Morrison Harris Heckscher (born December 12, 1940) is an American retired

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 ...

and

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 ...

who served as the Lawrence A. Fleischman Chair of the American Wing 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 ...

from 2001 to 2014. He had worked in various curatorial roles at the Met since 1966. As chair, he oversaw a complete renovation of the interior and exhibits. He is a recipient of the Antique Dealers' Association Award of Merit and the

Winterthur Museum 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 o ...

's Henry Francis du Pont Award.

Early life and education

Heckscher was born and raised west of

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 ...

and educated at the

Episcopal Academy The Episcopal Academy, founded in 1785, is a private, co-educational school for grades Pre-K through 12 based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Prior to 2008, the main campus was located in Merion Station and the satellite campus was located in D ...

. His grandfather, Morris Harris, made furniture as a hobby and inspired his grandson's youthful dream of moving to rural

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

to become a cabinetmaker. Heckscher received his BA degree in American history from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

in 1962, his MA from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

in 1964, and his PhD in art history from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

( ABD 1968; PhD 1986). His dissertation focused on English architect and interior designer

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, but ...

. Mentors included Samuel M. Green at Wesleyan,

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 ...

at Winterthur, and

Rudolf Wittkower Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a British art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the Unite ...

at Columbia. He developed special interests in 18th-century American furniture and 19th- and 20th-century American architecture.

Career at the Met

Heckscher arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1966 under a Chester Dale Fellowship to work with English architectural drawings in the prints department. His career in the American Wing began in 1968, when he became assistant curator of American decorative arts. He put his dissertation on hold to accept the full-time role and ultimately received his PhD in 1986. He gained promotions to Curator of American Decorative Arts in 1978, to Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts in 1998, and to Lawrence A. Fleischman Chair of the American Wing at the

in 2001. As chair, he envisioned and oversaw the decade-long renovation and reinstallation of the entire American Wing, culminating in galleries of American paintings and sculpture that opened to acclaim in 2012. Heckscher retired in 2014 and now serves as curator emeritus of the American Wing. Sylvia Yount, former chief curator at the

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the su ...

, succeeded him as chair.

Scholarly contributions

Heckscher mounted numerous Met exhibitions with accompanying catalogs: ''In Quest of Comfort: The Easy Chair in America'' (1971), ''An Architect and His Client: Frank Lloyd Wright and Francis W. Little'' (1973), ''The Architecture of Richard Morris Hunt'' (1986), ''American Rococo: Elegance in Ornament, 1750–1775'' (with

Leslie Greene Bowman Leslie Greene Bowman (born November 9, 1956) is an American museum administrator and decorative arts historian who has served as president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and runs Monticello, since 2008. She previously worked in pr ...

, 1992), ''American Furniture and the Art of Connoisseurship'' (1998); ''John Townsend: Newport Cabinetmaker'' (2005); ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art: An Architectural History, 1870–1995 (1995);'' and ''Creating Central Park (2008).'' His monograph ''American Furniture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Late Colonial Period, Vol. II: Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles'' (1985) won the Charles F. Montgomery Award of the Decorative Arts Society. Heckscher has served in leadership roles at the New York Chapter of the

Society of Architectural Historians The Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes the study and preservation of the built environment worldwide. Based in Chicago in the United States, the Society's 3,500 members include ...

, the Society of Winterthur Fellows, the Winterthur Museum, Locust Grove Estate,

Scenic Hudson Scenic Hudson is a non-profit environmental organization in New York that protects land, creates, and enhances parks, and advocates for environmentally responsible policies and development practices. History Scenic Hudson was founded as the Scen ...

, and Strawbery Banke.

Awards

* Eric M. Wunsch Award for Excellence in the American Arts (Wunsch Americana Foundation, 2016) * Henry Francis du Pont Award (Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, 2016) * Iris Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship (

Bard Graduate Center The Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture is a graduate research institute and gallery located in New York City. It is affiliated with Bard College, located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The gallery occup ...

, 2013) * Frederic E. Church Award ( Olana Partnership, 2012) * Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History from 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 ...

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

(2012) * Award of Merit from the Antique Dealers' Association (2011) * Charles F. Montgomery Award from the Decorative Arts Society (1986)

Personal life

Heckscher married Fenella Grieg in 1974. She is a British-born retired pediatric endocrinologist who attended the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. The couple owns a rustic summer home on Louds Island in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

house near Newburgh in upstate New York, in addition to an apartment on the

West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham E ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heckscher, Morrison 1940 births Living people People from Pennsylvania Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Delaware alumni Wesleyan University alumni Episcopal Academy alumni American art historians American art curators American antiques experts People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art People associated with Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library