Philip Hofer

Identity:

Philip Hofer was a Harvard librarian, book collector and founding curator of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library.

Life:

Hofer, a Harvard graduate, was an avid collector of illustrated and decorated books. He was curator of the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library and from 1934 to 1937 he was the first assistant director of the Morgan Library in New York. In 1938 he was appointed to the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts at Harvard University library which became notable under his headship for its 15th- and 18th-century Italian collection, Chinese block prints, illuminated manuscripts and livres de peintres collection. In 1964 he began his Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts series, with a second series appearing in 1974. He was also secretary of the Fogg Art Museum and a trustee for the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He bequeathed K1810z07 to the Fogg Art Museum in 1984.

Bibliography:

'Philip Hofer, 86, a Book Collector at Harvard', New York Times, 12 November 1984, p. 15; 'Mr Philip Hofer', The Times, London, 22 November 1984, p. 14; Hofer, Philip, Some [Delacroix] Drawings and Lithographs for Goethe's Faust, Cambridge, MA, 1964; Hofer, Philip, Jean Seznec and Elizabeth Mongan, Fragonard Drawings for Ariosto, New York, 1945; Hofer, Philip, Baroque Book Illustration: A Short Survey from the Collection in the Department of Graphic Arts, Cambridge, MA, 1951; Hofer, Philip, Edward Lear, New York, 1962; Hofer, Philip, Edward Lear as a Landscape Draughtsman, Cambridge, MA, 1967; Hofer, Philip, Eighteenth-century Book Illustrations, Los Angeles, 1956; Hofer, Philip, Ruth Mortimer and William Jackson, A Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts, San Francisco, 1964; http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/hoferp.htm (accessed September 2009).