Emanuel Winternitz (4 August 1898 in Vienna, Austria – 20 August 1983 in New York City) was an Austrian-born museum professional who became the first

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the Department of Musical Instruments at 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 ...

in New York City.

Career

Born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, then capital of the

Austro-Hungarian empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, Winternitz served in World War I. He then practiced law in Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s. Winternitz emigrated to the United States in 1938, after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

. In 1941, He started work at the Metropolitan as a lecturer. He became "Keeper" of the instruments the following year, and was named Curator in 1949 when Musical Instruments was made a curatorial department. At the Department of Musical Instruments, Winternitz was responsible for saving the musical instruments collection from a plan to turn them over to a Music Library proposed by

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became the Juilliard School, named aft ...

. He was also a musical instruments researcher, credited as the "father of the field of musical iconography". In 1973 Winternitz was named curator emeritus at the museum. He continued to teach at the

Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public university, public research institution and post-graduate university, postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Divi ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

until his death.In his will, he left his archives consisting of documents, working materials of his writings, and photographs, to the Research Center for Music Iconography of the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The center also owns a manuscript of his unpublished memoires ''The luggage of an immigrant''. His complete publications are available here https://gc-cuny.academia.edu/EmanuelWinternitz.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winternitz, Emanuel 1898 births 1983 deaths People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Austrian musicologists Austrian music historians Historians of musical instruments Lawyers from Vienna Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States 20th-century Austrian musicologists 20th-century Austrian historians Corresponding fellows of the British Academy