Alice Winchester (December 9, 1907 – December 9, 1996) was an American magazine editor and art historian.

Biography

Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Winchester was the daughter of a Congregationalist clergyman. She grew up in

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, and received her bachelor's degree from Smith College. Upon graduation she worked briefly at

Chase National Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...

in New York City before joining the staff of ''

Antiques An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

'', where in 1930 she became secretary to Homer Eaton Keyes. He died in October 1938; the following March Winchester was named his successor as editor. Winchester became an influential voice in the world of antique collecting, publishing scholarship by such historians and curators as

Joseph Downs Joseph Downs (July 24, 1895 – September 8, 1954) was an American museum curator and scholar of American decorative arts. After 17 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Downs became founding curator of the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Libra ...

, Charles F. Montgomery, Marshall B. Davison, Irving W. Lyon, and Helen Comstock. In the field of folk art, she published work by Mabel M. Swan, Esther Stevens Brazer, E. Alfred Jones, Carl W. Dreppard,

Jean Lipman Jean Herzberg Lipman (1909 – June 20, 1998) was an American artist, collector, and art historian, a pioneer in the study of American folk art. Biography A native of Manhattan, where she was born Jean Herzberg, Lipman grew up in Midtown before ...

, and Nina Fletcher Little, among others. She devoted entire issues of the magazine to the

Winterthur Museum Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour," Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home o ...

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location a ...

, the Shelburne Museum,

Greenfield Village The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection conta ...

, the

Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...

Historic Deerfield Historic Deerfield is a museum dedicated to the heritage and preservation of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and history of the Connecticut River Valley. Its historic houses, museums, and programs provide visitors with an understanding of New Engla ...

, and the Shaker museums at

Hancock Hancock may refer to: Places in the United States * Hancock, Iowa * Hancock, Maine * Hancock, Maryland * Hancock, Massachusetts * Hancock, Michigan * Hancock, Minnesota * Hancock, Missouri * Hancock, New Hampshire ** Hancock (CDP), New Hampshir ...

and Pleasant Hill,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. ''Antiques'' also profiled notable collectors and their homes in the "Living With Antiques" feature. Upon her retirement in 1972, Winchester continued to publish on the subject of American folk art, writing about Jonathan Fisher and publishing two books with Jean Lipman. She also worked at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

from 1972 until 1974.

Awards and honors

During her career she received the Smith College Medal in 1968 and the Henry Francis du Pont Award for the Decorative Arts from the

in 1990.

Legacy

An oral history interview with Winchester, conducted between 1993 and 1995, is held by the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. The archives also own a collection of her papers, donated in 1993.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winchester, Alice 1907 births 1996 deaths American art historians Women art historians American women historians 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers American magazine editors Women magazine editors Smith College alumni Writers from Chicago Historians from Illinois People from Concord, Massachusetts Historians from Massachusetts