Belknap, Waldron Phoenix

Extract

Belknap, Waldron Phoenix (12 May 1899–14 December 1949), art historian, was born in New York City, the son of Waldron Phoenix Belknap, a banker, and Rey Hutchings. Both of his parents were descended from early colonial settlers, and Belknap’s awareness and appreciation of his own family’s history, nurtured by his parents, developed into a deep and lasting interest in American history and material culture. He graduated magna cum laude from St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1916 and was admitted to Harvard that same year; he interrupted his studies to join the army shortly after the United States entered World War I. He graduated from the heavy artillery school at Fort Monroe, Virginia, in 1918 with a commission as a second lieutenant, returning to Harvard at war’s end. He still was able to graduate with his class in 1920, and he then spent eight years in investment finance, working in New York, Boston, and London....