LINDA DYER
TRIBAL ARTS EXPERT
Linda Dyer, an appraisal of tribal arts on Antiques Roadshow has appeared on the show since its first season in 1996. Her career in the field began in the late 1970s at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Ethnology; she later became the director of American Indian Art department at Skinner, Inc. of Boston. Dyer appraises a variety of material, including Eskimo, American West, and Spanish Colonial art, related photography, books, and fine art. She will attend the Santa Fe event on Tuesday, June 14. This email interview has been edited for length and clarity.
PASATIEMPO: How did you get into this field? LINDA DYER: I had no formal education in the field or mentor, however I am of the age that as a preteen you would leave your home in the morning with the instruction “be back by dinnertime.” My home was in a suburb of Boston with a great public transportation system and, oddly, as a shy child I would take those buses and subways to the Harvard Museums and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. There I would spend long hours in the halls of Antiquities and Native American Art. The Peabody Museum at Harvard was my favorite. Tall glass cases that contained hundreds of objects, each with a typewriter-written description and collection history on a 4-by-6-inch file card. I felt a connection [to] them.
My interest never waned but due to my involvement in the failing health of my father, I was inspired to go to nursing school. However, the same gifts of intuition, deductive reasoning, and observation that made me a good R.N. serve me well in the world of art and antiques.
PASA: Why join Antiques Roadshow? DYER: While I still had a foot in nursing, the other was as a Native arts consultant for a Boston-based auction house. I eventually left nursing to become their Native American and ethnographic arts department head. In early ‘90s that house, Skinner, Inc., worked with [producer] Dan Farrell in taping the pilot for an American version of Antiques Roadshow.
Dan, who served as AR’s consulting producer until his passing last year, acquired the rights for an American version from the BBC. I have had the great fortune of being part of the show since that time and its first taping in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1996.
PASA: Is the show as exhausting as it looks? DYER: Not to mince words: yes! It is a 12-hour day with many twists and turns, especially with the new format of outdoor locations. But always an adventure.
PASA: What item has surprised you the most? DYER: The people are most surprising. I have had the pleasure of meeting the most wonderful personalities. There was a very elderly woman in Baltimore that showed me her ticketed item that was simply souvenir quality. She then asked if she could share another. I was actually quite concerned about her being overheated and had requested water for her. So I invited her to show me whatever else she had. Absolutely fabulous and valuable mid-19th century objects from the Pacific Northwest Coast region began to appear out of her pockets. Turned out, she owned an old port-side home that once belonged to a sea captain and had found them “up attic.”
PASA: What’s compelling about this work for you? DYER: I love the items in my field of study. I have always felt in my work, in the auction world, that I am there to ensure that they find their safe place. The items that I work with have no intrinsic value. Historically, they were frequently considered curios and housed in natural history museums. An art marketplace for them did not really come to pass until the late 1970s. It pleases me to know that many of the collectors I have worked with over the years went on to share their collections with the public through museum donation.
PASA: I imagine you see a lot of pieces that aren’t considered valuable and perhaps are even posing as the real thing. Do you have any tips for finding the genuine article? DYER: There are treasures to be found, and I feel it is so easy to educate yourself. Follow the online sales of the respected auction houses, go to a sale so you can handle an object, and visit the great museum collections across the country. For your readers, that’s pretty easy. For an opportunity to view the works of many diverse Native groups, the Denver Art Museum and the Heard Museum in Phoenix would be ideal.
PASA: Why do you think Roadshow is so loved? DYER: That’s a complex answer; many factors include history, curiosity, sentiment, sincerity, family, positive possibilities for the everyman. I really would like people to know that Antiques Roadshow is uniquely, totally unscripted. It is happening in the moment. There are no “take twos.” — T.M.M.