Walter Cahn

'''Walter Benedict Cahn''' (24 September 1933 – 29 May 2020) was a German-born American medievalist and art historian who taught at Yale University as Carnegie Professor of the History of Art.<ref>[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nhregister/obituary.aspx?n=walter-benedict-cahn&pid=196283155&fhid=4186 Obituary], published in The ''New Haven Register'' on Jun. 1, 2020.</ref>

Cahn was born in Karlsruhe on 24 September 1933 to Otto and Frieda Cahn. His Jewish family was deported to what would become Vichy France in 1938, and after surviving World War II there,<ref>Cahn, Walter, Phil Solomon, and Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive. 1989. Holocaust Testimony of Walter Cahn : Transcript of Audiotaped Interview. Melrose Park, PA: Gratz College.</ref> he reached the United States in 1948.<ref>{{cite journal |language=de |title=Otto Cahn |url=http://gedenkbuch.informedia.de/index.php/PID/12/name/513/suche/C.html |publisher=Gedenkbuch für die Karlsruher Juden |access-date=16 December 2018 |archive-date=17 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217014840/http://gedenkbuch.informedia.de/index.php/PID/12/name/513/suche/C.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="sorenson">{{cite journal |last1=Sorensen |first1=Lee |title=Cahn, Walter B. |journal=Dictionary of Art Historians |url=http://arthistorians.info/cahnw}}</ref>

Walter Cahn was educated at the Pratt Institute from 1952 to 1956.<ref>{{cite news |title=Walter Cahn |url=https://arthistory.yale.edu/people/walter-cahn |access-date=16 December 2018 |publisher=Yale University |archive-date=6 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106021754/http://arthistory.yale.edu/people/walter-cahn |url-status=dead }}</ref> He served from 1956 to 1958 in the United States Army Medical Corps, at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1 June 2020|title=Walter Benedict Cahn, 1933–2020|work=New Haven Register|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nhregister/obituary.aspx?n=walter-benedict-cahn&pid=196283155&fhid=4186|access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> In 1958, he enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, completing his Ph.D. in 1967 with a dissertation on the "Souvigny Bible—A Study in Romanesque Manuscript Illumination." His ''Romanesque Wooden Doors of Auvergne'' was published in 1974.

He began teaching at Yale in 1965, where he spent the rest of his career.<ref name="sorenson"/> He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981,<ref>{{cite news |title=Walter Cahn |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/walter-cahn/ |access-date=16 December 2018 |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}}</ref> and has served as a councillor of the Medieval Academy of America.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, 1984 |journal=Speculum |date=July 1984 |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=732–737 |doi=10.1017/S0038713400148973 |jstor=2846347|s2cid=225090648 }}</ref> Cahn was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 1989.<ref>{{cite news |title=Fellows |url=https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/Fellows_List |access-date=16 December 2018 |publisher=Medieval Academy of America}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Fellows of the Medieval Academy |url=https://www.medievalacademy.org/page/CompleteFellows |access-date=16 December 2018 |publisher=Medieval Academy of America}}</ref> An exhibition at Yale's Beinecke Library was held in 2003 to in Cahn's honor.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rare Illuminated Manuscripts on Exhibit at Yale's Beinecke Library |url=https://news.yale.edu/2003/03/21/rare-illuminated-manuscripts-exhibit-yales-beinecke-library |access-date=16 December 2018 |publisher=Yale University |date=21 March 2003}}</ref> In 2014, Cahn was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref>{{cite news |title=Eight Yale faculty members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |url=https://medicine.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=7313 |access-date=16 December 2018 |publisher=Yale School of Medicine |date=24 April 2014}}</ref>

In 2008 ''Romanesque Art and Thought in the Twelfth Century : Essays in Honor of Walter Cahn.'' was published in his honor.<ref> Cahn, Walter, and Princeton University Department of Art and Archaeology Index of Christian Art. 2008. ''Romanesque Art and Thought in the Twelfth Century : Essays in Honor of Walter Cahn.'' Edited by Colum Hourihane. Princeton, NJ: Index of Christian Art, Dept. of Art and Archæology, Princeton University.</ref>

==Selected publications== *Cahn, Walter, and James Marrow. 1978. ''Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Yale : A Selection.'' [New Haven, Conn.]: [Yale University Library]. *Cahn, Walter. 1979. ''Masterpieces : Chapters on the History of an Idea.'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. *Cahn, Walter, and Linda Seidel. 1979. ''Romanesque Sculpture in American Collections.'' New York, Turnhout, Belgium: B. Franklin ; Brepols. *Cahn, Walter. 1982. ''Romanesque Bible Illumination.'' Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. *Cahn, Walter, Ilene H. Forsyth, William W. Clark, and International Center of Medieval Art. 1988. Current Studies on Cluny. [New York, N.Y.]: [International Center of Medieval Art]. *Cahn, Walter. 1996. ''Romanesque Manuscripts : The Twelfth Century.'' London: Harvey Miller. *Cahn, Walter. 2000. ''Studies in Medieval Art and Interpretation.'' London: Pindar Press. *Cahn, Walter, and Patricia Stirnemann. 2007. ''La Bible de Souvigny''. Souvigny: Ville de Souvigny.

==References== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cahn, Walter}} Category:1933 births Category:Historians of manuscript illumination Category:Jewish American historians Category:Pratt Institute alumni Category:American medievalists Category:American art historians Category:20th-century American historians Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Yale University faculty Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Category:Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:2020 deaths Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American Jews Category:Writers from Karlsruhe