A HISTORY OF THE
JOHN HERRON ART INSTITUTE
By
Sister M. Dolorita Carper, O.S.F.
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
College of Education
Division of Graduate Instruction
Butler University
Indianapolis
1947
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The writer wishes to make grateful acknowledgement of her
obligation to the following persons who aided in the preparation of this thesis:
Mr. Albert Mock, advisor, for suggestions and helpful criticism; the officers
and members of the Board of Directors of the Art Association of Indianapolis,
who granted permission to write on this subject; Mr. Wilbur D. Peat, director
of the John Herron Art Museum, and Mr. Donald Mattison, director of the Art
School, for their interest and assistance in assembling material; Miss Marian
Greene, librarian of the Institute, Miss Grace Speer, executive secretary to the
Board of Directors, and Miss Mary Finke, registrar of the Art School, for their
time, inconvenience and assistance in providing records and verifying data.
The author also wishes to thank Miss Anna Hasselman, curator of
the Art Museum; Mrs. Hazel Hopper, librarian of the Indiana Historical
Division, and Miss Margaret Pierson, and Mr. Pliny Wolfard, librarians of the
Archives Division of the Indiana State Library; Mr. C. W. Bennett, and Miss
M. E. Cain, librarians of the Indianapolis Central Library; Mr. Christopher
Morley, and Mr. Clifton Wheeler.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………....…….…
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………….……… iii
LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………....………..
vi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ………………………………....……….. vii
INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………...…….. viii
PART ONE – THE ART ASSOCIATION OF INDIANAPOLIS
CHAPTER
I. BEGINNINGS ………………………………………………..….
1
Foundation
Purpose
Government
Organization and finance
Growth
Present Status
CHAPTER
II. DEVELOPMENT ………………………………....……...…… 25
The John Herron bequest
Opening of the Institute in Tinker-Talbott Place
The building program
Dedication of the new building
iii
CHAPTER
Page
III. INDIVIDUAL ADMINISTRATION ………………..…………..… 47
Directors
Departments and their staffs
IV. MATERIAL EQUIPMENT ………………………………………. 69
Buildings and grounds
Accessions (art objects)
Library material
V. ACTIVITIES ………………………………………………………. 79
Exhibitions
Lectures and gallery talks
Advisory service
Educational work
Social entertainment
PART THREE-THE JOHN HERRON ART INSTITUTE-THE ART SCHOOL
CHAPTER
VI. EQUIPMENT ………………………………………………………. 89
Temporary quarters
Buildings and grounds
Instructional supplies
VII. ORGANIZATION ……………………………………………….… 99
Management
Departments
Types of classes
Terms
Entrance requirements
Public school relationship
Credits and degrees
VIII. THE TEACHING STAFF …………………………………..…… 111
IX. THE CURRICULUM …………………………...…………..…….. 127
iv
CHAPTER
Page
X. STUDENT LIFE …………………...……………………………. 140
Sex, age range
Discipline
Tuition and expenses
Extracurricular activities
Scholarships, awards, and competitions
Student publication
PART FOUR – CONTRIBUTIONS AND INFLUENCE
CHAPTER
XI. CONCLUSION ………………………………………………..
Contributions as reflected by Alumni
Influence as reflected by local community life
161
APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………… 170
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………….. 185
v
LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
1. Directors of the Art Museum ………………………….….. 47
2. Directors of the Art School …………………………….…. 101
3. Service of Teachers According to Sex ……………………. 127
4. Teachers in the Regular School, Preparation,
Classes Taught, and Tenure ………………………. 176
vi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
Page
1. Henry Ward Beecher Church, which housed the Art School,
1887 – 1891 …………………………………………………. xv
2. Sculptured Marble Tablet by Karl Bitter ………………………….... 16
3. John Herron …………………………………………………………. 28
4. Tinker-Talbott-Steele Place ……………………...…………………..37
5. Permanent Museum Building of the John Herron
Art Institute ……………………………………………...….. 37
6. Mrs. May Wright Sewall Breaking Sod for Art Institute ……...……. 41
7. Portrait of Mrs. Addison Clay Harris …………………………......… 43
8. William H. Fox, First Director of the John Herron
Art Institute …………………………………………...…….. 49
9. Library Room, John Herron Art Institute, 1911 …………………..… 60
10. Guide to the Galleries ……………………………………...……….. 72
11. Public School Scholarship Class, 1921 …………………...………… 85
12. Frame Annex ……………………………………………...………… 91
13. First Art School Building ………………………………...…...…….. 91
14. Present Art School Building ……………………………...……...…. 94
15. Plan of the John Herron Art School ………………………..………. 95
16. T. C. Steele, Otto Stark, J. O. Adams, Wm. Forsyth, from
a Painting Entitled “The Jury” by Wayman Adams ….…… 112
17. The John Herron Art School Chronicle …………………………… 157
vii
A HISTORY OF THE
JOHN HERRON ART INSTITUTE
INTRODUCTION
Purpose of the study – Institutions, like people, come into existence, serve the purpose for which they were created, and die, some after
a full, rich life and others in their infancy. It is the purpose of this
study to preserve to posterity the childhood, youth, and maturity of the
John Herron Art Institute, an institution still in its prime, and apparently destined to continue on to a ripe old age.
During the forty-five years of its existence, the Art Institute
has served the public culturally, educationally, and liberally. The contributions which it has made to the community at large cannot be charted
accurately since its influence is too illusive to permit of scientific rating. Yet, that is has been successful in achieving its main purpose, public service, cannot be denied. Through the museum, the Art Institute has
drawn thousands of people of Indianapolis and elsewhere to view, and possibly to appreciate, the fine and beautiful things of life. Both the museum and art school have been developed educationally, the former furnishing
free instruction for numerous children of the Indianapolis public grade
and high schools, and the latter sending out many talented practioneers of
the fine and commercial arts, who, in turn, teach and influence others.
During the 1920’s the school became the main source of supply for trained
teachers of art in the Indiana public schools. Finally, the John Herron
Art Institute is liberal. It has ever held to democratic principles by
serving all, regardless of race, creed, or nationality. The Institute was
never intended as a haunt for the dilettante as many have regarded such
institutions, but its doors are open to all, men, women, and children in
any station of life. It strives to speak the universal language of art –
to be all things to all men.
The problem – This thesis attempts a historical survey of the foun-dation,
growth, and development of the John Herron Art Institute, which,
with its two branches, the Museum and the Art School, is an outgrowth of
the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Source of Data –
Annual Reports of the Art Association of Indianapolis,Indiana, 1907-1945
Records of the Art Association, 1883-1895; 1883-1906
Bulletins of the Art Association
Catalogues of the Art Museum
Catalogues of the Art School, 1902-1945
Histories of Indianapolis
Biographical Records
Books
Indianapolis Newspapers
Magazine Articles
Personal Interviews
Letters
Method of Procedure – All available information having been gathered, the facts were studied, condensed, and arranged chronologically to
produce a consistent literary account of the subject.
Summary of Early Art Education in Indianapolis – An account of the
John Herron Art Institute would be one-sided if it did not consider, at
least briefly, the source from which it sprang, the small group of local
artists who worked earnestly and continuously by precept and example, encouraging and guiding the attempts of the youth of our community in their
original efforts and studies.
The earliest artists who came to Indianapolis were itinerant portrait painters who found a few patrons among the more affluent pioneer settlers. Portrait painting was a fairly lucrative field for artists since
the sturdy ancestor quite naturally desired to preserve his likeness to
the memory of his heirs, and painting was the only method until the
invention of the daguerrotype in 1832. When rich patrons became scarce,
the portrait painter was not averse to applying his talent to the painting
of signs and coaches in order to provide his daily bread. In the Indiana
Journal, April 10, 1828, appeared the following advertisement:
R. Terrell respectfully informs the citizens of Indianapolis that he is
prepared to take portraits of those
who are willing to encourage the Fine Arts. Ladies and gen-tlemen are invited
to call and examine a specimen of his work,
at the Senate Chamber. He will also execute the following
kinds of paintings in superior style: Signs for Public Houses,
Stores, Shops or Regimental & Company Colours, together with
all kinds of oil gliding and fancy painting.
Probably, the first native pioneer artist of Indianapolis was the silverhaired, kindly, dignified, yet unobtrusive, Jacob Cox who opened a studio in 1844 in a room on Washington Street, opposite the post-office,
which was then the first building west of Charles Mayer’s place of business. In 1858, Barton S. Hays came to Indianapolis, and for many years
occupied a studio in the same building with Mr. Cox. Both artists took
pupils. Among Jacob Cox’s pupils were Joseph O. Eaton, Mrs. Lottie Guffin,
John H. Niemeyer, India Underhill Kirkland, Margaret Rudisill, and
James F. Harris1. Barton Hays is particularly distinctive because he was
the first master of William M. Chase and John Love2.
Other artists who worked and taught in pioneer Indianapolis were
James Bolivar Dunlop, an early commercial artist in Indianapolis whose cartoons appeared in the Locomotive as early as 1851; Thomas B. Glessing, for
many years the principal scenic artist in the old Metropolitan Theatre
(later the Park Theatre); John Gibson Dunn, John B. Hill, Elizabeth
Nicholson, and James M. Dennis.3
As early as 1853, the question of an “Academy of Arts” for Indian-apolis
was proposed, and in 1856 the Indianapolis Art Society was organized
for the encouragement of local artists, all of which goes to show that,
before the establishment of a permanent art institution, there was a pronounced impulse toward an indigenous art expression.4
Following the centennial exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, the
people of America began to awaken to the realization of the importance of
art to the nation. Many American artists who had gone abroad to study, began
to return and settle in different parts of the country, particularly
in the East.
Among these were James F. Gookins of Terre Haute, and John W. Love
of Indianapolis who, according to Dunn and other historians5, were the
1
Burnet, Mary Q., Art and Artists of Indiana, New York: The Century Co., 1921, pp. 81-92.
2
Forsyth, Wm., Art in Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana: H. Lieber Co., 1916, p. 7.
3
Burnet, op. cit., pp. 62-75.
4
Cottman, George S., “Forerunners of Indiana Art,” Indiana Magazine of History, XV, (March,
1919), p. 19.
5
Forsyth, William, and Burnet, Mary Q.
founders of the first art school in Indianapolis. The “Indiana School of
Art,” as it was called, was opened on October 15, 1877, occupying eleven
rooms on the top floor of the Fletcher and Sharpe building at the southwest
corner of Washington and Pennsylvania streets. It was well equipped with
a large line of casts of antiques and other appurtenances of art study, was
well lighted and roomy, and made almost ideal quarters for the purpose. At
first, pupils were plentiful, numbering fifty during the first year, but
the patronage soon decreased, for by this time Indianapolis was struggling
under the pressure of the panic of 1873, and luxuries were dropped first.
Mr. Gookins resigned after the first year and Mr. Love, although he was
the best of teachers, was not a business manager, so that the school grad-ually
became involved in financial difficulties. Mr. Love struggled on to
the last, but was finally forced to abandon the project in 1879 and died
soon after.6
Although the first school was short-lived, the influence of its
teachers, particularly that of Mr. Love, continued to live, motivating many
of its students to continue their work either at home or abroad.
Four years later, in 1883, the art movement was again resumed by
the organization of the Indianapolis Art Association which made an early
effort to accomplish one of its objectives, “to establish and maintain an
institution for instruction in the various branches of art,” by opening a
school on January 10, 1884, in one of the parlors of the Denison Hotel,
later to occupy rooms in the old Plymouth Church on the west side of
Meridian Street, near Ohio. Miss Sue Ketcham, formerly a pupil in the
Gookins-Love art schools, and Charles L. McDonald of the Chicago Art
League were engaged as teachers. Although the business of the school was
well
6
Dunn, Jacob Piatt, Greater Indianapolis, Vol I, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1920, pp.
483-84.
managed by a committee of three directors, and the teachers were efficient
and devoted, without endowment, material, and proper quarters, no amount
of effort could surmount the burden of its support and the school was
closed after two years.7
After a period of three more years, the direct ancestor of the
John Herron Art Institute came into being, first as a private venture on
the part of Theodore Clement Steele, who undertook a school on moderate
scale in 1888, at Circle Hall, formerly the Henry Ward Beecher Church, and
afterwards the high school of the city. It was located in the northwest
segment of the Circle.8 Later, Mr. Forsyth became connected with the school
as a teacher, and on the retirement of Mr. Steele, took over the management.9 This school, too, might have failed but for the timely assistance
of certain citizens interested in art, many of them members of the Art
Association.10
In 1891 the school was reorganized and incorporated under the name
of the “Indiana School of Art.” This provided for a managing board of
nine directors and regular subscribers who contributed from five to twentyfive dollars annually to its support. Judging from the attendance which
averaged over a hundred until its close in 1897, as well as by the quality
of young students it developed, the school was very successful during the
six years of its existence.11 Regular day and evening classes were taught
by Messrs. Steele and Forsyth, and preparatory and children’s classes were
taught by the Misses Mary Robinson, Tempe Tice, and Lydia Becker. This
7
Burnet, op. cit., pp. 230-31.
Ibid., p. 234.
9
Forsyth, op. cit., p. 18.
10
Ibid., p. 18.
11
Burnet, op. cit., p. 235.
8
second “Indiana School of Art” might have continued for many years if
the building which housed it had not been torn down for the extension
of the English Hotel. Art instruction was not resumed because the members of the Art Association of Indianapolis planned to erect a permanent
institution under the John Herron bequest.12
HENRY WARD BEECHER CHURCH
Building which housed the Art School 1887-1891
Fig. 1.
12
Dunn, op. cit., p. 487.
PART I
THE ART ASSOCIATION OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
CHAPTER I
BEGINNINGS
Foundation – A series of lectures, begun in the winter of 1881, was
the tentative beginning of the Art Association of Indianapolis. On the
invitation of Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Mrs. Nancy Adsit of Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, presented a series of illustrated talks on ceramics. The interest she
aroused among the little group of art enthusiasts was so great that two years
later, in the winter season of 1882-1883. Mrs. Adsit again returned, this time
to deliver a series of lectures on etchings and engravings.
On the occasion of her last lecture, Mrs. Sewall, who seems to
have been the guiding spirit of the Association in its embryonic stages,
“invited all present who were interested to meet at her house to discuss the
organization of a society for the study and promotion of art. The proposition
received a cordial response.”1 At this first meeting held early in March, 1883,
a committee of ten was elected from those present to draw up a tentative
constitution and a plan of action.
The committee held ten hard working meetings, and the
result of its deliberations was a constitution, which was adopted at a public
meeting called on May 7, 1883, at the Denison Hotel, to which all artloving people resident in Indianapolis were invited. The Constitution
provided for
1
The Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana – A Record, 1883-1906. Published on the occasion
of the dedication of the John Herron Art Institute, November 20, 1906. Indianapolis: The
Hollenbeck Press, p. 5.
1
2
both working and cooperating members. Mrs. Adsit had been a teachers
as well as lecturer, and it was due to her vital influence that the organizers
of the Art Association were inspired with an ambition to become
producers as well as appreciators of art. The working members were,
therefore, divided into three groups: Colorists, Etchers, and Students of the
History and Literature of Art. The Constitution and Plan of Work adopted
on that date are the basis of the Articles of Assoication….”2
The Art Association of Indianapolis was incorporated on October
11, 1883, beginning its career with a membership of fifty-four. Its first officers
and directors were: Albert E. Fletcher, president; Mrs. Mary Sharpe Moore,
Mrs. Laurel Locke Fletcher, and Mrs. Mary Sanders Judah, vice-presidents;
Mrs. May Wright Sewall, recording secretary; Mrs. Anna Dunlop, treasurer; and
Mrs. H. B. Palmer, corresponding secretary. Additional directors were: Mrs.
