Russell Sturgis

Russell Sturgis (October 16, 1836 – February 11, 1909) was an American architect and art critic

of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870.

Sturgis was born in Baltimore County, Maryland. His parents were Russell Sturgis, a New York shipping merchant living temporarily in Baltimore, and Margaret Dawes (Appleton) Sturgis.

His paternal grandparents were Thomas Sturgis (1755-1821), who served as a private in Captain Micah Hamlin's Company, of the Colonel Simeon Cary's Regiment (1776), and Elizabeth (Jackson) Sturgis (1768-1844). Sturgis is the grandnephew of the merchant Russell Sturgis (1750-1826) (the younger brother of his paternal grandfather) and is, therefore, a second cousin to the merchant and banker Russell Sturgis (1805–1887).

Educated in the public schools of New York City, Sturgis was graduated from the Free Academy in New York (now the College of the City of New York) in 1856, and later studied architecture under Leopold Eidlitz. For about a year and a half he also studied in Munich. In 1862 he returned to the United States. He was associated with Peter Bonnett Wight from 1863 to 1868 and then practiced alone until 1880.

in 1863 Sturgis together with the painter John William Hill, art critic Clarence Cook, and geologist and art critic Clarence King helped to found the Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art which published a journal The New Path. The articles written by Sturgis provided an early glimpse of his critical interest in art and architecture, made amply clear in his later writings.

On May 26, 1864, he married Sarah Maria Barney, daughter of Danford N. Barney of New York City. Her father served as president of Wells Fargo & Company from 1853 to 1866. Russell and Sarah Sturgis were the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom one son died in infancy.