Joseph Downs (July 24, 1895 – September 8, 1954) was an American museum curator and scholar of American

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

. After 17 years at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, Downs became founding curator of the

Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library 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 of ...

from 1949 to 1954. His assistant,

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 ...

, became Winterthur's first director after Downs' death.

Early life and education

Downs was born in

Shutesbury Shutesbury is a New England town, town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,717 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfie ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

on July 24, 1895, to parents Daniel and Mary MacDonald Downs. He served overseas with the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...

during World War I, graduated from the

Boston Museum School The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...

in 1921, and traveled to Europe on a postgraduate fellowship from his alma mater in 1922–23.

Career

Downs worked for two years at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and designed furniture for another two years in New York City. He worked as assistant curator and then curator of the decorative arts at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

from 1925 to 1932. He returned to New York in 1932 to serve as curator of the American Wing of the

, where he created exhibitions and authored more than 150 publications in venues such as '' Magazine Antiques''. He installed the first folk art (

Pennsylvania German The Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spea ...

) period rooms ("House of the Miller at Millbach") ever put in place at an American museum. In 1949,

Henry Francis du Pont Henry Francis du Pont (May 27, 1880 – April 11, 1969) was an American horticulturist, collector of early American furniture and decorative arts, breeder of Holstein Friesian cattle, and scion of the powerful du Pont family. Converted into ...

hired Downs to catalog du Pont's vast antiques collection at his Winterthur estate in Delaware. When the Winterthur Museum opened to the public in 1951, Downs became the museum's first curator. His associate, Charles F. Montgomery, became assistant curator and succeeded him as chief curator and museum director after his death. In 1952, Downs published the first volume (''American Furniture of the Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods'') of a planned monumental study on American furniture. However, his untimely death in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

on September 8, 1954, meant the three sequel volumes were never written.

Legacy

In 1955, the Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera at Winterthur was named in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downs, Joseph 1895 births 1954 deaths People from Shutesbury, Massachusetts School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni American art curators American art educators American art historians United States Army personnel of World War I Directors of museums in the United States People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art People associated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art People associated with Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library