Esther M. Bradshaw, Rev. N. A. Hyde, Thomas E. Hibben, Dr. Henry Jameson,
Miss Sue M. Ketcham, Mrs. Mary A. Pratt, and Miss Belle M. Sharpe. The
three groups, Colorists, Etchers, and Students, were headed respectively by:
Thomas E. Hibben, Mrs. Mary A. Pratt, and Ms. Belle M. Sharpe.3
Purpose – From the beginning the members of the Art Association
have held to the objectives as set down in the original Articles of Association.
The objects of this Association shall be to cultivate and
advance Art in all its branches; to provide means for instruction in the
various branches of Art; to establish for that end a permanent gallery, and
also to establish and produce lectures upon subjects relevant to Art.4
These objects, however, were accomplished only gradually,
beginning with a loan exhibition of pictures, held in the autumn of 1883. The
2
Ibid., pp. 5-6
Ibid., pp. 6-7
4
Articles of Association, October 11, 1883, Article I.
3
3
directors realized that in order to sow the seeds of art appreciation among the
citizens of Indianapolis, the people must be given the opportunity of seeing
the most excellent in art production; hence, the exhibit. Under the direction of
Miss Sue M. Ketchum, who made a special trip to New York to secure the
best works available, four hundred fifty-three paintings were collected and
exhibited in the corner rooms of the English Hotel Block, from November 7 to
29.5
The second exhibition, held in 1885, was of special interest to the
local community since it displayed the merits and talents of the state’s own
“Hoosier County in München,” T. C. Steele and William Foryth. A local
coterie of amateurs, the Bohé Club, illustrated the catalogue.6
Thereafter, annual exhibits became important events usually
occurring in the spring and lasting a month. During the first twelve years over
four thousand paintings were shown, including a few masterpieces of both
American and foreign artists.
From 1883 to 1902, the Art Association had no gallery of its own
and the annual exhibitions were held at various places.
From 1886 to 1890, inclusive, the annual exhibits were
held in the Masonic hall except in 1888, when it was held at old 33 S.
Meridian Street. From 1891 to 1899, inclusive, they were at the
Propylaeum, except in 1895, when it was at 82 N. Pennsylvania Street. In
1900 and 1901 they were at the H. Lieber Galleries.7
In addition to the annual exhibits, minor exhibits were held at
irregular intervals. These exhibits, in charge of small committees, were
formerly held at private homes. The first of these to be recorded was an
exhibition of pottery at the residence of Miss Mary Dean in November, 1884.8
5
Dunn, op. cit., p 484.
Burnet, op. cit., p. 222.
7
Dunn, op. cit., p. 485.
8
Record of the Art Association, op. cit., p. 55.
6
4
Such exhibitions varied in duration from three days to a week. They were
continued until 1899 when cramped quarters at the Propylaeum restricted the
Association’s efforts in this regard.9 However, from the opening of the John
Herron Art Institute to the present day there has been such activity in the
arrangement of exhibitions.
Another objective of the Art Association, as stated in the Articles,
is to give lectures on art topics. From 1883 to 1887, inclusive, this was the
work of the Student Group, but after this time the work of the three groups,
Colorists, Etchers, and Students, was merged in the work of the Association as
a whole, and after 1888, only general programs were issued. As early as
March, 1885, records show that a course of six lectures on “The Masterpieces
of Michaelangelo and Raphael” was given by Dr. William T. Harris, at old
Plymouth Church.10 During the first twelve years, six courses of lectures with
a total of twenty-four talks were given under the auspices of the Art
Association.11 Until the opening of the John Herron Art Institute in 1902,
these lectures were given at intervals at the Old Plymouth Church, private
residences, English’s Opera House, the First Baptist Church, the Propylaeum,
and Tomlinson Hall.12 The efforts of the Art Association in this respect have
continued to grow and is now one of its most important works.
As for the provision for art instruction, the Association apparently
failed in its first attempt. Undaunted by failure and much the wiser for the
experience gained, the members of the Art Association were more successful
in their second effort. In compliance with the conditions imposed by the will
of John Herron, an art school was opened by the Art
9
Ibid., p. 55.
Ibid., p. 61.
11
Ibid., p. 9.
12
Ibid., p. 62.
10
5
Association in T. C. Steele’s old studio at the rear of the Tinker-Talbott home
which had been purchased for use as an art museum in 1901. The art school
began its career on January 13, 1902, with ten pupils and five teachers.13 By
March 4, of that same year, the school had sixty-nine pupils enrolled. J. Ottis
Adams taught drawing and painting; Brandt Steele and Alfred B. Lyon were
instructors in applied design; and Misses Virginia Keep and Helen McKay
had charge of the children’s classes. Since that time the tiny plant has literally
grown into a mighty tree with a reputation both local and national, achieved
through the outstanding success of its teachers and students.
With the acceptance of the John Herron bequest it became
necessary to revise the Articles of Association to suit recent developments.
New Articles of Association, effected April 5, 1892, increased the privileges
and powers of the corporation. The purpose did not change, but added to it
were “the buying, holding and selling of real estate and the improvement
thereof, for the purpose of maintaining a permanent art gallery in the city of
Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, … and to buy and sell works of art.”14
The annual report of 1907 includes the following general statement
as to the aims of the Art Association:
The Art Association proposes to increase its permanent art
collection, to hold frequent exhibitions of the productions of contemporary
American and foreign artists, to develop an art library, to add to the
facilities for teaching in the Art School in order to keep abreast of the most
advanced methods of instruction, to give lectures, receptions, and
entertainments of an artistic character, and in every way possible to
encourage the study and love of art among the people.15
13
Dunn, op. cit., p. 488.
Articles of Association, April 5, 1892.
15
Annual Report of the Art Association, March 31, 1907.
14
6
Except for a single revision of membership in January, 1945, the
Articles have not been amended since January 10, 1928. Article I, as it stands
today, reads as follows:
The objects of this Association shall be to buy, hold and
sell real estate and to improve the same, for the purpose of maintaining a
permanent art gallery and an institution for instruction in the various
branches of art in the city of Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, to buy
and sell works of art, to promote and encourage the study of art and the
literature thereof, to grant regular degrees to students satisfactorily
completing courses of instruction in the institution maintained by the
Association, not only on the basis of courses completed by students in the
future, but also on the basis of courses completed in the past, and to grant
honorary degrees to those of exceptional accomplishment in the various
branches of art.16
Government – The original Articles of Association17 assigned the
business and prudential concerns of the organization to the management of
seven officers, a finance committee consisting of “not less than three nor more
than seven members, and a Board of Directors composed of the officers of the
Association together with not more than five other directors to be selected
from among the members.”18
During the first twelve years, a committee on scheme of work
arranged a program for the year, which was published sometime before the
President’s Reception, an annual event of much social and artistic interest.
This was the first of the two formal meetings convened each year. The second
was an annual business session held at the close of each year, during which
the annual reports of officers and committees were read and directors elected
to succeed those whose terms had expired.
16
Articles of Association, amended January 10, 1928, Article I.
A copy of the original Articles of Association will be found in the appendix, p. 170.
18
Articles of Association, October 11, 1883, Article IV.
17
7
These meetings and others attended by the whole Association were
usually convened at the Denison Hotel.
From 1890 to 1896 the meetings of the Board were held by
the courtesy of the Columbia Club, at the Club house, on Monument
Place, and the Columbia Club, for the same period, was the hospitable
custodian of the pictures belonging to the Art Association. During this
time the President’s Reception and general and special meetings of the
Association were held at the Propylaeum. Owing to the fact that it seemd
desirable to have the Board of Directors and the Association meet in the
building where the exhibits were held, in October, 1896, the pictures of
the Association were removed from the Columbia Club to the
Propylaeum, which from that time was considered the headquarters of the
Association, until it moved into its own building, February 11, 1902.19
The work implied in the management of the Art School as long as
it existed and the arrangement of exhibits fell mainly to the lot of the Board of
Directors or upon subcommittees composed either wholly or partially of
members of the Board. From time to time the Directors issued letters setting
forth the objectives of the Art Association and its general policy. Such letters
issued on July 1, 1896, January 1, 1897, and December 1, 1897, “announced
the policy of occasional free days, of open Sundays and of specific efforts to
secure the attendance of school children at all exhibits held under its
auspice.”20
Early lists of officers elected to office show that from the very
beginning it was intended that both men and women in about equal numbers
should share in governing an enterprise which its founders wished to be
19
Record of the Art Association, op. cit., p. 10.
The Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, - A Historical Sketch. Authorized by the
Association and printed under its auspices, April, 1895, p. 9.
20
8
conducted in such a manner as to appeal to the entire community, rather than
adhere to the limited numbers and exclusive characters of a club. Since the
community was relatively new and largely devoted to manufacturing and
commercial interests, the number of men in whom were combined a capacity
of leisure and aesthetic taste was small; hence, the predominate number of
women on the first governing boared.21
A study of the following list reveals the democratic attitude of the
Association in electing both men and women to its governing boards:
OFFICERS OF THE
ART ASSOCIATION OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
1883-1947
Presidents
Albert Fletcher …………………………………. 1883 (resigned)
Nathaniel A. Hyde ……………………………... 1883-1893
May Wright Sewall …………………………….. 1893-1898
Hugh H. Hanna ………………………………… 1898-1904
India C. Harris ……………………………….…. 1904-1907
Evans Woollen ……………………………….… 1907-1941
Mrs. James W. Fesler …………………………... 1941Vice-Presidents
Mary Sharpe Moore ……………………………. 1883-1888
Laurel Locke Fletcher ………………………….. 1883-1886
Mary Sanders Judah ……………………………. 1883-1886
Myla Fletcher Ritzinger ………………………... 1886-1887
Laura Fletcher Hodges …………………………. 1886-1893
May Wright Sewall …………………………….. 1887-1893
Louisa A. Wright ……………………………….. 1889-1895
Esther M. Bradshaw ……………………………. 1890-1891
Amelia B. Mansur ………………………………. 1894-1898
Charles E. Coffin ………………………………... 1894-1897
Theodore C. Steele ………………………………. 1896-1908
Nathanial A. Hyde ………………………………. 1897-1901
Laura Fletcher Hodges ……………………….….. 1898-1899
21
Ibid., p. 6.
9
Vice-Presidents (continued)
May Wright Sewall …………………..…………. 1897-1901
Laura Fletcher Hodges …………………………... 1902-1909
Mrs. John H. Holliday …………………………… 1907-1908
Mrs. Addison C. Harris ………………………….. 1908-1943
(Honorary Vice-President) ………………. 1943Meredith Nicholson ……………………………… 1908-1909
G. H. A. Clowes …………………………………. 1937Anton Sherrer …………………………………….. 1943Lucy M. Taggart ………………………………….. 1943Recording Secretaries*
May Wright Sewall ………………………………. 1883-1887
Mary Talbott Morrison …………………………... 1887-1893
India C. Harris ……………………………………. 1893-1899
Laura Fletcher Hodges ………………………...…. 1899-1902
Evans Woollen …………………………………… 1902-1904
Mary Elder Blackledge …………………………... 1904-1907
Carl H. Lieber ……………………………………. 1907-1909
William Coughlen ………………………………... 1909-1921
Mrs. James W. Fesler …………………………….. 1921-1941
Mrs. Fisk Landers ………………………………… 1941Corresponding Secretaries*
H. B. Palmer ………………………………………. 1883-1886
Mary Dean ………………………………………… 1886-1891
Mary Elder Blackledge ……………………………. 1891-1893
Laura Fletcher Hodges …………………………….. 1893-1898
Mary Elder Blackledge ……………………………. 1898-1904
Evaline M. Holliday ………………………………. 1904-1907
Mrs. Benjamin Harrison …………………………… 1907-1909
Treasurers
Anna Dunlop …………………………………...…. 1883-1886
Esther M. Bradshaw ………………………………. 1886-1889
Myla Fletcher Ritzinger …………………………… 1889-1890
Mary B. Hussey …………………………………… 1890-1894
Lillian Wright Dean ……………………………….. 1894-1898
Ambrose P. Stanton ……………………………….. 1898-1912
Howard M. Stanton ……………………………….. 1912-1932
Oscar P. Welborn ……………………………….…. 1932-1942
Russell J. Ryan …………………………………….. 1942*In 1909 the two secretarial offices were combined and its affairs directed by one
secretary.
10
Twice in the history of the Art Association the executive ability of
its female members was questioned. The first attack on the women’s
adequacy to handle the Association’s affairs was made just after the news of
Mr. Herron’s generosity had been published. An Indianapolis editor, as
quoted by Mr. Anton Sherrer, wrote:
This bequest is a call for the exercise of conservation, of
wisdom, of foresight, in short of those prudential qualities which men
called longheaded exemplify – qualities which are the fruit of an instinct
developed by long years of experience. There is time enough for all this
indeed, but when the time comes, when the will is proved, the property
made over, and its disposition the question of the hours, then there must be
sagacious men in command.22
The women, of course, were furious at this show of masculine
audacity which meant but one thing – the women should step aside and allow
the men to take charge, now that the organization had money to spend.
Outside the flurry of commotion it caused, the editorial bore no fruits and the
so-called “weak women” of the Association bore the brunt of tribulation along
with the superior males.
The second attack which came several years later, in 1908, was
more alarming. This time the women of the Association waged a battle of
wits with the men of their own organization.
The contest at the Herron Art Institute last night for the
control of the Art Association of Indianapolis, between the men and
women of the organization, was a no decision affair. Although there was
no sweeping victory, the discussion which waged from 8:30 o’clock until
midnight, ended with a slight advantage in the women’s favor. They had
the better of the argument from beginning to end. It resulted in the
election to membership on the directorate of one more women, Mrs. John
N. Carey, in the place of Charles R. Williams.23
Victory or no victory, there has been at least one woman serving as
an officer and not less than five on the Board of Directors each year.
22
23
The Indianapolis Times, October 11, 1943, p. 9.
The Indianapolis Times, April 8, 1908, p. 1.
11
The list of officers for 1946 shows that four of the seven officers and eleven
of the twenty-five directors are women.
At the same meeting held in the spring of 1908, another problem
relative to the democratic spirit of the government of this association was
introduced. W. C. Bobbs presented amended articles to the constitution which
would provide for three classes of members, honorary, associate, and
governing. The governing members should pay twenty-five dollars annually,
and those members only should have the right to vote. Before this section was
voted upon, Mr. Addison C. Harris rose to denounce the proposal as
undemocratic.
“We have no right to set up a moneyed aristocracy,” he
said. “Every one should belong, be he man or woman, rich or poor. All
those with the love of the beautiful in their breasts are entitled to
membership in the association. This, I think, is a radical step. The
amendment which creates governing members – those who can pay more
money per year – should not be passed. It should be an art democracy and
not a moneyed aristocracy, I repeat.”24
Mr. Bobbs defended the amendment with the plea that the
Association was in dire need of funds, but when the section was put to vote, it
was defeated by a vote of 86 to 54.25
The constitution, amended from time to time, gradually provided
for an increased number of members on the Board of Directors. In 1892,
when new Articles of Association were adopted, the Board consisted of
twenty-one members, “divided into three classes each consisting of seven
members, elected to serve three years, so arranged that one class will go out of
office each year.”26 As early as 1908, the Articles were amended to provide a
Board of twenty-five members.27
24
Ibid., p. 1.
Ibid., p. 1.
26
Articles of Association, April 5, 1892, Article V, Section 1.
27
Articles of Association, amended April 6, 1908, Article V, Section 1.
