State University of New York at New Paltz
-- BA in Art History with a minor in Visual Arts, December 2015
-- Honors Program, Dean’s List, GPA: 3.9
During high school Caitlin Cummings exhibited her work in a myriad of local venues and was a two-time winner of the Gold Key Award for Excellence in Visual Arts for her Fine Arts Portfolio, granted by the Scholastic Art & Writing Association. In 2012, Caitlin became an Art History major with a minor in Visual Arts at SUNY New Paltz. She studied abroad in France during the summer of 2014 with a concentration in 19th century Plein Air painting & Impressionism. During the summer of 2015 she was selected as the recipient of the International Fine Print Dealers Association Scholarship and became a Curatorial Intern at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. In December 2015, Caitlin presented her Honors Thesis entitled Letters From Germany: An American Woman's Account of the Post-War Occupation and graduated from SUNY New Paltz a semester ahead of her class. Originally from Syracuse, she now lives in Kingston, NY and works throughout the Hudson Valley region. Currently, Caitlin is employed as the Business Manager at Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, NY and looks forward to continuing a career in the field of museum management.
An Excerpt from Caitlin's Honors Thesis Abstract:
"This thesis aims to introduce a first-hand account of an American woman’s experience in post-WWII Germany, and address the canonical lack of a female perspective as it pertains to this period in history....By carefully examining this primary document [the letters] and introducing historical evidence to corroborate my great-grandmothers’ observations, I hope to provide insight into those Occupied communities and one of the most unaddressed periods of WWII history."
Caitlin's thesis, Letters From Germany, is essentially the continuation of the work she completed for this website. It is designed to preserve her great-grandmother's archive and simultaneously tell the story of her ancestors. If you would like to learn more about this project, feel free to view her thesis presentation and email the author at caitlin.cummings494@gmail.com with any questions.