Anna Wetherill Olmsted (1888 – February 8, 1961) was an American

museum director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

from

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

. She was the founder of the National Ceramic Exhibition and served as director of the Syracuse Museum of Fine Art (now the Everson Museum) from 1930 to 1957. Her work was instrumental to increasing the prominence of

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

as an art form in the United States.

Early life and education

Anna Wetherill Olmsted was born in 1888, in Syracuse, New York. She was a great-granddaughter of early American art patron Charles Wetherill and studied painting at the

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

College of Fine Arts.

Career

Olmsted briefly worked as assistant director of the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts from 1929 until 1930, when she became museum director, a position she held until 1957. After stepping down as director, she was named director

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

and curator of decorative arts at the museum. In 1932, Olmsted founded the National Ceramic Exhibition, also known as the Ceramic Nationals, in memory of the ceramist

Adelaide Alsop Robineau Adelaide Alsop Robineau (1865–1929) was an American china painter and Pottery, potter, and is considered one of the top ceramists of American art pottery in her era. Early life and education Adelaide Alsop was born in 1865 in Middletown, Conne ...

. By the end of the 1930s, the event, which featured a juried competition culminating in an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

of the winning pieces, was the most prominent showcase of new ceramic art in the United States. Under Olmsted's directorship, the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts gained an international reputation as a pioneer in the field of ceramics and displayed the works of prominent ceramic artists including Eva Zeiseil,

Maria Martinez Maria Poveka Montoya Martinez ( – July 20, 1980) was a Pueblo peoples, Pueblo artist who created internationally known Native American pottery, pottery. Martinez (born Maria Poveka Montoya), her husband Julian Martinez, Julian, and other fam ...

, and Maija Grotell. The tenth National Ceramic Exhibition was presented in conjunction with an exhibit titled "Contemporary Ceramics of the Western Hemisphere" and was sponsored by

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

founder and president Thomas J. Watson. In 1937, Olmsted was appointed a delegate to the

International Exhibition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

by President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

. She was also a prominent supporter of federal art programs introduced as part of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

. Olmsted travelled widely throughout the United States, delivering lectures on ceramics and art at the Museum of Fine Arts in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, and the

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the supp ...

, among other institutions. She was also an art critic for

The Post-Standard ''The Post-Standard'' is a newspaper serving the greater Syracuse, New York, metro area. Published by Advance Publications, it and sister website Syracuse.com are among the consumer brands of Advance Media New York, alongside NYUp.com and ''Th ...

from 1923 to 1945.

Personal life

Olmstead was a member of the First

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

Church of Syracuse. She died on February 8, 1981, at the age of 92 and is buried in Oakwood Morningside Cemetery in Syracuse.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olmsted, Anna Wetherill 1888 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American people 20th-century American women American art curators American women art critics American art critics People from Syracuse, New York Presbyterians from New York (state) Syracuse University alumni American women museum directors