Esther_Stevens_Brazer

Esther Stevens Brazer

Esther Stevens Brazer

American historian

Esther Stevens Brazer (April 7, 1898 – October 30, 1945) was an American historian, noted especially for her interest in painted tinware.

Brazer was the great-great-granddaughter of a tinsmith from Maine, Zachariah Brackett Stevens.[1] Alongside Janet Waring, she was a pioneer in the study of American decorative art, especially the field of wall stenciling;[2] she is also remembered for her research into the field of japanning.[3]

Her book Early American Decoration was the first scholarly work on the subject.[4] She was active as a researcher for most of the last twenty years of her life,[5] and was a collector and teacher in addition to being a writer.[6] She was among those experts invited to contribute to The Magazine ANTIQUES under the editorship of Alice Winchester.[1]

She died at age 47 in 1945 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine. After her death, the Historical Society of Early American Decoration was founded in her honor by a group of her students to propagate her work.[4] A small box decorated by Brazer in the style of a book, similar to works made by Zachariah Stevens, is held in the collection of the National Museum of American History.[6]

References

  1. [1]
    Gerard C. Wertkin (August 2, 2004). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95614-1.
  2. [2]
    Ann Eckert Brown (2003). American Wall Stenciling, 1790-1840. UPNE. pp. 10–. ISBN 978-1-58465-194-9.
  3. [3]
    Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. The Society. 1974.
  4. [4]
    "About Us". December 10, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  5. [5]
    New York State Historical Association (1972). Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association. New York State Historical Association.
  6. [6]
    "Trinket Box". National Museum of American History. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
Flag of United StatesScientist icon

This biographical article about an American art historian is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Esther_Stevens_Brazer, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.