The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art is pleased to announce Dr. Kayli R. Rideout as the new Hugh F. McKean Curator. The position is named in honor of the Museum’s first Director, who was an artist and educator.

Dr. Rideout earned her Ph.D. in American Studies at Boston University where her research focused on American decorative arts and material culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933). Her dissertation project examined Tiffany’s Confederate memorial windows, considering the intersection between Tiffany’s brand of memory making and the commemorative impulses of the Lost Cause. She holds a B.A. from Davidson College and an M.A. from the History of Design and Curatorial Studies Program offered jointly by Parsons School of Design and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

In expressing her enthusiasm for Dr. Rideout’s appointment, Museum Director and Chief Curator Jennifer Perry Thalheimer said, “Kayli will work in all areas of the collection and will bring a wide range of experience and knowledge to the Morse. I don’t know if anybody could be more excited about this than I am. She is absolutely a dream come true; she is exactly who we were looking for, and I think she is going to bring the Museum into a whole new place, deepening the knowledge of the collection immeasurably.”

Of her appointment, Dr. Rideout said: “The Morse Museum is such a special place. I’m so thrilled to join an institution with both an incredible collection and a strong commitment to making art accessible to everyone. The staff and community have been so warm and welcoming, and I look forward to continuing the McKeans’ legacy of access and art enrichment here at the Morse.”

Dr. Rideout has previously held internships and research fellowships at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the New-York Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Nichols House Museum, the Jewish Museum, and the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. Recently, she was the Tiffany & Co. Foundation Curatorial Intern in American Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Her research has been supported by grants and awards from the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, the Decorative Arts Trust, the Association of Historians of American Art, the Art Glass Forum of New York, the Boston University Graduate Student Organization, and the Boston University Women’s Guild. She is a past participant of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts Summer Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute (“The Visual Culture of the Civil War and Its Aftermath”). Her work has been published in The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust, the White House History Quarterly, and the Journal of Glass Studies.

About The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art

The Morse Museum is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), including the chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and art and architectural elements from his Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall. The Museum’s holdings also include American art pottery, late 19th- and early 20th-century American paintings, graphics, and history of design objects. For more information, please visit morsemuseum.org.

Photo Credit: The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art

Date Posted: May 20, 2024