Dorothy Shepherd Photographs

Images of Near Eastern art objects, world sites, and architectural sites. The slide collection contains irreplaceable images of textiles, art objects and architectural sites from the Middle East and Iran. Highlights of the collection are the textile, Sasanian metal works and Middle Eastern and Iranian architectural sites.

Dorothy Shepherd (1916-1992), Curator of Textiles and Near Eastern Art for the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA, 1954-81), was one of only a few female museum curators in the United States in the 1960s and was internationally known for her scholarship in medieval textiles and ancient Near Eastern and Islamic art. She was born in Welland, Ontario, Canada. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she worked towards a Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts (NYC) and New York University. From 1942-44, Shepherd was assistant curator in decoration for the Cooper Union Museum of Arts (NYC), and during WWII, worked for the Office of War Information in London, Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Berlin. Shepherd came to Cleveland in 1947 as assistant curator of textiles at the CMA. In 1954, the museum designated her as official curator of textiles and Near Eastern Art. She became chief curator of textiles and Islamic Art in 1979, a position she held until retiring. Shepherd married architect Ernst Payer on 22 March 1951. After her husband's death in 1981, Shepherd moved first to Florida then to Asheville, NC, where she died.

FSA A2015.12

Shepherd, Dorothy

Afghanistan

India

Iran

Gift of Dr. Mary Slusser.

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Slides (photographs)

Dorothy Shepherd Photographs. FSA.A2015.12. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Slides (photographs)

Collection is open for research.