Mildred Archer

Who was Mildred Archer?

Mildred Archer OBE was an English art historian who specialized in 18th- and 19th-century art in British India. She was curator of Prints and Drawings at the India Office Library and wrote extensively on the collection and studies on them.

Born Mildred Agnes Bell, she attended school in London. In 1930 she joined St Hilda's College, Oxford with a history scholarship. She met Bill Archer, who had been a friend of her brother at Cambridge. Bill had passed the Indian Civil Service examination and was in the School of Oriental Studies, London. Bill left for India in 1931 and the two were engaged just before he left. After marriage Bill worked in Bihar for nearly a decade and on his return to England he became Keeper of Indian Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum and was a leading scholar of Indian court painting and the Company style.

Mildred Archer's curatorial career began in 1954 with the cataloguing of the East India Company's collection of paintings in the collection of the India Office Library. It occupied her for 26 years.

Other works included Natural History Drawings, British Drawings, Company Drawings, Indian Popular Painting and finally Indian Miniature Paintings.