Winterthur gets new decorative arts professor

Posted by Press Release on October 13, 2015

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library welcomed Catharine Dann Roeber to the Research Division at Winterthur in August as the Assistant Professor of Decorative Arts and Material Culture in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture .

Gregory J. Landrey, Director of Academic Affairs, was pleased to make the announcement, the result of a nation-wide search. A committee composed of WPAMC faculty members and executive committee members from both Winterthur and the University of Delaware assisted him with the search.

Roeber received her doctorate in history from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. She also holds a master’s degree in early American culture from the University of Delaware as a Winterthur Fellow. Her primary field of expertise is the history and material culture of the Americas from the colonial era to the 20th century. While her dissertation and master's thesis address the materials and architectural heritage of Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania, additional areas of research include material culture studies, culinary history, and the history of print and ephemera.

Roeber previously taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Winterthur, Villanova University, and the College of William and Mary. She also brings a diverse background of experience with archeology departments, research libraries, museums, and cultural non-profits to the position. Exhibitions she has curated, co-curated, and coordinated at Winterthur, the Brandywine River Museum, and at local arts organizations include Tiffany: The Color of Luxury (2015), Bein’ Green: The History of a Color (2015), Adorned: Body + Art (2015), Table Talk: Philadelphia in a New Nation (2014), Common Destinations: Maps in the American Experience (assistant to curator Martin Bruckner, 2013), and Seeing Red: Southeastern Pennsylvania Redware from Winterthur (2011).

Both students and faculty welcome Roeber to this faculty position in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. In addition to her duties as a WPAMC faculty member, she serves as Director of the Research Fellowship Program and Executive Editor of Winterthur Portfolio: The Journal of American Material Culture.