Ursula Ruth Pariser was born in Berlin and graduated from the Reimann Institute of Photography in London. For twenty years, she taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. During her time there, she served as special art adviser to Queen Elizabeth II of England. In 1965, Pariser left England for the United States. She moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked for the National Gallery of Art and the Freer Gallery of Art.
Ursula Pariser was also employed as the institutional photographer at Dumbarton Oaks. She provided the photographic work for many publications in the 1970s and 1980s, including Ecclesiastical Silver Plate in Sixth-century Byzantium, Beatrix Farrand’s Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks (completed in 1944 but published in 1980), and The Dumbarton Oaks Gardens: their History, Design, and Ornaments. Pariser retired in 1987 and passed away at the age of 92 in 2010.
References:
Garden Archives Photographs.
Sullivan, Patricia. "Obituaries: Ursula Ruth Pariser, Photographer." Washington Post. April 17, 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041604520_5.html