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Myrtilla Avery (1869–1959) was an American classical scholar focused on Medieval art, former chair of Department of Art at Wellesley College and director of the Farnsworth Art Museum from 1930–1937.[1]

Biography

Avery graduated in 1891 from Wellesley College, majoring in Greek.[2] After in which she started taking classes at University at Albany, SUNY, while working in the university library.[3] By 1895 she earned a bachelor's degree in Library Science.[3] Her Master of Arts degree from Wellesley was in 1913 and a doctorate in art history from Radcliffe College in 1927.[1]

Avery offered one of the earliest classes in museum studies at the Farnsworth Art Museum[4] and by 1915 she introduced the first art history classes at Wellesley.[2] She became the chair of the Wellesley art department in 1929, succeeding Alice Van Vechten Brown.[5] After serving on Wellesley's faculty for 25 years, she retired from Wellesley in 1937 and was named professor emeritus.[1][3]

After retiring she dedicated her energies to volunteering for the American Council of Learned Societies.[1] In 1943, the council formed the Committee on the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas and they worked on indexing the most important artworks in Nazi-occupied countries.[1]

See also

• Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives
• List of Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) personnel
• Women in the art history field

References

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