David J. Patten

David J. Patten is a writer, travel photographer, graphic artist, and art collector based in Saint Petersburg, FL, USA.

He has an undergraduate degree in art from the University of Nebraska, Omaha; a master’s degree in art history from the State University of Iowa, Iowa City; and a master’s degree in information science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. ​

He has held professional staff positions at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio; Washington University, St. Louis, MO; and Oberlin College, Ohio. ​He served for ten years as editor of the Art Index, an art library reference tool,

He has traveled to fifty-nine foreign countries in South and Central America, Europe, North Africa, the Near, Middle, and Far East, and Oceania. He has been published in International Travel News (ITN), and his photographs have been published in ITN and the St. Petersburg Times and exhibited at the Morean Art Center, St.Petersburg, FL.

He has published two travel books, Wanderlust: Travel Off the Tourist Track, and Planet Earth’s Legacy, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and is the author of an anthology of science fiction short stories, Skyscape Scans.

​He has donated works of art from his collection to the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL; the Tampa Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg, FL; and the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL.

Art acquisition funds in his name include an endowment, the David J. Patten Print Fund at the Norton Museum of Art and the David J. Patten Asian Art Fund, located at the Ringling Museum of Art, Florida’s state art museum.