Arts, books from the Hanley Collection go on display in KOA Gallery

The KOA Art Gallery will exhibit art and books collected by Bradford philanthropist and art connoisseur T. Edward Hanley Friday through March 8 in the exhibit “T.E. Hanley: A Local Man with a World View.”

Dennis Frank, archivist for the Friedsam Memorial Library at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y., will give a lecture on Hanley’s donation of books and manuscripts to St. Bonaventure, the University of Arizona and other universities and libraries, including Pitt-Bradford and the Bradford Area Public Library. The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, in the Bromeley Family Theater of Blaisdell Hall, followed by an opening reception.

The exhibit will be on display in the KOA Art Gallery, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays.

The exhibit will feature items from The Hanley Collection at St. Bonaventure, including a small number of books and realist paintings from a variety of eras.

“It is wonderful to have the opportunity to share some of the works from the T. Edward Hanley Collection in an exhibition like this,” said Evelyn Penman, assistant director for the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure. “Dr. Hanley’s gifts to St. Bonaventure include works by some of the best-known American artists of the 20th century.”

Hanley and his wife, Tullah, were important donors to both Pitt-Bradford and St. Bonaventure, and the library at Pitt-Bradford is named in their honor.

Patty Colosimo, coordinator of arts programming at Pitt-Bradford, said she has wanted to collaborate with St. Bonaventure on such a show for a long time.

“The topic was a natural,” she said.

Hanley began collecting as a student at Harvard University in the early 20th century. The son of wealthy Bradfordians who had made their fortune manufacturing bricks and dabbling in the oil and gas fields, he received an allowance each month that he put toward purchasing first-edition books.

“He collected from people he thought were going to make a big impact,” Colosimo said.

Later he began collecting art with the same eye. Frank said that Hanley was simply born with good taste. “He just had a great eye – not only for art, but also for literature.”

Hanley generously selected and bankrolled a substantial collection at the then-backwater University of Arizona in Tucson. He later sold a massive collection of books, manuscripts and literature to the University of Texas, including first editions and manuscripts of D.H. Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw, Dylan Thomas, Samuel Beckett and corrected page proofs of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

“People always think of his art collection and don’t realize the extent of his bibliographic holdings,” Frank said.

A concurrent show of more items from The Hanley Collection will take place at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure, which is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information, contact Colosimo at (814)362-5155.

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