Elizabeth Senior
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Elizabeth Senior | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 June 1910 Dore, South Yorkshire |
| Died | 11 May 1941 (aged 30) London |
| Occupations | Assistant Keeper, Prints and Drawings, British Museum |
| Children | Sally Maud Senior |
| Parent(s) | Sally Gertrude Ashworth Oliver Senior |
| Relatives | Derek Senior Margaret Leonie "Peggy" Senior |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Newnham College, University of Cambridge, Courtauld Institute of Art |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Art History |
Sub-discipline | Medieval Art |
Elizabeth Senior (29 June 1910 – 11 May 1941) was an art historian and Assistant Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. She was also a book editor for Penguin Books.
Elizabeth Senior was born on 29 June 1910[1] in the village of Dore in Derbyshire (the village is now in South Yorkshire) to Sally Gertrude (née Ashworth, 1876–1963)[2] and Oliver Senior (1880–1943).[3][4] She had two siblings, Derek and Margaret Leonie "Peggy" (1916–2006). Her father was the author of How to Draw Hands, which was published by Studio in 1944.
Elizabeth Senior was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge; Munich and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Her main field of study was in medieval art.[5]
Career
In the early 1930s she spent a year studying art history in Munich.[6]
In 1934 Senior was chosen over Alec Clifton-Taylor for the role of Assistant Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum.[6][5] In doing so she became the first female antiquities curator at the museum and also the first qualified professional in her department as all of the others had classics or history degrees.[6]
As the threat of war grew closer Senior helped secure safe passage for those fleeing Nazi Germany and became a friend to a number of eminent Jewish emigre art historians including Ernst Gombrich, Yvonne Hackenbroch, Edith Hoffman, Ernest Kitzinger (who she had met in Munich) and Fritz Saxl-Kitzinger.[4][6] She used her contacts to help them find homes, jobs and publishing opportunities. Senior also travelled to Germany, where, claiming to be "an official representative of His Majesty's Government", she urged Ernst Kitzinger's parents leave the country. She then conveyed them to her mother's house in England from where they were later able to emigrate to Palestine.[4] Senior's professional relationship with Gombrich, Ernst Kris and Ernst Kitzinger was further cemented when she worked in her spare time as editor of the King Penguin series of books from 1939 to 1941 (K 1-K 5).[7] She also co-authored with Kitzinger the book Portraits of Christ[8] from the same series.[9]
At the outbreak of the Second World War she was seconded from the British Museum to work for the Treasury.[6]
Senior was killed in a German air raid while at home in her flat at 17b Canonbury Square in London in the early hours of 11 May 1941. This was the same air raid that badly damaged the British Museum. She was cremated on 17 May at Streatham Park Crematorium.[6][4]
Personal life
Senior had a six-year affair with the married Thomas Kendrick, who was 14 years her senior.[4] When she became pregnant, she decided in spite of the scandal and the fact that Kendrick did not want to keep the child, she would keep it, as she had always wanted a child.[6] In 1941 she gave birth to a daughter, Sally Maud Senior who was born in her grandmother's house in East Dean in Sussex.[6] The birth was registered in the first quarter of that year. Senior's early death during the Blitz came around ten weeks after Sally Maud was born. Sally Maud was found alive, placed for safety under a table, amongst the wreckage of their home by an ARP warden.[4][6] Senior's sister who was also in the house at the time survived the air raid.[4]
Sally was raised by her grandmother and aunt in East Dean. It was only once she had children of her own that Sally Senior found out that her mother's old friend "Uncle Tom", who had written letters to her throughout her childhood was her father.[6]