Full Name: Boughton, Cleta Margaret Olmstead
Other Names:
- Cleta Olmstead Robbins
- Cleta Olmstead Boughton
- Cleta Robbins
- Cleta Boughton
Gender: female
Date Born: 15 February 1915
Date Died: 15 JULY 1965
Place Born: Columbia, Missouri, USA
Home Country/ies: United States
Career(s): art historians
Overview
Classicist and exponent of researching weather as a factor in the creation of art. Olmstead’s father, an Assyriologist, was Albert Ten Eyck Olmstead (1880-1945) a Professor of Oriental (i.e., middle east) History at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Her mother was Cleta Ermine Payne (Olmstead) (1887-1981). She was raised in Urbana, IL, and Chicago, cities where her father was faculty in academic institutions. She earned an A.B. from the University of Chicago (Phi Beta Kappa), continuing at Chicago for her A.M. Her thesis was titled Studies In The Stylistic Development Of Persian Achaemenid Art. She travelled as a University of Chicago honorary Fellow of the American School of Oriental Research to Jerusalem, 1936-1937, where, with her family, Thomas Whittemore showed his newly discovered Hagia Sophia mosaics. Olmstead met fellow Chicago graduate student David O. Robbins (1915-1944) and were married in 1939, she becoming Cleta Olmstead Robbins. She was awarded several additional grants, a Fellow as the American School of Classical Studies in Athens for 1937-1938, named a special scholar for the 1940-1941, ultimately as a Riegel Fellow, receiving a doctorate at Bryn Mawr College in 1942, under Rhys Carpenter. Her dissertation topic was on chiton-dressed females in classical Greek art. She taught at the University of Rochester, 1943-1949. In 1944 her husband became a war casualty in the South Pacific. She married a second time to William Boughton, before 1952. She was appointed associate professor at Florida State University during the same period (1952) at the same time art editor for the Journal of Human Ecology. Now as Cleta Broughton, she assisted with the publication of her father’s book. She moved with her husband to Beaumont, TX where her husband taught at Lamar State College of Technology (modern Lamar University). She died at age 50 in 1965. Her remains were cremated.
In addition to her interest as a classical-art scholar, Olmstead had a fundamental interest in the methodology and periodization of art history. She authored articles on influence of climatic cycles upon art and aesthetics. Her theory has not generally been accepted
Research assistance by Charlotte A. Holliman, Mary and John Gray Library, Special Collections and University Archives, Lamar University
Selected Bibliography
- [M. A. thesis] Studies In The Stylistic Development Of Persian Achaemenid Art. A.M., University of Chicago, 1936;
- [dissertation, as Cleta Olmstead Robbins] Ionic Chiton Clad Maidens of the Fifth Century. Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College, Diss., 1942.
- “Greek lady from Persepolis.” American Journal of Archaeology 54 (January 1950): 10-18,
- “Seasonal Painting.” Weather Forecasts, 1952, (Weather Science Foundation)
- “Climatic Criticism.” College Art Journal 12, no. 1 (Autumn, 1952): 17-24;
- “A Greek Lady from Persepolis.” American Journal of Archaeology 54, no. 1 (January/March 1950): 10-18;
Sources
- Olmstead, A. T. “Year of Research in the Near East.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 69, (February 1938): 21;
- Olmstead, Cleta. “Vita.” Ionic Chiton Clad Maidens of The Fifth Century. Bryn Mawr College, Dissertation. 1942, pp. 113-114;
- [author biography] College Art Journal 12, no. 1 (Autumn, 1952), p. 67;
- “History of the American School 1939-1980- Appendices” American School of Classical Studies at Athens. https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/archives/history-of-the-american-school-1939-1980-appendices
- [Dr. Cleta Olmstead to Speak]. Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas), November 11, 1956: 25.
- Knafl, Anne. November 26 2025, personal correspondence;
- Hagaman, Kristin Dec 1, 2025, personal correspondence.