25
12
In 1928, when the constitution was last amended, the number of
members composing the Board of Directors remained unchanged. Of the
twenty-five members, two persons are nominated by the School City of
Indianapolis; two others are nominated by the Mayor and Comptroller of
Indianapolis; and twenty-one members of the Association are elected from
nominees selected by a committee appointed by the President of which he is
ex-officio chairman and consisting of a benefactor, a member in perpetuity, a
sustaining life member, a life member, a sustaining member, an annual
member, and an associate member, all of whom are not members of the
Board. This committee selects two nominees, a man and a woman, as
nominees for each vacancy in the Board of Directors and reports to the
Secretary sometime before December 20. The Secretary then sends by mail,
to each voting member of the Association, a list of these nominees. The
twenty-one Directors are divided into three equal classes, elected for three
years, the election taking place each year, that is, if each Director serves his
full term.28
Annually, on the third Tuesday of January, the Board of Directors
elects the following officers of the Association: a president, a vice-president, a
secretary, and a treasurer. These officers are expected to “serve for one year
and perform the duties usually pertaining to their respective offices and such
other duties as may be assigned to them by by-law or resolution of the Board
of Directors.”29
Further regulations concerning the Board of Directors are stated in
articles and by-laws of the Association as follows:
28
29
Articles of Association, amended January 10, 1928, Article V, Section 1-2.
Ibid., Article IV, Section 1.
13
The Board of Directors shall provide by by-law for an
executive committee of its members, which in the intervals between the
meetings of the Board of Directors, shall have the management and
control of the affairs of the Association, subject at all times to the approval
of the Board. This committee shall keep minutes of its meetings and
report the same to the Board of Directors at each regular meeting for
approval.30
The annual election of Directors shall be held on the second
Tuesday of January.31
In the event of the resignation or death of any officer or
director of the Association, the Board of Directors shall fill such vacancy
for the unexpired term.32
The Board of Directors shall elect a Director of the
Museum and a Director of the School who, with the Board’s approval,
shall appoint members of the museum staff and school faculty,
respectively.33
The Board of Directors shall meet on the third Tuesday of
each month except July, August, and September. Special meetings may be
called by the President and shall be called by him on the request of five
members of the Board.34
Within a week after the President is elected, he, an ex-officio
member of all committees, appoints for the coming year, with the approval of
the Board, an executive committee consisting of not less than six members,
and also the following standing committees as the President deems necessary;
a fine arts committee, a library committee, a membership committee, a finance
committee, a building and grounds committee, and an Art School
committee.35 The executive committee meets weekly and special meetings
may be called by the President. The other committees meet regularly on a
date set by each committee and make regular monthly reports to the Board of
Directors.36
30
Ibid., Article IV, Section 2.
Ibid., Article VII, Section 1.
32
Ibid., Article VIII.
33
By-Laws, December 19, 1933, Article II, Section 1.
34
Ibid., Article IV, Section 1.
35
Ibid., Article III, Section 1.
36
Ibid., Article IV, Section 2-3.
31
14
The Directors of the Museum and of the Art School are consulted
in all matters pertaining to their duties and “attend all meetings of the Board
of Directors and executive committee unless otherwise advised.”37
Organization and Finance – Originally, the membership of the Art
Association of Indianapolis was divided into working and cooperating
members, the former being divided into three groups: Colorists, Etchers, and
Students of the History and Literature of Art; and the latter also into three
classes of annual members, life members, and members in perpetuity.
By 1895 the three working groups had been abolished and the
entire membership consolidated into one. Thus, in unity there was added
strength.
According to the original Articles of Association, a contribution of
ten dollars entitled the contributor to membership for one year with the
privilege of free admission to the permanent gallery during that time. A life
member gave one hundred dollars to the funds of the Association which
entitled him to life membership and free admission to the gallery. A member
in perpetuity contributed five hundred dollars which entitled him to free
admission to the permanent gallery and to all loan exhibitions made under the
auspices of the Association. It also made him the permanent holder of one
scholarship for the courses of instruction provided, with the right of conferring
this scholarship upon any art student the holder might name. Annual
members under twenty-one years of age were not allowed to vote at
membership meetings.
When the Articles of Association were revised in 1892, the third
class, members in perpetuity, was dropped and a class of honorary members
37
Ibid., Article II, Section 4.
15
was substituted. Honorary members were elected as were the members of the
other classes but were exempt from the payment of dues. They were “entitled
to all rights and privileges of membership, except those of voting and holding
office.”38
Dues for life members remained the same, but annual members
now paid five dollars, and the rules governing the election, obligations, and
privileges of the latter were changed. Annual members were now elected at a
regular meeting of the Board of Directors by a two-thirds vote of the Directors
present, and annual dues were paid in advance. Their privileges were
extended to include the free admission of members and their immediate
families to all exhibitions and entertainments given by the Association during
the year of their membership.
With the opening of the fiscal year, 1906-1907, it was felt that the
Art Association was entering upon a new era.
The new building, although not finished, had nevertheless
become a reality, and in view of prospective larger activities and the
resultant added privileges to be enjoyed, the members at their annual
meeting in April, 1906, willingly voted an increase in membership dues
from $5.00 to $10.00….39
A canvas conducted by the membership committee produced results showing
that probably no mistake had been made in raising the dues and that the muchneeded revenues had been agreeably augmented. Annual dues of $1,056 from
213 members in 1905-1906 were increased to $4,165 from over 400 members
in 1906-1907.
On April 6, 1908, when the Articles of Association were again
amended, the classes of membership were extended to seven and included:
benefactors, members in perpetuity, life, honorary, sustaining, annual, and
associate members. This measure was taken as a means of increasing
38
39
Articles of Association, April 5, 1892, Article IV, Section 4.
Annual Report of the President, 1907, p. 17.
ART ASSOCIATION OF INDIANAPOLIS
(Image unavailable for digital version)
Fig. 2.
17
the revenue of operation which in the past year had been exceeded by an
expense of nearly four thousand dollars.40
Regulations governing the new classes of membership are set
down in Article IV as follows:
Section 3. The contribution or devise to the association of
five thousand dollars, duly accepted, shall entitle the donor to be elected a
benefactor and his name as such shall be inscribed on an appropriate tablet
of stone or bronze to be permanently maintained in the association’s
building.
Section 4. The contribution to the association of one
thousand dollars, duly accepted, shall entitle the donor to be elected a
member in perpetuity with the right to himself or to his executor or
administrator of appointing a successor with equal rights. Each such
membership shall be known always by the name of the donor.
Section 5. The contribution to the association of two
hundred and fifty dollars, duly accepted, shall entitle the donor to be
elected a life member.
Section 6. Artists of high standing and persons who have
rendered eminent service to the association, or who have otherwise aided
the promotion of the fine arts conspicuously, shall be eligible to election
as honorary members.
Section 7. Sustaining members shall pay annual dues of
twenty-five dollars.
Annual members shall pay annual dues of ten dollars.
Associate members shall pay annual dues of five dollars.
Section 8. The proceeds from the sale of life memberships,
and the contributions and bequests from benefactors and members in
perpetuity, where there is no specific direction by the donor as to their use,
shall be held in a fund to be known as “The Membership Endowment
Fund,” of which the income alone shall be expended.41
In his annual report, April 6, 1909, President Evans Woollen
explains the reason for provisions made in Section 8, just quoted:
40
41
Annual Report of the President, April 6, 1909, p. 8.
Amended Articles of Association, April 6, 1909, Section IV.
18
It is believed the financial condition of the Association
cannot be regarded as satisfactory as long as there is not a sufficient
endowment fund to assure the uninterrupted and efficient prosecution of a
work that ought always to advance and never halt. The provision in the
proposed amended articles for a “Membership Endowment Fund” is
thought to be a step in this direction.
After that time, very little change was made in the provisions for
membership, although the Articles were later twice amended on January 8,
1924, and again on January 10, 1928. In 1924, one more class of membership
was added, that of sustaining life members. Two hundred and fifty dollars
was contributed by the members of this class while the contribution of life
members was reduced to one hundred dollars. Membership regulations have
remained unchanged since then, except for a revision made in January, 1945,
when the classification “life member” was abolished.42
All members are eligible for election as directors and officers and
for appointment on committees. Those who have the right to vote at the
Association’s meetings either have been members of the Association
continuously since January 8, 1945, or are benefactors, members in perpetuity,
sustaining life members, or sustaining members.
The privileges of the various classes of membership are as follows:
Each associate member shall be entitled to free admission
to the Association’s galleries and to all its exhibitions, entertainments,
lectures and receptions given by the directors of the museum.
Each annual member shall be entitled to all the privileges
of an associate member both for himself and for his immediate family and
non-restricted guests.
Each sustaining member shall be entitled to all the
privileges of annual members, and in addition shall receive on request fifty
complimentary tickets each year for distribution, each of which, when
signed by the member on whose request they are issued, shall admit the
bearer once to any exhibition, entertainment or lecture given by the
Association. Sustaining members also receive free all publications of the
museum, including hand books and catalogues.
42
Interview with Miss Marian Greene, December 31, 1946.
19
Honorary members shall have the rights of dues-paying
members.
Benefactors, members in perpetuity, sustaining life
members and (formerly) life members shall have, in addition to the
privileges specified in section 3, 4 and 5, the privileges of all other classes
of membership.43
In the early history of the Art Association financial resources were
limited to membership dues and to the small amount realized from exhibits,
the school, and entertainments.
When the Association came into possession of the bulk of the John
Herron estate, amounting to more than $200,000 in real estate, it adopted,
March 21, 1899, a resolution creating three funds: the Art Treasure Fund of
$150,000, the Art School Fund of $10,000, and the Building and Grounds
Fund of $65,000.
These funds were created in the assumption that it would be
practicable and expedient to raise by popular subscription a substantial
part of the moneys needed for the erection of a museum. This assumption
proved unfounded, and on May 1, 1905, the erection of a museum was
undertaken without other moneys than those in hand from the John Herron
estate. Notwithstanding the fact that, in the erection and operation of the
Association’s museum and school, the Board of Directors found it
advisable to use the moneys derived from the John Herron estate
otherwise than in accordance with the plan for an Art Treasure Fund and
an Art School Fund as proposed in the resolution of 1899, the two funds
have been carried in the Association’s accounting. The Board of
Directors, at a special meeting March 31 last, directed that mention of the
two funds be eliminated from the Association’s accounting by crediting to
the General Fund the balance of $36,700 in the John Herron Bequest Art
Treasure Fund and the balance of $10,000 in the John Herron Bequest Art
School Fund.44
The Association’s resources were increased by 1909 when a law
was enacted requiring the payment annually to the Association by the Board
of School Commissioners of a sum, which was then about $9,000 equal to
43
44
Articles of Association, January 10, 1928, Article IV, Section II.
Annual Report of the President, April 5, 1921, p. 9.
20
one-half cent on each hundred dollars of the city’s taxables.
He (President Evans Woollen said the usefulness of the
institute had been materially broadened since school teachers and children
had been admitted free to the exhibitions. He said he expected an
important enlargement of this usefulness for the schools, since a law
passed by the last Legislature would turn about $9,000 a year to the
association in the school tax levy, and in return the school teachers and
children are to have free admission to the Herron Building, a lecture will
be given to them each week, and free instruction in art will be provided for
the teachers and fifty children.45
The Indiana Supreme Court, in February, 1911, held
unconstitutional the act whereby the Board of School Commissioners of
Indianapolis and the Association had for two years cooperated in an effort to
make the resources of the museum and the Art School available to the school
children and teachers of the city. The General Assembly soon passed another
act validating transactions under the former act and authorizing, in which was
thought to be an improbable manner, contractual relations between the public
schools and the institution.46 However, the Association was prevented by
litigation from rating the contract until the spring of 1912. Under the new
provision the Association was to receive $7,500 for the next four years in
payment for certain specified services.47
Again in 1915, the General Assembly enacted a bill which
provided that the Association
…shall receive in quarterly installments a sum equal to a
half cent on each one hundred dollars of the taxables of Indianapolis. Of
this sum half will be paid by the city and half by the board of School
Commissioners….The payment under the act will be between twelve and
thirteen thousand dollars and will, of course, increase as the taxables of the
city increase.48
45
The Indianapolis News, April 7, 1909, p. 5.
Annual Report of President, April 4, 1911, p. 5.
47
Annual Report of President, April 2, 1912, p. 6.
48
Annual Report of President, April 6, 1915, p. 9.
46
21
For many years after the opening of the John Herron Art Institute
in the new building, the revenues of the Association failed to produce
sufficient funds to cover the expenses of operation. Year after year, Evans
Woollen’s annual reports ended with a plea for an endowment fund. In 1924
Mr. Woollen wrote:
It would seem that the time is at hand when we cannot
defer the provision of an endowment fund, the income from which will be
available for operating expenses. I say “operating expenses” inasmuch as
we already have endowment in the amount of $114,000, the income of
which is available only for the purchase of works of art, and endowment in
the amount of $12,600, the income of which is available only for
educational purposes. It is unrestricted endowment, of which we have
only $36,100, that is especially needed at this time.49
The plan used for raising this endowment took the following form
of subscription:
In consideration of the agreements and of my election by
the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, as a Benefactor or a Member
in Perpetuity, I agree that ___thousand dollars shall be paid for
endowment to said Association either by me at my convenience or at my
death from my estate and that interest thereon at the rate of five per
centum per annum shall be paid semi-annually from date.50
Within two years this endowment, raised for the purpose of meeting the need
of income and operating expenses, had reached the sum of $96,500, although
the expenditures still exceeded the revenues and continued to do so
intermittently until about 1933.
Although unrestricted funds were difficult to raise, bequests of a
restricted nature were more forthcoming. The earliest of such legacies
bequeathed to the Art Association were those of Julius F. Pratt of $3,000, and
of Daniel P. Erwin of $5,000, both for the purchase of works of art.51
49
Annual Report of the President, January 8, 1924, p. 9.
Printed form distributed to patrons.
51
Record of Art Association, op. cit., p. 27.
50
22
In 1906, a gift was made to the Association by the heirs of Henry
Schnull amounting to $5,000; and in 1909, another gift of $2,000 was given
by the heirs of Herman Lieber. Both were welcome additions to the general
fund. No other gifts are recorded until 1914 when $200 was received from the
estate of Bertha G. Rush. Two years later a donation of $2,000 was received
from Harry J. Millican.
Mrs. Emma Harter Sweetzer will always be remembered as an
outstanding donor to the cause of beauty. In 1918, the gave $1,000 to the
Students’ Aid Fund, and the following year $5,000 in the name of James V.
Sweetzer for the purchase of art treasures. In November, 1920, she
generously gave $5,000 to the Educational Fund. Her bequest of $61,948.52
was received in three payments between December 31, 1927 and May, 1929.52
Two other important gifts received in 1920 were those of Cornelia
McKay of $6,000 and of Mary A. Dye of $1,050, both for educational funds.
Among later outstanding gifts or bequests to the Association are
those of James C. Roberts, Delevan Smith, Walter L. Milliken, Mary
Milliken, Carl H. Lieber, Josephine Farnsworth McDonald, Kate Yohn
Vinnedge, Martha Delzell, Louis H. Levey, Edward F. and Laura F. Hodges,
Evans Woollen, and others.
Growth – The first period in the history of the Art Association
dates from its foundation in 1883 to 1895 when it was made a residuary
legatee of the estate of the deceased John Herron. After the first twelve
poverty-stricken years followed a period perhaps even more trying than the
first. During this time, from 1895 to 1906, there were “nearly two years and a
half of silent struggle with the remote relatives of the deceased and of adroit
fencing with attorneys and legislatures who thought
52
Interview with Miss Grace Speer, December 31, 1946.
to make either fees or political capital out of abetting the contestants of the
will.53 When this matter was finally thought to be cleared, the responsibility
of investing and expending to the best advantage the considerable means now
at the Art Association’s disposal was a cause of great anxiety.
In 1906, the organization realized the first part of its goal in the
form of a permanent museum building, followed by an art school building,
erected in 1907. Although the Art Association had accomplished much and
continued to expand, its struggle for security was prolonged for several years.
An important step toward permanency was taken between 1909 and 1915
when an affiliation of the Art Institute and the public schools of Indianapolis
was effected.
