Marilyn J. Stokstad Papers

Dr. Marilyn J. Stokstad retired in 2002 as the Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Art History Professor at the University of Kansas. A Michigan native, she held degrees in art history from Carleton College (BA, 1950), Michigan State University (MA, 1953), and the University of Michigan (PhD, 1957), where she wrote her dissertation on Romanesque the Pórtico de la Gloria of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. She began her tenure at KU in 1958 as an assistant professor of art history and went on to serve as department chair, 1962-1972, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, 1972-1976, and president of the College Art Association of America, 1978-1980.

A scholar of medieval and Spanish art, Skokstad authored several articles, book chapters, exhibitions, and reviews. She also authored many books and exhibition catalogues, including Renaissance Art Outside of Italy (1968); Santiago de Compostela in the Age of the Pilgrimages (1978; reprinted 1993); Scottish Culture (1981, with Henry L. Snyder and Harold Orel); Gardens of the Middle Ages (1983, with Jerry Stannard); Medieval Castles (2005); and three textbooks: Medieval Art (1986; second edition, 2001); Art History (first published in 1995 and now in its seventh edition); and Art: A Brief History (first published in 2000 and now in its fifth edition). She also received several research grants from the National Endowment for Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others.

Stokstad served as a “consultative curator of medieval art” for the Nelson-Atkins approximately 1980 to 2000. She died in 2016.