy's activities, the section includes the concerts, lectures, conferences, moments from the Fellows’ life, the AAR staff, and other AAR memories. The section "People" consists of images of Fellows, Artists, Visiting Fellows, Scholars, Residents, Trustees, Founders, Guests, and the AAR Staff, "Exhibitions" includes the Fellows' annual exhibitions (at the Academy and other important sites), and all the exhibition activity carried out and organized in the Academy. In addition, the Institutional Archive Photographic Archive includes the “Fellows' Work Collection”: an important documentation of images of works, executed by the Fellows present at the Academy since its founding (1911). Until the 1960s, the photographs are divided respecting the four disciplines provided by the Academy: painting, sculpture, architecture, and landscape architecture. After the 1960s, the documentary collection is enriched by the other disciplines introduced (Design and Visual Arts).

The Photographic Archive provides online access to digital versions of most of its collections for educational, research, and publishing purposes on the Academy’s Digital Humanities Center database. For further information please contact the photoarchive [at] aarome.org (Photo Archive) or Lavinia Ciuffa, the Photo Archive Curator, at l.ciuffa [at] aarome.org (l[dot]ciuffa[at]aarome[dot]org).

The Institutional Archive is closed to the public. Archival collections are accessible to researchers by supervised appointment only. Researchers must provide valid photographic ID.

To accommodate remote research, scanning requests of under fifty pages are free of charge; larger requests cost $1 per page. Depending on the size and timing of a request, scans may take days or weeks to deliver. The archivist reserves the right to decline a scanning request.

Materials produced by the Academy are protected by copyright and may only be reproduced with express written permission from the Academy. Materials within the Institutional Archive may be copyrighted by a third party; researchers are responsible for determining the copyright status of all archival materials and acquiring permissions as necessary.

All material found in the Institutional Archive should be cited as follows:

American Academy in Rome, Institutional Archive.

The Photographic Archive is open by appointment and provides online access to digital versions of most of its collections for educational, research, and publishing purposes on the Academy’s Digital Humanities Center database.

Requests for commercial use and high-resolution images and other professional services must be sent to the Academy's Photographic Archive. For further information or assistance with your search, please contact the photoarchive [at] aarome.org (Photo Archive).

Archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information including, but not limited to, administrative records, personnel files, financial documents, development files regarding bequests and donors, and Board of Trustees meetings and minutes. As a result, restrictions by the archivist will be placed on the above records if they are less than thirty-five years old. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the American Academy in Rome assumes no responsibility. 

For further research into the history of the American Academy in Rome, consult the resources below.

All inquiries can be directed to the Academy archivist at archives [at] aarome.org (archives[at]aarome[dot]org). 

Inquiries related to the Photographic Collections can be directed to the photoarchive [at] aarome.org (Photo Archive) or Lavinia Ciuffa, the Photo Archive Curator, at l.ciuffa [at] aarome.org (l[dot]ciuffa[at]aarome[dot]org).