Wendell D. Garrett (October 9, 1929 – November 14, 2012) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, expert on

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

and American-origin

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 ...

and editor.

Early life and education

Born in Los Angeles, Garrett received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...

from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. He obtained a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from the Winterthur Program in American Material 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 ma ...

and a second master's degree in American history from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Career

Wendell Garrett served as the editor of '' The Magazine Antiques'' from 1972 to 1990. He remained as ''Antiques'' editor at large from 1990 until his death in 2012. Garrett also served as the senior vice president in the American Decorative Arts department at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

from 1989 until March 2009. In April 2009 he launched Wendell Garrett and Associates, an appraisal service for the fine and decorative arts with his associate Patricia Arnold, which remained active until his death. Wendell Garrett appeared as an appraiser in every season of ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...

'', beginning with its debut season in 1997, through filming of the 2013 season during the summer of 2012. He received the Henry Francis du Pont Award from 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 o ...

in 1994. In the last month of his life Garrett moved from his

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 ...

apartment to a hospice in

Williston, Vermont Williston is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. Originally rural and laid out with many farms, in recent decades it has developed into a thriving suburb of Burlington, the largest city in the state of Vermont. As of the 2020 c ...

due to declining health. He died at the Williston hospice on November 14, 2012 at the age of 83.

Books

*''Apthorp House'', 1760-1960 (1960) *''The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams'' (1961), with L.H. Butterfield *''Adams Family Correspondence'', vols. 1-2 (1963), with L.H. Butterfield *''The Arts in Early American History'' (1965), with Walter Muir Whitehill *''The Earliest Diary of John Adams'' (1966), with L.H. Butterfield *''Reverend E.B. Hillard’s Last Men of the Revolution'' (1968), with Archibald Macleish *''The Arts in America: The Nineteenth Century'' (1969), with Joseph T. Butler *''Thomas Jefferson Redivivus'' (1971) *''Classical America: The Federal Style and Beyond'' (1992) *''Victorian America: Classical Romanticism to Gilded Opulence'' (1993) *''Monticello and the Legacy of Thomas Jefferson'' (1994) *''Our Changing White House'' (1994), editor *''American Colonial: Puritan Simplicity to Georgian Grace'' (1994) *''George Washington’s Mount Vernon'' (1998), editor *''American Home: From Colonial Simplicity to the Modern Adventure'' (2001) *''The Legacy of John Adams'' (2008) *''Thomas Jefferson Illuminated'' (2009)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrett, Wendell 1929 births 2012 deaths Historians from New York (state) Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni People from Manhattan University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Delaware alumni People associated with Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library