Cowdrey, Mary Bartlett, 1910-1974

Art historian, critic, and archivist.

Mary Bartlett Cowdrey (1910-1974) had a long career as an art historian, archivist, and curator. She graduated from the New Jersey College for Women (later Douglass College) at Rutgers University in 1933, and spent the next two years studying at the University of London in Great Britain, where she conducted research in philosophy and aesthetics.

Mary Bartlett Cowdrey (1910–1974) had a long career as an art historian, archivist, and curator. She graduated from the New Jersey College for Women (later Douglass College) at Rutgers University in 1933, and spent the next two years studying at the University of London in Great Britain, where she conducted research in philosophy and aesthetics.

Cowdrey held a variety of positions in prominent cultural institutions, starting as an assistant in the exhibits department at the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey, in 1935. She worked as registrar at the Brooklyn Museum (1940–1942); curator of prints at the New York Historical Society (1943); curator of paintings at the Old Print Shop/Harry Shaw Newman Gallery in New York (1943–1949); curator, assistant director, and acting director of the Smith College Museum of Art (1949–1955); New York area archivist for the Archives of American Art of the Detroit Institute of Art (1955–1961); and curator of prints for the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark (1961-1962). She also belonged to the American Museum Association, Long Island Historical Society, Bibliographical Society of America, and the College Art Association.

Cowdrey wrote numerous articles and reviews in the field of nineteenth century art. She contributed to American Collector, Antiques , Dictionary of American Biography, Art in America, Panorama, The Old Print Shop portfolio, and several other publications. She is responsible for compiling the National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1820-1860 (New York: Printed for the New York Historical Society, 1943) and the American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art-Union Exhibition Record, 1816-1852 (New York: New York Historical Society, 1953). These two-volume sets are considered important references sources for information on paintings and engravings in America. In 1963 Cowdrey completed A History of American Painting and Sculpture, 1700-1713 for the National Park Service. She also served as author and co-author of several books and exhibition catalogs on artists, including George H. Durrie, William Sidney Mount, Fanny Palmer, and Winslow Homer.

Who's Who in American Art. New York & London: R.R. Bowker Company, 1966. p. 90. Who's Who of American Women. Chicago: Marquis-Who’s Who, 1965. p. 221. Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives. "COWDREY, Mary Bartlett, 1910-1974." http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/womens_fa/wfa_c_d.shtml (accessed March 29, 2007). Additional biographical information derived from the collection.

Art historian; Passaic, New Jersey.

Author of "National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860," 2 v., 1944. Co-author: "William Sidney Mount, 1807-1868, An American Painter," 1944. Cowdrey was also a collector for Archives of American Art in the late 1950s.