Beam, Philip C. 1910–2005

(Philip Conway Beam)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born October 7, 1910, in Dallas, TX; died December 25, 2005, in Lewiston, ME. Educator and author. Beam was a professor emeritus of art and archeology at Bowdoin College. A Harvard University alumnus, he earned his B.A. there in 1933 before being hired as assistant to the director of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City. Beam joined the Bowdoin College faculty in 1937, while also working on his graduate studies, and completed an M.A. at Harvard in 1943, followed by a Ph.D. the next year. At Bowdoin, he was promoted to professor of art in 1949, and in 1958 was named Henry Johnson professor of art and archeology. During his tenure there, he also served as curator of Bowdoins's Museum of Art, beginning in 1936, and director from 1939 to 1964, as well as being head of the department of art from 1949 to 1978. He retired from both the museum and his academic post in 1982. He was the author of a number of books on art and artists, including The Language of Art (1958), and Winslow Homer(1975). His last book was the autobiographical Personal Recollections of the Museum of Art and the Department of Art at Bowdoin College (1991).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Beam, Philip C., Personal Recollections of the Museum of Art and the Department of Art at Bowdoin College, Bowdoin College Museum of Art (Brunswick, ME), 1991.

PERIODICALS

Chronicle of Higher Education, January 13, 2006, p. A50.