[1] A native of Denver, Colorado, Sickman became interested in Japanese and Chinese art while in high school.
[1] He traveled throughout China under the newly formed Harvard-Yenching Fellowship,[3] purchasing Chinese paintings, sculpture and furniture for collection and study at the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of the Nelson-Atkins Museum.
He traveled on a scholarship to China, where he met Langdon Warner, his former Harvard professor and one of the trustees of the Nelson museum, which was being established.
Sickman was later given the responsibility of buying works on his own by means of a $11 million donation by Kansas City Star founder William Rockhill Nelson.
[1] In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Laurence Sickman, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 50+ works in 90+ publications in four languages and in 3,000+ library holdings.