10/13/2026
Did you know about the love story that gave life to the Thomas P. Whitney collection? Or that the presentation of Whitney’s collection in the Mead galleries today is not the first time this work has been displayed at the museum?
Find out more by scrolling through this list of Whitney-related fun facts and by visiting “My beautiful, pitiful age:” The 20th Century Through the Thomas P. Whitney Collection, on view at the Mead until January 3.
Whitney’s Collection Is Really An Ode to His Wife:
A graduate of Amherst College, Thomas P.
Whitney (1917-2007, Class of 1937) was an expert in Soviet affairs and a translator of Russian literature. His collecting activity was to a large extent prompted by the death of his wife, Yulya Zapolskaya (Julie Whitney).
Whitney met Yulya, a composer and singer, while he served as a U.S. diplomat and journalist in Moscow during World War Il and the Cold War.
Whitney’s Collection Has Never Been More Visible to the Public:
Whitney’s is among the most comprehensive North American collections of art and books from the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. The current exhibition at the Mead offers the broadest presentation of these materials since their arrival at Amherst College.
Before Getting Into Eastern European Art, He Loved American Abstractionists:
Before he decided to focus on the former Russian Empire, Whitney acquired abstract works by various American artists, including Alexander Calder and Robert Motherwell.
He was especially fond of the art of his Connecticut neighbor Robert Jay Wolff, who played an important role in the development of abstraction in the United States.
Whitney’s Collection Was a Personal Deal:
Whitney was acquainted with a lot of artists whose work he bought, from Alexander Calder to Ernst Neizvestny, but he formed a particularly deep bond with Constructivist sculptor Naum Gabo, under whose guidance Whitney began to build a comprehensive art collection.
The Mead Showed Some of This Work Once Before:
By the 1980s, Whitney’s collection was so substantial that he decided to present it to the public and organized a traveling exhibition. The venues included the Mead, where the exhibition occupied the same ga