From the beginning, the Art School of the John Herron Art
Institute has enjoyed a healthy growth, not only in the number of students
enrolled, but also in the quality of work produced. In 1924 the school was
accredited by the State for both a two-year and a four-year course in teacher
training work and was affiliated with Butler and Indiana Universities. By
1928, the Art School had progressed sufficiently for the Board of Directors to
deem it wise to permit the granting of degrees on the completion of the fouryear teacher training course. A decade later, the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree
was conferred by the Art Association for the first time.
Present Status – According to the last annual report published in
May, 1947, the original little band of fifty-four members has grown to include
a grand total of one thousand eighty-two members. Of this number there are
53
Record of Art Association, op. cit., p. 14.
24
twenty-seven honorary members, thirty-three benefactors, twenty-one
members in perpetuity, sixteen sustaining life members, seventy-two life
members, forty-five sustaining members, seven hundred thirty-two annual
members, and one hundred thirty-six associate members.
The revenues of the Association are drawn from membership dues,
income from unrestricted funds, public funds, admission fees to special
exhibits, art school tuition and fees, and the sale of catalogues, books,
photographs, etc. The financial statement for the year ending December 31,
1946, shows the value of the buildings and grounds to be $337,126.24;
furniture and fixtures, $41,906.44; objects of art owned by the Association,
$755,709.49; the art library, $26,867.13; and the director’s residence, $7,500.
The Association also has $12,080.19 in its general fund, and trust funds
amounting to $673,478.40.
PART II
THE JOHN HERRON ART INSTITUTE – THE MUSEUM
CHAPTER II
DEVELOPMENT
The John Herron Bequest – On April 30, 1895, the Indianapolis
Journal recorded the notice of the death of seventy-eight year old John
Herron, a citizen of Indianapolis, who was fatally burned in a lodging house
fire at Los Angeles, California, whither he had gone in search of health.
The details of the tragedy were related to Ambrose P. Stanton, Mr.
Herron’s lawyer, when he and Miss Anna Turrell, a niece of the benefactor,
returned to Indianapolis with the corpse. According to Mr. Stanton’s account,
Miss Turrell played the role of a heroine in trying to save her uncle’s life. She
had gone with Mr. Herron to Los Angeles on the preceding Thanksgiving day
in order to care for him, for he was very feeble and partially blind.
A bed bug was the primary cause of the fire. The insect
was found in the boarding house were Mr. Herron and Miss Turrell were
stopping. The landlady was notified and she began a liberal use of coal
oil. The latter was poured about the casement of the rooms and on the
furniture. In the grate of Mr. Herron’s room a few embers were burning.
Mr. Herron and Miss Turrell were sitting in the room in the
evening when it was noticed that there was a small fire burning just
outside the grate. It had probably resulted from a spark flying out and
coming in contact with some of the oil. Miss Turrell arose to stamp out
the fire and the next moment the room was filled with flames. It seemed
as if the fumes from the oil had ignited. Miss Turrell seized Mr. Herron
by the hand and led
25
26
him to the window. Exit by the door was impossible because of the
flames. While she was forcing open a shutter, Mr. Herron pulled away
and started across the room for the door, but fell near a table in the center.
Miss Turrell jumped from the window and ran around to the hall from
which the door to the burning room entered. She could see her uncle lying
on the floor with the flames and smoke all around him. She asked some
men who had run in, to go in and get him out, but they replied that it was
impossible. Miss Turrell ran in despite their warnings and, grabbing her
uncle by the arm, with wonderful strength pulled his seemingly lifeless
body to a place of safety. In so doing her face and arms were burned and
she lost a great deal of her hair. After she had seen her uncle placed in a
neighbor’s house with medical attendance she realized for the first time
that she was injured.1
Mr. Herron succumbed to the fatal burns and after two weeks the
funeral services were held at the Herron house, 330 College Avenue. The
next day Mr. Herron’s body was interred in the ancestral graveyard at Mount
Carmel, Indiana.2
Quietly and unobtrusively Mr. Herron had lived and there were
few to mourn his passing. It was only after his death that the life story of this
comparatively unknown and retiring citizen was revealed to the public.
John Herron was born at Carlton, near Skipton, in Craven,
England, March 29, 1817, the son of George and Nancy Herron. At this time
the business depression which followed the Napoleonic wars had set in, and
his parents moved to America, settling in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Here, although the father had been trained as a tanner with an apprenticeship
of seven years, he became an employee and later, business manager of a
cotton mill where he worked for about eight years. He earned six dollars a
week with which he managed to support his family. In the latter period this
amount was increased to eight dollars.3
After that his parents moved to a farm in Oxford, Pennsylvania,
1
The Indianapolis Journal, May 15, 1895, p. 12.
The Indianapolis Times, October 11, 1943, p. 9.
3
The Indianapolis Journal, May 26, 1895, p. 3.
2
27
and again in 1837 to Cincinnati. Two years later, they finally settled on a one
hundred sixty-acre farm in Franklin County, near Mount Carmel, Indiana. On
that farm, which now belongs to the Art Association of Indianapolis, there
stands a well-built, handsome brick house and a barn, the plan of which was
designed by John Herron’s father and took a first prize at the Ohio State Fair
one year for being the best plan for such a purpose. A tile works on the farm
also added somewhat to the family bank account.4 Mr. Herron lived here for
many years, remaining single until he was fifty-two years of age. After his
marriage, December 23, 1869, to Electa D. Turrell, he continued to remain on
the Franklin County Farm.
About this time, he began investing most of his money in
Indianapolis real estate, and on November 3, 1881, he made his permanent
home here. For a short time he lived at 781 North Illinois Street, but soon
moved to 330 College Avenue where he resided until his death.5
Mr. Herron’s marriage was childless, and his parents and all of the
children except a sister, Ann, had died in the Franklin County home. Ann,
who was demented, was lovingly cared for by her brother until she became
too violent and had to be placed in a sanitorium where she died in October
1891.6 On October of the next year, Mr. Herron’s wife died, leaving him
without near relatives other than second and third cousins residing in Franklin
County, and Miss Anna Turrell and her brother, Williard S. Turrell, niece and
nephew through marriage.
4
Ibid., P. 3.
The Indianapolis Journal, May 18, 1895, p. 1.
6
Ibid., p. 1.
5
28
JOHN HERRON
Fig. 3.
29
After the death of his family, Mr. Herron accumulated
considerable wealth, having no care but the investment of his funds. He
engaged in the real estate business in this city and invested a large part of his
money in property on College Avenue.7
The acquisition of wealth did not change his frugal manner of
living. He always did his own carpentry work. Whenever a tenant
complained of needed repairs on his property, Mr. Herron would immediately
investigate the matter and if he deemed it necessary, the job would be taken
care of personally within the next twenty-four hours.8
Mr. Herron’s business methods were precise and always correct. It
is said that he never gave a note, but always paid cash. He owed no man a
cent and he expected to collect all that was due him. All the rents were
collected by himself and noted down in a most methodical manner. If the
amount of the monthly rental did not divide in even cents he would equalize
the sum by collecting the surplus of one month and deducting it the next
month. His tenants had his whole-hearted approval, and his neighbors spoke
of him as being friendly and sociable.9
Although Mr. Herron himself did not attend any church, Mr.
Stanton related that “he bought a lot for the Universalist Church, paying two
thousand dollars for it, his wife being a member.”10 It was in the Central
Universalist Church, situated on the corner of North New Jersey and Sixth
Streets, at 10:30 A.M., May 26, 1895, that memorial services for Mr. Herron
were held, participated in by Reverend R. E. John, of
7
The Indianapolis Journal, April 30, 1895, p. 8.
The Indianapolis Journal, May 18, 1895, p. 1.
9
Ibid., p. 1.
10
The Indianapolis Journal, May 26, 1895, p. 3.
8
30
London, Ohio, Reverend B. F. Foster, Mrs. May Wright Sewall, and A. P.
Stanton.11
The following Monday morning after the funeral, Mr. Stanton
called at the Girl’s Classical School, 824 North Pennsylvania Street, and
asked to speak to Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Principal of the school.
She felt that there must be something of importance or he
would not interrupt her there. His first words were: “You are the
president of the Art Association, I believe.” She assured him that she was,
and intuitively she read his message, for she said: “And you have come to
bring a fortune.” Mr. Stanton was astonished and asked her what she
knew, but she knew nothing; she only felt it. He then told her of the will
(of John Herron).12
The next day, May 18, three columns on the first page of the
Indianapolis Journal were devoted to the public announcement of Mr.
Herron’s will.13 Dying childless and without near relatives, Mr. Herron left
the bulk of his estate to the Art Association of Indianapolis with the
stipulation that his name be perpetuated in an art gallery and an art school to
be established by the Association. Mr. Stanton estimated the value of the
Herron estate to be $225,000. Most of the estate was invested in realty
amounting to about $100,000, represented in business houses and residence
property. The executor held about $90,000 worth of real estate mortgages
bearing six and seven per cent; and there were cash deposits in the city banks
amounting to $13,000.14
After a few minor bequests were made, including a substantial
legacy amounting to $10,000 for Miss Turrell, and $1,000 each to the
Indianapolis Orphans Asylum and to the Indianapolis Home for Aged Women
11
The Indianapolis Journal, May 25, 1895, p. 8.
The Indianapolis Journal, May 18, 1895, p. 1.
13
A copy of the will record of John Herron is included in the Appendix, p. 173.
14
The Indianapolis Journal, May 18, 1895, p. 1.
12
31
(“Katherine Home”), the Art Association of Indianapolis received about
$200,000 from the remainder of the estate. Incidentally, on this amount there
was no debt whatsoever, and even the taxes for the first part of the year 1895
had been paid as well as all the various assessments against the property, all of
which further demonstrates the business ability of the testator.
The will was executed in the office of Stanton and Scott during the
partnership, which existed between Ambrose P. Stanton and City Attorney
Scott. Mr. Stanton had been the legal advisor of the later John Herron for
twenty years and the fullest confidence existed between attorney and
client. Immediately after the will had been submitted to the usual legal
formalities in the Circuit Court it was taken down to the clerk’s office and
preparations made by the executor to furnish a bond of $400,000. It was
understood that the Indianapolis Art Association which had been so
handsomely endowed, would become the surety for Mr. Stanton. Before
five o’clock yesterday Messrs. D. P. Erwin, George Merritt, Herman
Lieber, A. H. Nordyke and N. A. Hyde had placed their signatures to the
bond and other members of the Association had signified their desire to
become sureties.15
The following week, on May 25, the bequest was celebrated with
due rejoicing by a mass meeting of three or four hundred people at the Grand
Opera House. It was one of the greatest celebrations ever held up to this time
in Indianapolis. On the stage with Dr. N. A. Hyde, Mr. Stanton, Mrs. Sewall,
President of the Art Association, and Mrs. D. R. Hodges, Corresponding
Secretary, were Mayor Denny, Mr. Merritt, a member of the City Council;
Charles Stewart of the Sentinel, representing the press; Messrs. Steele,
Forsyth, and Stark, the artists; Mrs. Josephine R. Nichols, Mrs. Blaker, head
of the kindergarten movement; H. U. Brown, L. H. Gibson, Philip Rappaport,
Reverend Cartensen of St. Paul’s Chruch, and others.
After a prayer by Reverend N. A. Hyde, Mrs. Sewall addressed the
audience, and Mrs. Hodges read Governor Matthew’s letter in his absence.
15
Ibid., p. 1.
32
Then Mayor Denny spoke briefly, followed by Mr. Stanton who delivered the
longest though most interesting speech concerning Mr. Herron’s life. In the
course of his talk, Mr. Stanton cleared up a question that had troubled the
minds of many.
I have been frequently asked…how it was that John Herron
came to leave his money to the Art Association. After his wife died he
found that he must make a will disposing of it, for he had no relatives
nearer than a third cousin, and he observed that the orphans were well
cared for, and that nearly every interest in the city was getting along pretty
well except its art culture. He wanted to leave all his money to this
purpose, except some few small bequests. I ventured to suggest to him
one day that he would do well to give more to the kindergarten, that being
the institution that interested me most, but he said that he could not give to
all and would not have enough to give the Art Association. He even
expressed the idea that the money should remain in my hands for ten years
until it should accumulate to $400,000. He had a broad idea of his
mission. He wanted to put it to a good use and wanted it to benefit
Indianapolis.16
Following Mr. Stanton’s talk, speeches were also made by Mr.
Stewart and by Mr. Rappaport, and letters were read from Charles R.
Williams, Fred L. Purdy, of the Sun, Harry S. New, of the Journal, F. X.
Arens, Bishop Chatard, and Dr. Joseph Henckes, expressing interest in the
work of the Art Association and congratulations on its good fortune. The
closing speech was made by Reverend Cartensen.17
When the flurry of excitement had subsided somewhat, the
directors of the Art Association met to take action regarding the use of the
bequest. It was unanimously decided that the legacy should “serve as a
nucleus, and whatever is done in the way of establishing a museum or institute
should be done well.”18 No action was taken, but committees were appointed
to
16
The Indianapolis Journal, May 26, 1895, p. 3.
Ibid., p. 3.
18
The Indianapolis Journal, May 25, 1895, p. 8.
17
33
investigate and report to the Board so that it would be better understood how
to proceed.19 However, due to litigation of the will by distant relatives of Mr.
Herron, the work could not be carried forward until a settlement was effected
on October 12, 1897.20
The Association then felt secure in the possession of the bequest
and again turned its attention to the investment and expenditure of the money.
On March 21, 1899, a committee consisting of Hugh H. Hanna, Mrs. May
Wright Sewall, A. P. Stanton, and C. E. Hollenbeck submitted a plan for the
distribution of the funds.21
It is proposed that the available assets be divided into three
funds, the largest of which is an art treasure fund of $150,000. This fund
is to be preserved intact, and the income from it is to be devoted to the
purchase of pictures, statuary and other works of art. This fund is
intentionally made as large as possible because the success of the art
gallery must depend upon it, and it will presumably be of slower growth
than other funds. Of course, the acquisition of art treasures is not limited
to the proceeds of this fund. The association has some valuable paintings
now, and will no doubt receive donations from time to time, as well as
making acquisitions from its own funds. The fun will, however, insure a
steady growth of the collection and in time make it a very creditable one.
As a fund for the maintenance of the art school $10,000 is
set aside. This may seem small, but when it is taken into consideration
that the school will have quarters in the art building, and that it will have
an income from tuition, the fund will insure a beginning commensurate
with the other branches of the work….
The third fund is for a building, and consists of $65,000. It
is not to be used until additional donations or subscriptions to the amount
of at least $25,000 shall be made, and of the total $50,000 at least shall be
available for a site, and for that sum, presumably a satisfactory one can be
obtained….22
These resolutions were unanimously adopted by the Board of
Directors though the distribution later proved to be more theoretical than
practical.
19
Ibid., p. 8.
Record of the Art Association, op. cit., p. 14.
21
Ibid., p. 14.
22
The Sentinel, March 21, 1899, p. 4.
20
34
Acquisition of Tinker-Talbott Place – The administration of its
funds having been agreed upon, the Art Association now became interested in
the selection of a site for the Institute building. The question of its location
had been in the mind of Mr. Herron himself when he made his will. In
discussing the matter with Mr. Stanton, the latter suggested that the
Cyclorama building might be converted into a gallery. Mr. Herron had
approved the suggestion and told Mr. Stanton to buy it and he would deed it to
the Association. For some reason or another, however, this plan was never
carried out. At the time the will was publicly announced Mr. Stanton again
proposed this building for the new museum because of its central location. He
also agreed with Mrs. Sewall that the University Park would be an agreeable
site, though both held little hope of acquiring it from the state.23
Between April 11, 1899, and January 12, 1900, more than twenty
properties were carefully considered for eligibility. “Some of the members
though the building should be erected about Monument place, as it seems to
be destined as the art center of the city.”24 A few of the proposed sites were
the English homestead and the location of the Water Company’s office; the
Pyle house, directly across from the Library Building; a property on St. Clair
Street, looking south to the Blind Institute Park; the Fitzgerald homestead on
the northeast corner of Meridian and St. Clair Streets; the Fletcher homestead
on Clifford Avenue; the Fairbanks beer garden where St. Vincents’ Hospital
now stands; and the Talbott property at Pennsylvania and Sixteenth Streets.25
23
The Indianapolis Journal, May 19, 1895, p. 8.
