Robert Woods Bliss

Robert Woods Bliss 1924

Robert Woods Bliss (born August 5, 1875 in St. Louis , Missouri , † April 19, 1962 in Washington, DC ) was an American diplomat , art collector and donor of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection .

Born to the Federal Attorney William Henry Bliss (1844-1932) he attended school in Virginia, Minnesota and Boston. He studied at Harvard College , which he graduated with a BA in 1900 . He then worked from 1901 to 1903 as the private secretary to the American governor of Puerto Rico . In 1903 he joined the United States Department of State . In 1903 he worked as consul in Venice , from 1904 to 1907 as second secretary of the embassy in St. Petersburg , 1907 to 1909 as legation secretary in Brussels , 1909 to 1912 as legation secretary in Buenos Aires , 1912 to 1916 as secretary of the embassy in Paris , 1916 until 1919 as counselor there. In 1920 he became Head of Department for Western Europe in the State Department in Washington, and from 1921 to 1923 he was the third Undersecretary of State in the State Department. From 1923 to 1927 he served as envoy to Sweden , from 1927 to 1933 as American ambassador to Argentina . He then retired. During the Second World War he was reactivated and worked again in the Foreign Ministry from 1942 to 1945.

In 1908 he married his stepsister (through his father's second marriage) Mildred Barnes Bliss , who owned a considerable fortune. During their time in Paris (1912–1919), Robert and Mildred Bliss became increasingly interested in art, encouraged by their friend, the historian and collector Royall Tyler , and began collecting, especially pre-Columbian and Byzantine art. Robert Woods Bliss was particularly interested in pre-Columbian art.

The Dumbarton Oaks country house

In 1920 the Blisses acquired Dumbarton Oaks , a country estate in Georgetown on the outskirts of Washington, where they had lived since 1931 and where their collection was housed. In 1940 they founded the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection there and donated it to Harvard University as a research institute for Byzantine studies , pre-Columbian art and the culture and history of landscape architecture . The pre-Columbian collection of Robert Woods Bliss was on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington from 1947 to 1962 before moving to a Philip Johnson extension in Dumbarton Oaks in 1963 .

literature

• James N. Carder (Ed.): A Home of the Humanities. The Collecting and Patronage of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss . Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC 2010, ISBN 978-0-88402-365-4 .

Web links

• Bliss-Tyler Correspondence for Dumbarton Oaks

predecessor	Office	successor
Ira Nelson Morris	Envoy to Stockholm 1923–1927	Leland B. Harrison
Peter Augustus Jay	Ambassador to Buenos Aires 1927–1933	Alexander W. Weddell