Lucy Der Manuelian

Lucy Der Manuelian (June 7, 1928 – September 20, 2021)^[1] was an American art historian specializing in Armenian art and architecture.^[2][3][4][5] Considered a pioneering American scholar of Armenian art and architecture, she held the Arthur H. Dadian and Ara T. Oztemel chair of Armenian art at Tufts University,^[1] the first and only endowed professorship of Armenian art outside Armenia, launched in 1984.^[6]

An Armenian-American, her career was partly inspired by her godfather, Arshag Fetvadjian, an artist who painted Armenian architectural monuments.^[1] She was educated at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.^[6] Her dissertation on Geghard, a 13th-century monastery, is considered to be the first American dissertation dedicated to Armenian art.^[6][1] Her doctoral supervisor at Boston University was Oleg Grabar.^[1] She authored articles on major Armenian monuments and artistic themes for Dictionary of the Middle Ages and Grove Dictionary of Art.^[6]