Publication

The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright, beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the researcher to obtain permission of copyright holders.

Access

The collection is open for research. A limited number of files are restricted. Access to restricted materials may require written permission of the donor and/or the VMFA Director.

Provenance

This collection is comprised of materials donated by Leslie Cheek, Jr.'s family members. The bulk of this collection was donated to the VMFA Library by Leslie's widow Mary Tyler Freeman Cheek McClenahan in 1993. The remainder of the material was donated by Leslie's children in 2005.

Preferred Citation

Leslie Cheek, Jr. Personal Papers (SC-02). Gift of Mary Tyler Cheek McClenahan, Leslie Cheek III, Richard W. Cheek, and Elizabeth C. Morgan. VMFA Archives, Richmond, Virginia.

Processing Note

Processing and description were performed by Jennie Runnels in the mid-1990s. Original folder titles were retained. Publications were removed and added to the VMFA Library's holdings. Framed items were disassembled and the materials stored in flat files, with the exception of the few framed items which used archival mats.

Biographical Note

Leslie Cheek, Jr. was the second and longest-tenured Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. During his 20 year Directorship (1948-1968), he transformed the museum from a regional gem to a museum that operated on the international stage.

Born in Nashville, Cheek was the son of Mabel Wood and Leslie Cheek, Sr., who became rich by investing in the family formula for Maxwell House Coffee. Cheek studied art at Harvard University before taking up architecture at Yale University and Columbia. After graduation, he headed to William and Mary College where he founded and headed up the Department of Fine Arts from 1937-1939. In 1939, he married Richmonder Mary Tyler Freeman, daughter of Pulitzer Prize winning author Douglas Southall Freeman. From 1939-1942, Cheek served in his first Directorship at the Baltimore Museum of Fine Art. He left the museum in 1942 to join the Army Corps of Engineers in WWII.

After the war, he was hired as the Associate Editor of Architectural Forum Magazine and lived in New York City for three years. In 1948, he came to the VMFA as Director, spending 20 years building the collections, endowments, and reputation of the museum. He was known for the Artmobile, a mobile art program which brought the museum's collections all over the state of Virginia, and the Virginia Museum Theatre which opened in 1955 and successfully integrated the performing and visual arts.

After retiring in 1968, Cheek stayed active in the arts, and two books were published about his life and career, "Living by Design" and "Designing for the Arts." In 1967, the Cheeks purchased a mountaintop home named Skylark Farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which they donated to Washington and Lee University in 1977.

Source: The Dictionary of Art Historians

Source: Virginia Commonwealth University's Guide to the Mary Tyler Freeman Cheek McClenahan Papers

Scope and Content Note

The collection's inclusive dates are 1931-1993, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1960s-1980s. The collection is comprised of correspondence, plans, photographs, financial records, interviews, book drafts, exhibition records, travel itineraries, and other ephemeral material.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into six series, folders are arranged in the original order maintained by Cheek, and retain their original folder titles when provided.

Series 1

Skylark Farm, 1966-1992

Series 2

"Living by Design" and "Cheek and the Arts," 1945-1989

Series 3

"Designing for the Arts," 1984-1991

Series 4

Personal Files, 1934-1992

Series 5

Awards and Degrees, 1931-1993

Series 6

Trips, 1952-1980