Iris Barry (1895–1969)

Iris Barry was born in Birmingham, England, and educated at the Ursuline convent at Verviers, Belgium. In the 1920s, she moved to London, where she became one of the earliest female film critics. From 1923 to 1930, she wrote for The Spectator, and was film editor for the Daily Mail from 1926 to 1930. She is considered a pioneer in film theory, which she approached using ideas from sociology, mythology, and other genres. She was married firstly in 1923 to the author F. Alan Porter, and after they divorced, remarried in 1934 to to John E. Abbott. She emigrated to the USA in 1930. After a three-year stint as librarian of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Iris Barry became the founder and curator of the museum's film library, composed of an archival collection of rare films and film-related books. In addition, she taught courses in cinematic studies. She was the author of the popular book Let’s Go to the Pictures (1928), as well as the biographies Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1928) and D.W. Griffith: American Film Master (1940). She also was a regular book reviewer for the New York Herald Tribune.