Skip to Content

Dumbarton Oaks Newsletters

Dumbarton Oaks has published a a succession of news bulletins that date back to 1941. The current newsletter is The Oaks News: A Monthly Bulletin from Dumbarton Oaks, which had its first digital issue in February 2012 and is published monthly for staff, alumni, and friends of the institution.

The earliest newsletter, the Underworld Courier, was a private publication produced by Dumbarton Oaks staff to keep the founders, Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, then residing in California, abreast of developments and happenings at the nascent research library and museum. Twenty-one issues were printed between January and November 1941.

Between January 1979 and May 1982, nine issues of the Dumbarton Oaks Newsletter were produced in photocopy typescript for Dumbarton Oaks staff. Each issue summarized the major events at the institution during an approximately three-month period, usually excluding the summer months.

A hiatus in newsletter production occurred between 1982 and 1994, at which time the Byzantine Studies program began publishing its own digital newsletter. Similarly, the Garden and Landscape Studies program initiated Landscape Matters: News from GLS @ Dumbarton Oaks in 2008. This annual digital publication occurs each fall. The Pre-Columbian Studies program began a digital newsletter in 2019.

In July 2009, a new institutional digital newsletter, In the Know at D.O.was launched for Dumbarton Oaks staff and was issued monthly until February 2013.