Dorothy Adlow, 1901-1964

Dorothy Adlow, art critic and lecturer, was born on June 7, 1901, in Boston, the daughter of Russian immigrants, Nathan and Bessie (Bravman) Adlow. She attended Girls' Latin School and earned both her A.B. and A.M. degrees from Radcliffe College (1922/1923). After working briefly at the Boston Evening Transcript, she began a forty-one year career as art critic for the Christian Science Monitor .

DA lectured at museums, colleges, churches and libraries, and served as an art juror, throughout the United States. She was the first woman to lecture at the Carnegie International Exhibit Series (Pittsburgh, 1930) and appeared often on television programs produced by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. She traveled widely abroad and was a member of the International Society of Critics. At her 25th class reunion Radcliffe College made her an honorary member of the Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. In 1953 she won the American Federation of Arts Art Critic Award, and in 1957 she received the Art Citation of Merit from Boston University. DA wrote "Twentieth Century Highlights of American Painting," a catalog for a traveling United States Information Agency exhibit.

She married Nicolas Slonimsky, musicologist, composer, conductor and pianist, in 1931; a daughter, Electra (later Yourke), was born in 1933. DA died in Boston on January 11, 1964. A room at Hilles Library, Radcliffe College, is named in her honor.

From the guide to the Papers, 1923-1969, n.y., n.d., (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)