# William Ivins Jr.

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{{short description|American art historian}}

thumb|right|Ivins circa 1910
'''William Mills Ivins Jr.''' (1881–1961) was curator of the department of [prints](/source/printmaking) at the [Metropolitan Museum of Art](/source/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art), [New York](/source/New_York_City), from its founding in 1916 until 1946, when he was succeeded by [A. Hyatt Mayor](/source/A._Hyatt_Mayor).

The son of [William Mills Ivins Sr.](/source/William_Mills_Ivins_Sr.) (1851–1915), a [public utility](/source/public_utility) lawyer who had been the 1905 Republican candidate for [Mayor of New York City](/source/Mayor_of_New_York_City), Ivins studied at [Harvard College](/source/Harvard_College) and the [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München](/source/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit%C3%A4t_M%C3%BCnchen) before graduating in [law](/source/law) from [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) in 1907.

After nine years' legal practice, he was asked to take on the conservation and interpretation of the Met's print collection.  He built up the remarkable collections that can be seen there today, and he wrote many prefaces to exhibition catalogues, as well as other, occasional pieces which were later collected and published.  His best-known book is ''Prints and Visual Communication''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/printsandvisualc009941mbp|title=Prints And Visual Communication|last=William M. Ivins|first=Jr|date=1953|publisher=Harvard University Press|others=Universal Digital Library}}</ref> ([MIT Press](/source/MIT_Press), 1969, {{ISBN|0-262-59002-6}} (first published 1953 by [Harvard University Press](/source/Harvard_University_Press))), and his ''How Prints Look'' (1943, revised edition 1987) remains in print.

He was influential on [Philip Hofer](/source/Philip_Hofer), curator of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, [Houghton Library](/source/Houghton_Library) at [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University).<ref>Duroselle-Melish, Caroline. “Containers of Ideas”: The Collection of Printmaking Artifacts of Philip Hofer." ''Harvard Library Bulletin'' 24 (Spring 2013): 45-65.</ref>

In 2016, the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrated the centenary of the founding of its Department of Prints with ''The Power of Prints: The Legacy of William M. Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Power of Prints |url=https://localhost:5000/exhibitions/listings/2016/power-of-prints |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>  The exhibit explored the breath and depth of the collection created by Ivins and Mayor. The exhibit was accompanied by a catalog of the same name by Freyda Spira and Peter Parshall.  {{ISBN|978-1-588-39585-6}}

==See also==
*[Visual communication](/source/Visual_communication)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.nytimes.com/1961/06/16/archives/william-ivins-jr-museum-curator-founder-of-metropolitans-print.html William Ivins Jr., Museum Curator; Founder of Metropolitan's Print Department Dies]
*[http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/index.cfm/fuseaction/Collections.ViewCollection/CollectionID/8805 William Mills Ivins papers at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Mills Ivins |sopt=t}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivins, William Jr.}}
Category:1881 births
Category:1961 deaths
Category:American art critics
Category:American art curators
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Columbia Law School alumni
Category:American art historians
Category:20th-century American historians
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:LMU Munich alumni
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Members of the Men's League

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