Myrtilla Avery

Myrtilla Avery (November 24, 1868 – April 4, 1959) was an American classical scholar focused on Medieval art, former chair of the Department of Art at Wellesley College and director of the Farnsworth Art Museum from 1930 to 1937.

Early life and education Avery was born in Katonah, New York, the daughter of Alfred Franklin Avery and Ophelia Jane Todd Avery. She graduated in 1891 from Wellesley College, majoring in Greek. She started taking classes at University at Albany, SUNY, while working in the university library. She earned a Master of Arts degree from Wellesley in 1913 and a doctorate in art history from Radcliffe College in 1927.

Career Avery offered one of the earliest classes in museum studies at the Farnsworth Art Museum and by 1915 she introduced the first art history classes at Wellesley. After serving on Wellesley's faculty for 25 years, she retired from Wellesley in 1937 and was named professor emerita. Her successor, at her recommendation, was Sirarpie Der Nersessian. In retirement she volunteered for the American Council of Learned Societies.

"Traveling Pictures and Schoolroom Decoration" (1900) "The Alexandrian Style at Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome" (1925) "Miniatures of the Fables of Bidpai and of the Life of Aesop in the Pierpont Morgan Library" (1941)