Phyllis Ackerman

Phyllis Ackerman was born on 1893 in Oakland, California. She attended the University of California, Berkeley (U.C. Berkeley) and initially studied mathematics. In 1916, Ackerman and Pope collaboratively wrote a catalog for Phoebe Hearst's Oriental rug collection that was exhibited at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. She married Arthur Upham Pope in 1920 and she worked closely with him throughout her career. In 1920, Ackerman was an art columnist at The New York Globe newspaper. == Career ==

Throughout her career she had a focus on tapestries and textiles of Europe and Asia. Pope had been attracted to Persian arts because of a love of Persian rugs. In 1926, Ackerman and Pope organized the first ever exhibition of Persian art at the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. They were responsible for the design specifics like the colors, floors, fabrics, rugs, finishings, beds, mattresses, linens, lighting fixtures, and flatware. Ansel Adams photo documented the designs, at the time of opening. In 1964, Ackerman and Pope had a state visit to Iran, at which time they were asked by the Pahlavi royal family to revive the Asia Institute in Shiraz, which was part of the Pahlavi University. In 1966, Ackerman (at the age of 73) moved to Iran to accompany Pope, who served as the director of the program. A Survey of Persian Art (1939–1960) in Isfahan, Iran|267x267px Pope was Editor, and Ackerman Assistant Editor of the six volume book series, A Survey of Persian Art, (Oxford University Press, first published in 1939). This was the largest and most significant publication dedicated to Persian culture, and featured 71 contributing authors. == Death and legacy ==

Pope died in 1969, and Ackerman remained in Iran, she lived on a pension granted by the Iranian government and Shahbanu Farah. == Controversy ==

In the 1920s and 1930s, Pope and Ackerman bought works of art and sold them to collectors and museums in order to fund the Asia Institute, as well as the Survey of Persian Art. Some of the objects sold by the couple were later discovered to be well-made forgeries. Ackerman had written in books about some of these forgeries and it is unclear if they knew they were modern works. In 2014, Richard Nelson Frye died in Boston, he was a former Harvard University professor, Persian art historian and served as the second director of the Asia Institute. He wanted to be buried alongside Pope and Ackerman in the Mausoleum. However, in 2014, Frye was named a "C.I.A. operative" by Iranian political leaders, which caused an uprising and vandalism of the Pope–Ackerman Mausoleum. == Publications ==