Biography:

Photographer Gerda Anna Margarete Peterich was born in Munich, Germany on March 9, 1906. Her mother was a pianist, and she too showed an early interest in music, but an injury to her shoulder prevented her from pursuing a musical career. Her father, Paul Peterich, was a sculptor and professor of fine arts. She had three brothers and a sister, all gifted artistically.

The family moved to Italy soon after Gerda was born, seeking a more liberal atmosphere for the children. Gerda's schooling took place in Germany where she studied at the Odenwaldschule from 1919 to 1922. She studied piano with Lili Kroeber-Asche at the State Conservatory of Music in Stuttgart from 1930-1933.

In 1936 she went to the island of Hiddensee to think through her interests in gardening, architecture, and photography and to decide on her life's work. She returned from her week of contemplation and announced that photography was where she would place her major efforts. From the summer of 1937 through the winter of 1939 she studied photography at the Photographische Lehranstalt des Lette-Vereins in Berlin, passing the state examination cum laude.

During her years in Berlin she met and married Dr. Kurt Robert Mattusch, Economic Counsellor for the U.S. State Department at the American Consulate General.

In August 1939 Gerda and her lifelong friend Elisabeth [Lilly] Hoffmann sailed for America on the next to last ship to leave Germany before World War II. Shortly thereafter, Gerda and her husband separated. He went on to have a career with the U. S. Government in post-war Berlin, Washington, D.C. and Korea before dying in Virginia in 1979.

Faced with the task of earning a living in an unfamiliar environment she established a photographic studio at 332 West 50th Street where she specialized in portraiture and dance. She also taught for two and a half years at The School of Modern Photography in New York City. During the period from 1940 through 1946 she made a name for herself as a photographer of dance and dancers, becoming a staff photographer for Dance Magazine. Among her subjects were Jose Limon, Martha Graham, Pearl Primas, Jane Dudley, Ruth St. Denis, Jerome Robbins, Bambi Lynn, Pearl Lang, and Hanya Holm. Her aim was, "the interpretation of the dancer's personality, the dancer's personal style, or a special dance…." In 1950 she returned to the photographing of dancers, but primarily with ballet, while her earlier work was with modern dancers.

While she was on the staff of Dance Magazine she was also a freelance photographer, doing magazine, commercial and portrait photography.

In 1946 Gerda accepted a position as visiting lecturer at Ohio University where she also attended school. On August 7, 1948 she was awarded a BFA from Ohio. During this period she became head of the department of photography.

In 1950 she moved to Rochester, NY and began her master's degree in fine arts at the University of Rochester concentrating on the history of architecture and the history of photography. While pursuing her degree she again freelanced as a photographer. In addition to dance she documented the architecture of the Utica area for Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute and became an Associate in Research at the George Eastman House. While at Eastman she indicated that she was in charge of the print collection, the library, and circulating exhibitions. She received her MA degree from the University of Rochester on June 7, 1957, the first Master's in the history of photography as an art form to be granted in the United States. Her thesis, "The Calotype in France and its Use in Architectural Documentation" combined her lifelong interests in architecture and photography.

While at Eastman House she designed at least two traveling exhibitions, one on the history of photography and the other on nineteenth century architectural photographs. She was also a staff writer for Image, the Eastman House journal. In 1958 she wrote a lead article for Image based on the architectural exhibition.

The exhibit opened on August 18, 1958 to coincide with a Society of Architectural Historians conference. That summer she co-chaired a four day tour of the Geneva - Rochester - Finger Lakes area and the Corning Glass Works with Harley McKee, an architectural historian and professor at Syracuse University.

Included in the papers presented was "Cobblestone Masonry Architecture" by Carl F. Schmidt. Gerda had already been photographing cobblestone architecture, and an an article in the Rochester Times Union on June 5, 1954 discussed her work with the buildings. According to the article, in 1953, while studying for her master's degree she, "as a sideline enrolled at the University of Rochester for a course in American architecture. In co-operation with Norman Kleehamer, she turned out a handsomely illustrated paper on cobblestone houses for that course which started her work in this field." In 1955 she created a circulating photograph exhibit, "Cobblestone Architecture of Upstate New York" and presented a paper to the Central New York chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians on October 15th at the University of Rochester. It was subsequently published in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 15, no. 2. She continued photographing cobblestone architecture for the rest of her life. Her book, published posthumously in 1978 by Syracuse University Press was entitled, Cobblestone Landmarks of New York State. The book notes "Gerda Peterich's photographs are the soul of this book...Brought up in an artistic environment, she learned the special qualities of stone while watching her father at work in his studio and on long walks with him through the countryside."

In 1957 George Eastman House gave her a retrospective show. Entitled, "Twenty Years of Photography," it included dance, portraits, clouds, water, wildflowers, cobblestone architecture and churches of Utica, New York. The show was repeated at the Siembah Gallery in Boston in 1961.

During her New York City days Gerda shared an apartment with her childhood friend, Lilly Hoffmann, who was to become a weaver of great distinction. In 1950 Lilly purchased a house in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, and in 1959 Gerda moved to New Hampshire to once again share a home with Lilly. In a 1959 Christmas letter she wrote, "...everything was planning for New Hampshire. Through many years I spent my vacations there with my good friend Lilly Hoffmann. I was beginning to grow roots here - it was what I had waited for. And now I am here, loving it, happy, leading the creative life which is happiness. As I write to you I sit in my studio which last year still was Lilly's barn, looking out of my big window over our grounds which terminate in a granite stone wall, pine trees beyond. There are tufts of snow on the ground and the sky is brilliantly blue."

After moving to New Hampshire she lectured in Fine Arts at the New England College in Henniker. She began work towards a Ph.D. in Fine Arts at Boston University in the summer of 1961 and attended a seminar in American Architecture at Harvard University in the summer of 1962. She was on leave in 1963-64 with a stipend to work on her Ph.D.

A March 14, 1964 memo from Laurence Schmeckebier, Dean of the School of Art at Syracuse University, to Frank Piskor, Vice President for Academic Affairs, reads, "While in Baltimore I also met Gerda Peterich, a distinguished artist and photographer,...she is German born and educated with a good historical and scholarly background." On May 11th she received a telegram offering her the position of lecturer in Art History at Syracuse University, scheduled to teach one course on the history of art and one on the history of photography. She was also to be Director of the Photographic Archives at Syracuse. She accepted the position and was in Syracuse by September.

Shortly after her arrival an exhibit of her work went on display at the Lowe Art Gallery at the University. The exhibit grew out of a project commissioned by the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester, NH to document the Victorian architecture of the city and to awaken public awareness of the significance of its buildings.

She also worked on a project, completed in 1965, documenting the architecture of Merrimack and Hillsborough counties, in New Hampshire. The negatives were deposited in the Library of Congress as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Gerda Peterich taught at Syracuse University until June 1968. She returned to the New Hampshire she loved and remained there until her death in July 1974.