Blair, Dorothy, 1890-1989

Dorothy Blair was born on September 10, 1890 in Webster Groves, Missouri, to Edmund Hugh Blair and Grace Preston Abbott Blair. She grew up in Alton, Illinois, graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1914, and was an assistant in the Art and Archaeology Department at the College from 1914-1916. She was Secretary to the Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art 1917-1922, an Assistant in the Oriental Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922-1923, and Assistant Director and Curator of Prints and European Art at the John Herron Art Institute, 1923-1926. A year (1927-1928) as a special guest student in the Department of Archaeology, College of Literature, Kyoto (Japan) Imperial University sparked a lifelong devotion to the study of Japanese life, culture and art, particularly Japanese glass. Blair then served as Assistant Curator of the Toledo Museum of Art from 1928 until her retirement in 1950, making research trips to Japan until the outbreak of World War II. From 1937-1941 she was a part-time postgraduate student at the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan. In 1952, she became an assistant director of the University's Center for Japanese Studies in Okayama, Japan and from 1954-1956 she independently continued her research in the development of Japanese glass. She also enrolled in a two-year graduate program at the University to study the written Japanese language. From 1958-1961 she was a Research Fellow at the Corning Museum of Glass. She also traveled extensively in Japan, Korea, and Manchuria. Her research culminated in "A History of Glass in Japan," published jointly by Kodansha International Ltd. of Tokyo and the Corning Museum of Glass in 1973. The remaining years of her life were spent as a consultant and translator of Japanese for the Corning Museum. She died in Corning, New York on March 16, 1989 at the age of ninety-eight.

In 1927, Blair traveled to Japan as a special student in the Department of Archaeology, College of Literature, Kyoto Imperial University, which led to an interest in Japanese art, culture, and life and ultimately in Japanese glass. Returning to the States in 1928, Blair served as Assistant Curator of Oriental Art at The Toledo Museum of Art. She soon realized there was little Asian glass in American museums and decided to study East Asian glass. From 1937 to 1941, she enrolled in a two-year graduate program as a part-time postgraduate student at the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan to study the written Japanese language, and she made research trips to Japan until the outbreak of World War II. Unable to complete her studies due to the war, Blair continued to work at The Toledo Museum of Art; until semiretirement in 1952. From 1952, Blair became an Assistant Director at the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies in Okayama, Japan. In 1954, Blair began an independent study of glass in East Asia, and in 1956, she returned to the University of Michigan to resume her part-time postgraduate study in the written Japanese language.

Blair's interest in Japanese glass and knowledge of the written Japanese language brought her in contact with The Corning Museum of Glass in 1958, which appointed her a Research Fellow. As a Research Fellow, she traveled to Japan and Korea to study the development of Japanese glass. By 1961, Blair returned to Corning, New York to dedicate her time to the preparation of her book, A History of Glass in Japan, published concurrently by Kodansha International Ltd. of Tokyo and The Corning Museum of Glass in 1973.