The Kluge-Ruhe Collection Study Center consists of a library with resources on Aboriginal art and ethnography, exhibition catalogues, photography and other media. To use the Study Center, please contact us at kluge-ruhe@virginia.edu or 434-244-0234 to make an appointment.

When Edward Ruhe first went to Australia as a Fulbright Scholar in 1965, he began an ongoing personal library of his research materials, which now provides the core of the Kluge-Ruhe Study Center. Materials include but are not limited to: books, publications, periodicals, maps, videos, audio recordings, photographs and slides, correspondence, scrapbooks, receipts, invoices, art tags, research manuscripts and artist index cards. Professor Ruhe created an “artist index card” for every artist he came across in his research. He separated the cards by region, and continually added biographical and circumstantial information about the artist and his or her artwork. He also wrote two articles on Aboriginal art, Two Neglected Australian Bark Paintings and The Bark Art of Tasmania. Edward Ruhe’s thorough and invaluable archives offer an unparalleled examination of an Aboriginal art collector in the 1960s and 70s, before many Australian museums found reason to collect Aboriginal art.

Since its beginning in 1997, the Kluge-Ruhe Collection has continually built on Ruhe’s materials to provide a thorough cross-section of materials pertaining to the study and exhibition of Aboriginal art. In 2013 the launch of a public search module is scheduled to increase access to the collection and the archives internationally.