George Harold Edgell

Born in St. Louis in 1887, George Harold Edgell became an American architectural and fine arts historian known for making art history approachable to a broad readership. He built his academic career at Harvard, where he served as dean of the School of Architecture from 1922 to 1935.

Edgell was also a specialist in Sienese painting, and his writing ranged from European art to American architecture. That mix of scholarship and public-minded writing helped make him a recognizable figure not just in universities, but in the wider museum world as well.

In 1935 he became director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, a post he held until his death in 1954. Remembered as both a scholar and an administrator, he stands out as someone who connected serious art scholarship with public cultural life.