© The contents of this finding aid are the copyright of the University of Chicago Library
© 2008 University of Chicago Library
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Rickert, Margaret. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Margaret Rickert was the younger sister of medieval literature scholar and University of Chicago professor of English Martha Edith Rickert. Margaret Rickert was born in 1888 and graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa in 1910 and joined the photography department of the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. She earned a master’s degree in art history from the University of Chicago in 1933. In 1938 she was awarded a Ph.D. from the University and joined the art history department. She worked as a code breaker for the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Washington, D.C. during World War II, returning to Chicago in 1944. In 1948 she published a memorial volume of her sister’s work, and in 1954 published Painting in Britain: The Middle Ages, a volume in Penguin’s Pelican History of Art series. Rickert was the only woman and only American author included in the original Pelican set. Rickert retired from the University in 1953 but returned to teaching from 1958 to 1960, publishing La miniature anglaise during that period. In 1965 the second edition of Painting in Britain was published. Rickert traveled to Italy to assist in the restoration of artworks after the Florence Flood of 1966, but suffered a stroke and was forced to return to the United States. She died in Grinnell, Iowa in 1973.
The Margaret Rickert papers include correspondence, notes, photographs, and printed material relating to Rickert’s research on medieval painting and manuscript illumination. Series I consists primarily of Rickert’s notes on various manuscripts, paintings, and people, much of it gathered during her travels abroad. The bulk of these notes are on medieval illuminated manuscripts dating. Also included is a small amount of correspondence from family and friends as well as correspondence relating to Rickert’s research and publications. Series II contains photographs of various illuminated manuscripts and paintings. It also contains a few postcards and prints of similar materials. Series III contains scholarly publications by Rickert as well as journal articles and other publications by others.
The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections: