Walter Horn papers, 1908-1993
Horn, Walter William,
b. 1908
d. 1995
Collection size: 2.7 linear feet
Collection Summary: Correspondence, biographical material, manuscripts, research files, primarily relating to his service as Head of the U. S. Army Intelligence Unit, Monuments and Fine Arts Section.
Primarly correspondence, arranged alphabetically by correspondent; much of it in German. The correspondents include Dr. Horn's contacts during his years at the University of California, Berkeley, and after his retirement. Also, material related to the activities of Horn to investigate lost art after WWII including accounts of Horn
Biographical/Historical Note: Walter Horn (1908-1995) was an Art historian from Berkeley, Calif. Horn was born in Waldangeloch, Germany, and grew up in Heidelberg and received his Ph.D. at the University of Hamburg in 1933, later immigrating to the United States in 1938. He taught in the History of Art Department of the University of Calif. at Berkeley, and served as chair of the Department of Art History at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1946 until his retirement in 1974. A leading Medievalist, Horn is often credited with establishing the study of art history in the Western United States. After the Second World War he was assigned to the Army Intelligence Unit of Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives, the division that was responsible for locating and restoring to original owners art looted by the Nazis and hidden in salt mines in Bavaria. Among his colleagues are Thomas Carr Howe and George L. Stout. Since 1937 Horn had devoted himself to the study of classical concepts in medieval art and the principles of architectural design in the bar system of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.
Donated 1989 by Walter Horn and in 1998 and 2002 by his widow, Dr. Alberta Parker Horn.
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