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Wilma Cannon Fairbank
Born
Wilma Denio Cannon

April 23, 1909
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedApril 4, 2002 (age 92)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s)Art historian, Chinese studies scholar
SpouseJohn King Fairbank
Parent(s)Walter Bradford Cannon and Cornelia James Cannon
RelativesMarian Cannon Schlesinger (sister)
Bradford Cannon (brother)
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (brother-in-law)
Christina Schlesinger (niece)
Stephen Schlesinger (nephew)
Ida Maud Cannon (aunt)

Wilma Denio Cannon Fairbank (April 23, 1909 – April 4, 2002) was an American art historian and diplomat who studied Chinese art and architecture.

Early life and education

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Wilma Cannon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the daughter of Walter Bradford Cannon and Cornelia James Cannon. Both of her parents were notable; her father was a physiologist and a medical school professor,[1] and her mother was a writer and feminist.[2] Her sister Marian Cannon Schlesinger became an artist and writer, and married historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.[3] Their brother Bradford Cannon was a noted reconstructive surgeon who specialized in treating burns.[4]

Cannon graduated from Radcliffe College in 1931, and did some graduate work there from 1937 to 1939.[5]

Career

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Cannon was briefly an apprentice to Diego Rivera after college, and before traveling to China to marry in 1932. During World War II she worked in Washington with the State Department's China section. After the war, from 1945 to 1947, she was a cultural attaché at the American embassies in Chongqing and Nanjing. She was a member of the Institute for Research in Chinese Architecture.[6][7] After her husband became a professor at Harvard University, she was a faculty wife and mother, which she later called "a terrific drop in status".[8] She continued her research and writing, and gave lectures on Chinese art.[9]

Publications

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Fairbank's work appeared in academic journals including The Far Eastern Quarterly, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, and Artibus Asiae.

  • "The Offering Shrines of 'Wu Liang Tz'ŭ'" (1941)[10]
  • "A Structural Key to Han Mural Art" (1942)[11]
  • "Current Trends in Japanese Studies of China and Adjacent Areas" (1953, with Akira Fujieda)[12]
  • "Han Mural Paintings in the Pei-Yuan Tomb at Liao-Yang, South Manchuria" (1954, with Masao Kitano)[13]
  • "Piece-mold craftsmanship and Shang bronze design" (1962)[14]
  • Adventures in Retrieval: Han murals and Shang bronze molds (1972)[15][16]
  • America's Cultural Experiment in China, 1942-1949 (1976)[17]
  • A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture: A Study of the Development of Its Structural System and the Evolution of Its Types (1984, with Ssu-chi'eng Liang)[18]
  • Liang and Lin: Partners in Exploring China's Architectural Past (1995)[19]

Personal life and legacy

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Wilma Cannon married Harvard historian John King Fairbank in 1932, in Beijing.[20] They adopted two daughters, Laura and Holly.[8] Her husband died in 1991,[21] and she died in 2002, at the age of 92, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[6] "She made a major contribution to our understanding of ancient Chinese art and architecture," said colleague Philip Kuhn when she died.[7] The Peabody Essex Museum has a collection of her correspondence and notebooks.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Brown, Theodore M.; Fee, Elizabeth (October 2002). "Walter Bradford Cannon: Pioneer Physiologist of Human Emotions". American Journal of Public Health. 92 (10): 1594–1595. doi:10.2105/AJPH.92.10.1594. PMC 1447286.
  2. ^ Diedrich, Maria I. (2010). Cornelia James Cannon and the Future American Race. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-840-2. JSTOR j.ctt5vk18g.
  3. ^ Roberts, Sam (October 17, 2017). "Marian Cannon Schlesinger, Author and Eyewitness to History, Dies at 105". The New York Times. pp. B15.
  4. ^ "Physician improved treatment of burns". The Roanoke Times. January 16, 2006. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ State, United States Dept of (1940). Biographic Register of the Department of State. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 141.
  6. ^ a b Honan, William H. (April 13, 2002). "Wilma Fairbank, 92, Historian of Chinese Art". The New York Times. pp. A18.
  7. ^ a b Long, Tom (April 16, 2002). "Wilma Cannon Fairbank, expert on Chinese art, 92". The Boston Globe. p. 45 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b Hirshson, Paul (September 12, 1982). "Fairbanks look back over 50 years together". The Boston Globe. p. 28 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ White, Mary Linn (April 19, 1973). "Portrait of China: Art authority describes new look". The Cincinnati Post. p. 29 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Fairbank, Wilma (1941). "The Offering Shrines of " Wu Liang Tz'ŭ "". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 6 (1): 1–36. doi:10.2307/2717961. ISSN 0073-0548. JSTOR 2717961.
  11. ^ Fairbank, Wilma (1942). "A Structural Key to Han Mural Art". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 7 (1): 52–88. doi:10.2307/2717814. ISSN 0073-0548. JSTOR 2717814.
  12. ^ Fujieda, Akira; Fairbank, Wilma (1953). "Current Trends in Japanese Studies of China and Adjacent Areas". The Far Eastern Quarterly. 13 (1): 37–47. doi:10.2307/2942368. ISSN 0363-6917. JSTOR 2942368.
  13. ^ Fairbank, Wilma; Kitano, Masao (1954). "Han Mural Paintings in the Pei-Yuan Tomb at Liao-Yang, South Manchuria". Artibus Asiae. 17 (3/4): 238–264. doi:10.2307/3249057. ISSN 0004-3648. JSTOR 3249057.
  14. ^ Fairbank, Wilma. "Piece-mold craftsmanship and Shang bronze design." Arch. Chinese Art Soc. Amer 16 (1962): 8-15.
  15. ^ Fairbank, Wilma (1972). Adventures in retrieval; Han murals and Shang bronze molds. --. Internet Archive. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00575-4.
  16. ^ Haskins, John F. "Adventures in Retrieval (Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies, XXVIII)." The Art Bulletin 57, no. 1 (1975): 117-118.
  17. ^ Fairbank, Wilma (June 1976). America's Cultural Experiment in China, 1942-1949. Cultural Relations Programs of the U.S. Department of State: Historical Studies, Number 1. Superintendent of Documents, U.
  18. ^ Liang, Sicheng; Fairbank, Wilma (1984). A pictorial history of Chinese architecture: a study of the development of its structural system and the evolution of its types. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-12103-3.
  19. ^ Fairbank, Wilma (1994). Liang and Lin: Partners in Exploring China's Architectural Past. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-3278-3.
  20. ^ Isaacs, Arnold R. (March 21, 1982). "'Chinabound' tells of long effort to 'unscrew the inscrutable'". Baltimore Sun. p. 57 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Jansen, Marius B. "John King Fairbank (1907–1991)." The Journal of Asian Studies 51, no. 1 (1992): 237-242.
  22. ^ "Collection: Wilma Cannon Fairbank Papers, 1920-1991, undated". Phillips Library Finding Aids. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
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