This year’s ADA Award of Merit is going to the husband and wife team of Richard and Jane Nylander in recognition of their contribution to and influence on museums and scholarship. “Their many years of devotion to the field have opened our eyes to the material living of the eighteenth and nineteenth century,” says ADA board-member Arthur Liverant. “They have been extremely generous with their knowledge,” he adds, “and collectors, dealers, and the museum world have all benefited from their contributions.” About the couple who have worked in the museum field for over four decades, Tom Hardiman, keeper of the Portsmouth Athenaeum, says, “Their interest is in understanding the past, not owning it.”
