Finding 16: Congratulatory Letter from Lawrence Kupferman

“I want to congratulate you on your new directorship – New York’s gain and our real loss. You did a wonderful job here in Boston and really you are a really vital force here and everybody will miss you.” This letter to Thomas Messer written by Boston-based artist and Massachusetts native Lawrence Kupferman on February 1, 1961, was found among the hundreds of congratulatory messages received by the newly appointed director in 1961. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s Board of Trustees selected Messer as the museum’s third director. He filled the vacancy left by James Johnson Sweeney in August 1960. Before coming to New York, Messer was the director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.

—Pete Asch, archives assistant