Jack L. Lindsey
Keynote Speaker
Friday, March 15, 2002
7:00 - 8:30
Discoveries and Surprises: Recent Acquisitions and New Research in the Decorative Arts of Early Philadelphia
Location: Room 309, Simons Center for the Arts

Reception at 6 Glebe Street

Biography: Jack L. Lindsey is Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He received his MA Degree in American Civilization/Curatorial Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a PHD candidate in the Department of Folklore and Folklife, and BA Degrees from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, in American Social and Cultural History as well as Studio Art: Ceramics and Craft Design. He also has done coursework in traditional folk crafts at the University of Munich. Mr. Lindsey has been a Guest Lecturer and Instructor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Departments of American Civilization and Folklore and Folklife, as well as Chairman of the Art and History Departments at the Atlantic Friends School, in Northfield, New Jersey. He has been a recipient of the Edward Maverick Fellowship for the study of English Country architecture and furnishings, the Outstanding Educators Award from Philadelphia’s Friends Council in Education, and a National Endowment for the Arts research grant for group seminar study of American Regional Furniture with the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA).

Mr. Lindsey has been involved in exhibitions and research or presented lectures for organizations such as The British National Trust and English Heritage, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, MESDA, and the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum in Columbia, South Carolina. His publications include “An Early Latrobe Furniture Commission” and “Lynford Lardner’s Silver: Early Rococo in Philadelphia” in The Magazine Antiques, as well as numerous other articles and exhibition catalogues. His exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art have included “Worldly Goods: The Arts of Early Pennsylvania: 1680-1758,” “Cadwalader Family: Art and Style in Early Philadelphia,” and “Selected Works by African-American Folk Artists.” Mr. Lindsey has been the Advisory Board Chairman of the Philadelphia Folklore Project and Advisory Board Vice-Chairman of the American Folklore Society.

Synopsis: The artistic accomplishments and stylistic inspirations of Pennsylvania’s eighteenth and early nineteenth century craftsmen have long been the focus of study by decorative art enthusiasts and scholars. The surviving furniture, silver, metalwork, glass, ceramics, textiles and paintings bear ample witness to the brilliance of the prevalent and preferred styles of artistic achievement present in the colony from its earliest founding by William Penn in 1682. These diverse products of the Delaware Valley’s numerous, talented cabinetmakers, silversmiths and other artisans continue to inspire intense interest among both private and institutional collectors in the field, as important new discoveries surface and are identified.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the third largest art museum in America, initiated one of the earliest systematic programs for the collecting of American decorative arts in 1876. Since that year, the collections of the American Department of the Museum have continued to grow, and are today considered among the most extensive and significant in the country. As the Museum celebrates its 125th anniversary year, this presentation will highlight a number of the institution’s most important, recent acquisitions, and discuss a number of current lines of research suggested by these new discoveries.

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