{"id":2472,"date":"2020-09-25T15:50:37","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T19:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/?p=2472"},"modified":"2020-09-25T15:50:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T19:50:39","slug":"eugene-gaddis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/2020\/09\/25\/eugene-gaddis\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene Gaddis, Wadsworth Atheneum archivist and author"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\" id=\"Gaddis-gallery\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"440\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/gaddis.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2477\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/?attachment_id=2477\" class=\"wp-image-2477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/gaddis.jpg 440w, https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/gaddis-264x300.jpg 264w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 440px) 85vw, 440px\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Eugene Gaddis<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41KZB9C7YTL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg\" alt=\"Cover of &quot;Magician of the Modern: Chick Austin and the Transformation of the Arts in America,&quot; a book by Eugene Gaddis of the Wadsworth Atheneum.\" data-id=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Biography of Chick Austin<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Austin_House_Hartford_CT-600x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2478\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Austin_House_Hartford_CT.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/?attachment_id=2478\" class=\"wp-image-2478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Austin_House_Hartford_CT-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Austin_House_Hartford_CT-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Austin_House_Hartford_CT-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Austin_House_Hartford_CT-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Austin_House_Hartford_CT.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-item__caption\">Austin House<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Eugene Gaddis, a longtime archivist at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewadsworth.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wadsworth Atheneum<\/a> and biographer of legendary Atheneum director A. Everett &#8220;Chick&#8221; Austin Jr., has died at age 72.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gaddis, who was retired, died at his home in West Hartford on August 18, according to his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legacy.com\/obituaries\/hartfordcourant\/obituary.aspx?n=eugene-richard-gaddis&amp;pid=196814507\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">obituary on Legacy.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2000, Knopf published Gaddis&#8217; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0394587774\/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_i_TySAFbZ1B1SY6#reader_B005WBEFUI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Magician of the Modern: Chick Austin and the Transformation of the Arts in America<\/a>.&#8221; The book describes how Austin, arriving at the Atheneum in 1927 as its first professional director, pushed and cajoled the conservative museum into showing modern art. Soon, the Atheneum found itself not just participating in the modern art movement&#8211;it was in the vanguard of it. Because of Austin&#8217;s many connections, the book also serves as a chronicle of Hartford&#8217;s arts and social scene in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1986, when the Austin family gave its Scarborough Street home to the Atheneum, Gaddis became its curator, eventually working to restore it and securing its recognition as a National Historic Landmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gaddis&#8217; tenure with the Atheneum began in 1981, when a week-long survey of museum records led to him creating the archives. He also became a well-known speaker on the Atheneum, and taught classes at at Hartford College for Woman and at the Hartford branch of the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A memorial service will be held when it is safe to do so.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eugene Gaddis, a longtime archivist at the Wadsworth Atheneum and biographer of legendary Atheneum director A. Everett &#8220;Chick&#8221; Austin Jr., has died at age 72. Gaddis, who was retired, died at his home in West Hartford on August 18, according to his obituary on Legacy.com. In 2000, Knopf published Gaddis&#8217; &#8220;Magician of the Modern: Chick &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/2020\/09\/25\/eugene-gaddis\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Eugene Gaddis, Wadsworth Atheneum archivist and author&#8221;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57,14,23,76],"class_list":["post-2472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-books","tag-obituaries","tag-wadsworth-atheneum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2472"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2481,"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472\/revisions\/2481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hartfordhistory.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}