The Robert Giard Foundation
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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Carrolyn Belkis-McCreath, 1996

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Barbara Terry, 1998

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Anita M. Caspary, 2001

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Mamie Austin, 1998

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Ruth Schonthal, 1998

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Sondra Thorn, 1996

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Pepper Mainwaring-Healey, 1999

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Alayne Brown, 1996

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Ruth Lomon, 2000

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Ernestine Gray, 2001

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Kay Brown, 1997

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Rosa S. Langston, 1998

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  • Title of Image

    The Grandmother Winifred Portraits

    Sita Kapadia, 1998

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The Grandmother Winifred Portraits


In 1996, Robert Giard was commissioned to photograph the 321 grant recipients of The Thanks Be To Grandmother Winifred Foundation. The Foundation was the brainchild of Deborah Ann Light who, using her family inheritance, wished to "encourage individual mature women to achieve goals that would enrich the lives of other adult women." Grant applicants had to be at least 54 years old and describe a project that benefited adult women. Ultimately, the recipients came from all over the United States. Robert Giard traveled around the country from 1996 until his death in 2002, managing in that time to photograph 241 of the Grandmother Winifred grant recipients. Their projects ranged from research in the area of feminist scholarship and the production of artistic projects in various media, to providing social, cultural, and health services to women living within a given locality. The archives of the The Thanks Be to Grandmother Winifred Foundation, which is no longer in operation, are preserved in the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Robert Giard's journals of his travels during the period of this commission, documenting each visit to a grant recipient, are held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, along with the rest of his photographs and papers.

  • Carrolyn Belkis-McCreath
  • Barbara Terry
  • Anita M. Caspary
  • Mamie Austin
  • Ruth Schonthal
  • Sondra Thorn
  • Pepper Mainwaring-Healey
  • Alayne Brown
  • Ruth Lomon
  • Ernestine Gray
  • Kay Brown
  • Rosa S. Langston
  • Sita Kapadia

The Robert Giard Foundation
Old Chelsea Station
PO Box 25
New York, NY 10113
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About Robert Giard photo of Robert Giard

Robert Giard was a portrait, landscape, and figure photographer.

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  • Galleries
    • Figures in Landscapes
    • Gay Sites
    • Landscapes
    • Nudes
    • Particular Voices
    • Portraits
    • Still Lifes
    • The Grandmother Winifred Portraits
  • News
  • Exhibitions
  • Fellowship
    • About
    • Current Recipient
    • Past Recipients
    • How to Apply
  • Who We Are
    • Mission Statement
    • Board Members
  • Resources
    • Fales Library & Special Collections, Bobst Library, NYU
    • Stephen Bulger Gallery
    • Yale Beinecke Library
    • New York Public Library