Patricia Kane, the Friends of American Arts Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Yale University Art Gallery, passed away on July 8. She 82 years old.
A native of Connecticut, Dr. Kane received her bachelor’s degree from Chatham College (now University) in Pittsburgh and her master’s degree in early American material culture from the University of Delaware. In 1968, she was appointed assistant curator of the Garvan and Related Collections of American Art at Yale University, beginning what would become a 58-year career at the Ivy league institution. Ten years later, she was promoted to curator of the collection. Dr. Kane later earned a doctorate at Yale, completing a dissertation on early Massachusetts silversmiths.
As a scholar of American decorative arts, Dr. Kane had a wide-range of interests, including early American furniture, seventeenth-century silver, and contemporary craft. Throughout her career, she authored several prominent scholarly articles and curated numerous exhibitions and installations.