Carol Bird Ravenal

1926 - 2019

Carol Bird Myers Ravenal died on October 28, 2019 at her second home in Trappe, Maryland, surrounded by family. She was two weeks shy of her 93rd birthday. Known as an artist and art historian, her vibrant paintings were a delight for the eye as well as the mind. She also brought a keen eye and intellectual rigor to her writings on architectural history and on Gaugin, Matisse and Munch.

Carol-Bird, as she was known to many friends, was born in Brooklyn, New York, ten minutes before her identical twin, Amy. She received her BA from Brooklyn College, her MA from Ohio University, and her PhD from Harvard University. Her doctoral thesis on Federal houses would influence her lifelong explorations into architectural history, including The Wilderness, the farm that she and her husband, Earl, purchased in 1978.

As a painter, her still lives and landscapes showed the influence of Matisse and Bonnard, with work in over 40 exhibits. As a professor for 43 years, she taught art history, art education, studio art and design, first at Rhode Island School of Design and finally from 1969-97 at American University in Washington, DC.

She received grants from the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian governments and Harvard's Sachs Traveling Fellowship, the first woman recipient. In turn, she inaugurated awards at American University and Brooklyn College to provide art students opportunities to travel, explore, and expand their own horizons. She was on the boards of the Corcoran School of Art, the Washington Women's Art Center and the Academy Art Museum. In the 1990s, she led several organizations, including the Radcliffe Club of Washington, DC and the International Psychohistorical Association, as Vice President.

She was loved and admired for her dynamism, erudition and unceasing curiosity about the world. An ardent swimmer since her days as a waterfront counselor, she swam laps till the month she died.

She lived in Washington, DC and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and was married to noted foreign policy expert and 1984 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Earl C. Ravenal, who died just eight weeks before her. Her beloved twin, Amy Chapman, died in 2015. She is survived by her children, Cornelia, John and Rebecca, their spouses and four grandchildren.

A celebration of the lives of Carol and Earl will be held on November 24 at 2:00 P.M at the Cosmos Club in Washington.