The Indianapolis Journal, May 26, 1895, p. 3.
25
Ibid., p. 3.
24
35
An account of the final selection of the last mentioned property is
given in the records of the Art Association as follows:
On January 12, 1900, Mrs. May Wright Sewall, introduced
a motion, which was seconded by Mrs. Morss, recommending the
purchase of the Talbott property, or what was known as Tinker Place, at
an expenditure from our own funds not exceeding $50,000. This motion
was carried on roll call by eleven ayes to six noes. To secure a larger
majority a reconsideration was noted, when the original motion, enlarged
by some modification, was passed by fourteen ayes to four noes.
On motion of Mr. Malott, seconded by Mrs. Hodges, it was
agreed that this vote should be considered unanimous. Decisive as this
action seemed, events proved that it was the beginning and not the end of
the board’s labors in fixing on a site. On February 13, 1900, it was
discovered that there had developed so much opposition to the site chosen
that the whole subject was reopened. The records show that at the
November meeting of 1900 the President was still urging action
concerning the site, and it was ordered “that the location should be settled
at the regular December meeting, or in case that it should not be settled,
special meetings should be called continuously until the site should be
chosen.”
On December 11, 1900, the selection of the site being the
special order of business, the whole question was opened up for
reconsideration. After a discussion prolonged to three hours, Mrs. Sewall,
seconded by Mr. Stanton, moved the original motion of January 12, 1900,
committing the board to the purchase of the Talbott property on certain
conditions. The motion was carried by a vote of ten to two.26
The determining factor in the final selection was the gracious
donation by neighboring property owners of two lots bordering the north side
of Talbott Place, and the vacation of “Coram” or Sixteenth Street by the city.
Without this added space there would not have been enough room for a school
behind the museum.
The Tinker-Talbott-Steele house, with its two-story porch
embellished with cast-iron railings and supports over-hung by gorgeous hops
vines, became the property of the Art Association on April 9, 1901 for the
price of $50,000, as heretofore voted upon. It was remodeled and lighted by
electricity, after which the Association moved in on
26
Record of the Art Association, op. cit., p. 15.
36
February 11, 1902.27
Almost a month later, on the evening of March 4, the occupancy of
the property was duly celebrated by the formal opening of the John Herron
Art Institute with a reception given by Hugh H. Hanna, President of the Art
Association, and his wife.28
A newspaper account of the appearance and arrangement of the
interior of the building on this event is related in part as follows:
Much credit is certainly due to the members of the house
and grounds committee, who had charge of the decorating and remodeling
of the interior of the building, for the beautiful toning and coloring of the
walls is all due to their work. The walls of the hallways are done in a
beautiful Pompeiian red with the contrasting woodwork in a deep olive
green. The director’s room and the exhibit rooms have the walls and work
all of the same color – a soft empire green, with a ceiling of pale yellow.
Extending entirely around the upper edge of the walls are electric lights at
intervals which place at especial advantage the pictures which hang below.
A profusion of plams and cut spring flowers added to the
beauty of the building last night. The windows were trellised with
Southern smilax in an artistic manner, and the mantel and doorways were
banked with palms and ferns.
One of the handsomest rooms is the director’s room, which
extends the length of the building on the east side….
The guests found the upper portion of the building very
interesting. Here are the classrooms of Mr. J. Ottis Adams, Mr. Lyons and
Mr. Brandt Steele….29
The Building Program – Meanwhile, the committee on buildings
and grounds, formed in 1899, had been busy in acquiring much information
concerning museum buildings in other parts of the country. Two months after
the formal opening of the John Herron Art Institute the committee on
buildings and grounds met with the Board of Directors and suggested that
27
Ibid., p. 16.
Ibid., p. 16.
29
The Indianapolis Journal, March 5, 1902, p. 10.
28
37
Tinker-Talbott-Steele Place,
the first home of the
John Herron Art Institute
1902-1906
Fig. 4.
Permanent Museum Building
of the John Herron Art Institute
erected in 1906.
Fig. 5.
38
the firm of Vonnegut and Bohn should be asked to make plans for the new
building, providing satisfactory arrangements could be made. A contract with
these architects was signed on January 12, 1903, and plans were adopted by
the Board at a meeting held June 23, 1903. A week later records show that
…a resolution was passed instructing the Buildings and
Grounds Committee immediately to prepare the necessary detailed
drawings for so much of the building as without interfering with the use of
the old house can be satisfactorily constructed with the funds presumably
available by the time it will be needed.30
The plans were to be exhibited at Lieber’s Art Gallery and a
committee was formed for the purpose of raising a building fund of $100,000.
After much consideration, the architects were authorized, January
12, 1904, to produce a model of the first section of the building according to
the plans adopted. By April 1, 1904, the detail plans were ready to be
submitted to contractors for bids. As a result,
…the lowest bid for the general construction was received
from Ittenbach and Company at a cost of $120,183, which increased by
the cost of detail plans, contracts for heating, plumbing, plastering,
painting, inside finish, etc., and by architects’ fees, was lifted to a total of
about $146,000.31
The minutes, May 10, 1904, reveal that the committee on buildings
and grounds was authorized
…to let the contract for the building of the first section of
the John Herron Art Museum to the lowest bidder above referred to, so
soon as the Finance Committee should report that the sum of $35,000 had
been subscribed to the building fund.32
Two months later, another entry in the minutes reduced the prescribed amount
of subscription funds to $20,000. Apparently, the effort to obtain
30
Record of the Art Association, op. cit., p. 17.
Ibid., p. 17.
32
Ibid., p. 17.
31
39
subscriptions to the building fund was not meeting with much success. The
idea is confirmed by the following quotation from the minutes, October 11,
1904:
The action taken at the July meeting, whereby the
construction of the new Building was made dependent on raising $20,000
by subscription, and all action relating to the new Building shall be held in
abeyance until the Buildings and Grounds Committee report on the
following points:
First. Whether it recommend proceeding with the present
plans that have been adopted.
Second. If it does not recommend so proceeding, that it
submit further plans to the board for such a building as it does recommend
for the board’s consideration.33
There had developed among the Board members at this time a
difference of opinion as to the propriety of soliciting funds from the public.
Those who advocated the plan argued that the Art Institute was to be a public
building, managed for the public benefit, and as such it should be erected and
even supported by the community. The opponents to this policy believed that
the public would not and should not be expected to establish a building which
was to bear the name of an individual man. They argued that the citizens
would be more inclined to contribute to the art treasury fund after the
Association had proven its worth by the erection of the best building possible
within the limits of the bequest.
Evidently, those who held the latter view were in the
ascendancy, for on November 8, 1904, the directors decided to abandon the
present plans and to erect a building costing not over $50,000. An
unsuccessful attempt was first made to modify the plans adopted on June 30,
1903, to fit within the pecuniary limit set by the Association. Then an entirely
new plan was submitted in outline to the Board on March 14, 1905. The
Secretary’s record of April 4, 1905, showed that the cost of this building
33
Ibid., p. 18.
40
would exceed the sum allotted, and that the Board therefore desired the
architects to submit plans for a less expensive building.
Finally, on May 1, 1905, on recommendation of the buildings and
grounds committee, the Board voted to “proceed to the erection of a building
along lines suggested by our architects, but on a larger scale and of fire-proof
construction, at an expenditure not exceeding $85,000.”34
By September 12, the working drawings had been approved and
were in the hands of the contractors. At a meeting of the buildings and
grounds committee held on September 19, 1905, the contract was awarded to
Brandt Brothers, the lowest bidders of nine competing firms.
The Brandt Brothers…will put the building under roof for
$49,124, the completion of the building to be contracted for later.
That the bidding was remarkably close is shown by the following
list of figures submitted: W. E. Moore, $49,490; Van Spreckleson,
$49,590; Ferd Smock, $51,500…35
Although complete in itself, the building to be erected was only the southern
section of a larger structure planned to be built in the future.
On September 23, 1905, the ground was broken for the new Art
Museum.
Mrs. May Wright Sewall, selected to turn the first soil for
the new John Herron Art Institute building at Sixteenth and
Pennsylvania streets, struck the spade into the ground at the
southeast corner of the site of the proposed structure at four
o’clock yesterday afternoon in the presence of about a hundred
persons, mostly women, interested in the Art Association and its
work.36
In order to begin work on the new building it was necessary, first
of all, to raze the historic old Tinker mansion, one of the oldest residences in
Indianapolis. It was built about seventy-five years previously by an old
seaman, Captain Tinker. At the time it was constructed the site
34
Ibid., p. 20.
The Indianapolis News, September 20, 1905, p. 16.
36
The Indianapolis News, September 24, 1905, p. 24.
35
41
Fig. 6
42
was considered to be far out into the country, and few thought it would ever
become a part of the city’s residential and business district.37
The cornerstone of the Institute was laid with appropriate
ceremonies, November 25, 1905. The exercises preceding the setting of the
stone were held in the Mayflower Congregational Church, at Sixteenth and
Delaware Streets, beginning at two o’clock in the afternoon. The program38
rendered was as follows:
Invocation
Rev. Arthur J. Francis
The Relation of the John Herron
Art Institute to the Community
John W. Holtzman,
Mayor of Indianapolis
Charles A. Bookwalter,
Mayor-elect of Indianapolis
Charles W. Moores,
Of the Board of School Commissioners
The Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana
Mrs. May Wright Sewall
An Appreciation of John Herron
Mrs. Edward F. Hodges
The Future of the John Herron Art Institute
Theodore C. Steele
The Expansion of the Art Association
William Henry Fox,
Director of the John Herron Art Institute
Immediately following the program, Mrs. Addison C. Harris,
President of the Art Association, announced the generous gift of $5,000 from
the late Henry Schnull, given through his sons and daughters, Gustav A.
Schnull, Mrs. Clemens Vonnegut, Jr., Mrs. Bernard Vonnegut, and Mrs. J. G.
Mueller.
37
38
Ibid., p. 24.
Record of the Art Association, op. cit., p. 21.
43
(Image unavailable for digital version)
Fig. 7.
44
Following the exercises at the church, the group proceeded to the
site of the building where the cornerstone was laid by Mrs. Addison C. Harris,
and the benediction was spoken by Reverend Christopher S. Sargent.39
The building once begun progressed as rapidly as could be
expected. By the first part of February it was under roof; and the following
November it was completed, having been in course of construction for one
year. The total cost of the finished building was $113,890.98.40 Details of its
construction are treated in Chapter IV.
Dedication of the New Building – Dedication ceremonies were
conducted under the auspices of the Art Association of Indianapolis, on
November 20, 21, and 22. On the first evening a large audience filled the
galleries to participate in the dedication exercises and to view the inaugural
exhibition of pictures.
In the Sculpture Court, about eight hundred persons listened to
addresses by James Whitcomb Riley, Professor Halsey C. Ives, of the St.
Louis Museum of Fine Arts, and Professor Paul Shorey, of Chicago
University. Professor Ives in his address, “The Place of Art in the
Development of the People,” spoke on every phase of art, showing how each
part aids in the cultural growth of the people. The subject of Mr. Shorey’s
paper was “The Social Services of Art.” Mr. Riley entertained the audience
with “humorous bits of poetry as well as a discourse on the beauties of art.”41
39
Ibid., p. 22.
Dunn, op. cit., p. 488.
41
The Indianapolis Star, November 21, 1906, p. 12.
40
45
Long before the time had arrived for the speakers of the
evening to take their places on the platform every one of the eight hundred
chairs in the Sculptural Hall was occupied and many people were
standing. Chairs filled every foot of available space and the two stairways
leading to the galleries above were crowded.
In one corner of the hall a large statue of General Lawton
loomed above the audience. The statue is to be placed in the Court House
yard, but will remain in the institute until a place for it has been prepared
by the Lawton Monument Commission.
During the time taken up by the speakers, those who could
not find seats in the hall or standing room on the stairways wandered
about the lower corridor admiring the old, historic tapestries which hang
on the walls.
…………………………………………………………………………………
The John Singer Sargent portrait of James Whitcomb Riley,
the Hoosier poet, who addressed the gathering in the hall below, attracted
much attention….42
Following the first part of the program, the galleries were opened
to the audience in order that they might view the special exhibition of pictures
installed for the occasion. The collection included about seventy newlypurchased paintings, mostly by American artists,43 together with other pictures
owned by the Association and several pictures lent by the museums of
Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Boston. Masterpieces of both European and
American artists were displayed, thus making this first exhibition at the John
Herron Art Institute “one of the finest in its variety of high standard ever
given in the West.”44
On the evening of November 21, a reception was given for the
members of the Art Association and their guests.
The next day the museum was thrown open to the public, and
3,620 visitors attested their interest in the new enterprise. From henceforward
the real activities of the Institute began. The Art School classes occupied
42
Ibid., p. 12.
The Indianapolis Star, October 1, 1906, p. 23.
44
Annual Report of the President, August 31, 1907, p. 7.
43
46
the east and west rooms of the first floor, while the other galleries were
devoted to a regular series of exhibitions, lectures, and entertainments. The
directors followed a paid admission system, except on the day of the formal
opening to the public on November 22, 1906, which was free. During the last
nine days of November 6, 702 persons attended the museum.45
45
Annual Report of the President, August 31, 1907, p. 7.
CHAPTER III
INDIVIDUAL ADMINISTRATION
Directors – As soon as the Art Association occupied the TinkerTalbott homestead in 1902, a curator was needed to take charge of the
organization’s now considerable properties, and to be on duty to make
available to the public for its exhibitions and school. Fortunately, it was
possible for the Board of Directors to elect Miss Anna Turrell, niece of the
benefactor, for this position. In February of that same year Miss Turrell
assumed the entire management of the Museum, a position which she held
until 1905, when the rapidly increasing growth of the institution made
necessary the appointment of a director whose sole occupation would be to
promote the interest of the Institute.
Table 1 lists the six directors who have been responsible for the
growth and development of the Museum together with the respective dates of
their initiation in and resignation from this office.
TABLE 1
DIRECTORS OF THE ART MUSEUM
Length of Service
Name
From
To
William Henry Fox
April, 1905
July, 1910
Milton Matter
April, 1911
January, 1912
Frederick Allen Whiting
June, 1912
May, 1913
Harold Havan Brown
June, 1913
June, 1921
J. Arthur MacLean
February, 1923
June, 1921
Wilbur D. Peat
July, 1929
December, 1926
47
48
In January, 1905, a committee was appointed to engage William
Fox, of Philadelphia, as Managing Director of the Museum. The next month,
Mr. Fox visited Indianapolis, “met the directors of the association and
carefully examined the field, and was so favorably impressed that he chose
this position out of five that were open to him at that time.”1 He assumed his
duties at the John Herron Art Institute on April 1 of that same year.
Mr. William Henry Fox was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
November 10, 1858, the son of Daniel M. Fox and Elizabeth Caroline (Korn)
Fox. His father had been at various times Mayor of Philadelphia, a
superintendent of the United States Mint, and a member of the Postal
Commission during the presidency of General Grant. In his youth, the new
director received his early education in the public schools of his native city
and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1881 with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts. Two years later he received the degree of
Bachelor of Laws from the same institution and was admitted to the bar of
Pennsylvania. He then practiced law in Philadelphia in association with his
brother, Henry K. Fox. In 1903, he married Catherine Thomas Dobbins,
daughter of L. Russell Dobbins of Philadelphia.
