Leigh Keno '79 and his brother, Leslie, are among 11 Americans who were awarded the 2005 National Humanities Medals by President George W. Bush at a White House ceremony on November 10. The Keno brothers are historians and appraisers of art.
The National Humanities Medal, first awarded in 1989 as the Charles Frankel Prize, honors individuals and organizations whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand America's access to important humanities resources.
Leigh Keno (New York, N.Y.) is president of Leigh Keno American Antiques, a gallery in Manhattan dealing in fine eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century American furniture and decorative arts. During the past 18 years, he has helped build some of the top institutional and private collections of American furniture and decorative arts. Actively involved in the field of American antiques since childhood, he was a fellow at Historic Deerfield and visiting scholar at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. After receiving a B.A. in art history from Hamilton College in 1979, Leigh went to New York City and joined William Doyle Galleries, where he was director of the American furniture department.
In 1984 he joined Christie's, first serving as vice president of their appraisal company and later joining the American furniture department as a senior specialist. In that capacity, Leigh appraised items across the country and negotiated the consignment of important examples of American furniture. From 2001 through 2005, he and his twin brother wrote monthly furniture and design columns for House Beautiful and This Old House magazines, respectively. In November 2000, Warner Books published Hidden Treasures: Searching for Masterpieces of American Furniture, a book both Keno brothers wrote with Joan Barzilay Freund.
Leigh has co-authored two groundbreaking articles on Boston's Georgian chairs for the 1996 and 1998 editions of the journal American Furniture, published by the Chipstone Foundation. Leigh is a friend of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a friend of Historic Deerfield, and a member of the National Antique and Art Dealers Association of America and the Antiques Dealers Association of America. For the past ten years, Leigh Keno and his brother Leslie have appeared regularly as appraisers on the hit PBS series Antiques Roadshow, and, since October 2003, co-hosted a show on WGBH called Find!, which celebrates the world of design, style, antiques and furnishings. Leigh Keno lectures extensively across the country and with his twin, participates as an auctioneer for various charity events throughout the United States.
