Frederick W. Gookin

Born in Ludlow, Vermont, in 1853, Frederick William Gookin built a reputation as an American writer, collector, and scholar of Japanese art. Sources available here consistently identify him as an art scholar and Chicago businessman, and they connect his work especially with Japanese prints and illustrated books.

He is closely associated with the Art Institute of Chicago and with major collectors of Asian art. Smithsonian materials describe correspondence between Gookin and Charles Lang Freer, noting that Gookin later drafted an extensive catalog of Freer’s Japanese paintings. Art Institute records also show works entering the museum from the Frederick W. Gookin Collection, reflecting his importance as both a connoisseur and a source of material for public collections.

Gookin died in 1936. While the surviving sources I found focus more on his art-historical work than on his personal life, they present him as a careful, influential figure in the early American study and collecting of Japanese art.