Susan Heller Anderson ’63 AM

Susan Heller Anderson ’63 AM, of Barrington, R.I., formerly of Philadelphia and Providence, R.I.; Oct. 3, 2020. It was in Philadelphia that she found her true calling working at Independence National Park in 1976. She researched and reproduced a replica of the carpet that had adorned the floor of the Senate in Independence Hall; the new carpet was re-installed with much fanfare where it had originally lain, and she wrote a 96-page book about her work titled The Most Splendid Carpet. While pursuing her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, she became assistant curator of costumes and textiles at the Philadelphia Art Museum. In 1985, she moved to Providence with her second husband and became the curator of costumes and textiles at the RISD Museum. There she produced many beautiful exhibitions and wrote or edited catalogues for them, including A World of Costume and Textiles; Patterns and Poetry: No Robes, a catalogue and narrative of Lucy Truman Aldrich’s collection of Japanese robes; and the story of the Tirocchi dress-making sisters told in the exhibition and book From Paris to Providence. In retirement, she enjoyed gardening and continued to contribute to art, textile, and historical exhibits at the Barrington Preservation Society Museum. She is survived by a son and a sister.