Walter Benedict Cahn (24 September 1933 – 29 May 2020) was a German-born American medievalist and art historian who taught at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

as Carnegie Professor of the History of Art. Cahn was born in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

on 24 September 1933 to Otto and Frieda Cahn. His Jewish family was deported to what would become Vichy France in 1938, and after surviving

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

there, he reached the United States in 1948. Walter Cahn was educated at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

from 1952 to 1956. He served from 1956 to 1958 in the

United States Army Medical Corps The Medical Corps (MC) of the U.S. Army is a staff corps (non-combat specialty branch) of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) consisting of commissioned medical officers – physicians with either an M.D. or a D.O. degree, at least o ...

, at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. In 1958, he enrolled at the

Institute of Fine Arts An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

of New York University, completing his Ph.D. in 1967 with a dissertation on the " Souvigny Bible—A Study in Romanesque Manuscript Illumination." His ''Romanesque Wooden Doors of Auvergne'' was published in 1974. He began teaching at Yale in 1965, where he spent the rest of his career. He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1981, and has served as a councillor of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

. Cahn was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1989. An exhibition at Yale's Beinecke Library was held in 2003 to in Cahn's honor. In 2014, Cahn was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cahn, Walter 1933 births Historians of manuscript illumination Jewish American historians Pratt Institute alumni American medievalists American art historians 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Yale University faculty Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2020 deaths American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews Writers from Karlsruhe