Millia Crotty Davenport (March 30, 1895 – January 18, 1992) was an American costumer,

theater designer Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of Theatre, theatrical, as well as film or television theatrical scenery, scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in rece ...

, and scholar, known for her 1948 work ''The Book of Costume''.

Biography

Millia Davenport was born March 30, 1895, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to biologists

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

and Gertrude Davenport, who became leaders of the

American eugenics movement Eugenics, the set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the Genetics, genetic quality of the human population, played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States from the late 19th century into the mid-20th c ...

."Millia Davenport Harkevy". Ancestry.com, ''U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007'' atabase online Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2015. Retrieved 2017-09-11. She studied in Paris as a teenager, returning to New York where she graduated from Huntington High School in 1913 and attended

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

from 1913 to 1915. She studied at the

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

from 1917 to 1918, and later taught there. She married editor Arthur Harold Moss in her early twenties and for a time was editor and publisher of ''The Quill'', a

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

literary magazine. In the 1920s she married Walter Louis Fleisher, and in the late 1930s married a third time to physician Edward Harkevy. In 1947 she declined an offer from

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

to design costumes for his film production of ''Macbeth'' in order to focus on her academic research, culminating in ''The Book of Costume''. In the early 1960s she founded and cataloged the library of the American Museum of Folk Art. In 1981 Davenport received the highest honor given by the

United States Institute for Theatre Technology The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) is a membership organization which aims to advance the skills and knowledge of theatre, entertainment and performing arts professionals involved in the areas of theatrical design, design, ...

, for a lifetime of distinguished contribution to the performing arts. That same year she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Parsons School of Design. She died January 18, 1992, aged 96, at a nursing home minutes away from her longtime home in

New City, New York New City is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, United States, part of the New York Metropolitan Area. An affluent suburb of New York City, the hamlet is located north of the city at its cl ...

, which she designed and built.

Legacy

In 1991 the Costume Society of America established the Millia Davenport Publication Award recognizing excellence in costume scholarship.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Davenport, Millia 1895 births 1992 deaths American costume designers American scenic designers Women scenic designers American magazine editors People from Cambridge, Massachusetts Barnard College alumni Women magazine editors