Joan Kerr

Joan Kerr (1938–2004) was an Australian academic and cultural preservationist. Initially her interest was sparked in preserving the architectural heritage of Australia, but over time her interests spread to art history and Australian culture in general. She taught at many universities throughout the country and was involved in Historical Societies and Preservation Trusts in a variety of the territories. She wrote books on Australia's historic architecture, feminist artists, cartoonists and her major life work was the editorship of the definitive Dictionary of Australian Artists: Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870 drawing on her extensive network of contributors assembled from a lifetime of scholarship.

Biography Eleanor Joan Lyndon was born on 21 February 1938 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She was the eldest child of Edna and Bob Lyndon and had five siblings. In 1951, her parents returned to their native Queensland, where Lyndon attended school at Somerville House in Brisbane. She obtained a bachelor's degree at the University of Queensland in English literature and drama.

In 1957, Lyndon met James Semple Kerr and after a three-year courtship, they married on 30 November 1960 in Brisbane, moving to Sydney almost immediately. Jim worked for Qantas and Joan was employed as a junior reporter at the magazine Weekend.

From 1978 forward, Kerr joined and served on committees for the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ), the Australasian Victorian Studies Association, the National Trust for the Australian Capital Territory, and the Royal Australian Historical Society. She was working as a postdoctoral fellow at ANU, and that same year she was made a member of the National Trust of Australia's Architectural Advisory Panel. Increasingly aware of women's contributions to Australia's cultural heritage, in 1982, Kerr published with Hugh Falkus, From Sydney Cove to Duntroon: a family album of early life in Australia By the mid-1980s Kerr was a major figure in the teaching about Australia's art and architectural history, and also in how that cultural heritage should be preserved.

Her work on the book with Falkus made Kerr aware of how little was known about Australia's artists and led her to compile her magnum opus, the Dictionary of Australian Artists: Painters, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870. Heritage: The national women's art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955 (1995) organised the National Women’s Art Exhibition of 146 exhibits, followed by their edited collection, Past and Present: The National Women’s Art Anthology (1999). drawing attention to the cultural contributions of cartoonists.

Selected works The development of the gothic taste in New South Wales: as exemplified in the churches of the colony from the beginning of settlement up to the establishment of the Victorian Gothic Revival style at the end of the 1840s (master's thesis) Sydney: University of Sydney (1975) (with James Broadbent) Gothick taste in the colony of New South Wales Sydney: David Ell Press in association with the Elizabeth Bay House Trust (1980) (with Hugh Falkus; Sophia Campbell; Marrianne Campbell) From Sydney Cove to Duntroon: a family album of early life in Australia Richmond, Australia: Hutchinson (1982) Our great Victorian architect Edmund Thomas Blacket (1817–1883) Sidney, N.S.W.: National Trust of Australia (1983) Dictionary of Australian artists, Working paper 1: Painters, photographers, and engravers. 1170–1870. A.H Sydney: Power Institute of Fine Arts, University of Sydney (1984) The Dictionary of Australian artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870 Melbourne; New York: Oxford University Press (1992) The National Women's Art Book (1995, editor), published to accompany a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Women Hold Up Half the Sky Heritage: the national women's art book: 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955 Australia: Craftsman House (1995) Artists and cartoonists in black and white: the most public art Sydney: S.H. Ervin Gallery, National Trust of Australia (1999) (with Jo Holder, eds.) Past present: the national women's art anthology Sydney, Australia: Craftsman House (1999)