In 1969, the 164th Academy Annual Exhibition closed the longest running event in American museum history. The annual exhibitions, commencing in 1811, brought, by a conservative estimate, over one hundred thousand works of art to Philadelphia audiences in about 185 separate exhibitions.

The annual exhibitions were large group shows -- frequently displaying over 700 works -- in which about two thirds of the participating artists were selected by jury and the rest were invited. The number of participating artists ranged from about 100 in the various war or depression eras, up to a high of about 400 in some peak periods. Most artists showed just one or two works. The concept of a large juried exhibition ultimately derived from the French Academy salons, which were the make or break venue for artists from the middle of the eighteenth century to the 1860s. The dense hanging arrangement seen in this 1876 annual was the standard method set by the French Academy a century earlier.

From 1811 to the early 1880s European art was shown in the annuals, but by 1885 only American works were accepted. Most works were for sale and several dozen pieces were usually sold with a small commission going to the Academy. Artists sought a place in the Academy annual for prestige and potential sales, as well as cash prizes and medals, the most important of which, the Temple Gold Medal, was awarded over eighty times.

The Academy annuals were among the two or three most prestigious and important exhibitions in the country and one of the premier venues in America for artists to offer their newest productions to the public. After 1920 powerful new forces swept the American art scene and the large group exhibitions declined in power and importance.

The works shown in Philadelphia were frequently seen, shortly before or shortly after our venue, in the annual exhibitions of other major American institutions such as the National Academy of Design in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie in Pittsburgh and the Corcoran in Washington. It was not unusual for staff to pack and ship an entire boxcar of artworks in one twenty-four hour period so that it could arrive in time at the next venue – a veritable road show of American art.

Until 1903 the annual exhibitions included works in all media. In 1904 watercolors, prints, and drawings were segregated into a separate annual exhibition. Thus, from 1904 to 1953, the Academy mounted two annual exhibitions per year, an undertaking which in the words of Joseph Fraser, the Academy Director, “consumed the small staff utterly.” The slide, of 1938, hints at the size of the undertaking.

In the mid twentieth century the Academy and most of the other large national shows made format modifications due to the financial and logistical problems presented by these extravaganzas, with the Academy changing to one show per year in 1957, alternating oils and sculpture with works on paper exhibitions until the close in 1969.

The exhibitions provided the Academy and Philadelphia with a prestigious display of current American art. Visitors routinely saw the work of artists such as Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, William M. Chase, Cecilia Beaux, or Thomas Eakins, and in the twentieth century, Charles Burchfield, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, Theodore Roszak and Max Weber. In this installation image from 1893, PAFA purchased the Frank Duveneck, Turkish Page.

The impact of the Academy Annuals on American art history cannot be overstated. Its records provide information on various aspects of an artist’s career and today constitute an indispensable resource in the study of American art.

While the Art Institute of Chicago ended its annuals in 1986, the Carnegie still mounts the triennial Carnegie International, changed from an annual format in 1955. The Whitney (not founded until 1932) converted to a biennial in 1972, and the Corcoran series, begun in 1907, switched to a biennial in 1910.

Why did the Academy end the annuals, when other institutions carried on with modified formats? Some of the factors affecting the Academy decision were:

--competition from the private art dealers as the method by which most artists present their newest work to the public

--progressive artists’ disdain for such large group presentations, as well as any kind of jurying, a process widely perceived as an outdated, conservative format

--a relatively conservative Philadelphia public who consistently bought the regional artists’ work – generally the artists who had been juried in - and not the more modern pieces presented by the invited artists

--the rise of New York as the center of the American art world and competition from more modern oriented institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney; and the larger cash prizes offered at other exhibitions

--the stated intention of the Academy to make its annuals representative of the art produced across the entire country, not just the east coast avant garde

--the huge financial drain presented by the annuals, especially since we paid the shipping, insurance, and jurying expenses – a huge sum; and the end of the city’s $25,000 yearly subsidy to the Academy

Written by Cheryl Leibold (PAFA's Archivist, 1985-2010)

-Browse photographs by artists documented

-Browse photographs by year

-Browse installation photographs by year

-Finding Aid for Annual Exhibition collection

-Finding Aid for Annual Exhibition photographs