Oxford, Clarendon Press. 1931 First edition.
Two volumes.
Hardcovers. Blue cloth with gilt emblem on front and lettering on spine, quartos, XXXVI, 180; XVI, 250 pages; frontispieces, illustrations, plates.
The front pastedown of both volumes has the distinctive ex-libris label or the original owner - Howard Decker McKinney. (See below)

Joan Evans (art historian)
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Joan Evans DBE FSA (22 June 1893 – 14 July 1977) was a British historian of French and English mediaeval art, especially Early Modern and medieval jewellery. Her notable collection was bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Early life and education
Joan Evans was born at Nash Mills, Apsley, Hertfordshire, the daughter of antiquarian and businessman Sir John Evans and his third wife, Maria Millington Lathbury (1856–1944). She was half-sister to Sir Arthur Evans, excavator of Knossos and discoverer of Minoan civilisation. Sir Arthur was forty two years her senior: he caused huge hilarity at an antiquarian conference of learned and erudite gentlemen when he brought in a four-year-old Joan to be "shown off".

Her parents travelled extensively leaving Joan to be cared for by her nanny, Caroline Hancock, whom she knew for 67 years, although, occasionally, she did travel with her nanny to join her parents on their archaeological trips. She dedicated her autobiography, Prelude and Fugue, to Nanny Hancock who died in 1961, aged 97.

Evans was educated at Corran School, Watford and Berkhamsted School for Girls before going up to St Hugh's College, Oxford. She had originally planned to read for a diploma in anthropology but instead read classical archaeology, gaining a diploma with distinction in 1916. She was appointed librarian at St Hugh’s College in 1917 and researched and wrote a thesis on jewellery for her Certificate of Letters in 1919.

This was at a time when women were still not admitted to read for degrees by the University of Oxford so she did not receive her full degree, Bachelor of Letters (B.Litt.), until 1920 after campaigners, including her mother, successfully had the ruling changed.[8] In 1930 she was awarded a D.Litt. by the University of London and, in 1932, an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Oxford.

Scholarship
The Royal Institution of Great Britain's records suggest that Evans was the first woman to give a Friday Evening Discourse at the Institution: this was on 8 June 1923, the title being "Jewels of the Renaissance".

After publishing her first books on jewellery in the 1920s, English Jewellery from the Fifth Century A.D. to 1800 and Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, particularly in England, Evans published widely on a variety of subjects including the art and architecture of France. In 1950, Evans's book Cluniac Art of the Romanesque Period, which concerned art and sculptures made by the monks of the abbey at Cluny in eastern France, was published by Cambridge University Press; her book on The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny having been published in 1938.

A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, she published the Society's official history in 1956, and served as its first woman President from 1959–64.

Other
Evans travelled from a young age, a trip with her mother to Rome when she was 21 led to her decision to study archaeology rather than anthropology, and she developed a lifelong love for France. She visited France both for research and for pleasure and in 1947 she purchased the Romanesque Chapel of the Monks in Berzé-la-Ville, donating it to the Académie de Mâcon.

A collector of art and artefacts, particularly pre-revolutionary French jewellery, she was a generous benefactor, not only did she donate her entire collection of more than 800 jewels, ranging in date from the Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century, to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1975 but also a large collection of posy rings and other artefacts to the British Museum.[13] Her will left collections to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Birmingham City Art Gallery.

She was also a major benefactor of St Hugh’s College, and assisted in the purchase of the ridge above her home at Wotton under Edge for the National Trust. She gave her time and money to various causes, often anonymously, and, despite being described as ‘one of the most distinguished and influential figures of the century in art and antiquarian scholarship’ at her Memorial Service at St Hugh’s College in 1977, she was made Dame Commander of the British Empire in the New Year’s Honours List of 1976, not for her pioneering work in the arts, but for charitable services.

Evans had an association with The Courtauld Institute of Art; she was made an honorary librarian in 1931 and, when T. S. R. Boase left the Courtauld in 1947, she taught there for a year, with one of her students being Pamela Tudor-Craig As well as writing biographies of her brother Sir Arthur Evans and John Ruskin, amongst others, she also published the book, The Conways: a History of Three Generations, about the family that included the art historian Martin Conway whose collection of photographs formed the basis for the Conway Library at the Courtauld. Photographs taken in France by Joan Evans are included in the archive of the Conway Library currently being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.

Selection of honours and public work
In addition to becoming the first female President of the Society of Antiquaries, and awarded the Society’s Gold Medal in 1973, she was also President of the Royal Archaeological Institute from 1948-1951 and of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.

Evans served as a member of the V&A’s Advisory Council from 1953-1966 and as a trustee of the British Museum (1963-1967).

She was made an Honorary Fellow of St. Hugh's College, Oxford, an honorary doctor of letters from Cambridge and awarded the honour, Chevalier de la Légion d' honneur as well as fellowships from the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Literature.

Personal life
Evans bought Thousand Acres, Wotton-under-Edge, in 1939 and lived there, dividing her time between Gloucestershire and her London apartment, until her death in 1977 at the age of 84. She was unmarried.

Howard Decker McKinney
The man most responsible for the development of all musical activities in the twentieth century at Rutgers, including those of the Glee Club, was Howard Decker McKinney, RC’13. While an undergraduate, McKinney had served as the accompanist for the group and, in his senior year, as the Club’s president. He was hired by Rutgers in the fall of 1916, purportedly as a musical coach for the combined Clubs. By the end of that year, McKinney had been appointed to the newly created post of musical director of Rutgers College. In that position, McKinney began to totally reimagine the role of music at Rutgers College. One of his most innovative initiatives was the creation of a series of concerts to be presented over the course of an academic season. By 1918, these events were codified by both the College and the townspeople of the surrounding New Brunswick area as the Annual Winter Concert Course; later these events would become more colloquially known as the Concert Series. In the ensuing years, McKinney’s Concert Series would stand as a showcase for the greatest talent on the contemporary art-music scene. Howard Decker McKinney graduated from Rutgers College in 1913. In 1916, he was hired as the music director of Rutgers College and worked to improve the quality of music at college events and chapel services. Over the years, McKinney also directed the Rutgers Musical Clubs, Glee Club, and Choir; advised the Music Club; founded the University Concert Series; and worked with several music groups at New Jersey College for Women. As a tribute to his many contributions, the Music Activities Building, which housed rehearsal halls for the Rutgers University Glee Club, Band, and University Choir, was renamed McKinney Hall around 1960.

CONDITION: Very Good++. (Covers have light soil, lightly bumped corners and spine ends. Nice ex-libris label of original owner on front pastedown. Light offset discoloration on front endpaper of V1. Contents of both volumes are otherwise Fine.)