Biography
Cynthia Adams Hoover was born on December 16,1934,in Lexington,Nebraska. [1] She obtained her BA (1957) from Wellesley College,MAT (1958) from Radcliffe College,and MFA (1961) from Brandeis University. [1]
Hoover started her career with Wellesley,where she was a teacher from 1958 until 1960. [1] In 1961,she became an assistant curator of musical instruments at the National Museum of American History,before being promoted to associated curator in 1964 and eventually curator in 1975. [2] She was the first chair of the Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture,serving from 1988 until 1996. [3] In 2004,she retired as curator and was named curator emeritus. [3]
Hoover specializes in the history of musical instruments in the United States. [1] In 1985,she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship; [4] among the projects completed on that fellowship was Piano 300, [2] a Smithsonian exhibition on the history of the piano which had its catalogue published from Scarecrow Press in 2001. [5] Other exhibitions she curated include Music in Early Massachusetts,Music Machines—American Style,and Nineteenth-Century American Ballroom Music,1840-1860, [6] and in addition to the Smithsonian she also worked with the Museum of Fine Arts,Boston. [1]
In addition to curatorial work,Hoover also has work as a published author. [6] She provided oversight for the annotations of the Smithsonian's project on the William Steinway diary,after seeing the original at a 1966 visit to one of the factories of his company Steinway &Sons, [3] and she also helped bring the diaries into Smithsonian custody. [6] She also appeared in newspapers as an expert on music history,particularly the history of musical instruments. [7] [8] [9] [10] In 1989,she became president of the International Council of Museums Committee for Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music (CIMCIM),serving until 1995. [1] She was part of the advisory council behind the formation of the Musical Instrument Museum. [3]
Hoover was awarded the 2022 Society for American Music Lifetime Achievement Award;the organization said that her "almost half-century record of achievements in support of the history of American music and musical instruments outside of the academy is remarkable". [6]
In 1962,she married Roland Armitage Hoover,a printer and graphic designer. [3] [11] The couple had two daughters. [3]
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