Barbara Winston Blackmun (June 29, 1928 – July 6, 2018) was an art historian, professor, and museum director from the United States.
Born in Merced, California, Blackmun pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a teaching certificate at UCLA.
She earned her Master of Arts from Arizona State University, focusing on Maravi masks from Malawi, and later completed her PhD at UCLA with a dissertation on the iconography of carved altar tusks from Benin, Nigeria.
Blackmun's legacy is marked by her extensive research and publications, which have provided deeper insights into the historical and cultural significance of Nigerian artifacts.
[1] She spent her early years in national parks where her father managed camps for the Civilian Conservation Corps.
[4][5] She started her career as a public school teacher in Trona, California, in the Mojave Desert, where she taught art, music, and drama.
[7] She started her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) program in African art history at UCLA in 1978, guided by Arnold Rubin.