Mr. Fox possessed a marked artistic talent in the appreciation of art
and had painted also, though not professionally. Finally, his natural
inclination led him to accept the position of art critic with a Philadelphia
newspaper. As a result, his talent as a critic and connoisseur became highly
developed. In 1903, his ability was distinctively recognized when he was
appointed Secretary of the Department of Fine Arts at the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition in St. Louis and was also appointed as representative
1
The Indianapolis News, March 4, 1905, p. 17.
49
(Image unavailable for digital version)
Fig. 8.
50
of Russia on the international jury of awards. For the same exposition, too, he
organized the art representation of Pennsylvania and the Southeastern states.
It was through these associations that he gained marked prestige in art affairs.2
He wrote much on art subjects and acquired a wide acquaintance with artists
and critics in the United States and Europe. He was a member of the National
Arts Club of New York, the Art Club of Philadelphia, and the Artists’ Guild
of St. Louis.3
Mr. Fox came to the John Herron Art Institute from the St. Louis
Exposition. As director of the Institute, he assumed “charge of the school and
exhibitions, the new building and the membership, and, in fact,…the
development of all the activities of the Art Association necessary to make the
Institute a live influence in the city and state.”4 He did much to popularize the
institution and stressed the importance of instructive work. One of his most
noteworthy efforts was to secure for the Institute the temporary loan of the
memorial collection of the sculptured works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens
which were exhibited in the Museum from Christmas, 1909, through March,
1910.5
In July, 1910, Mr. Fox resigned to accept the assistant
commissionership for the United States at the International Exposition in
Rome. The following spring, negotiations with Henry W. Kent, the assistant
secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, were broken off at
the last moment after he had definitely decided to assume the directorship of
the John Herron Art Museum.6
2
Dunn, op. cit., p. 960.
The Indianapolis News, March 4, 1905, p. 17.
4
Ibid., p. 17.
5
Dunn, op. cit., p. 960.
6
Annual Report of the President, 1911, p. 6.
3
51
After a brief interval, Milton Matter served as acting director for a
few months. Mr. Matter was a native of Marion, Indiana, and had recently
graduated from Princeton University, where he was awarded a fellowship in
fine arts. After his graduation he “spent several months in the art museums of
Europe.”7 Appointed in April, 1911, Mr. Matter assumed his duties as
director on May 8, 1911. He spent the summer at study in the New York
museums, returning in September, but resigned in January, 1912.8
At the next annual meeting of the Board of Directors in April,
President Evans Woollen reported that “the two years’ quest for a Director of
the Museum had been happily ended by the engagement of Frederick Allen
Whiting.”9 The latter was engaged in March, 1912, and took up his duties at
the Museum the following June.10
Mr. Whiting had visited the John Herron Art Institute at the time of
its inaugural exhibition and had been most helpful to Mrs. Addison C. Harris,
then president of the Association. It was she who suggested that Mr. Whiting
be appointed to the position left vacant by Mr. Matter.
The new director had been quite successful as the executive head
of the Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston, and because of his outstanding
work in this capacity, he had been selected by Professor Halsey C. Ives to take
charge of the Department of Applied Art at the St. Louis Exposition. The
Board was particularly pleased to secure the new director because of his broad
sympathy with all forms of art as well as his unusual experience
7
The Indianapolis Star, May 9, 1911, p. 3.
Interview with Miss Grace Speer, January 24, 1947.
9
Annual Report of the President, April 21, 1912, p. 5.
10
Interview with Miss Grade Speer, January 24, 1947.
8
52
in the applied arts.11
During his short administration of one year, Mr. Whiting strove to
make the institution more democratic.
Rather than carrying out the old-fashioned idea of an art
museum, Mr. Whiting’s thought is to have the John Herron Art Institute
grow to be a more vital place in the community, a place where everybody
will feel at home and where they will take pleasure in coming.
Mr. Whiting feels that, in order to make the place a vital
institution for the whole city, there is no quicker and more effective way
than to reach the children. One room of the building has been set apart as
the children’s room. Here the exhibits are planned to be not only of
interest to the young people, but of especial educative value as well.
The little folk were not slow in accepting their first
invitation, which came to them some six weeks ago, a printed bulletin – a
“Children’s Edition” of the regular monthly leaflet issued by the Art
Association – a special invitation, all for them, from one who signed
himself their friend. And to sign yourself “friend” to a child means all that
word should mean.
These special bulletins went to 3,500 boys and girls in the
public schools. They called forth numerous letters of appreciation from
the children, and those many letters have been answered personally by the
busy director.
Not only the letters came, but the children soon followed –
so many of them that one afternoon recently Mr. Whiting and Miss Brooks
were kept busy until six o’clock giving talks to three hundred children.12
Miss Marguerite Brooks, mentioned above, had been engaged in the spring of
1912, “her services being partly given to membership work, and partly as
docent, her duties under the latter being to study the exhibits and to make
them more effective and useful to visitors.”13 She assisted Mr. Whiting in
guiding children and adult visitors through the museum, gave lectures, and
assisted club women in the preparation of papers. A graduate of Oberlin
College, Miss Brooks was further prepared for her work in the Institute by
study in the large art galleries of the country,
11
Annual Report of the President, April 21, 1912, p. 5.
The Indianapolis Star, December 15, 1912, p. 38.
13
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1913, p. 11.
12
53
such as the Metropolitan in New York, the Boston gallery, and the Chicago
Art Institute.14
No sooner was Mr. Whiting established in his position at the
Institute when he was offered a similar position in the museum at Cleveland,
Ohio. The larger opportunity and greater remuneration accompanying the
offer induced him to accept, much to the disappointment of the Art
Association.15
On the recommendation of Miss Wilhelmina Seegmiller,16 then
Supervisor of Art in the public schools of Indianapolis, Harold Haven Brown,
head of the art department of the University of Chicago, was engaged as
Director of both the Museum and the Art School in June, 1913. Although Mr.
Brown was a young man, he had had a wide experience in the various fields of
art. He held a diploma for four years’ work in the Massachusetts Normal Art
School, and he had studied in the Lowell School of Practical Design, the
Cowles Art School, the Julien Academy, and the École Des Beaux-Arts under
Constant, Laurens, and Gerome. He also took a course in design under the
famous Alphonse Mucha. In preparation for museum work, he studies in the
Louvre, the Luxembourg, and the Cluny museum of Europe.17
The newly appointed director is not only a worker in oil,
water color and various lines of art crafts – having exhibited at various
exhibitions in New York, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago and other cities – but
he has written frequently on various art subjects and has delivered lectures
in cities of the East, and the Middle West on the history of art and
architecture, on home decoration, art teaching and other matters pertaining
to art.
14
The Indianapolis Star, October 24, 1912, p. 3.
Annual Report of the President, 1913, p. 6.
16
Annual Report of the President, 1914, p. 6.
17
The Indianapolis Star, June 5, 1913, p. 1.
15
54
As a teacher Mr. Brown will come to the Art Institute with
much experience, having taught in the evening drawing schools of Boston
and in three different high schools of New York City, as well as having
been an instructor in normal work during summer sessions at Cornwell
and at the University of Chicago.18
Although Mr. Brown was much interested in the fine arts, he
believed in a liberal policy in the management of art museums. People who
do not usually attend art galleries should be drawn to appreciate its
advantages, and an interest in the beautiful should be fostered in children. He
further believed that industrial arts should receive special attention by means
of exhibitions, lectures, informal talks, and cooperative work with business
firms, so as to create a greater interest in arts and crafts. Some of the means
used by the director in bringing the Museum and the public in closer relation
were: public lectures at the Institute, formal and informal meetings of
organizations at the Museum, talks on a variety of art subjects at schools and
club rooms, social gatherings with tea in the galleries, Sunday musical
programs, illustrated bulletins, newspaper publicity, and free catalogues.19
Mr. Brown served for nine successful years, during which time
public interest in the Museum enjoyed a steady, healthy growth. In 1915, by
an act of the General Assembly of Indiana, the Museum was opened free at all
times to school children and to teachers and to the public on Saturdays and
Sundays. The President’s annual report for 1915 records that during that year
the attendance of school children “exceeded anything in the past, amounting
in two afternoons to nearly 1,000 children on each day.”20
18
Ibid., p. 1.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, April 7, 1914, p. 7.
20
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1916, p. 11.
19
55
In April, 1920, the Association received the resignation of William
Coughlen who had been secretary to the Association since 1909 and, in the
intervals when the Institute had no director, he had assumed this work also.
From 1911 until the appointment of Mr. Brown in 1913 Mr. Coughlen had
been acting director of the Art School. In the event of Mr. Coughlen’s
resignation, Mrs. Harold Haven Brown was appointed as assistant to the
Director.21
Soon after the Board had re-elected Mr. and Mrs. Brown in the
spring of 1921, the latter announced their desire to make an extended trip
abroad in the fall. In order to avoid accepting their resignations, the Board of
Directors offered them a three-months’ leave of absence with full pay. This
time allotment, however, was insufficient for the fulfillment of their plans.
Thus, the Board was forced to accept their resignations immediately, and once
more the John Herron Art Institute was without a director.
To meet the emergencies created in the museum and the
school by the withdrawal respectively of Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown the
services of Miss Hasselman as curator and Miss Shover as principal have
been availed of with admirable results.22
This situation prevailed until February, 1923, when J. Arthur
MacLean took up his duties as Director of the Museum and School.
Mr. MacLean possessed a thorough knowledge of museum work,
his early training having been taken at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Here
he worked for several years before he went to the Cleveland Art Museum to
assist Frederick Allen Whiting, former director of the John Herron Art
Institute, in the establishment of Cleveland’s thriving institution. During the
year before his engagement at the Indianapolis museum, he had been
21
22
Annual Report of the President, 1921, p. 9.
Annual Report of the President, 1922, p. 6.
56
assistant director of the Chicago Art Institute. He was induced to leave this
position so soon only upon the urgent request of President Evans Woollen and
other directors of the Art Association, and because he had previously enjoyed
some pleasant relations with the Institute.
These connections dated back to 1910, when Mr. MacLean, in
touring the world with Derman Ross, was entrusted by the Herron Art
Institute with a sum of money for the purpose of purchasing examples of
oriental art. In the summer of 1922, he had also been “engaged for a month in
classifying and cataloguing the acquisitions of the Institute received since
1915.”23
With Mr. MacLean came Miss Dorothy Blair to act in the capacity
of assistant to the director. Miss Blair had been associated with the new
director during his seven years’ stay at the Cleveland Museum and in
Chicago. She was a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, majoring in art and
archeology. After graduation she had been invited to return as an assistant in
the department of art.24
Mr. MacLean’s policy of museum management was very definite.
He believed that well-laid plans and objectives were necessary to the
upbuilding of such an institution and stressed the quality rather than the
quantity of exhibits. In accordance with this conviction his first action upon
his arrival was to reorganize the executive staff.
Three curatorships have been designated. Each curator is to be
held responsible for arousing and holding local interest in his
department, for the natural growth of the collections under his
jurisdiction and the interpretation of the objects. It is also the
duty of the curator to keep the official catalogue of objects up
to date as it pertains to his department.25
23
The Indianapolis News, February 5, 1923, p. 10.
The Indianapolis News, February 5, 1923, p. 10.
25
The Indianapolis News, February 20, 1923, p. 13.
24
57
Director MacLean himself was curator of both Oriental and
Egyptian art; Miss Blair was made curator of European art, also in charge of
classical art and prints; and Miss Anna Hasselman became curator of
paintings, as well as of North Central and South American art. Miss Edna
Mann Shover was appointed principal of the School.26
After the director had made changes in the departmental work, that
is, in the clerical force and in the assistants in the buildings and grounds
department, there was then “a corps of five official aids, twelve instructors,
and eight others working in various capacities.”27 He also rearranged and
renovated storage rooms in the basement, and set up a new system of
bookkeeping, together with a new departmental budget system of
disbursements.28
Mr. MacLean’s guidance of the Museum proved most effective
and practical, and it was with regret that the Board received his resignation in
the fall to be “effective on or before December 31, 1926.”29 At the time of his
resignation he had no plans for the future, but soon after he was asked by
George W. Stevens, director of the Toledo Museum, to become curator of the
newly organized department of Oriental art in that institution. Early in
December, he went to Toledo to fill this position, though Mr. Stevens had died
the preceding October 29.30
Miss Dorothy Blair was asked to assume charge on the resignation
of the director, but she declined the offer, preferring to resign also
26
Ibid., p. 13.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1924, p. 14.
28
Ibid., p. 15.
29
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, XIII, September, 1926, p. 27.
30
Ibid., November, 1926.
27
58
in order to enter research work in the Orient.31
The Museum was destined to function for the next three years
without a man at the helm. President Evans Woollen, in his annual report for
1926, records the following arrangement:
The Association is without a director, but the efficiency of
the staff under the leadership of Miss Hasselman as curator, Miss Shover
as principal of the School and Miss Speer as registrar, is such that its
activities are moving on satisfactorily. Indeed, there is no stress and it will
be my recommendation to the board that there be no hurry about filling the
directorship.
The report for 1927 was similar; but in that of January 8, 1929, we
read:
We have now proceeded three years under the
administration of Miss Hasselman. She has carried admirably the duties
of both curator and of director, but ought not longer be asked to do so.
Accordingly, funds must be found for the payment of a director’s salary.32
The following month, Wilbur D. Peat was engaged to the
directorate, and on July 1, 1929, he took up his duties in the John Herron Art
Museum.33 The proverbial “shoe” fit so well that he has persevered in this
office through the Institute’s various joys and vicissitudes in the ensuing years
to the present day.
Mr. Peat was born at Chengtu, China, the son of Methodist
missionaries. He lived in China until he was twelve years old, acquiring his
early education under the guidance of his mother. His academic training was
obtained at Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. Later, he
specialized in art, intending to become a portrait painter. He studied at the
Cleveland School of Art, the National Academy of Design in New York,
31
Ibid.
Annual Report of the President, January 8, 1929, p. 8.
33
Interview with Miss Grace Speer, May 7, 1947.
32
59
and the Art Student’s League in New York, after which he went to Paris
where he studied at the Grande Chaumiére and the Colorossi Academy. It
was his interesting study in the museums of France and Italy that caused him
to settle upon museum work rather than the earlier choice of portrait painting
as a career.
Upon his return from Europe, Mr. Peat became the director of the
Akron Art Institute where he remained for five years. In stating the reason for
making the change, he said that he had enjoyed his stay in Akron but “he felt
that Indianapolis offers a better field for building up a museum that will be the
center of the state’s art activities.”34
It has been Mr. Peat’s ambition to convert the modern Museum
from a storehouse for treasures as it has formerly been know, into a
serviceable institution, educational as well as cultural. With this in mind, he
has given generously of his time and energy in writing, lecturing, providing
outstanding art exhibitions, such as the Dutch Masters show in 1937, and in
popularizing Saturday morning classes for children. Under his guidance, a
number of modern paintings have been added to diversify the Museum’s
permanent collection. Truly, he has striven to make all that is now under his
hand vital to the community.
Departments and their staffs – A library inaugurated by a
committee under the zealous chairmanship of Mrs. Addison C. Harris in 1908
was the first special department to be installed in the John Herron Art
Museum. This department and the administrative offices had not been
considered in planning the building so that rooms constructed as galleries had
to be
34
The Indianapolis Star, July 1, 1929, p. 3.
60
appropriated for these purposes.35
Miss Turrell, Curator of the Museum, willingly added the charge
of the new department to numerous other duties for which she was
responsible. Later, when Mr. Fox was made Director of the Institute, she
became the Museum’s full-time librarian. Zealously, she devoted her vacation
in 1909 to the study of library administration, and afterward catalogued the
growing collection according to the most approved method. In 1920, Miss
Carrie E. Scott, assistant organizer for the Indiana Public Library
Commission, aided the librarian in cataloguing and arranging the volumes on
the shelves.
