Kate Steinitz

Kate Steinitz (2 August 1889 - 7 April 1975), informally known as “the Mama of Dada,” played a significant role in the history of art on a number of levels: in the creation of her own art works, as a preserver and collector of the art of her times (the European Bauhaus and Dadaist movements of the early 20th century), as a promoter of art and artists, and, for the last thirty years of her life, as a librarian of the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana, first when the library was based in the collector's medical offices in downtown Los Angeles, and later as honorary curator when the collection was given to UCLA in 1961.

Steinitz is especially remembered for collaborative work with the artist Kurt Schwitters, and, in later life, her scholarship on Leonardo da Vinci.