Regenia A. Perry

Perry amassed a collection of 3,000 African American folk artifacts, including 300 Black Santas, angles and other ethnic holiday items. Perry's extensive Black doll collection has been loaned for exhibition. In 2003, Perry curated Sugar and Spice: Black Dolls from the Dr. Regenia Perry Collection and the Black Doll Museum, Philadelphia at the African American Museum in Dallas, Texas.

For twenty-five years she was a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. She retired in 1990. In 2000, Perry established the Regenia A. Perry Merit Scholarship at the university.

Regenia A. Perry is one of the first African American women to earn a Ph.D. in art history. In 1975, Perry served as the first African American guest curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She has written extensively about African American artists and folk artists.

In 1975, Perry was named guest curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 1975–76. She was the first African American serving in this capacity at the museum. Perry would be responsible for selecting works for the museum's exhibit on 19th century African American art as well as negotiating possible acquisitions for the museum's permanent collection. The exhibit Selections of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art included 92 pieces by various artists including Joshua Johnson, Jules Lion, Henry O. Tanner, and Harriet Powers.

Perry attended Virginia State College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts Education in 1961. The following year, she earned her master's degree in the history of art at Western Reserve University. Perry later completed courses towards a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her Ph.D. in the history of art in 1966 at Western Reserve University.

Perry taught art history at number of universities. In the 1960s, she taught at Georgetown University, University of Maryland, Howard University and Indiana State University. In 1967, Perry and Rizpah L. Welch, Ed.D were the first two full-time African American faculty members employed by Richmond Professional Institute, later name Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Regenia Perry papers, circa 1920–2017, are housed at Emory University, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library in Atlanta, Georgia. The 35-box collection includes art and artists files, photographs, slides and printed materials in the area of African American art history. Also included are works by Phillip Lindsay Mason, Willie Stokes, and James Van Der Zee. Binders from art collector Francois Mignon from the Melrose Plantation are also included.

Perry credits Mrs. Lola H. Solice (1910–1993), superintendent of Granville County, North Carolina Negro Schools during the 1950s, as one who influenced her the most.