Sally Fox

Artist and photograph editor Sally Fox was born Salomea Cherniavsky in Hollywood, California, in 1929. Her parents, professional musicians Josef and Lara Cherney, emigrated to the U.S. after the Russian civil war. Fox grew up in New York City and attended the prestigious High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. After graduation (1947?) she obtained a B.A. in painting and art history from Queen's College (1950) and married Maurice Fox. The couple had three sons. While in New York, Fox worked as an assistant to the publicity director and librarian for the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Upon leaving MOMA she began work at the Archives of American Art. In 1962 Fox and her family left New York City and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, then to Brookline, Massachusetts, where they lived for nearly twenty years. There, Fox did freelance photography for the Houghton Mifflin Company, then worked as the coordinator of picture research and picture editor (1970-1985).

Hoping to enrich the historical record, document women's actual experience, and challenge conventional notions of how women lived in the past, Fox dedicated her professional life to collecting images of women. She believed graphic imagery (drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, etc.) revealed more about the real-life experiences of women than written sources, which were traditionally written by and from the perspective of men. Her collection is especially strong in images from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which show women in various cultures engaged in sports and at work. While some of the images depict women doing traditional domestic work, others show women engaged in unexpected activities, such as ice sailing, mountaineering (in full Victorian dress), or practicing law. Fox began to share her findings through the publication of picture books, including The Medieval Woman: An Illuminated Book of Days (1985), which sold over 300,000 copies and was translated into eight languages; The Victorian Woman: a Book of Days (1987), and The Sporting Woman: A Book of Days (1989). A traveling exhibit drawn from her collection, The Sporting Woman: InSights from the Past, was displayed at museums and universities across the country during the 1990s.

Fox stood as a pioneer who helped gain recognition for the then-emerging profession of picture research and the necessity of incorporating images in historical research. Renowned for her diligence, skill, and commitment to mentoring young picture researchers just entering the profession, she was awarded the Ann Novotny Award for Original Picture Research by the American Society of Picture Professionals (1987). In 1993, she and her husband moved back to Cambridge and she continued to devote her time to searching for and collecting unique images of women, particularly women engaged in nontraditional activities or participating in sports. After battling lung cancer for over a year, Sally Fox died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 25, 2006.

From the guide to the Collection of Sally Fox, (inclusive), (bulk), 1575, 1667-2005, 1860-1929, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)