Ross, Denman Waldo

Ross, Denman Waldo

(1853–1935) teacher, collector; born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Harvard (B.A. 1875; M.A. 1880; Ph.D. 1880), worked under Henry Adams, and taught in the architecture and fine arts department at Harvard beginning in 1899. He also worked in the fine arts department of the Fogg Art Museum beginning in 1909. He wrote several theoretical books on art, including A Theory of Pure Design (1907). An avid traveler, he collected oriental art, which he donated to both Boston's and Harvard's Fogg Museums.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.