![[logo]](https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/logos/wm.jpg)
Special Collections Research Center
William & Mary Special Collections Research CenterEarl Gregg Swem Library
400 Landrum Dr
Williamsburg, Virginia
Business Number: 757-221-3090
spcoll@wm.edu
URL: https://libraries.wm.edu/libraries-spaces/special-collections
Finding Aid Authors: Special Collections Staff.
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use:
Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.
Conditions Governing Access:
The collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Preferred Citation:
Leslie Cheek, Jr. College Papers, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries
Acquisition Information:
Acc. 1993.33 was received on 4/3/1998.
Biographical Information:
Leslie Cheek was born in Nashville, TN in 1908. He studied art at Harvard University and architecture at Yale and Columbia. He headed the department of fine arts at the College of William and Mary 1937-39, where he was instrumental in getting an honorary award given to Georgia O'Keeffe by the college in 1938 and Frank Lloyd Wright.
In 1939, he married Mary Tyler Freeman (1917- 2005), the daughter of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of George Washington, Douglas Southall Freeman. That same year he joined the Baltimore Museum of Fine Art as its director, where he found Adelyn Breeskin (q.v.) of its prints department already assembling an outstanding collection. Cheek worked actively with various Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist's projects. He resigned from the Museum in 1942 to join the army corps of engineers in World War II.
After the war, he succeeded Thomas C. Colt, Jr as the second director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1948 (the museum itself was founded in 1936). During his tenure at Virginia, he persuaded the General Assembly to finance the Museum as the state's official art museum. In 1953, Cheek developed a "mobile art program" to bring exhibitions to more remote parts of Virginia. The project, Artmobile I, was a success. In 1955, the Virginia Museum Theater opened to integrate the performing arts with the gallery. He retired from the Museum in 1968. The following year the Cheeks began a mountaintop compound they named Skylark on a former farm along the Blue Ridge Parkway. In 1977, they donated it to Washington & Lee University which is today that university's conference center. Cheek suffered a series of strokes at his home in Richmond and died in 1992. His personal papers, 1981-1994, are held by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and 1940-1983 by the Archives of American Art, Washington, DC. The Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, TN, the ancestral home of Cheek, is now a public art museum, built upon the collection of the former Nashville Museum of Art.
Scope and Contents
This collection contains awards, publicity material, songs, articles, speeches, and photographs that once belonged to College of William and Mary professor Leslie Cheek. The bulk of the material is from 1936 to 1938, and most of the material relates to the various exhibits put on by the Department of Fine Arts. The photographs are from theatre productions, dances, and exhibits at William and Mary.
Related Material
Leslie Cheek, Jr. Papers (Mss. 98 C41); University Archives Photograph Collection (UA 8); University Archives Poster Collection (UA 12); University Archives Oral History Collection (UA 43).
Cheek's personal papers, 1981-1994, are held by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and 1940-1983 by the Archives of American Art, Washington, DC. The Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, TN, the ancestral home of Cheek, is now a public art museum, built upon the collection of the former Nashville Museum of Art.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
- College of William and Mary. Dept. of Fine Arts
- Exhibitions
- Photographs
- Speeches, addresses, etc.
- Universities and Colleges--Virginia--Faculty
Container List
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 1 id10866
Cheek Awardundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 2 id10868
Architectural Record Articleundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 3 id10871
Coolidge and Pittaway: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 4 id10873
Duplicatesundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 5 id10874
Festival Theatre Plansundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 6 id10876
Festival Theatre: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 7 id10878
Great Waltz: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 8 id10880
Theatre Developmentundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 9 id10882
Cheek Medal/Award1986-1988
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 10 id10884
Bassett, Florence K: Cheek Medal1988
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 11 id10886
Georgia O'Keeffe Affair1938
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 12 id10887
Art Loan: Muscarelle Museumundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 13 id10888
Competition Show: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 14 id10889
William and Mary1989-1990
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 15 id10891
Frobenius, Leo: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 16 id10893
Scammon, Howard1989-1990
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 17 id10895
Trinkle Hall Coat of Armsundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 18 id10896
Carter's Grove1984
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 19 id10897
William and Mary1983-1986
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 20 id10898
William and Mary Art Museumundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 21 id10899
Magazine Articlesundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 22 id10900
Washington D.C. Speech: 1938
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 23 id10901
Williamsburg: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 24 id10902
Season Booksundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 25 id10903
Tom Sawyer Exhibition: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 26 id10904
Fine Arts Department Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 27 id10905
Huntington, Anna H. Exhibit: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 28 id10906
Daumier, Honore Exhibit: publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 29 id10907
19th Century Partyundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 30 id10908
Japanese Prints: Publicityundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 31 id10909
William and Maryundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 32 id10910
Lowry, Glenn: VA Museumundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 folder: 33 id10911
Miscellaneous Papersundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 34
Production PhotographsundatedScope and Contents
Photographs of productions with actors, props and stage.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 35
Clippings, Notes, Correspondence, Brochures1936-1938Scope and Contents
Postcard of early Duke of Gloucester Street; program for the American Federation of Arts Convention, 1938; Museum News, 1937; Department of Fine Arts Program, 1936-1937; photograph brochure of William & Mary; lecture notes; newspaper clippings of productions; correspondence about Georgia O'Keefe visit and theatre building plans.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 1 id10919
"Cradle Song"undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 2 id10920
"Noah"undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 3 id65022
"Noah"undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 4 id10923
"Night of January 16th"undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 5 id10924
"First Lady"undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 6 id10925
"Death Takes a Holiday"1936
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 7 id10926
"Mikado"1936
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 8 id10927
"The Lying Valet"1936
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 9 id10928
"Squaring the Circle"1936-1937
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 10 id10929
"Lilion"1937
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 11 id10930
"The Gondoliers"1937
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 12 id10931
Miscellaneous Productionsundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 13 id10932
Christmas Party1936
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 14 id10933
19th Century Party1938
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 15 id10934
Parties/Dancesundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 16 id10935
Exhibits
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 17 id65023
Exhibitsundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 18 id10936
Fine Arts Building/Departmentundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 19 id10938
Rust Sculpture: Fine Arts Buildingundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 20 id10940
William and Mary Buildingsundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 21 id10941
Rooms and Officesundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 22 id10942
Building Plans and Modelsundated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 folder: 23 id10943
Negativesundated