Papers of Lilian M.C. Randall, 1950-2007

Lilian (Cramer) Randall was born on February 1, 1931, the second of five children of Frederick H. Cramer and Elisabeth (Ziegler) Cramer. She attended Northampton School for Girls. Randall earned a bachelor's degree in Art and Architecture from Mount Holyoke College where she graduated Cum Laude in 1950. Her honors thesis was titled "Napolean III in the Light of French and Italian Caricature." Randall studied Italian literature at the University of Bologna in the Spring of 1948 and European civilization at the University of Zurich in the Summer of 1948. After Mount Holyoke, she went on to obtain a master degree and doctorate from Radcliffe College in 1951 and 1955, respectively. After graduation she pursued research for a book on marginalia in Gothic manuscripts based on her doctoral dissertation which earned her membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Significant progress made as an associate on the newly founded Bunting Institute for Independent Study at Radcliffe College led to publication which opened an influential new field of study. From 1964 to 1968 Randall worked as a Visiting Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, where she taught graduate seminars on medieval illuminated manuscripts. In 1974 she was hired by the Walters Art Gallery (later renamed Walters Art Museum) as the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, a position she held until 1985. At the Walters Randall organized over one hundred exhibitions, lectured, published research and launched a catalogue on the Western manuscripts funded by the national Endowment for the Humanities. From 1985 to 1997 she worked as Research Curator of Manuscripts at the Walters. In this capacity Randall raised funds for the preparation and publication of the catalogue of Western manuscripts. Randall also served as Assistant Director of the Maryland State Arts Council from 1971-1973 where she initiated new procedures and administered the Maryland Artists in the Schools Program. Randall published multiple books including Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts, The Diary of George A. Lucas: An American Art Agent in Paris (1857-1909), Illuminated Manuscripts: Masterpieces in Miniature, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Randall married art historian and museum curator Richard Randall in 1953. She has two daughters and one son.