Margaret Rickert (May 5, 1888 – 1973) was an American

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

and World War II

codebreaker Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic secu ...

. In 1954, she became the first American and first woman to author a volume in the original series of the Pelican History of Art with her title, ''Painting in Britain: The Middle Ages.'' She was the sister of art historian

Edith Rickert Edith Rickert (1871–1938) was a medieval scholar at the University of Chicago. Her work includes the ''Chaucer Life-Records'' and the eight-volume ''Text of the Canterbury Tales'' (1940). Life and career Rickert was born in Dover, Ohio, to Fra ...

. Born in 1888, Richert earned her Ph.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1938. Her dissertation was on the reconstruction of an English

Carmelite The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

missal from a scrapbook housed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. In 1952, she published a book based on this dissertation. During World War II, Rickert worked as a codebreaker for the

U.S. Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army responsible for creating and managing communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860 by ...

in Washington, D.C. Rickert died in 1973. Her papers are housed at the University of Chicago Library.

Published works

*Rickert, Margaret J. ''Painting in Britain: The Middle Ages''. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963. *Rickert, Margaret J, and Philip A. Hanrott. ''The Reconstructed Carmelite Missal: An English Manuscript of the Late XIV Century in the British Museum (additional 29704-5, 44892)''. London: Faber and Faber, 1952. *Rickert, Margaret J. ''The So-Called Beaufort Hours and York Psalter''. London, 1962.

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External links

1888 births 1973 deaths University of Chicago alumni American military personnel of World War II {{US-art-historian-stub