Bolton, Theodore, 1889-

Theodore Bolton (1889-1973) was an art historian, artist, scholar, and Librarian of the Century Association. His research specialties were book illustration and portrait miniatures.

Author and illustrator.

Theodore Bolton, b. 1889, art historian, librarian.

Theodore Bolton was a librarian, art historian, and artist. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 12, 1889. Bolton received a diploma in the arts from that Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 1915. He studied library science at the same institute, receiving a diploma in that subject in 1924. He pursued formal academic work later in his life as well, receiving in 1937 a B.S. in education, and a M.A. in education in 1940, both from New York University. Thereafter, he received an M.F.A. from Columbia in 1955. In addition, he studied at Harvard during the summers from 1937 to 1939.

Although he illustrated editions of Adelbert von Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl (1923) and Prosper Merimee's Diane de Turgis (1925), which he also translated, and had his works shown in a number of exhibitions, his hoped-for career as an artist was cut short when his elbow was shattered in a gymnasium accident. Thereafter, he spent his time writing about art more than creating it.

Art historian, scholar and librarian of the Century Association; New York, N.Y. Died 1973.

He specialized in book illustration and portrait miniatures.