Walter Muir Whitehill

Walter Muir Whitehill (September 28, 1905 – March 5, 1978) was an American writer, historian, medievalist, preservationist, and the Director and Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum from 1946 to 1973. He was also editor for publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts from 1946 to 1978. From 1951 to 1972, Whitehill was a professor at Harvard University.

Early life and education Whitehill's father, Reverend Walter Muir Whitehill, was an Episcopalian minister; his mother, Florence Marion Whitehill (née Williams), was a painter. Whitehill attended the Boston Latin School for two years before graduating from Wellesley High School. In 1926, he received an A.B. in English from Harvard University, where he continued to tutor (in art history) for three years following graduation. He returned to Harvard as a student, earning an A.M. degree in medieval art in 1929. On June 5, 1930, he married Jane Revere Coolidge, a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and eldest daughter of Julian Coolidge. In 1932, he did the first full transcription of the medieval Codex Calixtinus in Santiago de Compostela.

Career Whitehill was living in Spain studying medieval art when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936. He returned to Massachusetts, taking up a position as associate director of the Peabody Essex Museum from 1936 to 1942, while redirecting his research interest from medieval art to American maritime history. In 1942, he went on active duty as a lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve, where he worked on operation records of World War II. He was the author or editor of over a dozen book-length works.

Personal life and death A 1960 publication described Whitehill's recreations as "gardening, collecting books and prints, printing, and cooking."

Whitehill died on March 5, 1978. In his obituary, The New York Times wrote that Whitehill was "regarded as [Boston's] leading cultural figure."

Publications As author

With Ernest J. King.

2nd ed., enl., 1968. 3rd ed., enl., 2000.

With Frederick Nichols.

As editor

With Sinclair H. Hutchings.