Fig. 9.
The southeast corner room on the first floor was set aside for the
use of the library. In 1910, it was fitted up with cases, providing
accommodations for several thousand volumes of all sizes. Many additions to
the library were received, some by purchase and some by gift. One of
35
Interview with Miss Marian Greene, January 31, 1947.
61
the first donations received during the initial years of the library’s existence
was a large number of volumes given by Captain Alexander Lawrie, of
Lafayette.
The Institute’s library was begun without a special fund for its
purposes, and stringent economy forced the Board of Directors to allow only
three hundred fifty dollars for installment and accessions. Expenditures were
thereby limited, the books being purchased for the most part at moderate
prices, care being taken to select authoritative and useful books which would
meet the demands and needs of the students in the Art School.
The art library was primarily intended for the students of the Art
School and the members of the Art Association, but it was hoped that it would
“grow to be a valuable reference library for all students of art.”36 In 1914, its
mission of usefulness was extended when prints and photographs were loaned
to Shortridge and manual Training High Schools, and to teachers and persons
giving lectures and talks before schools and clubs in the city and throughout
the state. Later, Director MacLean was able to report that
A delightful relation with the Public Library has been
maintained which adds to the efficiency of our own library. Necessary
books for our art students, especially those taking our prescribed course in
History of Art, are often supplied by the Public Library.37
In 1915, in preparation for the approaching Indiana Centennial, a
special effort was made to collect all possible data regarding Indiana artists.
Prior to this time, no books or other authoritative records of their activities
were in circulation. At this time also, an exchange with
36
37
Annual Report of the Librarian, April 2, 1912, p. 24.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, January 8, 1924, p. 16.
62
other American museums of annual reports, bulletins, catalogues of
exhibitions and permanent collections was begun. This information was
valuable for use in securing exhibitions and in comparing the activities of the
John Herron Art Institute with other museums.
An increase in the size and variety of library accessions from year
to year made more space for its accommodation imperative. When changes in
departmental work were inaugurated in 1923 under the directorate of J. Arthur
MacLean, additional space was assigned to the library wherein stacks were
installed for little-used books.
Four years later, the library had again outgrown its room,
necessitating the use of part of the office, which was partitioned off. The
library was then being used extensively by schools and clubs and also
functioned as a reference library for the Museum staff and students of the Art
School. An average of thirty-two people used the library each day, and
material was sent to sixty-five schools and clubs outside of Indianapolis
during the fiscal year, 1927.38
All good things come to an end. Thus, after twenty-two years of
devoted and efficient service as librarian of the Art Institute, Miss Anna
Turrell resigned on February 2, 1924, “because of her desire to be relieved of
the increasing labor of the department.”39 Mrs. Marion Weeks filled the
vacancy from the first of April to the first of September, when Miss Sarah St.
John took up her duties as librarian.
With the advent of Director Wilbur D. Peat further progress was
evidenced by the fact that the library “was open on Sunday afternoons under
the supervision of Miss Clara Hunt, [with] an increasing number of
38
39
Annual Report of the Librarian, January 10, 1928, pp. 16-17.
Annual Report of the Director, January 13, 1925, p. 11.
63
people taking advantage of the opportunity for study and reading.”40
Miss Hunt was appointed Assistant Librarian to aid Miss St. John
in 1929. Toward the end of September, 1930, Miss St. John resigned and this
work was taken up immediately by Miss Marian Greene, who has quite
admirably and efficiently filled this post to the present day.
In the last fifteen years the Institute library has been distinguished
by the rapid expansion of its extension service. Its status for the year 1945 is
recorded in the Director’s report as follows:
The Library…continued its usefulness as a source of
information and inspiration for students, collectors, and people interested
in matters pertaining to painting, sculpture and architecture. More than
four thousand people used its facilities during the year, exclusive of those
who obtained information by mail or telephone. The Library’s extension
service (books are not lent except under special circumstances) included
the lending of clippings, mounted photographs, reproductions and lantern
slides to schools and clubs; and assisting people in the preparation of club
papers dealing with art and artists. About eighty organizations took
advantage of some phase of this extension work during the past year.41
The next distinct subdivision to be created in the Institute was a
print department. Professor Alfred M. Brooks, of Indiana University, was
appointed as Curator of Prints and Lecturer on Engraving in July, 1910.
Professor Brooks represented “perhaps as fully as anyone in the west the
knowledge of art and the culture of which his friend and preceptor, Professor
Charles Eliot Norton, has been the country’s most eminent exponent.”42
Beginning on March 1, 1911, the Curator of Prints gave a series of
weekly lectures which were held on Wednesday evenings in the Museum.
The
40
Annual Report of the Librarian, December 31, 1929, p. 17.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1945, p. 12.
42
Annual Report of the President, April 1, 1911, p. 6.
41
64
course on the general history and the theory of the art of engraving on wood
and metal, etching, and mezzotint was introductory in character and was
meant to lead to other courses in the future.
At the time the department was inaugurated, outside of the
Frederick B. Brownell collection of prints, there was practically no other
illustrative material in the form of prints. While abroad during the preceding
fall, Professor Brooks had been enabled to procure some fine prints for the
new department which were a substantial beginning toward the new curator’s
hopes for “a small but representative collection of the various schools of
engraving.”43
During his twelve years’ stay at the John Herron Art Institute,
Professor Brooks gave himself generously in delivering lectures on various
subjects, arranging print exhibits, and, during 1913-1914, in issuing illustrated
monthly bulletins dealing critically with new accessions.
His successor was Miss Dorothy Blair who took up this work in
1923.
The Print Department…under Miss Dorothy Blair,
inaugurated early in August a permanent Print Room. Interesting
exhibitions have continued each month since, mostly loans from
outside sources, but in the meantime, the Museum’s permanent
collection of prints is being catalogued, mounted, and more
adequately stored. A Print class has been inaugurated for
members…44
The print room with its monthly change of exhibits aroused the
interest of museum visitors and proved a popular gallery. The print class,
enrolling twenty members, met there for a series of seven lectures on “The
Appreciation of Engravings and Etchings.” At an additional meeting, Mr.
Frederick Polley, who had become a member of the class, gave an etching
demonstration. In addition to these activities, “gallery talks
43
44
Annual Report of the Curator of Prints, April 1, 1911, p. 26.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, January 8, 1923, p. 16.
65
were given in the print room, as well as Sunday talks on “Modern Etchings”
and talks for children.45
In 1923, the department received an important gift in the form of
one hundred eight etchings, woodblocks, engravings, mezzotints, monotypes,
and lithographs from the bequest of Delevan Smith.
After Miss Blair’s resignation, Miss Hasselman, then Curator of
the Museum, continued the work so well begun in the print department,
although from that time on it ceased to function as a separate department.
Important print accessions by gift and purchase have been added from year to
year thereby gradually increasing the value of the permanent collection.
The textile collection was begun in 1914 when Miss Sarah G.
Flint, Curator of Textiles of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, agreed to
purchase textiles each year to the amount of five hundred dollars for the John
Herron Art Museum.46 Due to lack of funds, the proper arrangement of this
collection was somewhat neglected and not until 1931 was it mounted and
catalogued, Mrs. Ellen Field being employed for the work. At this time there
were over two hundred mounts of textiles twenty-two inches by twenty-eight
inches in size comprising the collection.47
On April 20, 1920, Miss Ellen M. Niblack became Curator of
Textiles which title she held until 1922.48 She afterwards held the same
position in the Brooklyn Museum. Miss Niblack collected numerous objects
of art, many of which she generously added to the Museum’s collection. In
the Director’s report for 1930 we find among the gifts to the Institute
45
Annual Report of the Curator of Prints, January 13, 1925, p. 15.
Annual Report of the President, April 6, 1915, p. 9.
47
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1931, p. 14.
48
Interview with Miss Grace Speer, January 31, 1946.
46
“approximately two hundred fifty pieces coming from the collection of the
late Eliza M. Niblack.” Three years later, Mr. Peat records the following:
The most notable of these gifts (received during 1933) was
the large collection of historic textiles formed over a period of many years
by Miss Eliza Niblack, and presented in December to the Art Association
in memory of Miss Eliza Niblack and Miss Sarah Niblack by Mrs. James
Thorne and Mrs. J. Alden Swift of Chicago. The generosity of Miss Eliza
Niblack and Miss Sarah Niblack, and their sincere interest in the
development of the museum, has been referred to in previous Annual
Reports and Bulletins, and it is with deep gratitude that the museum
accepts this last gift, so generously made in their memory. This group of
fabrics, together with the pieces now owned by the Art Association, forms
a collection of great value and distinction.49
At the same time when Miss Blair assumed charge of the print
department in 1923, Director MacLean also appointed curators to three other
departments, namely, for painting, for European art, and for Oriental art. The
new curators were respectively, Miss Anna Hasselman, Miss Dorothy Blair,
and J. Arthur MacLean. As a result, the objects and paintings of the
permanent collection were rearranged and changed each month, and several
interesting loan exhibits were shown. The Director encouraged each member
of the staff to use initiative, but he desired a correlation of all departments so
as to unify the general program of the Institute.
Work in the Museum was thus carried on until 1926 when Miss
Hasselman was appointed Curator of the Museum in the absence of a director.
At this time Beth D. Bacon was engaged as Editor to handle the Institute’s
publicity. Annie S. Dawson was employed as Membership Clerk, with Emilie
Schmuck, Lela K. Taylor, and Myrtle Lepper, as her assistants. Miss Bacon’s
name no longer appears on the staff list after 1927, but that of Blanche
Stillson is listed in 1929 as Publicity Secretary.
In 1930 the assistants to Miss Dawson were promoted to different
offices. Miss Schmuck became Museum Assistant; Miss Taylor, Secretary to
49
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1933, p. 13.
67
the Director; and Miss Lepper, Assistant Registrar. Miss Lepper succeeded
Miss Taylor in 1935 as Secretary to the Director in which routine she
continued until 1944. She was followed by Florence Stack who, about a year
later, gave place to Lillian Burkle.
Miss Hasselman received an assistant in the person of Mary
Margaret Miller in 1931. Miss Miller filled this position for only one year
after which Paul Hadley became the Assistant Curator in 1933, serving in this
capacity until 1937. Then Robert Tschaegle took up those duties to continue
for the next six years.
In 1931, the enlarged membership department necessitated the
employment of John K. Bryan to take charge of this work, with Miss Dawson
as his assistant. Miss Blanche Stillson was replaced by Elizabeth Sheppard
Mildner as Publicity Secretary in an effort to make this department more
efficient. Through the combined use of newspapers, house organs, school
publications, and radio, a much wider audience was reached. This department
was discontinued in 1932, not to be reopened until 1944 when Lotys Benning
Stewart was appointed.
Frank Hohman is listed as Superintendent of the Building from
1931 to 1937. Then Joseph E. Elward filled this position until 1940 when Mr.
Hohman returned to work in this department until 1944. Charles H. Clemens
was then employed for a short time to be once more succeeded by Mr.
Hohman.
In 1932, Miss Grace A. Speer, who, since 1920, had acted in the
capacity of Secretary to the Board and as Registrar, was given the title,
“Executive Secretary.” During the intervals when the Institute had no
director, Miss Speer worked with and aided Miss Hasselman in managing the
Museum work. In gratitude, the President of the Art Association
68
and the Board of Directors have been lavish in their praise of her fidelity and
devotedness. Miss Speer is still the guiding star of this department.
Lelia G. Mays was Museum Assistant from 1937 to 1940. She
then became Reception Desk Clerk, which position she holds today.
CHAPTER IV
MATERIAL EQUIPMENT
Buildings and Grounds – The Museum building of the John Herron
Art Institute is a plain, dignified, two-storied structure, faced in light grey
pressed brick, with stone trimmings and cornice. The front faces south and is
one hundred twenty-five feet in width, with a depth of eighty-five feet parallel
to Pennsylvania Street and Talbott Avenue, and rises to a height of fifty feet.
The building is Italian Renaissance in style, with the ornamentation
centered on the façade, where a large decorative frieze is placed directly under
the main cornice. The frieze is ornamented with heads of the leading artists of
the great art periods, modeled in high relief, against a background of stippled
stone. These heads are richly framed in panels, separating a row of double
pilasters supporting the cornice. Originally, the architects intended these
panels to be flanked at each end of the building by two full-length figures in
stone, symbolizing beauty and strength. Also, color was to be introduced into
the background of the sculptures, this to be executed in Venetian glass
mosaics, green and gold predominating.1
The interior of the building was planned and executed with the
galleries around a large covered sculpture court, extending through two
stories. Details of the arrangement, according to the original plan,
69
1
The Indianapolis News, December 11, 1905, p. 4.
70
are as follows:
The first floor outside of this sculpture court will be
devoted to the decorative arts….
The second floor will be devoted entirely to the picture
galleries, and will be reached by a grand staircase, leading from the
sculpture court. The large gallery is across the south end and is thirty feet
by seventy feet. There will be two octagonal galleries and two lateral
galleries. Practically the whole north wall of the sculpture hall will be of
plate glass, affording a fine view of the grounds, which will be
handsomely parked.2
At the time the Museum was erected, it was called “the bestplanned structure of its size in the country.”3
Artists and architects who have visited the incomplete
building…comment especially upon the superb lighting of the galleries by
means of individual skylights, and the spaciousness of these galleries. In
addition to these qualities, the galleries possess the additional merits of
being individually artistic from a structural point of view, and of being
collectively arranged so as to show off to the best advantage, neither of
them being exactly the size or shape of any other. The entire building will
be heated and ventilated by the most improved methods, and a uniform
temperature will be preserved throughout.4
Other than certain minor improvements in the building, such as
painting the walls, plastering repairs, rearrangement of storage space, and
repairs on the plumbing, no important changes were made in the building until
the beginning of Mr. Peat’s regime. During the year 1930, an elevator and
four small rooms were added at the northwest corner of the building. The
elevator insured ease and safety in the moving of valuable pieces of art, while
the extra space provided a “shipping and a receiving room, a textile and print
room, and two temporary storage quarters.”5 Also, during this year, Mrs.
James W. Fesler provided the monetary means for the
2
Ibid., p. 4.
The Indianapolis Star, October 1, 1906, p. 10.
4
Ibid., p. 10.
5
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1930, p. 13.
3
71
installation of a new entrance vestibule, and this, with a coat of pain on the
north side of the building, greatly improved its appearance.6
This was the beginning of a gradual and extensive program of
renovation which culminated in 1940, in a drastic change of the interior
structure of the building. The director reports that
On January 29 a special committee was appointed to study
the problem of replacing the old heating system and making certain
changes in the building. By the middle of the summer a new heating and
ventilating plant was being installed, and plans were being made for new
lights and for another room over the sculpture court. With the close of the
year the remodeling project had assumed so large a scale that it affected
every room in the building.7
Robert E. Poehner was the contractor employed for remodeling the
system of heating and ventilating.8 Since a new heating system was
necessary, the Board of Directors decided to eliminate the thirty-five year old
boilers then in use and use the steam supplied by the Indianapolis Power and
Light Company. Steam pipes were overhauled and the fan controlling heat
and ventilation in the second floor galleries was rebuilt. Moreover, a modern
heating and ventilating unit was installed in the new rooms above the
Sculpture Court. The removal of the old heating plant thus allowed space for
a new picture storage room, twenty-five by fifty feet, in the basement.9
In September, 1940, the contract for the reconstruction of the
Sculpture Court was awarded to the Service Construction Company by the Art
Association. Mr. Herbert Foltz, the architect, made all the plans,
6
Ibid., p. 12.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1940, p. 7.
8
The Indianapolis Star, September 5, 1940, p. 10.
