Barry, Iris (1895–1969)
Barry, Iris (1895–1969)
English–American author and museum official. Born in Birmingham, England, in 1895; died in 1969; educated in England and at the Ursuline Convent, Verviers, Belgium.
From 1925 to 1930, Iris Barry was a movie critic for The Spectator and movie editor for London's Daily Mail. Shortly thereafter, she settled in the United States. From 1932 to 1935, she was librarian of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and, from 1935 to 1950, was curator, then director, of its motion-picture collection. Barry was known as an authoritative critic and historian of the motion picture; her writings on the subject include Let's Go to the Pictures (1926), D. W. Griffith: American Film Master (1940), and a widely distributed series of pamphlets comprised of the program notes for exhibitions of motion pictures arranged by the Museum of Modern Art (1935–50). A founding member of the London Film Society (1925), Barry was elected president of the International Federation of Film Archives (1946) and awarded the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor (1949). She retired in 1950.