Charles "Charlie" Child Eldredge (born April 12, 1944 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

) is an American

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

. Eldredge is the Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture Emeritus at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

. He also served as Director of the

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-c ...

and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

during his career.

Career

Eldredge was born to Henry and Priscilla Marion Bateson in

, but was raised in

East Greenwich East Greenwich is a town and the county seat of Kent County, Rhode Island. The population was 14,312 at the 2020 census. East Greenwich is the wealthiest municipality within the state of Rhode Island. It is part of the Providence metropolitan st ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. Eldredge received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in American Studies from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

in 1966, and then continued on to earn a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1971. His doctoral dissertation was on the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, whom he studied throughout his career, and was titled "Georgia O'Keeffe: The Development of an American Modern." In 1970, while still a doctoral student, Eldredge was hired as Assistant Professor of Art History at the

, which also came with a joint appointment as

at their

. Upon completing his doctorate, he was elevated to the rank of Professor, as well as to Director of the Spencer. Eldredge held those posts until 1982 when he left Kansas to become Director of the

. In 1988, Eldredge returned to the University of Kansas as Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture. He remained in that position until retirement in 2018, and was given the title as Emeritus. In 1989, 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 ...

named an annual award for outstanding scholarship in the field of

American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arc ...

after Eldredge. The award is called the "Charles C. Eldredge Prize." Eldredge has also been named an honorary member of the Association of Art Museum Directors (1990) and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

(2004). Eldredge's research focuses on American art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with interests in museums,

literary Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

and

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

, and more recently, the art of

Arthur Bowen Davies Arthur Bowen Davies (September 26, 1862 – October 24, 1928) was an avant-garde United States, American artist and influential advocate of modern art in the United States c. 1910–1928. Biography Davies was born in Utica, New York, the son of ...

. In addition to O'Keeffe, Eldredge has written books on such artists as John Steuart Curry, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Rex Slinkard, and

Charles Walter Stetson Charles Walter Stetson (March 25, 1858 – July 21, 1911) was an American artist often described as a "colorist" for his rich use of color. Life Stetson was born in Tiverton Four Corners, Rhode Island on March 25, 1858. His father was a Baptis ...

References

External links

University of Kansas profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eldredge, Charles C. 1944 births Living people People from Boston People from East Greenwich, Rhode Island American art historians American art curators Directors of museums in the United States Amherst College alumni University of Minnesota alumni University of Kansas faculty Smithsonian Institution people Georgia O'Keeffe

Career

See also

References

External links