Tale of Two Collectors From left: Irwin Lavenberg and Lee Michels with graduate students
Once upon a time, two Japanese print collections generously supported the museum’s teaching mission… The JSMA is the extremely fortunate beneficiary of two spectacular gifts of 19th- and early 20th-century Japanese prints from two distinguished Oregon collections—Portland-based collector Irwin Lavenberg, and Eugene-based collectors Lee and Mary Jean Michels. Lee Michels began collecting prints while stationed in Japan during his service as a Navy doctor. Fascinated by the culture and art he observed there, his first acquisitions were woodblock prints depicting war scenes from the Meiji period (1868-1912). After moving to Eugene to work as a radiologist, the collection expanded to reflect his wide-ranging interests in landscapes, gardening, fire-fighters, fishing, folktales, humor, theater, and examples of cross-cultural influence. Lee Michels has served on the museum’s Leadership Council for more than twenty years and he and Mary Jean have generously donated acquisition funds and loaned prints for exhibitions and curricular use by professors Akiko Walley (History of Art and Architecture) and Glynne Walley (East Asian Languages and Literatures), and Chief Curator Anne Rose Kitagawa. Dr. Michels also donates his time and expertise presenting to UO students and to the JSMA’s Education Department. Highlights from the first donation of 126 Japanese prints from the Michels collection include
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