Allan D. Chapman, former librarian of The Robert Goldwater Library at The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on Monday, April 1, 2003, in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. He was 79.
From 1975 until his retirement in 1989, Allan was Museum Librarian in charge
of the Robert Goldwater Library in the Department of the Arts of Africa,
Oceania, and the Americas. He started the collection when he was the
Librarian of the Museum of Primitive Art on 54th Street in New York City
(1957-1975). He used to recall that when he began his job he had "fifty
books and a desk lamp"; the typewriter, he added, came later. From that
modest beginning he built the library and the Photograph Study Collection
into one of the premier research centers dedicated to the art and
archaeology of Africa, Native North and South America, and the Pacific
Islands. When the library and collections of The Museum of Primitive Art
were transferred to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the mid-1970s, Allan
was responsible for planning the space for the Goldwater Library, which
opened at the Metropolitan in 1982.
Intent on creating greater access to this important research collection,
Allan was responsible for several bibliographies on the arts of these
culture areas, including the Museum of Primitive Art's Primitive Art
Bibliographies (1963-1971) and the "Art of the Native Americans" section in
Arts in America: A Bibliography, edited by Bernard Karpel (1979). He
directed the publication of the library's card catalog by G.K. Hall in 1982.
He was active in the Special Libraries Association, especially its Museums,
Arts and Humanities Division, and in the Art Libraries Society of North
America (ARLIS/NA). For many years he served on the board of the Heye
Foundation's Museum of the American Indian Library.
Prior to his association with the Museum of Primitive Art, Allan was a
well-regarded member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art staff working as a
cataloger in the Library from 1952 to 1957. In addition to his cataloging of
the anthropological library collections, he actively contributed to the
preparation of exhibitions and exhibition catalogs. In 1994 and 1995 Allan
donated his private library of over 1,000 books predominantly on the art and
archaeology of Mesoamerica to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, enhancing their
research collection with many rare titles on Mexico.
A native of Wisconsin, he received his bachelor's degree in anthropology
from the University of New Mexico and his master's degree in library science
from the University of Wisconsin. By nature an unpretentious and soft-spoken
man, Allan was a strong advocate for the importance and professional
standing of librarians. He was a noted scholar in the bibliography of his
field and known as someone who was a true professional within the museum
community. He will be missed by many librarians who benefited from his
guidance over the years.
Allan's ashes will be inurned at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, his
adopted "native" borough.
Deirdre E. Lawrence
Principal Librarian and Coordinator of Research Services
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Ross Day
Associate Museum Librarian
The Robert Goldwater Library
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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