Alice Putnam Erskine

ALICE PUTNAM ERSKINE Longtime Piedmont resident, art historian, curator, arts administrator, and author, died on November 28, 2006 at the age of 97. Just last month, Alice published a biography/ memoir titled LOOSE ENDS, A Biography of John Cunningham about the Carmel artist who was her lifelong friend. Alice, born in Omaha, Nebraska July 6, 1909, moved to Oakland in 1927 to attend Mills College in Oakland, where she received a B.A. in Art History in 1931. She married Gustav Breuer the same year. In January of 1934 the world famous Sinologist Dr. Alfred Salmony came to Mills and Alice became his assistant. Part of her wages was tuition for her M.A. degree in Art History, which she received in 1935. Later that year she went to England to help set up an exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy, particularly to date the jade collection. On her return she continued as the Curator of the Mills College Art Gallery, and taught History of Oriental Art and other art history classes until 1942. She bought the Wetmore house (built in 1878) in Piedmont in 1942, and began restoring it. She moved there with her family in 1944 and restoration and preservation has continued to the present day. In 1965 her home attained California State Landmark Status, and in 1978, on the 100th anniversary of the house, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the Department of the Interior. She was an active member and a past president of the Piedmont Historical Society. She was also very active in the Art League of the East Bay and was a past president and honorary lifetime member. She was married to Holland W. E. Erskine of Piedmont from 1957 until his death in 1974. Alice was Dean of Admissions/Registrar at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland from 1956 to 1963, Curator of the California Historical Society from 1964 to 1969, and Dean of Admissions and Dean of Student Affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1969 until her retirement in 1980. She is survived by her children Andra Melissa Grill of Reno, Nevada, Penelope Khounta of Vientiane, Laos, Langdon Wade Breuer of Piedmont, four grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, Alice requested contributions be made to the Mills College Scholarship Fund: Mills College, Attn: OIA, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, California 94613.