Harvard Professor of Fine Arts and Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1935-1954. Edgell was the son of George Stephen Edgell (d. 1915), a banker, whose New England lineage traced back to 1636. His mother was Isabella Wallace Corbin (Edgell). Edgell entered Harvard University, receiving his B.A. in 1909 magna cum laude in the new area of history and literature (interdisciplinary studies), focusing on the Renaissance.