Phyllis Ackerman

Phyllis Ackerman (1893 – January 25, 1977), was an American art historian, interior designer and author. She was a scholar of Persian art and architecture and she worked alongside her husband Arthur Upham Pope. Her legacy was as an editor of the six volume publication, A Survey of Persian Art.

Early life and education Phyllis Ackerman was born on 1893 in Oakland, California. She attended the University of California, Berkeley (U.C. Berkeley) and initially studied mathematics.

In 1916, Ackerman and Pope collaboratively wrote a catalog for Phoebe Hearst's Oriental rug collection that was exhibited at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Pope had been attracted to Persian arts because of a love of Persian rugs. In 1926, Ackerman and Pope organized the first ever exhibition of Persian art at the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. They were responsible for the design specifics like the colors, floors, fabrics, rugs, finishings, beds, mattresses, linens, lighting fixtures, and flatware.

Ansel Adams photo documented the designs, at the time of opening.

In 1964, Ackerman and Pope had a state visit to Iran, at which time they were asked by the Pahlavi royal family to revive the Asia Institute in Shiraz, which was part of the Pahlavi University.

Controversy In the 1920s and 1930s, Pope and Ackerman bought works of art and sold them to collectors and museums in order to fund the Asia Institute, as well as the Survey of Persian Art.