A. Hyatt Mayor

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Alpheus Hyatt Mayor (1901–1980) was an American

popular prints
.

Biography

Early life

A. Hyatt Mayor's father was

Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor. His grandfather, whose name he carried, was the paleontologist Alpheus Hyatt. Mayor came from an artistic family; his mother's sister was the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, and her husband was art patron Archer Milton Huntington, founder of the Hispanic Society of America
in 1904.

Mayor received his B.A. from

American School of Classical Studies. Upon returning to the United States he embarked on a literary career, working on Hound & Horn
.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

He married Virginia Sluder in 1932 and then joined the Department of Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, becoming

William Ivins, Jr.
, whose curatorship had lasted 30 years.

His tenure was marked by significant acquisitions of

Prince of Lichtenstein. He also expanded which types of types of printed ephemera were considered worthy of collection to include postcards, baseball cards and advertisements. He accepted the Jefferson Burdick collection at the Met, which included 300,000 items of American prints and memorabilia.[1]
In 1952 he published Prints and People: A Social History of Printed Pictures, which has remained continuously in print.

Later life and publications

In 1966 he retired from the Museum as curator emeritus and directed his efforts to various art-related projects and writings, in particular his translation and updating of the catalogues of Max Lehrs and the initiation, with Anthony Blunt and others, of the massive and still ongoing Illustrated Bartsch series of print catalogues. In 1955 he had succeeded his uncle Archer as president of the Hispanic Society of America, and he continued to serve until his death. He also served as a trustee of the American Federation of Arts and of Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. He was awarded a Boston Museum Award in 1971.

Among other accolades he received, French poet

New York Times
columnist John Russell called him "one of the most remarkable men who ever held a curatorial post."

Mayor died of pneumonia in 1980.[2] His granddaughter is actress Yeardley Smith.[3][4]

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-58839-585-6
    .
  2. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  3. ^ "Anna Hyatt Huntington Papers an inventory of her papers at Syracuse University".
  4. ^ By J. Y. Smith (1980-03-02). "A. H. Mayor, N.Y. Print Curator, Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-06-08.

Sources

  • A. Hyatt Mayor in Dictionary of Art Historians
  • Cummings, Paul. "An Interview with A. Hyatt Mayor." Archives of American Art Journal 18, no. 4 (1978): 2–19. Transcript available here [1].
  • Russell, John. "An Ideal Curator Needs More than Just Expertise." New York Times, August 14, 1983. Available online here [2].

Further reading

External links
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