Christine Edmonson

Christine Edmonson, long time beloved art librarian, passed away on May 12 at age 72. Christine was the daughter of Joseph H. Ennis, Jr. and Adele Gilbert, and was born on June 10, 1952 in Media, Pennsylvania. As a toddler, the family moved to Chadds Ford, along the Brandywine River in lower Chester County. Her father Joe developed a love for local historic architecture, and he renovated several 19th century homes while his growing family grew to include four children. Christine would later say that she “grew up in a ‘broken home’,” but the experience instilled a love for history and art that became a life-long passion, and the basis of her career as an art librarian.

Christine attended schools in nearby Unionville, and Wilmington, Delaware, before enrolling at the University of Delaware to study art history in 1970. While there she completed a BA in art history, as well as courses in museum studies. At this time Christine’s father Joe became head of maintenance and restoration at the Hagley Museum (the original duPont black powder works dating to 1802), and the family took up residence in the 70+ acre museum along the banks of the Brandywine. For a senior capstone project in 1974 she installed period appropriate Christmas décor in the duPont home, Eleutherian Mills. Christine subsequently worked in the Hagley Museum library (where she met James Edmonson, a graduate school fellow studying there), and became a library assistant at the Winterthur Museum Library. The couple married in February 1975, and resided in Wilmington until 1978, when a Fulbright grant took James to Paris for a year. During that time Christine further developed a passion for art history and the decorative arts, frequenting museums and galleries in Paris and nearby cultural centers. She also became an accomplished cook, learning alongside her sister Patricia, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Years later their mother chided her that she had become a “food snob,” to which she politely corrected, “No, I am an ingredients snob,” seeking out the best and freshest foodstuffs to make her dishes. Upon returning to the US in 1979, Christine resumed work with the Winterthur library.

In 1981 Christine and James moved to Cleveland Heights, and he became curator of the Dittrick Museum of Medical History of CWRU, and she soon joined the staff of the Ingalls Library of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The two of them remained at those institutions for the rest of their careers, Christine rose to become reference librarian, helping succeeding generations of curators and art history students alike. They traveled extensively over the years, chiefly to international medical museum meetings, giving Christine the opportunity to visit major art collections in situ across Europe and the UK, and in the process she developed an encyclopedic knowledge of the field that immeasurably enhanced her ability to bring art history and the dec arts to life for others. She acquired a devoted following among museum staff and art history faculty and students, and was designated an adjunct faculty for art history. In retirement since 2017, she pursued a passion for gardening and antiquing, serving on the board of Cleveland Decorative Arts. She is survived by James, and their children Jack of Brooklyn NY, and Patricia, curator of costumes and textiles at the Western Reserve Historical Society and resident of Cleveland. Christine was a doting and beloved grandmother of four: Aiden, George, Greta, and Dorothy.