>Simeon: Adding local short description: "English art historian", overriding Wikidata description "British art historian" (Shortdesc helper)

2021-05-23T22:53:57Z

Adding local short description: "English art historian", overriding Wikidata description "British art historian" (Shortdesc helper)

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{{Short description|English art historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2015}}
'''Mildred Archer''' [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (28 December 1911 in [[London]] – 4 February 2005) was an [[England|English]] [[art historian]] who specialized in 18th- and 19th-century art in British India. She was curator of Prints and Drawings at the India Office Library and wrote extensively on the collection and studies on them.

Born Mildred Agnes Bell, she attended school in [[London]]. In 1930 she joined [[St Hilda's College, Oxford]] with a history scholarship. She met [[W.G. Archer|Bill Archer]], who had been a friend of her brother at Cambridge. Bill had passed the [[Indian Civil Service]] examination and was in the [[School of Oriental Studies]], London. Bill left for India in 1931 and the two were engaged just before he left. After marriage Bill worked in [[Bihar]] for nearly a decade and on his return to England he became Keeper of Indian Art at the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] and was a leading scholar of Indian court painting and the [[Company style]].

Mildred Archer's curatorial career began in 1954 with the cataloguing of the [[British East India Company|East India Company's]] collection of paintings in the collection of the [[India Office]] Library. It occupied her for 26 years.

Other works included ''Natural History Drawings'' (1962), ''British Drawings'' (1969), ''Company Drawings'' (1972), ''Indian Popular Painting'' (1977) and finally (with Toby Falk) ''Indian Miniature Paintings'' (1981). In 1979 she wrote ''British Portraiture 1770-1825''. Her later publications included a study of the Daniell [[aquatint]]s of India (1980), the V&A exhibition catalogue ''India Observed'' (1982), and studies of William Simpson's Indian sketchbooks (1986) and the prints and Company paintings associated with James and William Fraser (1989). Her last book was ''India Served and Observed'' (1994).

Her papers, together with those of her husband, are held by the [[British Library]].<ref name="TNA2">{{cite web |title= Papers of W G Archer, Indian Civil Service, Bihar 1931-47, and of his wife Mildred Archer, experts on Indian poetry and art |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/bf9039b5-32b9-4142-82c5-182983d53231 |publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] |accessdate=4 August 2018}}</ref>

== Publications ==

=== Books ===

* {{cite book |last1=Archer |first1=William |last2=Archer |first2=Mildred |title=India served and observed |date=1994 |publisher=BACSA |location=London |isbn=978-0907799535}}

=== Papers ===

* Archer, Mildred & [[W.G. Archer]] (1955) Natural history paintings. In Indian painting for the British 1770–1880, pp. 91–98. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1489180/Mildred-Archer.html Obituary in The Telegraph]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/feb/17/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries Obituary in The Guardian]
* [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mildred-archer-6152429.html Obituary in The Independent]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1509525,00.html Obituary in The Times]

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archer, Mildred}}

[[Category:English art historians]]
[[Category:Indian art historians]]
[[Category:English curators]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:Historians of Indian art]]

Mildred Archer - Revision history

>Simeon: Adding local short description: "English art historian", overriding Wikidata description "British art historian" (Shortdesc helper)