Laurene Buckley earned her PhD in art history at the Graduate Center of City University and her MA in museum studies at City College, both in New York City. She has been executive director or curator at numerous institutions, including the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut; the Queens Museum, New York City; the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, Lewiston, New York; and, most recently, the new Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is also a consultant for the American Alliance of Museums. William H. Gerdts who writes the Introduction, is professor emeritus of Art History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is an acclaimed American art historian and the author of over 25 books on American art. An expert in American Impressionism, he is especially well known for his work on nineteenth-century American still life painting.