Florence Mellowes Montgomery (July 22, 1914 – January 20, 1998) was an American museologist,

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 ...

, and curator, specializing in textiles. She authored two influential books and worked as a curator at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. She was married to

Charles F. Montgomery Charles Franklin Montgomery (April 14, 1910 – February 21, 1978), was an American curator, art historian, scholar, educator, and museum director. He served as the first director of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, from 1954 to 1 ...

, a fellow curator and art historian who was Winterthur Museum's first director.

Life and career

Born Florence Elizabeth Mellowes in Fort Wayne, Indiana, she earned her BA in art history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936. She traveled and studied in Europe and worked as a library secretary at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

before receiving an MFA 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 ...

in 1943. She also completed the Fogg Art Museum course at Harvard University. She went on to become an assistant to the director of the

Rhode Island School of Design Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877, and still shares multiple build ...

. She subsequently moved to New York to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Joseph Downs, curator of the American Wing. In 1946, she married

(1910–1978), with whom she had two children: William Phelps, who went on to become a digital fine artist, and Agnes Nisbet, who died at the age of five. She and her husband moved to Delaware in 1949 and to Connecticut in 1970. When Yale University published a posthumous tribute to Charles's career (originally intended to celebrate his retirement), the volume underscored the professional contributions of his wife and collaborator. At the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, where her husband became the museum's inaugural director in 1954, Montgomery organized the training of the museum's docents. She also taught art history in the influential Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. For ten years, she served as the assistant curator of textiles at the museum. Montgomery continued to write, teach, volunteer, and work as a museum consultant until her death. Her first book, ''Printed Textiles: English and American Cottons and Linens 1700–1850'' (Viking, 1970), remains a "standard reference in the field." The publication of her monumental historical dictionary of fabrics, ''Textiles in America 1650–1870'' (Norton, 1984), was an "event much anticipated" by scholars. Both continue to appear on syllabi for courses in material culture and the decorative arts. Montgomery died in Hamden, Connecticut, at the age of 83. Her papers are held in the archives of the Winterthur Library.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montgomery, Florence M. 1914 births 1998 deaths People from Fort Wayne, Indiana Radcliffe College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni American art historians Textile historians American women curators American curators People associated with Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library