Full Name: Godwin, Blake-More
Gender: male
Date Born: 1894
Date Died: 1975
Place Died: La Jolla, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
Home Country/ies: United States
Overview
Director of the Toledo Museum of Art. After graduating from the University of Missouri he received a Master’s Degree from Princeton from the Department of Art and Archaeology. After marrying Molly Ohl, he joined the Toledo Museum of Art in 1916 rising to become its second director in 1926. Godwin made significant purchases for the Museum, including works by el Greco and Goya. In 1946 he hired returning war veteran and “Monuments Man” Otto Wittmann, Jr., as his assistant director. Godwin, who was alway more interested in the Museum’s running than in acquisitions, recognized Wittmann’s connoisseurship training. He turned acquititions at Toledo over to Wittmann. Godwin retired in 1959 and was succeeded by Wittmann.
Selected Bibliography
Catalogue of European Paintings [at the Toledo Museum of Art]. Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 1939.
Sources
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography 61. New York: James T. White & Co., 1982; [transcripts] Godwin, Blake-More.”The Toledo Museum of Art,” given at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1946, and “Reminiscences of the Toledo Museum of Art,” January 27, 1969. Archives of American Art; [obituary:] “Blake-More Godwin of Toledo Museum.” New York Times June 12, 1975, p. 40