Cyril I. Nelson, Editor, Collector, Popular Museum Trustee, Dies

FAIRFIELD, CONN.

:Cyril I. Nelson, well-known editor/publisher, collector and trustee of the American Folk Art Museum, died on June 1 at the Carolton Chronic & Convalescent Hospital in Fairfield, where he had been since last winter. He was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1927 and grew up in New Jersey. He graduated from Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., and from Princeton University.

Following graduation from college Cy went right into the publishing business where he had a successful career for more than 50 years. He had a passion for collecting, amassing a large collection of painted furniture and quilts, and was also interested in textiles and the design of things Japanese.

According to his niece Anna Nelson, "His life was one of collecting and publishing, and he excelled in both fields. He was also very devoted to his family."

The American Folk Art Museum has released the following statement: "Cy Nelson was a gracious, modest man with a discerning eye and a deep knowledge and appreciation of folk art from the colonial period to the mid-Twentieth Century. One of the most important supporters of the American Folk Art Museum, he had been actively engaged in folk art as a collector, a book editor and a museum trustee. Over the past 30 years he contributed frequently and generously to the permanent collection. At his death he had gifted about 150 works of art, many in honor of family and friends. In 2000, he was recognized by the museum in the exhibition 'An Engagement with Folk Art' that highlighted many of these splendid gifts.

"Through his munificence he formed the core of the museum's renowned collection of American quilts and coverlets; virtually all of the bedcovers in the upcoming spring 2006 exhibition 'White on White (and a little gray)' are gifts of Cy Nelson. He also gave the museum prime examples of Nineteenth Century portraits, schoolgirl art, painted furniture and decorated boxes, several of which will be on view in the fall 2005 exhibition 'Surface Attraction: Painted Furniture from the Collection.'"

As an editor for almost 50 years at E.P. Dutton Publishers (now PenguinBooks USA) Cy Nelson had occasion to meet and work with some of the leading scholars and collectors in the folk art field. He was great friends with Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little, whose collecting saga Little by Little Cy published in 1984. He was also very close to Howard and Jean Lipman, prominent collectors of contemporary art and American folk art, as well as generous benefactors to the American Folk Art Museum.

The originator and compiler of the popular Quilt Engagement Calendar, Cy Nelson had been in a position to see, and often publish, many of the most important examples of American textiles including the catalog of the museum's quilt collection, Glorious American Quilts (Elizabeth V. Warren and Sharon L. Eisenstat, 1996).

Among his other publications were the landmark American Painted Furniture 1660-1880 (Dean A. Fales, Jr and Robert Bishop, 1979) as well as many books that accompanied American Folk Art Museum exhibitions: Harry Lieberman: A Journey of Remembrance (Stacy C. Hollander, 1991); New York Beauties: Quilts from the Empire State (Jacqueline M. Atkins and Phyllis A. Tepper, 1992); The Folk Art of Latin America: Visiones del Pueblo (Marion Oettinger, Jr, 1992); and Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts (Maude Southwell Wahlman, 1993).

Cy Nelson is survived by three brothers and 13 nieces and nephews. A private burial service will be conducted this summer on Monhegan Island, Maine, at the convenience of the family.