As part of our 175th anniversary celebrations at NEHGS in 2020, I am delighted to announce the publication next spring of Family Treasures: 175 Years of Collecting Art and Furniture at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, by the distinguished curator and American decorative arts expert, Gerald W.R. Ward. This sumptuously illustrated book will examine for the first time the wide sweep of NEHGS treasures, ranging from portraits and busts to furniture, clocks, and more, donated to or acquired by the Society over nearly two hundred years.
Gerald Ward is the author or editor of, or contributor to, many books, including Perspectives on American Furniture, Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass, with Dale Chihuly, American Folk, and The Cabinetmaker and the Carver: Boston Furniture from Private Collections. He is the Senior Consulting Curator and the Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture Emeritus at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has served as the assistant curator at the Yale University Art Gallery and as an editor at the Winterthur Museum. He is a past president of the Decorative Arts Society, a Fellow of The Pilgrim Society, a Proprietor of the Portsmouth Athenaeum, a member of the National Council of the Newport Historical Society, and has served as a member of the editorial boards of Winterthur Portfolio and American Furniture.