by Carolyn Shankle
Claire Kelleher, emeritus faculty and loyal supporter of UNCG in many areas, passed in January 2021. Kelleher spent her formative years in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, earning her B.A. from the University of Toronto and her M.A. from the University of Chicago. She continued to pursue her Ph. D. at the Courtauld Institute of Art in the University of London, specializing in mediaeval art history. Her dissertation, “Illumination at Saint-Bertin at Saint-Omer Under the Abbacy of Odbert,” remained the definitive work on this topic for the entirety of her active academic career. Kelleher began teaching at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Art Department, in 1968. Her courses focused on the classical, mediaeval, Northern Renaissance, and history of architecture. She traveled extensively, conducted research in Europe, and built the slide collection housed in the UNCG Art Department to more than 60,000 by the time of her retirement in 1995.
It was her wish that Walter Clinton Jackson Library have access to her book collection and make selections as desired. The Rare Book collections are fortunate to add the following facsimiles:
- Les Psautiers Manuscrits Latins Des Bibliotheques,Publiques de France
- Manuscripts from St. Albans Abbey 1066-1235, The Exultet Rolls of South Italy
- The Exultet Rolls of South Italy
- The Lorsch Gospels
- The Pamplona Bibles
- The Psalter of Robert de Lisle in the British Library
- The Rohan Master: A Book of Hours
- The St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter)
- The Stuttgart Psalter, Biblia folio 23
- Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc’s Dictionnaire Raisonné De L’architecture Française Du Xie Au Xvie Siècle.
Jim Carmichael says:
I will miss Claire at Eastern Music Festival. I have loved sitting with her at concerts the past several years. She was so knowledgeable about so many things, music included, and these facsimiles will be a real boon to History of the Book classes. As one can see in the photo, she was a beautiful and beaming person. She wore her Scottish tweeds and knits with pride, and was always neat as a pin.
Carl Myatt says:
Claire’s unusual dressing habits and personality, attracted us together. As a young Architect, my office close to UNC-G, I decided to take her “History of Architecture” course, sat on the front row, where she and had continuing eye contact. She had a vast vocabulary of architecture and history which made her presentations unique and interesting. No car, but bicycle with a front basket made her even more interesting. Many of the class members of that class found Claire unusual but architecture and design allow those qualities to be assets. She and I dialoged after class many times as we both wanted to know about each other. On the one research paper required, she gave me an A+ with a had written comment that she had never read and viewed presentation graphics more exciting and interesting as the one
I submitted! That made our relationship more powerful and for many years, we talked. Claire dedicated her life and interests to knowledge, exploring the exciting fields of architecture, art, and history…..that was her life! If only we had more individuals who could develop that wonderful quality! Carl Myatt, AIA, Architect, Greensboro, NC