Ruth Doggett was on the start of a promising academic career as an economist until she completely switched her focus to Italian art history, having (presumably happily) worked together with her art historian husband, Clarence Kennedy, in Florence. As the record shows, economics’ loss turned out to be art history’s gain.
Something in me hopes that I find a case of an art historian who turns to economics. What are the odds?
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Ruth Wedgewood Doggett Kennedy
c.v.
Ruth Wedgewood Doggett was born August 19, 1896 in Greenville, Rhode Island. Her father was the President of Springfield College.
Ruth Doggett began her undergraduate studies 1915-16 at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1919 she graduated with an A.B. (Phi Beta Kappa) from Radcliffe College, receiving a magna cum laude in Economics.
Her obituaries report that she was an instructor in Economics at Smith College 1919–20, but I have not been able to confirm any economics and sociology course for her other than “Principles of Sociology” (e.g. Smith Catalogue 1921-22, p. 69).
Ruth Doggett spent a year (1921) at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford where she was awarded a Diploma in Economics with first class honors. In London she married the young art historian/photographer Clarence Kennedy in 1921. They had previously met at Smith College.
The young couple returned to Smith College, Ruth Doggett Kennedy as an instructor in Economics (1921–23) and Clarence was appointed assistant professor of art history.
In 1923 the Kennedys moved to Florence to teach in the Art Department’s Division of Graduate Study program. Ruth Kennedy served as assistant to the Director of Graduate Study in Art, 1925–26, 1927–28. She was a special lecturer in History of Italian Art, 1928–29, Smith College.
Ruth Kennedy was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship to complete a study of the Florentine painter, Alesso Baldovinetti and of his associates, in Italy; tenure, six months from March 10, 1930.
From that time on she lectured on art at Smith, Springfield College and Wellesley. Her major publications were:
- Alesso Baldovinetti, a critical & historical study. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1938.
- The Renaissance painter’s garden. New York: Oxford University Press, 1948.
- The Italian Renaissance. New York: Art Treasures of the World, 1954.
1960-61. Ruth and Clarence Kennedy were invited to serve as Resident Art Historians at the American Academy in Rome.
1961 Ruth Kennedy officially retires as emeritus professor of art at Smith College..
- Novelty and tradition in Titan’s art. Katharine Asher Engel lectures. Northampton, Mass., Smith College, 1963.
Ruth Wedgewood Kennedy died November 30, 1968 in Boston.
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Obituaries.
Lee, R. W. (1969). Ruth Wedgwood Kennedy. Renaissance Quarterly, 22(2), 206–208.
The Boston Globe, December 1, 1968, p. 110.
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From the Finding Aid for Kennedy Family papers, Smith College Archives.
Clarence Kennedy was born in Philadelphia in 1892. He received his bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in art history from the University of Pennsylvania, and studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, as a Charles Eliot Norton Fellow of Harvard University. While working on his Ph.D. at Harvard, he joined the Smith College Art Department faculty. Kennedy received his doctorate from Harvard in 1924. His dissertation was titled The Effect of Lighting on Greek Sculpture.
Ruth Wedgewood Doggett was born in Greenville, Rhode Island in 1896, and was raised in Springfield, MA, where her father was President of Springfield College. She attended the University of California at Berkeley for two years and completed her undergraduate education at Radcliffe College with a degree in Economics, magna cum laude. She taught at Smith College in the Economics Department for a year after her graduation and then spent a year at Lady Margaret Hall of Oxford University furthering her study of economics.
Clarence Kennedy and Ruth Wedgewood (Doggett) Kennedy were married in England in 1921. At the time Clarence was traveling in Italy and Greece, photographing classical sculpture. The next fall they returned to Northampton, where both had held positions in the Art and Economics departments, respectively. In 1923 the Kennedys moved to Florence to teach in the Art Department’s Division of Graduate Study program. By this time Ruth had begun to establish herself as a Renaissance scholar, while Clarence continued his photographic and academic work. Their collaboration was continuous and they were among the pioneers of modern techniques in the study of art history. Among their innovations was the teaching of art history in situ instead of in the classroom. During this time the Kennedys had two children, Melinda, born in 1924, and Robert, called Bobby, born in 1928.
Ruth Kennedy was a member of the Art Department from 1941 to 1961. She taught courses on Italian Renaissance artists and on the cultures and cities that informed their art. During her time at Smith she undertook research on Alesso Baldovinetti, Fra Bartolomeo, Francesco Laurana, as well as projects on flowers in Renaissance art. She also was active nationally and internationally in her field of Renaissance art; her articles and reviews appeared often in art journals and she served on the editorial board of Art in America, Renaissance Quarterly, and the Art Bulletin. During her career Ruth received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Philosophical Society. She also lectured at other institutions, including Springfield College and Wellesley College.
From 1928 to 1932, Clarence Kennedy and Smith College published Studies in the History and Criticism of Sculpture, a seven-part series of volumes, issued in editions of 100, containing over three hundred black and white gelatin photographs of Ancient and Renaissance sculpture.
After Clarence and Ruth’s return to Northampton from Italy in 1933, Clarence continued to teach art history and photography; he soon added typography to his courses when he and Ruth set up the Cantina Press in their home at 44 Pomeroy Terrace in 1936-37. Cantina Press published little under its own imprint, but the Kennedys helped to establish the tradition of typography and printing at Smith College and produced much ephemeral work, such as invitations, broadsides, and programs.
Clarence Kennedy collaborated with scientist and inventor Edwin H. Land, co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation, on a system for the projection of stereoscopic lantern slides using Land’s invention of Polaroid filters over the lenses of a double projector. Viewing the projected images through special glasses with Polaroid filters identical to those on the projectors, the audience could see the image in three dimensions. Clarence also worked with Land during World War II on development of a Vectograph system using polarized stereographic images for three-dimensional maps. He was a member of the Monuments and Fine Arts Commission, established by the United States government to minimize the destruction of works of art within enemy-held territory during World War II. Clarence was also a consultant to the Eastman Kodak Company on photographic matters.
Together, Ruth and Clarence were invited to serve as Resident Art Historians at the American Academy in Rome for 1960-61.
Ruth Kennedy became a Professor Emeritus at Smith in 1961, but continued to lecture, research, and work on potential publications until her sudden death after a short illness on November 30, 1968 in Boston.
Clarence Kennedy retired from Smith in 1960, and died on July 29, 1972 in Northampton.
Melinda Kennedy (1924-2002) was the first child and only daughter of Clarence and Ruth Kennedy. Melinda attended Smith College and graduated with the class of 1945. Melinda was married for several years to Alfred Lester Talkington, who was known as Hank. Melinda and Hank had two daughters, Sylvia and Amy. Hank also had a daughter, Jo Lynn, from a previous marriage. Melinda was a poet and translator, and taught English for many years at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT.
Image Source: The Radcliffe College Yearbook 1919, p. 31.