University of Chicago medievalist; authored the Pelican History of Art volume on medieval art in Britain. Rickert was the daughter of Francis E. Rickert and Josephine Newburgh (Rickert). At the death of her mother, her older sister and later medieval literary scholar, [Martha] Edith Rickert (1871-1838) helped raise Margaret. The younger Rickert graduated from Grinell College, Iowa, in 1910 becoming a high school principal in Greene, Iowa. She made an initial trip to Europe in 1914 which consolidated her interest in art history.