Phillips Flashback: A Man of Many Lists
From the Archives
![list of works_Duncan Phillips](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_1360px_/public/featured_images/list-of-works_Duncan-Phillips.jpg?itok=L4Bz72s2)
From The Phillips Collection Archives
Museum founder Duncan Phillips loved making lists. He often created lists that ranked individual works of art. In a document dated 1919-1920, prior to the museum’s opening in 1921, he put Claude Monet in third place and American painter John Twachtman in first on a list titled “15 Best Purchases of 1918-19.” On the back of an important letter to Thomas Bower (below) about the late art collector John Quinn, Phillips scrawled a list that included baby dresses, laundry, roast chicken, chicken aspic jelly, and ice cream.
![shopping list_Duncan Phillips](/sites/default/files/styles/max_width_1360px_/public/featured_images/shopping-list_Duncan-Phillips.jpg?itok=arUAK5hx)
From The Phillips Collection Archives