Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Frederick Hammersley made nine donations of his papers to the Archives of American Art between 1974 and 2008, including biographical materials, diaries, correspondence, personal business and financial records, writings, photographs, printed materials, and works of art, including a complete set of computer drawings, accompanying punch cards and his notes on the project.
In 2012 the Frederick Hammersley Foundation donated additional archival materials, including family photo albums, professional photographs, photographic negatives, journals, scrapbooks, teaching materials, writings, audio-visual material, graphic design, and correspondence. The Foundation also provided a cash gift to the Archives of American Art for the purpose of processing, digitizing, and making available online Hammersley’s archival collection.
In 2013 the Foundation provided additional funds for the processing of and online finding aids for the related archival collections of curator Peter Selz, teacher and painter Stanton MacDonald-Wright, and painter John McLaughlin.
More info: Archives of American Art: "Frederick Hammersley papers, circa 1860s, 1890-2009"
The Foundation has shared its database information about Frederick Hammersley’s artworks with the Archives of American Art where it will be available for research.
Images © Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California
In 2013 the Frederick Hammersley Foundation donated to the Getty Research Institute a collection of Frederick Hammersley’s archival studio materials, including 11 sketchbooks, notebooks, and “painting books,” over 100 loose-leaf pages of handwritten ideas for titles, several hundred lithographic impressions and notes from his 1949–50 lithography project, 141 unsigned computer drawings from 1969-70, 65 paint charts, and the small unstretched canvas which was Hammersley’s first “hunch” painting.
First hunch painting, 1950
Hammersley’s sketchbooks and notebooks document his formal experimentation with painting over nearly 50 years, during which time he recorded hundreds of ideas for compositions and color relationships. His “painting books” meticulously record the details of the production of each of his finished paintings and provide a valuable research tool for both art historians and conservators. Together with the other archival materials in the collection, they also demonstrate the depth of artistic research that characterized Hammersley’s career.
The Getty Research Institute has catalogued the archive and made it available on their website which is available here.
More info: "Frederick Hammersley Foundation Donates Archive to the Getty Research Institute."
Images © J. Paul Getty Trust
Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, California
Scientist Alan Phenix, while at the Getty Conservation Institute, did extensive research on Frederick Hammersley’s notebooks, sketchbooks, and painting books in the collection of the Getty Research Institute. He has studied them as a source for technical information about Hammersley’s materials and processes and has transcribed the text in the painting books for eventual use in a text-searchable database. Click here for more info
In 2012 Phenix presented his initial research, conducted with colleague Thomas McClintock, to the American Institute for Conservation at its annual meeting in Albuquerque. Their paper which resulted from this research, entitled Frederick Hammersley: An Artist’s Documentation of His Painting Practice, was published in the AIC Paintings Specialty Group POSTPRINTS and may be viewed here.
Information on the AIC Paintings Specialty Group can be found here.
Images © J. Paul Getty Trust
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, California
In 2018 the Frederick Hammersley Foundation donated to the
SFMOMA Artist Materials Collection 
a group of Frederick Hammersley’s unfinished paintings along with his easel, artist toolboxes, brushes, palette knives, clamps, compasses, and other studio materials. The gift also includes a portfolio of sketches, notes, and studies by Harold Hammersley, the artist’s father.
The SFMOMA Artist Materials Collection is a repository for the tangible materials that stem from the museum’s engagement with artists and their estates. Displayed in the museum’s conservation studio, the materials reveal an important chapter in the story of artworks and build knowledge of an artist’s practice and the museum’s stewardship efforts.
Image © San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
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The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
In 2018 the Frederick Hammersley Foundation donated to the Albuquerque Museum a diverse collection of Frederick Hammersley’s archival materials including artworks by his father Harold Hammersley, his students, teachers, friends, and other artists, family photos, and other personal items such as Native American rugs, furniture, studio materials, books from his extensive library, and ceramics by his sister Susie Stone.
Harold Hammersley, Breakfast Room, 1958
Image © Albuquerque Museum