Sara Cedar Miller
I was trained as an art historian, and got my M.A. from Hunter College in 1974. I specialized in Italian Renaissance art, and my mentor, the eminent scholar Leo Steinberg, has been my guiding star ever since. Art history brought me to photography, first, simply as a tool to document art works, that gradually, for me, became a creative medium. I received my M.F.A. from Pratt Institute in 1983 and planned to continue as an artist when in June 1984, I received a phone call that would change my life.
The four-year old Central Park Conservancy was looking for a photographer and they made two phone calls to art schools: one to Pratt and one to Cooper Union. At Cooper Union, Cynthia Larson, my friend and fellow Pratt colleague took the call from the Conservancy. She had been recently hired by Cooper’s photography department and when she heard about the position, she momentarily thought of applying herself, but deciding against it, instead she called me. The rest is history.
I started as the photographer and five years later, Conservancy founder Elizabeth “Betsy” Barlow Rogers appointed me as the Central Park historian. Finally, my two loves, photography and history, merged to become what I think of as the most extraordinary gift in my life. Working for the organization that has since 1980 completely restored, transformed and managed Central Park’s 843 acres has been a privilege.
In 2017, I retired from my position as photographer in order to spend more time writing and researching Before Central Park, and was honored with the life position of historian emerita.
I live in New York City and Long Island.
Photo credit: Hannah Mrakovčić