Stewart, Robert G. 1931–2005

(Robert Gordon Stewart)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born May 5, 1931, in Baltimore, MD; died of respiratory illness, November 17, 2005, in Washington, DC. Curator and author. Stewart was a retired curator at the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1954 with a bachelor's degree in fine art, he then served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for two years. Returning to civilian life, Stewart was hired as historic architect for Philadelphia's Independence National Historic Park. This was followed, from 1956 to 1957, with a similar post for the National Park Service in Philadelphia. Next, he was director of the Jefferson Barracks Historical Park in St. Louis, Missouri, for three years and director of properties at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC, for another three. In 1964, Stewart became one of the first three staff members at the Smithsonian's then-new National Portrait Gallery. He was curator of paintings and sculptures there until his 1994 retirement. In later years, from 1990 to 1998, he was a consultant for the Papers of George Washington project. Stewart was the author of several books about art, including Nucleus for a National Collection (1965), A Nineteenth-Century Gallery of Distinguished Americans (1969), and Robert Edge Pine, a British Portrait Painter in America, 1784–1788 (1979).

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PERIODICALS

Washington Post, November 23, 2005, p. B5.