Christa C. Mayer Thurman

Christa Charlotte Mayer Thurman (December 12, 1934 – September 13, 2024), was a German and American curator, art historian, author, and scholar. She served for forty-two years as the curator and chair of the textiles department at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1992, she was the namesake of an endowed position created in her credit, the Christa C. Mayer Thurman Chair and Curator of Textiles. She was educated in Germany and Switzerland, prior to attending college. Her final marriage was to George A. Larson in 2021. Raiment For The Lord's Service: A Thousand Years of Western Vestments, Ancient Textiles from Nubia (1990), and Rooted in Chicago: Fifty Years of Textile Design Traditions (1997). The exhibition, The Divine Art: Four Centuries of European Tapestries (2008) displayed all of the Art Institute of Chicago's European tapestries together for the first time, some sixty-two in total; an exhibition that was made possible by Thurman's restoration efforts. Thurman was also featured in the Art Institute's exhibition, Making History: Women of the Art Institute (2011) which showcased archival materials linked to eight women who made significant contributions or had a lifelong association with the museum.

In 1992, Thurman's curatorial position was anonymously endowed and named in her honor.