Self-taught historian and critic of American art. Benjamin was born in Argos, Greece in 1837 where his parents were American missionaries. He was educated at the English College in Smyrna, Turkey and Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He graduated from Williams College in 1859 having studied both law and art, also seamanship. During his travels, he gained experience as a maritime painter and illustrator. Benjamin published a series of marine depictions of the Crimean War in the London Illustrated News in 1854. He married Clara Stowell, (d. 1880) in 1863.

Philosopher and historian of ideas scholar; wrote early social histories of art. Boas was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the fifth of seven children of Herman Boas and Sarah Eisenberg (Boas). He attended Classical High School in Providence, RI, where his early interest in Greek and Latin grew. After graduation, Boas studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design under Henry Hunt Clark (b. 1875) and transferred to study English at Brown University, where he completed his B.A. and M.A. in 1913. He studied under the philosopher Josiah Royce (1855-1916) and received his second M.A.

Jugenstil/Art Nouveau specialist; theater director. Curjel was born to famous architect, Robert Curjel (1873-1925) and Marie Herrmann (Curjel) (1872-1940). After graduating from the gymnasium in Karlsruhe, Curjel served as a soldier in World War I in uninterrupted war service, 1914-1919.

Painter and art dealer; wrote extensive biographies of European artists. Descamps was raised and trained in art in Dunkirk. He moved to Antwerp where he studied further and then in Paris with Nicolas Lancret, Nicolas de Largillierre and at the Académie Royale. Descamps moved to Rouen and founded a small studio and school. In 1749 Descamps's school received the designation Ecole Royale, Gratuite et Académique de Dessin, de Peinture, de Sculpture et d'Architecture on the model of the Académie Royale in Paris.

Professor of Art History at the University of Valladolid with interests in Spanish and European engravings. Garcia Vega was born on September 4th, 1947, in Valladolid, Spain. In 1971, she received a bachelor’s in Philosophy and Letters. In 1982 she earned a doctorate in Art History at the University of Valladolid, where she began her tenure as an Art History professor. With research interests in European and Spanish engravings, as well as Oriental art, Garcia Vega won multiple awards during her time at Valladolid.

Art historian, curator and collector of medieval and 17th-century European art. Heil left Germany to become curator of European art at the Detroit Institute of Art in1926.  In 1933 he was appointed dual director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor and the M.H de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco (today merged as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco).  There, in 1934 he hired the German expatriate Elizabeth Moses to be the curator of the arts and crafts at the de Young.

Art historian of the 17th-century, specialist in Claude and Turner. Kitson was the son of clergy, Bernard Meredith Kitson, and Helen May Lely, a descendant from the court portrait painter to King Charles II, Peter Lely. He studied at English literature at Kings College, which was interrupted 1945-8 for military service with the Royal Engineers and Security Intelligence in Egypt. In 1950 he married Annabella Leslie Cloudsley.

Vice Director and curator of European Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the first, Rousseau lived a privileged life. His father was Theodore Rousseau, Sr., (1881-1953), a Savannah [Georgia]-born former newspaperman turned director of the Paris branch of Guaranty Trust Company; his mother was Marta de Fremery (Rousseau) (d. 1931). Rousseau himself was educated at Eton, the Sorbonne and eventually Harvard University. While at Harvard, he met and married a dancer-showgirl, Virginia Franck. In the 1930s he traveled in Europe, researching art.

Professor in Graz and later at Vienna (from 1909); major exponent of the concept that western European late antique and medieval arts owed much to the influences of the east. He was born in Bielitz, Silesia, Austria which is present-day Bielsko-Biala, Poland. Strzygowski's father was a clothing manufacturer. His mother, Edle Trass von Friedelfeldt was from minor nobility. He was raised in Biala, Austrian Silesia, predominently Polish in its makeup. Strzygowski attended the Gymnasium in Jena and then a Realschule in Brunn. After graduation at age 18 he entered his father's weaving factory.

His book, European Architecture: A Historical Study (1896) was one of the early required texts to be listed in the course catalog for the art history classes of Princeton University.

Curator of European Painting, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wehle was the nephew of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Wehle took the famous 'Museum Course" lead by Paul J. Sachs, He graduated from Harvard in 1911. He was appointed curator in 1918. Under his tenure, the collections of Bache, Griggs, Havemeyer and Lewisohn came to the Met. He retired as curator of European Painting in 1948, succeeded by Theodore Rousseau, Jr., but retained the title curator of collections until 1953.

Medievalist; comparative study of European Romanesque painting.