Ann Kendall Richards, Inc. was established in New York in 1969 by Ann Richards Nitze. Ann Richards Nitze, President of Ann Kendall Richards, Inc., is a graduate of Miss Porter's School, Farmington, CT, and Radcliffe College. She also attended the Academie Julian in Paris. Mrs. Nitze now works privately in New York, Washington D.C., and Aspen, CO. Mrs. Nitze also lived in Japan for five years and has special expertise in the Japanese market.

The director of Ann Kendall Richards, Inc., Evelyn Tompkins, is a graduate of Miss Porter's School and Wellesley College and studied studio architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a former specialist in 19th-century European paintings and sporting art at Sotheby's New York, and has also lived in London where she worked in Sotheby's Contemporary Art and Victorian Paintings Departments. In additon, Ms. Tompkins has interior design experience. She trained under the interior designer, Mario Buatta in New York and further studied interior design and architecture at the Parsons School of Design in New York and landscape design at The New York Botanical Gardens School of Professional Horticulture.

Ann Kendall Richards, Inc. maintains an inventory of 19th- and 20th-century masterworks including paintings, drawings, sculpture, and prints. AKR, Inc. also assists clients in the sale, purchase, and appraisal of artworks privately and through auction. The firm further advises clients in matters of framing, restoration, and lighting of artworks.