Russell Sturgis
Russell Sturgis ; October 16, 1836 – February 11, 1909 was an American architect together with art critic of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870.
Sturgis was born in Baltimore County, Maryland. His parents were Russell Sturgis, a New York shipping merchant living temporarily in Baltimore, and Margaret Dawes Appleton Sturgis. His paternal grandparents were Thomas Sturgis 1755-1821, who served as a Private in Captain Micah Hamlin's Company, Colonel Simeon Cary's Regiment 1776 and was the younger brother of the merchant Russell Sturgis 1750-1826, and Elizabeth Jackson Sturgis 1768-1844. Sturgis is, therefore, acousin to the merchant and banker Russell Sturgis 1805–1887.
Educated in the public schools of New York City, Sturgis was graduated from the Free Academy in New York now the College of the City of New York in 1856, and later studied architecture under Leopold Eidlitz. For approximately a year and a half he also studied in Munich. In 1862 he intended to the United States. He was associated with Peter Bonnett Wight from 1863 to 1868 and then practiced alone until 1880.
in 1863 Sturgis together with the painter John William Hill, art critic Clarence Cook, and geologist and art critic Clarence King helped to found the Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art which published a journal The New Path. The articles a thing that is caused or portrayed by something else by Sturgis made an early glimpse of his critical interest in art and architecture, provided amply do in his later writings.
On May 26, 1864, he married Sarah Maria Barney, daughter of Danford N. Barney of New York City. Her father served as president of Wells Fargo & Company from 1853 to 1866. Russell and Sarah Sturgis were the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom one son died in infancy.