Ms. Child is an independent art historian and museum consultant based in Portsmouth, NH. For the past five years she has been researching Piscataqua painting of the Federal period with a special interest in provenance searches.
	Rebecca Delano Brownell (1814-1897) Oil on canvas. Height 32 inches. Width 28 inches Private Collection

 

ONGOING SCHOLARLY PROJECTS

2005 - Compiling Catalogue Raisonné for John Samuel Blunt (1798-1835)
2002- Conducting genealogical research focused on Piscataqua families. View Here.

 

CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE

1997 - 2003 Proprietor, ArtFax
Independent Consultant advising creation and management of museum collection records. Project director Isles of Shoals Photo Archive Database, Portsmouth Athenaeum, Portsmouth, NH. generating digital records 3,500+ historic photographs. Other Seacoast NH clients included the Portsmouth Historical Society, Rye Historical Society and Warner House Association (catalogued 1000+ objects in the collection).

1996 - 1998 Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth, NH
Special Project Assistant, NEH grant-funded position. Collections Department. Becoming Americans: The Shapiro Story, 1898-1928
Outcome: furnished period house and companion CD-ROM with same title. View here.

1994 - 1995 The Art Gallery, University of New Hampshire
Assistant Director. Coordinated exhibitions, cared for the permanent collection, trained and managed staff

 

EXHIBITION RECORD

Exhibition Curator Of an exhibit of landscape and marine paintings of the Piscataqua region by Portsmouth-born John Samuel Blunt (1798-1835). The first show of his work in this city since 1830, it features enlarged pages from his 1821 sketchbook alongside views of the city, the Navy Yard, and the Piscataqua shoreline.

 

Co-curator:

History in Your Hand. Souvenirs and Tourism in Portsmouth, 1870-1930. Portsmouth, NH: Portsmouth Athenaeum, 1999 Susan Ricker Knox (1874-1959): Portsmouth and Beyond. Portsmouth, NH: Portsmouth Athenaeum, 1998
The Journey Inward: Meditative Landscapes by American Artists, 1860-1920. Durham, NH: The Art Gallery, UNH, 1995

 

OTHER PERTINENT EXPERIENCE

1998 - 2004 Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH
2002- 2003 Devin Moisan Auctions, Dover, NH

 

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Proprietor Portsmouth Athenaeum, Portsmouth, NH 1996 to present. Art and Artifacts Committee, 2006.
Board of Directors Warner House Association, Portsmouth, NH, 1999
Member Historic New England; New Hampshire Historical Society; New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Piscataqua Decorative Society; Strawbery Banke Museum

 

EDUCATION

Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Master of Arts 1990 & B.A. Honors

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Piscataqua Decorative Arts Society, Volume II
"An Unbroken Chain of Custody: Pendant Portraits of Enoch and Susan Parker Parrott of Portsmouth, New Hampshire." 104-113. View Summary here

Antiques and Fine Art
"Coming of Age on the Piscataqua. The Marine Paintings of John Samuel Blunt (1798-1835)." Volume VII, No.2, Summer/Autumn, 180-185

American Art Review
Co-author "Susan Ricker Knox (1874-1959)." Vol. X, Number 4, July-August 1998, 134-139

Journal of the American Institute of Conservation
Second author to Prof. Ian Hodkinson, "Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797): An Unusual Example of An Artist-Lined Painting." May 1995, 33-47.

Master's Thesis (unpublished): "A Question of Attribution: Eight British Landscape Paintings Given to Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) in the Queen's University Art Collection." 1990

D E B O R A H  M.   C H I L D
dmchild@eslamprey.com 603.969.4021