Access Policy of the Barnes Foundation Archives and Special Collections

Our policy is to make archival collections available to the Barnes Foundation community, the broader art and horticulture community, and the general public for teaching, research, publication, and exhibition.

The nature and conditions of research use, however, must be consistent with our commitment to the care and preservation of our collections. The materials are non-circulating and stored in restricted access stacks, requiring them to be paged from the stacks by archives staff. We expect that researchers will have exhausted relevant secondary sources before visiting our archives.

• Archival materials may be consulted by appointment only.
• Researchers must make an appointment at least two weeks before a visit.
• Archival material may be used only under the supervision of archives staff. Some parts of the collection may be unavailable for research due to factors such as the fragility of materials, incomplete organization or description, donor restrictions, or restrictions to protect the institution’s proprietary rights.
• All coats, briefcases, bags, parcels, and loose books and papers must be checked with archives staff before using the archives.
• No smoking, eating, or drinking is allowed in the Honickman Library.
• Researchers are expected to preserve the existing arrangement of the material within folders and boxes. If an item appears to be misfiled, call it to the attention of archives staff—do not attempt to correct it.
• Only pencils may be used while working with archival materials. Use of pens, ink, markers, and erasable ink is not permitted. Tracing from or writing on archival materials is not permitted.
• Laptops or tablets may be used, but they are not supplied by the Barnes.
• Researchers must use extreme care when handling the material. Many items are fragile, valuable, and irreplaceable. Cotton gloves must be worn at all times while handling photographic material (i.e., prints, negatives, lantern slides). Staff will provide these gloves, returnable at the end of each day.
• Any damage to items incurred while handling the documents should be reported to archives staff.
• Researchers who do not comply with these regulations will be asked to leave.

Permission to Publish

• Requests for permission to publish must be addressed to Archives, Library, and Special Collections staff. An application is available upon request.
• The Barnes archives does not necessarily have copyright for all materials in its collection. It is the applicant’s responsibility to identify copyright holders and obtain permission to publish from the copyright owner. The Barnes does not require copyright clearance for fair use of materials authored by Dr. Albert Barnes.
• Please use our preferred citation formation when citing materials from our collections: [Author], [Description of item], [date], [Collection], Barnes Foundation Archives, Philadelphia.
• We ask that researchers provide one copy of any book, article, thesis, catalogue, or other written or visual products resulting from work in the archives.