Gerd Minna Muehsam

https://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=121494

Gerd Muehsam was born in Berlin on March 30, 1913. She was the second child of art historian Alice Muehsam née Freymark and an Austrian journalist Kurt Muehsam. She attended the Fürstin-Bismarck Schule in Berlin and began studying piano at 6 or 7 years and music theory at 10 years old. Gerd Muehsam started to attend the University of Vienna in 1933. Anton von Webern was one of her teachers. She received a PhD summa cum laude in musicology in conjunction with art history in 1937. Her dissertation was entitled Sigismund Thalberg als Klavierkomponist (Sigismund Thalberg as Piano Composer). After her return to Germany, she received a certificate to teach music privately, however because of her Jewish origin, a provision stipulated she could only teach those who the Nazi-warped terminology called Non-Aryans.

After her application for an Australian visa was rejected, Gerd Muehsam arrived via London in America in 1940. She became Director of Community Music at the Goodrich Social Settlement of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1942 Gerd Muehsam received a library degree from Case Western University, and worked as a reference assistant at East Cleveland Public Library, subsequently holding the position of librarian in charge of photographs at the Cleveland Museum of Art until 1945.

In 1945 she moved to New York to accept an appointment at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where she served in various functions including Associate Librarian (Art) from 1950 until her retirement from Cooper Union in 1965. Gerd Muehsam held the position of Supervising Art Librarian at the Donnell Library of New York Public Library from 1965 until 1967. In 1967 she became an Assistant, later an Associate Professor and Art Bibliographer of the Paul Klapper Library at Queens College.

Besides her duties of librarian Gerd Muehsam was also active as an educator in the field of Art History and Music, she lectured publicly, taught the courses "Philosophy of Music" and "Music and Western Ideas" at the Cooper Union Adult Teaching Department (1961-1967), and gave lectures in art and music at the Cooper Union School of Engineering. After she became Associate Professor at Queens College, she was a lecturer in the Adult Collegiate Education (ACE) Program of the School of General Studies where she taught introductory courses in "Introduction to Art" and "Introduction to Music" and inaugurated a course in art bibliography at the library. She also conducted a number of various workshops.

Gerd Muehsam authored 3 books: one concerning the painter Dietz Edzard, D. Edzard; French Painters and Paintings from the Fourteenth Century to Post-Impressionism; and Guide to Basic Information Sources in the Visual Arts in 1977. This last work was named outstanding reference book for 1978 by the ALA.

Gerd Muehsam was active in many professional organizations, including the American Library Association (ALA), the Special Libraries Association (SLA), the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS), the College Art Association of America, the American Society for Aesthetics, and the Library Association of the City University of New York (LACUNY). Since 1969 she was on the Visiting Committee of the Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her contribution to the field of art librarianship was acknowledged when ARLIS announced the Gerd Muehsam Award for outstanding student papers on art librarianship on January 3, 1980.

Gerd Muehsam died on December 14, 1979 in New York.