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• 1 media/frickbuilding 2.jpg 2016-07-11T07:46:17-07:00 Overview of the Early Years 16 plain 302338 2016-11-01T11:59:00-07:00 The Frick Fine Arts Library was established using a gift from Miss Helen Clay Frick in 1927, a gift that also established the new Fine Arts Department at the University of Pittsburgh (Alberts 1986, 351). The library was separate from the University Library System and located on the first floor of State Hall (Kinne 1936, 74-75). Although at the time of establishment catalog cards for all newly acquired books were sent to the University Library for a proposed union catalog for all of the libraries in the ULS, the Frick Fine Arts Library operated independently of the larger system (Kinne 1936, 74-75).   
  
  It was out of Miss Frick's pocket that the fine arts staff were paid, including those who were working with her to get the library up and running (Alberts 1986, 351). This included Professor Frederick Mortimer Clapp, who Miss Frick sent on a year long trek across Europe to buy books, slides, and equipment for the library (Alberts 1986, 351). Some documented countries that Dr. Clapp traveled to included England, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy (The University of Pittsburgh Record 1927, 44). The history states that "Miss Frick sent him to acquire volumes essential for the finest university art history libraries" (Friends of Frick Fine Arts 1987, 21). Dr. Clapp, under the recommendation of Harvard University's chairman of Fine Arts, was also to be the director of the Fine Arts Department at Pitt starting in 1927 (Alberts 1986, 351). 
  
   The library was "reported in the October 1927 issue of the University of Pittsburgh Record to own 1,000 volumes. Within another year, under Dr. Clapp’s leadership and knowledgeable acquisitions, the collection had grown to 3,100 volumes purchased for $26,631.86" (Friends of Frick Fine Arts 1987, 21). Later down the road, when asked in 1986 about his thoughts on the Frick Fine Arts Library, Carnegie Mellon art history Professor Jean Seznac stated that the library had a good foundation, and that it was "extremely well stocked with reference works and periodicals" (Alberts 1986, 353).