Dorothy G. Shepherd

Dorothy G. Payer Shepherd (15 August 1916 – 13 August 1992) was a museum curator and historian specialising in medieval textiles and ancient Near Eastern and Islamic art. During the Second World War she served with the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program.

Career Shepherd finished her undergraduate degree in Oriental Civilizations from the University of Michigan in 1939 and following this with a master's degree in 1940. In 1944, she was awarded her PhD from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. From 1942 to 1944 she also worked as an assistant curator of decoration at what is now the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Shepherd also taught Near Eastern art as adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University. Her foundational chapter on Sasanian art for the Cambridge History of Iran covers architecture, rock reliefs, jewelry, textiles, ceramics and glassware. An endowed fellowship at the Institute of Fine Arts is named in her memory.

Selected publications

1964 "Sasanian Art in Cleveland" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art vol. 51, No. 4 (Apr., 1964), pp. 66-92 1966 “Iran Between East and West” in East and West in Art, edited by Theodore Bowie, pp. 84–105. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1983 "Sasanian Art" in The Cambridge History of Iran volume 3 (2), edited by Ehsan Yarshater, chapter 29 (a), pp. 1055–1112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.