Dorothy Adlow (1901-1964) was a nationally known art critic and lecturer from Boston.
Early life and education
She was born in Boston on June 7, 1901, to Jewish immigrant parents. Her father, Nathan Adlow, emigrated as a youth from Kazarez, Poland, and opened a furniture store in the
Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Her mother, Bessie (Bravman) Adlow, was born in Dauge, Lithuania.
Her brother,
Elijah Adlow
Elijah Adlow (August 15, 1896 - November 4, 1982) was an American lawyer, politician, jurist, author and the Chief Justice of the Municipal Court of the City of Boston, now known as the Boston Municipal Court Department, serving in that capaci ...
, eventually became chief justice of the
Boston Municipal Court
The Boston Municipal Court (BMC), officially the Boston Municipal Court Department of the Trial Court, is a department of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The court hears criminal, civil, mental health, restr ...
.
Dorothy grew up in Roxbury and attended
Girls' Latin School
Boston Latin Academy (BLA) is a public exam school founded in 1878 in Boston, Massachusetts providing students in grades 7th through 12th a classical preparatory education.
Originally named Girls' Latin School until 1977, the school was the ...
. At her mother's urging, and despite her father's warnings that "if she gets too educated, she'll never marry," she went on to earn a bachelor's and a master's degree from
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
, graduating in 1923.
Career
After college, Adlow worked briefly for the ''
Boston Evening Transcript
The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.
Beginnings
''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of D ...
'' before beginning a 41-year career as an art critic for ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
''. She was the only member of the staff who was not a
Christian Scientist
Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...
.
By her mid-twenties, she had achieved a remarkable level of independence and professional success for a young woman of her time.
To supplement her income, Adlow traveled widely, lecturing at colleges and museums and serving as an art juror. In 1930 she lectured at the
Carnegie International
The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established th ...
exhibit series in Pittsburgh, the first woman to do so. She also appeared frequently on television programs produced by the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
,
and taught at the
Katharine Gibbs
Katharine Gibbs (also Catharine Ryan and Katherine Ryan) (1863–1934) was the founder of Gibbs College, which became a for-profit institution of higher education.
Catharine Ryan was born in Galena, Illinois on January 10, 1863, and was the gra ...
School.
Adlow was Boston's leading art critic during the 1940s, when the city's art scene changed dramatically. She regularly attended exhibitions at the
Museum School and discussed the students' work with
Karl Zerbe
Karl Zerbe (September 16, 1903 – November 24, 1972) was a German-born American painter and educator.
Biography
Karl Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France from 1904–1914, where his fat ...
.
Jean Gibran, wife of the artist
Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...
, names Adlow in her memoir as one of those who contributed to the "flowering" of
Boston Expressionism Boston Expressionism is an arts movement marked by emotional directness, dark humor, social and spiritual themes, and a tendency toward figuration strong enough that Boston Figurative Expressionism is sometimes used as an alternate term to distingu ...
.
Personal life
In 1931, at the age of 30, Adlow married composer-conductor
Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky ( – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (russian: Никола́й Леони́дович Сло́нимский), was a Russian-born American conductor, author, pianist, composer and lexicographer. B ...
. She kept her maiden name and continued working, providing a small, but steady income for the household while her husband's fortunes fluctuated.
Her daughter, Electra, was born in 1933.
Adlow corresponded frequently with her husband, who traveled a great deal. She carefully saved his letters, but her letters to him have been lost. Her daughter published a posthumous collection of Slonimsky's letters titled ''Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow'' (University of Rochester Press, 2012).
She died of a heart attack on January 11, 1964, at her home on Beacon Street in Boston, aged 62.
Awards and honors
* 1947: Honorary
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 ...
membership, Radcliffe College
* 1953: Art Critic Award,
American Federation of Arts
The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 w ...
* 1957: Art Citation of Merit,
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
A room is named in her honor at Hilles Library, Radcliffe College.
References
External links
*
*
Papers of Dorothy Adlow, 1923-1969: A Finding Aid.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adlow, Dorothy
1901 births
1964 deaths
Radcliffe College alumni
American art critics
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
Writers from Boston
People from Roxbury, Boston
American women non-fiction writers