Denman Ross and American Design Theory

Acknowledgments

ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS One of the pleasures of this project has been the opportunity to work with colleagues who so willingly shared their expertise and time. Librarians and archivists all seem to have a special gene that inspires them to go beyond the call of duty in ferreting out information and following up on very specific (and often very tedious!) questions. My thanks must begin with Susan Von Salis, Curator of Archives at Harvard Art Museums, and her two assistants over the years, Abigail Smith and Jane Callahan. Their knowledge of the collection—which contains Ross’s papers, diaries, and teaching materials— and cheerful support made the time I spent at the archives one of discovery and pleasure. The staff at Harvard University Archives similarly always responded promptly and professionally. Jeanne Solensky brought a welcome sense of humor during my research at the Winterthur Museum and Library, and Helena Richardson graciously oversaw my requests for images from rare books and periodicals. Paul Dobbs and Richard McElroy of the Massachusetts College of Art shared their knowledge of Albert Munsell with me; Richard kindly spent an afternoon setting up Munsell’s spheres and color tree so that I might photograph them. Susan K. Anderson at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives led me through the voluminous Fiske Kimball Papers and helped me locate the photograph of Kimball included here. Maureen Melton at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston helped me track down dates and events. At my own institution, the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), I would have been lost without the help of Deborah Friedman. The dogged determination she showed tracking down the endless nineteenth- and early twentieth-century editions of books I requested through interlibrary loan should earn her an award—all the more so because of the wry wit that accompanied her efforts. In our media center, Paul Coppens and John Callahan always, without hesitation, helped me with the latest technology for scanning and storing my images. This book would not have come to fruition without the unstinting support of all of these people. To do research, one needs time. I was fortunate at a few key moments to receive fellowships that allowed me to investigate, to travel, and—most important—to think. In 2006 I received the James Renwick Fellowship in American Craft from the Smithsonian Institution American Art Museum. The fall I spent in Washington, D.C., was a watershed for this project: the x : Acknowledgments Archives of American Art held a treasure trove of material related to Ross, and the exchange of ideas and many conversations that took place among the Fellows kindled my enthusiasm. Amelia Goerlitz made sure the fellowships ran smoothly; Cynthia Mills shared her knowledge of Henry Adams and brought her keen editorial eye to the article I wrote for American Art. In June 2007 I received a fellowship from the Winterthur Museum and Library. The collection of objects, books, and archives there not only grounded my research but were themselves a product of the formalist aesthetic I hoped to pin down. I would also like to thank the Department of Cultural Studies and the Division of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at UML for supporting a junior sabbatical in the spring of 2007 that gave me the time to immerse myself in Ross-related materials at Harvard. And finally I would like to thank the faculty of Bryn Mawr College—especially Dale Kinney, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Humanities—for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities in 2002 that allowed me to reengage with academic scholarship. Over the course of writing the manuscript, I benefited from the help and expertise of numerous colleagues. Edward S. Cooke Jr. will always serve as my model of scholarly collegiality for his gracious willingness to read and discuss sections of the manuscript with me. His suggestions undoubtedly improved it. I would also like to offer sincere thanks to the two outside readers for the attention they gave to the conceptual framework as well as specific details within the text. Colleagues who generously shared their knowledge of Boston’s cultural accomplishments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included Maureen Meister, Francesca Bewer, Royal Leith, Michael Rossi, and Jeannine Falino. Patricia Ross Pratt kindly verified some biographical points and will soon add to our knowledge with her forthcoming book on Ross. Ann Huppert expertly answered my many questions regarding the Renaissance, Luciano Cheles helped me track down material...