Dorothy Adlow
{{Short description|American art critic and lecturer (1901–1964)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dorothy Adlow
| image = File:Craftsman's World Dorothy Adlow-55.jpg
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| birth_name =
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| birth_date = {{birth date |1901|6|7}}
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age |1964|1|11 |1901|6|7}}
| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| occupation = Art critic
| known for =
| spouse = Nicolas Slonimsky
| children = Electra Slonimsky Yourke
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| education = Radcliffe College
}}
Dorothy Adlow (1901-1964) was a nationally known art critic and lecturer from Boston.{{cite news |newspaper=The Boston Globe |title=Dorothy Adlow, Noted Art Critic |date=January 12, 1964 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/366194005|id={{ProQuest|366194005}} }}
Early life and education
She was born in Boston on June 7, 1901, to Jewish immigrant parents. Her father, Nathan Adlow, emigrated as a youth from Kazarez, Poland, and opened a furniture store in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Her mother, Bessie (Bravman) Adlow, was born in Dauge, Lithuania.{{cite book |last1=Slonimsky |first1=Nicolas |author-link=Nicolas Slonimsky |editor-last1=Yourke |editor-first1=Electra Slonimsky |title=Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow |publisher=University of Rochester Press |date=2012 |isbn=9781580463959 |chapter=Dorothy Adlow |pages=x, 14–21 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVPNo7dTcjEC&pg=PA14}} Her brother, Elijah Adlow, eventually became chief justice of the Boston Municipal Court.
Dorothy grew up in Roxbury and attended Girls' Latin School. At her mother's urging, and despite her father's warnings that "if she gets too educated, she'll never marry," she went on to earn a bachelor's and a master's degree from Radcliffe College, graduating in 1923.
Career
After college, Adlow worked briefly for the Boston Evening Transcript before beginning a 41-year career as an art critic for The Christian Science Monitor. By her mid-twenties, she had achieved a remarkable level of independence and professional success for a young woman of her time.
To supplement her income, Adlow traveled widely, lecturing at colleges and museums and serving as an art juror. In 1930 she lectured at the Carnegie International exhibit series in Pittsburgh, the first woman to do so. She also appeared frequently on television programs produced by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,{{cite web |website=Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University |title=Adlow, Dorothy, 1901-1964. Papers of Dorothy Adlow, 1923-1969: A Finding Aid |access-date=December 11, 2017 |url=http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00414}} and taught at the Katharine Gibbs School.
Adlow was Boston's leading art critic during the 1940s, when the city's art scene changed dramatically. She regularly attended exhibitions at the Museum School and discussed the students' work with Karl Zerbe.{{cite journal |last1=Chaet |first1=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Chaet |title=The Boston Expressionist School: A Painter's Recollections of the Forties |journal=Archives of American Art Journal |volume=20 |issue=1 |date=1980 |page=29 |doi=10.1086/aaa.20.1.1557495 |jstor=1557495|s2cid=192821072 }} Jean Gibran, wife of the artist Kahlil Gibran, names Adlow in her memoir as one of those who contributed to the "flowering" of Boston Expressionism.{{cite book |last1=Gibran |first1=Jean |title=Love Made Visible: Scenes from a Mostly Happy Marriage |publisher=Interlink Publishing |date=2014 |isbn=9781623710521 |pages=8, 213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vcVHBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT8}}
Personal life
In 1931, at the age of 30, Adlow married composer-conductor Nicolas Slonimsky. She kept her maiden name and continued working, providing a small, but steady income for the household while her husband's fortunes fluctuated. Her daughter, Electra, was born in 1933.
Adlow corresponded frequently with her husband, who traveled a great deal. She carefully saved his letters, but her letters to him have been lost. Her daughter published a posthumous collection of Slonimsky's letters titled Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow (University of Rochester Press, 2012).
She died of a heart attack on January 11, 1964, at her home on Beacon Street in Boston, aged 62.
Awards and honors
- 1947: Honorary Phi Beta Kappa membership, Radcliffe College
- 1953: Art Critic Award, American Federation of Arts
- 1957: Art Citation of Merit, Boston University
A room is named in her honor at Hilles Library, Radcliffe College.
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{worldcat |id=lccn-nr97045258 |name=Dorothy Adlow}}
- {{cite web |website=Library of Congress |title=Video: Reading from Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky |url=https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6716}}
- [https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/5210 Papers of Dorothy Adlow, 1923-1969: A Finding Aid.] [https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library Schlesinger Library], Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
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Category:Radcliffe College alumni
Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:People from Roxbury, Boston
Category:American women non-fiction writers
Category:Jews from Massachusetts
Category:The Christian Science Monitor people