A French art historian contributed to the history of Irish art and challenged the role of women in the mid 20th century, an Eastern art professor said.

Janet Marquardt, a professor of art history and women's studies and the director of the Center for the Humanities, presented the personal journals of Françoise Henry, a history that detailed her excavations on the island Inishkea North (Co. Mayo) in Ireland.

Marquardt said Henry wrote about the daily events on the island, and the journals told her personal thoughts about those around her.

“She kept her personal notes separate from her archeological journals, her record of the day, except for 1950 where she merged them,” Marquardt said....