Dr. Charles E. Pierce, Jr., Director, the Morgan Library, announced today the appointment of Rhoda Eitel-Porter as the Charles Engelhard Curator and Head of the Department of Drawings and Prints. Dr. Eitel-Porter currently is preparing a catalogue of early Italian drawings in the Morgan collection. Her appointment to the Library's staff will go into effect January 2004, when her work on the publication is completed. Dr. Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann will remain Acting Head of the Department of Drawings and Prints until then.

Rhoda Eitel-Porter was born in Germany and educated in the United States. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Harvard University, did graduate work in Rome, Florence, and Munich, and earned her Ph.D. in art history from Vienna University in 1997. Dr. Eitel-Porter has written extensively on Italian and German works on paper. From 1993 to 1999, she was affiliated with The British Museum. While there, she worked on Frances Carey's exhibition and catalogue The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come as well as on a publication of The British Museum's seventeenth-century Roman drawings with Nicholas Turner. Her affiliation with the Morgan began in 1999, when, with former Charles Engelhard Curator and Department Head William M. Griswold, she began to research the Library's collection of early Italian drawings. She also has contributed entries on Italian and nineteenth-century German drawings to the catalogue The Thaw Collection: Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, Acquisitions Since 1994. The publication accompanies the Morgan's major fall exhibition, which is on view from September 27, 2002, through January 19, 2003.

"I am honored to have been chosen to head the Department of Drawings and Prints as of 2004. Since I began working for the Morgan Library three years ago, I have been impressed by the excellence of its collections, the quality and dedication of its staff, and the loyalty of its patrons," commented Dr. Eitel-Porter. "I hope to continue the tradition of scholarship, education, and service to the public established by the Library as a whole and by my predecessor in particular, and I look forward to being part of the Morgan's exciting future."

"Rhoda Eitel-Porter possesses superior skills as a scholar, educator, writer, and curator. While she is a specialist in early Italian drawings, she has a keen knowledge of the history of draftsmanship, extending into the twentieth century. These attributes will be greatly beneficial to the Morgan Library as we continue to document and build the collection of works on paper. Further, her abilities and leadership in the department will be even more essential as we develop our future gallery spaces, exhibitions, and programs for connoisseurs of drawing and the general public alike," said Dr. Pierce. "Since 1999 she has contributed significantly to the Morgan, and I have great expectations of what she'll accomplish as Head of the Department of Drawings and Prints."