Winslow Ames

Edward Winslow Ames Jr. (July 3, 1907 – October 3, 1990) was an American art historian, author, and museum director.

His academic research focused on Victorian art, but he "also had a deep interest in Modernism and the art of his own period."

Ames was born in Maullín, Chile, where his father was a diplomatic and later worked for Companier de Maderes del Ato Parana, a lumber company.

His parents were Katherine Millicent (née Johnson) and Edward "Ted" Winslow Ames.

His grandfather was Azel Ames, a noted physician and author.

However, Ames recalled, "The Ames family was not rich. My mother was."

The family went back and forth between the United States and Latin America, but he was primarily raised in Staten Island, New York and Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1917, his father was the diplomat for Guatemala where Ames witnessed the impact of war and extreme poverty.

He attended Staten Island Academy, and went to Phillips-Andover Academy in 1921.

Although his father wanted him to attend Harvard, Ames wanted to go elsewhere because "there were too many people going to Harvard from Andover."

He chose Columbia University, receiving a B.A. in 1929 after 3.5 years.

While at Columbia, he took up rowing and joined the social and literary Fraternity of Delta Psi (St. Anthony Hall) which Ames says was crucial to stimulating his interest in the arts.

He also attended exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He began work in 1930 while the museum was still under construction and had no items in its collection.

The New York Times noted, "Winslow Ames, the director, has mapped out an acquisition program that, as it develops, out to make the museum both distinctive and peculiarly valuable."

He started collecting drawings and New London County or early furniture, and decided to focus on drawings, prints, and sculptures.

He also created a library and collection of lantern slides for the museum.

He did not collect modern art because the museum's trustees "weren't particularly keen on it."

He taught at several colleges and universities, including Connecticut College in the 1930s, Brown University in the 1940s, Hollins College from 1964–65, and University of Rhode Island from 1966-1972 and 1973-1975.

He also did some appraisal work, especially with early furniture and drawings.

In 1932, he received an MA in art history from Harvard University where he studied with Paul J. Sachs and Edward W. Forbes.

While at Harvard, he lived in the Delta Psi M.I.T. chapter house.

With the assistance of Paul J. Sachs, Ames secured a position as founding director of the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Connecticut.

While at the Century of Progress world exhibition in Chicago in 1933, Ames saw General Houses' model home and met Howard T. Fisher, its chief architect.

He believed these prefabricated houses were the future, with their "stark International-style appearance."

He had two of these structures built on the property of Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London Connecticut where he was employed as the museum's director.

In November 1933, he commissioned General House to erect the House of Steel, a prefab house.

He also commissioned American Homes, Inc. and architect Robert W. McLaughlin, Jr. to construct an International style prefabricated "Moto Home" now known as the Winslow Ames House.

The Ames used these houses as rental properties, although they lived in the Moto Home for a short time.

He worked at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum until 1942.

After World War II, he spent a year studying Prince Albert and Victorian art in England and Germany.

He was the first paid director of the Springfield Art Museum in Springfield Missouri from 1947 to 1950.

Both houses were sold to Connecticut College in 1949.

From 1957 to 1961, he was the first director of Huntington Hartford's Gallery of Modern Art at 2 Columbus Circle in Manhattan, working with the collection before the museum opened to the public.

This eventually led to a book, Prince Albert and Victorian Taste that was published by Viking in 1967.

The Winslow Ames House underwent extensive restoration in 1994, with funding from the Connecticut Historical Commission, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The House of Steel survives, but was significantly modified.

Ames' papers are held at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Selected works include:

Ames was a member of the Archives of American Art, the Author's Guild, the Drawing Society, the New England Appraisers Association, the Royal Society of Arts, the Victorian Society, and the Victorian Society in America.