John “Jack” Buchanan, born 1931 in Glens Falls, NY, joined the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Museum Archivist on November 7th, 1966.
A few years later the new Director of the Museum, Thomas Hoving, appointed him Chief Registrar of the Museum and for the next twenty-two years Buchanan was in charge of worldwide art movements: packing, shipping, security in transit, and fine arts insurance In that capacity he traveled widely throughout the U.S., Europe, the Soviet Union, Middle East, India, China, Japan, and Mexico.
He moved several “Blockbuster” exhibitions. They included, Tutankhamen, Treasures of the Vatican, Manet, Treasures of Early Irish Art, Great Bronze Age of China, Mexico, and several others. He planned the movement to and from the Soviet Union of the first exhibition (American and European paintings) an American museum sent to that country and worked closely with couriers (curators and conservators) in Helsinki, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), and Moscow. During his tenure as Chief Registrar, he worked on exhibitions in the Soviet Union on six occasions, and during one trip he worked with Tom Hoving and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
In 1972 Hoving appointed Buchanan as his Special Assistant –while remaining Chief Registrar, thus he wore two hats. As Special Assistant he decided which matters should be brought to the Director’s attention, and which he could handle himself or farm out to others. He also worked with Hoving on gaining political and then financial support for the construction of the New American Wing, which meant hobnobbing with Democratic politicians in smoke-filled clubhouses.
Hoving became the Interim Director of the Queens Museum. Buchanan was the Deputy Interim Director and when Mr. Hoving retired, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, C. Douglas Dillon, assigned Buchanan to serve as Special Assistant to the first paid President of the Museum, William B. Macomber. He remained Chief Registrar and still traveled with exhibitions. In 1983, following twelve years of wearing two hats under Hoving and Macomber, with the special exhibition schedule booming, Buchanan decided to hand over the Special Assistant duties to a colleague and resumed wearing one hat.
Upon his retirement, Buchanan returned to the study of history and published three books with John Wiley & Sons: the widely acclaimed “The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas" (1997); the controversial “Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters” (2001); and the “The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution” (2004), which received the Thomas Fleming award for best book of 2004 by the Philadelphia American Revolution Round Table.
Mr. Buchanan has appeared on C-Span and the History Channel, and has contributed several book reviews to the Journal of Military History as well as acted as referee for proposed articles in JMH. He has also published short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and his self-published Cold War novel, The Rise of Stefan Gregorovic (2010), was described by a critic as “one of the most gripping narratives I’ve ever read.”