John Wilmerding

John Currie Wilmerding Jr. (born April 28, 1938), is an American professor of art, collector, and curator, and is best known as a prolific author of books on American art. Early life Wilmerding was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 28, 1938, and is descended from prominent families in old New York City social circles. His parents were John Currie Wilmerding Sr. (1911–1965), a vice president in the personal trust division of Bankers Trust Company, and Lila Vanderbilt (née Webb) Wilmerding (1913–1961). He has two siblings, James Wilmerding and Lila Wilmerding. After his mother's death, his father remarried to Katharine (née Salvage) Polk (1914–2003), the daughter of Samuel Agar Salvage and widow of Frank Lyon Polk Jr. His maternal grandparents were James Watson Webb (1884–1960) and Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888–1960), the co-founders of the Shelburne Museum, which showcases the family's "collection of collections" of early American homes and public buildings, including a general store, meeting house, log cabin, and a steamship. His great-grandfather, Henry Osborne Havemeyer and his wife, Louisine Waldron Havemeyer, were also art collectors who bequeathed a large group of their European and Oriental artworks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wilmerding was educated at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire and at Harvard University, where he received his A. B. in 1960, his masters in 1961, and his Ph.D. in 1965.