About

As a preeminent encyclopedic museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (NAMA) is celebrated for its European collections, including its esteemed Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures. Acquired primarily from Kansas City philanthropists John W. Starr and Martha Jane Starr in significant gifts during 1958 and 1965, these donations form the core of a nearly three-hundred-piece collection spanning the genre’s history in Europe and America from the 1500s to the late 1800s.

Featuring works by acclaimed artists such as Nicholas Hilliard, Samuel Cooper, and John Smart, the collection stands as a testament to the Starrs’ generosity, which had been unpublished since a concise handbook in 1971. Due to the light sensitivity of these objects, only a small selection of miniatures is ever on view to the public. Now this digital scholarly resource offers global access to this unique collection. The custom online catalogue boasts zoomable high-resolution images of both the front (recto) and back (verso) of each miniature, alongside comparative figures, and fully searchable text, facilitating in-depth exploration.

Generously supported by The Starr Family Foundation, Adelaide Cobb Ward, The Mellon Endowment for Scientific Research, and The Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the catalogue ensures the enduring accessibility of these treasures to art enthusiasts and scholars worldwide.

To optimize the experience, viewers are encouraged to use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, with downloadable formats available for the complete catalogue, object data, and primary images. For technical issues, recommended actions include clearing cookies or accessing the URL in an incognito browser.

Land Acknowledgment

While the digital catalogue lives in the virtual realm, the museum is at the address of 4525 Oak Street, which is on the homelands of Native American peoples, at the juncture of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. In recent years, these nations have included the Missouria, Oto, Kansa, Osage, Shawnee, and Delaware. We pay respects to all Indigenous peoples—past, present, and future—for their continuing presence in the homeland and throughout the Native American diaspora. Learn more about our commitments to better represent, elevate, and support Indigenous cultures and people on our website.

Citation Information

Chicago

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, supplement, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.

MLA

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, supplement, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.

Permanent URL

https://doi.org/10.37764/8322

Contact

Research is always ongoing. We are open to learning more about our collection. Do you have a question or comment? Have you found inaccurate or problematic information? Please tell us more!

Please direct questions and comments to StarrMiniatures[at]nelson-atkins.org

Digital Catalogue Updates

The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850 is a serial publication, and more research and entries will be added twice a year until mid-2025. Therefore, the data is subject to change. Object information (such as artist attribution, title, or date) may change as new research is conducted. However, essays will remain constant. They are versioned and citable with assurances of a permanent address to the information referenced.

Any revisions or corrections made to this publication after the first edition date will be listed here. For a detailed list of each catalogue entry, see Series Contents. Objects marked with a page icon () have been published with scholarly research.

January 16, 2024: First edition

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COPYRIGHT

© 2024 The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

This data is not certified or warrantied by the curatorial staff, and you use it at your own risk.

Overview of image use by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for this publication

This digital publication platform provides unique opportunities for researching the portrait miniature collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The museum respects copyright and the interests of artists in protecting their works. The images are intended to support the scholarship on this platform; in several cases, they are shown at a relatively small size, enabling the museum to rely on a fair use defense with respect to such images and without which publication of this educational resource would not have been possible. The Nelson-Atkins believes that this application of the fair use exception with respect to the use of images on the platform is in keeping with the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts issued by the College Art Association http://www.collegeart.org/programs/caa-fair-use/best-practices, the Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Materials and Works of Art by Art Museums issued by the Association of Art Museum Directors https://aamd.org/sites/default/files/document/Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Materials.pdf, and developing case law.

Title: The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Supplement: Starr Miniatures in Other Collections / Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan

Description: Kansas City : Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, [2024]| ©2024 | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: ISBN 978-0-9970446-6-9 (ebook) | doi: 10.37764/8322

Subjects: LCSH: Starr, John W., 1925 – Art collections | Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art --Catalogs | Portrait miniatures – Great Britain – Catalogs | Miniature painting – Missouri – Kansas City – Catalogs

This publication was created using Quire™, a multiplatform publishing tool owned by the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Cover: Philip Starr, John W. and Martha Jane Starr at a Party Announcing New Miniatures Display, 1992, photograph, dimensions unknown

doi: 10.37764/8322.2.6004.supp