Full Name: Foote, Helen S.
Other Names:
- Helen S. Foote
- Helen Foote
Gender: female
Date Born: 1892
Date Died: 11 August 1969
Place Born: Cleveland, Cuyahoga, OH, USA
Home Country/ies: United States
Subject Area(s): artifacts (object genre)
Career(s): art collectors and curators
Institution(s): Cleveland Museum of Art
Overview
Curator; silver and porcelain specialist. Foote graduated Flora Stone Mather College at Western Reserve University (today, Case Western Reserve University). In 1922, she joined the Cleveland Museum of Art as museum staff. After serving as editorial assistant, Foote became an assistant to William Milliken in the Decorative Arts Department. She was the principal Museum person to negotiate with Smithsonian Regent and US Senator Hollis French (1869-1949) for a loan of his silver collection, Collection of American silver. Her article, “A Collection of Early American Silver Gift of Hollis French,” appeared in the Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art the same year as the donation, 1940. She rose to associate curator of Decorative Arts in 1950 and held the position until her retirement in 1958. Foote died in 1969.
Foote was a prolific writer as she published over seventy articles, mainly in the Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Hollis French described her handlings of his collection as “intelligent” and “affectionate” (Cleveland Museum Archive). Her work was invaluable as French later donated the collection to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Selected Bibliography
- “A Collection of Early American Silver Gift of Hollis French.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 27, no. 9, 1940, pp. 131–47.
- Foote, Helen S. “Early French and German Porcelain Formerly in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 31, no. 9, 1944, pp. 160–66.
- “French Soft-Paste Porcelain.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 34, no. 10, 1947, pp. 249–50.
- “Early Peruvian Pottery.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 37, no. 3, 1950, pp. 52–56.
Sources
- [obituray] “In Memoriam.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 56, no. 10, 1969.
- “The Retirement of Miss Helen S. Foote.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 46, no. 1, 1959, pp. 13.
Archives
Foote, Helen S. paper archive, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives
Contributors: Yuhuan Zhang