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In 1985, the Art Library was named in
honor of Dr. Joseph Curtis Sloane, Distinguished
Professor of Art at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and Director of the Ackland Art Museum
from 1958 to 1978, a period of great growth. During
those decades, the museum acquired more than 150
paintings, 100 pieces of sculpture, and 250 drawings.
Numerous prints and photographs were added as well.
As Chairman of the Department of Art from 1959 to
1974, Dr. Sloane fostered the growth of graduate
degree programs, the first major studio (M.F.A.) and
art history (Ph.D.) graduate programs in a single
department in the Southeast. The strong department
and museum teaching collection he built is mirrored
in the Sloane Art Library collections.
Born in Pennsylvania, Sloane received
his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Princeton
University. He was an officer in the U.S. Navy during
World War II, served as a curator at the Cooper Union
Museum, and taught at Princeton, Rutgers and Bryn
Mawr before coming to Chapel Hill in 1959. His
specialty was 19th c. French painting; among his many
publications are French Painting Between the Past
and the Present (Princeton University Press, 1951
and 1973) and Paul Marc Joseph Chenevard, Artist
of 1848 (UNC Press, 1962.). He also served as the
President of the College Art Association from 1956 to
1957 and received numerous awards, including a
Fulbright Fellowship, the Jefferson Award, the Alumni
Distinguished Professorship, The North Carolina Award
(the highest award conferred on a citizen in North
Carolina), and an Honorary Doctor of Letters. In the
words of a former Provost, "he made a lasting impact
on the University's cultural and artistic history."
Philip A. Rees, first librarian of the Sloane Art
Library, recalls that Joseph Sloane was always keenly
interested in the development of the art library,
from the time of his arrival in Chapel Hill to the
end of his life. Early in his chairmanship he secured
major grants from the University and the Kress
Foundation to strengthen the library's collections,
and after his retirement he established and
generously endowed a fund to provide added support
for library acquisitions. The library is most
appropriately named The Joseph Curtis Sloane Art
Library.
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