Sumner McKnight Crosby


Sumner McKnight Crosby spent a lifetime excavating and analyzing the early-Gothic style Abbey of Saint-Denis, in Saint-Denis, France, north of Paris. The culmination of his studies, which adapted photogrammetric techniques to accurately establish important dimensions of the church, was published in 1987 as The Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis from Its Beginnings to the Death of Suger, 475-1151. Crosby died of a stroke on Tuesday, November 16, 1982 at the age of 73.

Family life

Crosby was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 29, 1909 to Franklin M. Crosby and his wife Harriet McKnight Crosby. Crosby was the fifth of seven children in his family.
On October 19, 1935, he married Sarah Rathbone Townsend. The couple had four children together named Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr., Gerrit L. Crosby, William F. Crosby, and Frederick T. Crosby.

Education

Crosby attended Blake School in Hopkins, Minnesota for middle school and Philips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts for high school. After graduation, he studied Art History at Yale University. Crosby received both his undergraduate and doctorate from Yale University. Crosby returned to Yale as an assistant professor in 1936 and was later named a full professor in 1952. In 1947, he became the chairman of the art history department in 1947.