Alexander Brown Griswold

Alexander Brown Griswold (mostly AB Griswold; * 1907 in Baltimore , Maryland ; † October 4, 1991 ) was an American historian . He became known for his commitment to the field of art history and the history of Thailand .

Life

Griswold studied art and archeology at Princeton University and graduated there in 1928. He later studied architecture at the University of Cambridge , but then returned to Baltimore, where he worked for a few years as a banker. During the Second World War he served in the US Army from 1940 to 1947.

In 1945 he visited Thailand for the first time . This country fascinated him so much that from 1948 he devoted all of his time to the art and archeology of Southeast Asia. His mentor was George Coedès , whom he met in Paris in 1947. His collaboration with Luang Boribal Buribhand, who was director of the National Museum in Bangkok at the time , resulted in the publication of several books on Buddha statues from Sukhothai ( The Buddhas of Sukhodaya and Dated Buddha Images of Norther Siam ) in the early 1950s . Further books on the art history of Sukhothai and the biographies of Thai kings followed in later years. He was later awarded the White Elephant Order.

Alexander Brown Griswold died after a long illness at the age of 84.

Works

• Dated Buddha images of northern Siam . Artibus Asiae, Ascona, Switzerland 1957.
• What is a Buddha Image? The Fine Arts Department, Bangkok 1st ed. 1962, (Thai culture; Vol. 19)
• King Mongkut Of Siam . The Asia Society, New York 1961, distributed by The Siam Society Bangkok
• Towards A History Of Sukhothai Art . The Fine Arts Department, Bangkok 1967
• Wat Pra Yün Reconsidered . Monograph No. 4, The Siam Society, Bangkok 1975
• together with Luang Boribal Buribhand:
  • Thai Images of the Buddha . The Fine Arts Department, Bangkok 1st ed. 1958, (Thai culture; Vol. 18)

source

• Obituary by Hiram W. Woodward in: Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 45, (1992), University of Hawai'i Press for the Asia Society (in English)