Queer Places:
Yale University (Ivy League), 38 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520
Saint Paul's Church Cemetery
Mount Vernon, Westchester County, New York, USA
John Hill Morgan (June 30, 1870 - July 15, 1945), an assistant professor and curator of American painting at Yale University, was considered an authority on early American art, most notably of George Washington portraits. He was a member of the Horace Walpole Society, elected in 1919.
John Hill Morgan was born in New York, the son of James Lancaster Morgan (1845-1925) and Alice Matilda McCurdy Hill (1845-1927). He held degrees from Yale University, B.A. 1893, LL.B. 1896, and honorary degrees from Washington and Lee University and also from Yale University (1929). He was an authority on portraits of George Washington. He is the author of "Early American painters" (1921), "Gilbert Stuart and his pupils" (1939), " Gilbert Stuart : an illustrated descriptive list of his works / compiled by Lawrence Park, with an account of his life by John Hill Morgan, and an appreciation by Royal Cortissoz" (1926), "A sketch of the life of John Ramage : miniature painter" (1930), "The life portraits of Washington and their replicas", with Mantle Fielding (1931), "Paintings by John Trumbull at Yale University" (1926). He also wrote the foreword for "Early American paintings : catalogue of an exhibition held in the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of arts and sciences". He also wrote articles for numerous art and history periodicals, including Antiques, the Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, and the Bulletin of the New York Historical Society on artists such as Gilbert Stuart, John Watson, Joseph Blackburn, Saint-Mèmin, Jeremiah Theus, and John Ramage.
Morgan's first contact with the Frick Art Reference Library came in the early 1920s, when his art collection was photographed by the Library for its photoarchive. In 1926, he wrote the biography of Gilbert Stuart in "Gilbert Stuart: An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works", a work begun by Lawrence Park and completed after his death with the support of Helen Clay Frick, the Library's founder and director. A frequent correspondent with the Library, Morgan utilized its resources and shared his research with the staff.
A member of the Governing Committee of Museums of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and a trustee of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the New York Historical Society, Morgan also served as a New York State Legislator (1900-1903) and Bank of America director (1925-1932), and was a member of the New York law firm Rumsey & Morgan.
He retired from the New York law firm of Rumsey and Morgan in 1936. At the time of his death, Morgan held an assistant professorship at Yale University.
He married Lelia A. Myers of Richmond, Virginia, and had one daughter, Lelia Morgan Wardwell (1907–1997).
He died on July 15, 1945, at his home at Farmington. Conn.
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