Papers of Arthur Kingsley Porter

Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-1933), archeologist, art historian, and medievalist, was the Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts at Harvard University from 1925 to 1933. Porter began teaching at Harvard in 1921. His research interests included the Pilgrimage schools of architecture and sculpture in Italy, France, and Spain, and great works of Celtic art.

Porter attended King's Academy at Stamford and the Brown School in New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1904. Afterward, Porter studied at the Columbia Architectural School from 1904 to 1906 and then spent two years studying in France and Italy. In 1915, Porter became a lecturer in the History of Art at Yale University, followed by an appointment to assistant professor in 1917. In 1920, Porter joined the Harvard faculty as a professor of the history of art; and he later became the first William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts in 1924. In 1923, Porter was an exchange professor in France, and in 1924 a visiting professor in Spain. As America's foremost medievalist, Porter was invited by the French government to serve on a commission to inspect monuments, sculptures, and other artworks damaged during World War I.

Porter married Lucy Bryant Wallace in 1912. Over the years, the Porter's traveled extensively in Europe, studying medieval art and architecture. Lucy assisted her husband in his research, becoming his chief photographer and contributing to his academic success. Porter's photograph collection contained 35,000 photographs and 11,700 negatives about medieval art. The Porter's held residences at Elmwood Mansion in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Glenveagh Castle in Ireland.

After Porter's disappearance in 1933, Lucy sold Glenveagh Castle to one of Porter's former students from Harvard. Upon Lucy Porter's death in 1962, she bequeathed Elmwood to Harvard University. Elmwood became the official residence of Harvard University's presidents in 1970.