Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University

Dumbarton Oaks is a research institute, located in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., that includes collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art, as well as a collection of manuscripts, drawings, prints, and rare books relating to all aspects of garden history. The institute is housed on an estate formerly owned by Robert Woods and Mildred Barnes Bliss, who conveyed their house, art collections, and gardens to Harvard University in 1940. There are three programs of research at Dumbarton Oaks: Byzantine studies, Pre-Columbian studies, and studies in the history of gardens and landscape architecture. The institute offers fellowships in all three areas of study, and also organizes symposia, colloquia, seminars, and public lectures. The research is supported by an extensive library of approximately 250,000 volumes and by major photo archives.