9
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1940, p. 8.
7
72
(Image unavailable for digital version)
Fig. 10
73
and G. M. Williams was consulting engineer.10
The major space alteration in the building was the
construction of a floor across the sculpture court; an extension of the
balcony which divided the space into two stories. This gave us two
attractive and useful rooms. On the first floor we have an assembly hall,
with cases for the display of porcelains and glass objects, and on the
second floor a special exhibition gallery. An additional 2,600 square feet
of floor space and 300 lineal feet of wall area was gained on the second
floor.11
Other important changes were the equipment of a kitchenette in the
elevator annex, and the conversion of the basement corridor into an exhibition
room. In the west galleries and library of the first floor, the ceilings were
furred down to receive new lights. In the galleries, fluorescent and
incandescent lights were adopted, the former being used largely in the first
floor rooms where objects were displayed in cases, and the latter in the picture
galleries.12
After a prolonged period of reconstruction lasting about one year,
the Museum was reopened on March 8, 1941, to an enthusiastic public,
disclosing a fully modernized building, well equipped and beautifully
arranged.13
Two years later, during the summer of 1943, a project of pointing
and calking the exterior brick walls and cornices was completed.14
Just as the building has undergone various changes with time, so
have the grounds about it been revised, though at different periods. In
erecting the new Institute building it was placed so as to leave untouched the
many beautiful old forest trees on the grounds. The street on the north,
crossing
10
The Indianapolis Star, September 5, 1940, p. 10.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1940, p. 7.
12
Ibid., p. 7-8.
13
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, XXVIII, June, 1941, p. 18.
14
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1943, p. 8.
11
74
the grounds between Pennsylvania Street and Talbott Avenue, was closed and
utilized in the parked landscaping.
During the summer of 1912, extensive improvements were made in
the grounds, changing the appearance of the entire property. A curved
driveway was constructed from Pennsylvania and Sixteenth Streets to the
entrance of the building and across to Talbott Avenue and Sixteenth Street.
Many trees that had blocked the view of the building were cut down to give
place to the driveway and new walks.15
Because of the city’s plan to widen Sixteenth Street, the John
Herron Art Institute, in 1931, surrendered thirty-one feet of its frontage. The
time was then ripe for a change in the landscape architecture of the remaining
area. The driveway was eliminated, thus closing the front entrance to
vehicles, and instead, a straight, wide walk was laid from Sixteenth Street
through the center of the front grounds to the Museum’s entrance doors.
The walk for pedestrians that is to form the main approach
to the museum’s front entrance will be twenty feet in width, with six-inch
curbing and will be paneled with brick borders and granite chips
embedded in the cement. A system of connecting walks, with curbs, in
front of the museum building from Pennsylvania to Talbott streets, also on
the east and west sides of the building, will provide for complete
circulation to, from, and around the building from any direction.
The one drive is located immediately north of the museum,
extending east and west from Pennsylvania to Talbott streets, in a position
convenient to the Herron art school building as well as to the museum’s
north entrance, which opens directly into the sculpture court. Fourteen
feet in width, this new drive will be surfaced with crushed stone and
asphalt, and will have six-inch curbing.
Parking area will be provided for those who have business
with the art institute…
A heavy twelve-inch concrete curb at the property lines
will enclose the entire grounds, which are to be filled in and reshaped to
form a base for the buildings.16
15
16
The Indianapolis Star, August 4, 1912, p. 31.
The Indianapolis Star, July 19, 1931, p. 11.
75
A plan for landscaping the grounds was submitted by Lawrence V.
Sheridan and approved by the Board of Directors. According to this plan
provision was made for
…low hedge border planting, the removal of shrubbery
adjacent to the property lines, and the planting of shrubbery around the
walls of the building. Several of the native forest trees will be sacrificed
in the new plan. Two trees near the front sidewalk will have to come
down with the widening of Sixteenth Street and others will be cut in the
construction of curbs.17
To complete the improvements on the grounds, the two tall iron
light standards that had been placed at the front steps in 1921 as a memorial to
Mrs. May Wright Sewall, were relocated on stone pedestals placed on each
side of the steps at the main entrance. Located, too, in the center of the walk
near the steps of the Sixteenth Street approach was an illuminated bulletin for
the announcement of exhibits and activities.18
Accessions – Accessions to the John Herron Art Museum are
acquired both by gift, outright or through bequests, from members and friends
of the Art Association, and by purchase with funds set aside for this purpose.
Records show, however, that in the early days of the Art Association, some of
its first pictures were secured by subscription.19
By 1883 when the first picture was purchased, until the opening of
the Museum in 1906, the growth of the collection of pictures and art objects
was slow. With the establishment of an Art Treasure Fund through the John
Herron bequest, together with later funds established for the purchase of
works of art, and the foundation of a permanent gallery, however, the
permanent collection was gradually augmented.
17
Ibid., p. 11.
Ibid., p. 11.
19
Record of the Art Association, op. cit., p. 51.
18
76
During the ensuing years until 1947, twelve Art Treasure Funds
have been established, and three other funds of this nature are shared by those
expended for educational uses. Two organizations, the Gamboliers, and the
Friends of American Art (later renamed Friends of Art) were also organized
for the purpose of purchasing works of art to add to the Museum’s permanent
collection.
In June, 1946, the catalogue of paintings owned by the Art
Association numbered four hundred ten, representing three hundred fourteen
artists. Three-fourths of the paintings are by American artists, more than fifty
of whom are native Indianians. Two hundred thirty-five of the paintings listed
were received as gifts, while one hundred seventy-five were purchased from
funds.
Besides the paintings, the Museum’s permanent collection consists
of sculpture, textiles, porcelains, prints, pottery, metal objects, wood carvings,
glass, jewelry, and mummy coffins. These objects of various origin, East
Indian, Persian, Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Roman, European, and American,
are separated into special collections and exhibited in galleries and cases
assigned for that purpose.
Although the Art Association has striven to maintain a high
standard of quality in its collection, it was at times the recipient of well meant
donations that did not happily blend with the collection or with the size of the
building. Such was the colossal plaster cast of the famous equestrian statue
given to the Institute by the Women’s Department Club.20 The original, by
Andrea del Verrocchio and Alessandro Leopardi, is in bronze and stood in the
piazza of the Sculola di San Marco, in Venice, until the Austrian advance into
Italy in 1917 forced its removal to a place of safety. It commemorates
20
The Indianapolis Star, January 25, 1925, p. 15.
77
the life of Bartolommeo Colleoni, a noted Italian commander of the fifteenth
century, who left his fortune to the republic of Venice on condition that his
statue be placed on the piazza di San Marco.21
This heroic replica overshadowed the sculpture court, towering
into the second floor, and dwarfing everything about it. Christopher Morley,
on the occasion of an entertainment at the John Herron Art Institute, afterward
wrote in one of his essays that:
There was a perambulating supper held in the statuary hall of a big art
museum. Underneath a huge figure of a horse, as big as the Trojan
quadruped, tall candles burned on a long table and people in evening dress
moved about with salad and coffee.22
Horse and rider spent many years in the Museum, but finally, when
the Parthenon casts were installed and other rearrangements were made in the
sculpture court in 1931, the Colleoni statue was removed to the State Fair
Grounds where it graced the entrance to the horse barns. Upon its return, it
became an imposing landmark on the front of the Museum’s grounds. Since it
was made of plaster, it soon became a weather problem. Everything was tried
to keep it dry – electricity, blankets, and a coat of weather-proof paint, but to
no avail. At last the horse lost its tail and in 1941 it had to be scrapped.
Many valuable accessions have been made to the museum, too
many, in fact, to be listed here. Suffice it to mention two. The latest, a
portrait of the sixteenth century poet, Lodovico Ariosto, by Titian, was
purchased from the estate of the late Booth Tarkington by twenty-six
Indianapolis persons and presented to the Institute as a memorial to the
Hoosier author. The second was a group of paintings given in 1943 by
21
The Indianapolis News, September 14, 1918, p. 2.
Morley, Christopher, “Little Journeys,” The Romany Stain, New York: Doubleday, Page and
Co., 1926, pp. 195-96.
22
78
an anonymous donor in memory of Daniel and Elizabeth Marmom which
included the Trevor landscape, “The Mill,” by Hobbema. A complete list of
the European and American paintings in the permanent collection from 1883
through June, 1926, is included in the Appendix.
Library Material – The library which first constituted a single
bookcase containing books from Mrs. Addison C. Harris’ own personal
library, has since grown to considerable proportions.
For the year ending December 31, 1946, Miss Marian Greene,
librarian, reports the total number of books in the library to be 6,478 volumes.
Other library material includes about 10,000 clippings and pamphlets, 8,733
photographs and reproductions, and 8,061 lantern slides.23
The library possesses some rare and valuable books on art subjects.
Of particular note are the following sets of reference books: The
Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, in nineteen volumes, by
Raimond Van Marle; Klassiker Der Kunst; Propylaen-Kunsegeschicte Des
Möbels, by Adolf Feulner, fourteen volumes; Vasari’s Lives of Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects, translated into English by DeVere, ten volumes;
Survey of Persian Art, by Arthur Upham Pope, six volumes; and a History of
Early Chinese Art, the Prehistoric and the Pre-Han Periods, by Oswald Siren,
four volumes.
An important acquisition for the library in 1946 was the twentyfive volume work, Storia Dell’ Arte Italiana, (Milan, 1901-1940), by the noted
scholar Adolfo Venturi which was purchased from a private library in Italy by
a number of members of the Art Association.24
23
24
Interview with Miss Marian Greene, January 31, 1946.
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, XXXIV. April 1, 1947, p. 13.
CHAPTER V
ACTIVITIES
Exhibitions – Since the inaugural opening of the John Herron Art
Institute, exhibitions have been displayed continuously in the Museum’s
galleries. In the beginning, besides the permanent collection which was on
view at all times, special loan exhibitions were held over a period of three or
four weeks. During the first five months in the new building, from November
20, 1906, to March 31, 1907, eight exhibitions of this nature were shown; and
during the Institute’s first full year, 1907-1908, there were thirteen special
exhibitions.
Due to lack of funds in its early days and the considerable cost of
installation of important loan exhibitions, the Art Association could afford but
few of special note. The first outstanding exhibit, if we exclude that of the
Tissot Old Testament Pictures during September, 1908, was held from
December 25, 1909, to March 31, 1910, and was comprised of a memorial
collection of sculptured works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The undertaking
proved difficult though successful.
There was some hesitation about involving the Association in the hazard
of a liability and we are indebted to the confidence in the response of the
community and of the association’s directors and members with which
Mr. William C. Bobbs urged the undertaking. The board of directors did,
in fact, respond with enthusiasm, and authorized the appointment of a
special committee with full power. This committee composed of Mr.
Bobbs, chairman, Mr. Carl H. Lieber and Mr. Walter L. Milliken, carried
forward the work in daily meetings with a vigor and precision that were
remarkable. At the very beginning the committee decided that the
79
80
mark of its success should not be the mere covering of expenses. Rather,
the ambition which stimulated it was that the collection should bring its
inspiring message to at least fifty thousand of our people. In fact, the
attendance was fifty-six thousand five hundred seventy-four; the expenses
of all kinds were than covered; and we intend to buy one or more of the
works for our permanent collection.1
Second only to this exhibit, judging by interest aroused and
attendance, was that of the Dutch Masters of the seventeenth century, which
was held in the Museum from February 27 to April 11, 1937.
The exhibit included seventy-five paintings by forty-five artists of the
seventeenth century; one hundred fifty-three etchings and four drawings
by Rembrandt; and a collection of early Delft pottery. Fifty-one
collectors, museums, and dealers generously lent their treasured
possessions to Indianapolis for this important showing; and through the
cooperation of museums and government authorities in Holland the
exhibition was made more significant by the loan of pictures from
abroad….
The total attendance at the exhibition was 32,455, an
average of about 738 visitors per day for the forty-four days that it was
open.2
Among other major transitory exhibitions may be mentioned the
European rooms in miniature, assembled by Mrs. James Ward Thorne, and
held in 1944, with an attendance of 25,566; and in 1945, the American rooms
in miniature, also by Mrs. Thorne, which drew 15,000 people. The examples
mentioned are only a sample of many fine exhibits shown in the Museum.
In 1908-09, loans to other museums of separate pictures and art
objects was begun. During 1923, Director MacLean inaugurated extension
exhibitions, both from the Museum and the Art School, which were circulated
through the state. Groups of pictures and objects were accompanied by
library packets, lantern slides, and outlines on art as an educational
1
2
Annual Report of the President, April 5, 1910, p. 6.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1937, p. 15.
81
means. Later, when the Museum’s permanent collection exceeded the space
available for exhibition or storage, pictures and objects of art were loaned
temporarily to schools, clubs, and to the public library.
The year 1932 saw the inauguration of one-man exhibits by
Indiana artists,3 a project which has been continued to the present day, though
in group exhibits representing two artists.
Lectures and Gallery Talks – Closely allied to the exhibitions are
the lectures and gallery talks given in the Art Museum. A number of lectures
to members of the Art Association and to the public are offered each year.
They include illustrated discussion of various art topics, gallery talks, and
motion picture programs, given by visiting speakers and members of the staff.
The first lecture recorded after the opening of the Institute were
delivered during the winter of 1908-09. There were eighteen of these, a series
of six on architecture being delivered by Demarchius G. Brown.4 The
following year critical talks on current exhibitions were given on Saturday
afternoons by William Forsyth, Otto Stark, and Henry Fox; and a series of
talks at the public schools were begun by Mrs. Emily G. Gibson and Mr.
Forsyth. Also, “thirty-one addresses were made in Indianapolis and
surrounding towns by the director of the Institute on ‘The Art of SaintGaudens.’”5
During 1914-15, the summary of lectures included those given in
the Museum, Sunday gallery talks, reports for grade school children, lectures
for
3
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1932, p. 12.
Annual Report of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, April 6, 1909, “Statistics
Compiled from the Secretary’s Report,” pp. 13-14.
5
Annual Report of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, April 5, 1909, “Statistics
Compiled from the Secretary’s Report,” p. 16.
4
82
high school students, normal students, and teachers, special lectures and
gallery talks to visiting schools, lectures in school buildings, special lectures
to visiting clubs, and other special addresses delivered outside the Museum.6
Since that time this work has been continued somewhat along similar lines,
though it has been greatly extended. Gallery talks and illustrated lectures are
given on Sunday afternoons from four to five o’clock, and are open to the
public without chare. In addition, a series of lectures by outstanding
authorities in certain fields of art is usually offered each season to members of
the Art Association as one of their membership privileges. Admission to
these talks is by ticket only.
Advisory Service – Information needed in the preparation of club
papers and speeches is available through the Museum’s art library. Miss
Marian Greene, the librarian, is well equipped to render assistance to those
seeking data on art topics.
A large collection of lantern slides are available for educational
use. Members may borrow them without charge, while schools and clubs may
rent them at a nominal fee.
The staff of the Museum, by appointment, will identify pictures
and other art objects brought to its attention by the owners.
It has not been the policy of the museum to place exact
valuation on works of art belonging to other people, but an effort is made
to identify objects and to estimate their importance as works of art. It is
even customary for the staff to write to out-of-state museums or
authorities for further information when unable to give satisfactory advice
on an important painting or art object.7
This service continues and scarcely a week passes that requests from private
6
7
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1915, pp. 15-21.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1929, p. 17.
83
owners are made for aid in establishing dates or names of artists.8
Educational Work – One of the important activities of the Art
Museum is its classes of instruction in art for the children of members of the
Art Association, and for grade school children selected from the Indianapolis
public schools.
Classes for the latter have been held since March 1, 1909, when an
act of the legislature virtually brought the John Herron Art Institute into the
general school system by giving it a revenue from the school funds in return
for certain educational privileges. By this act, the Art Association was to
make and continue as members of its governing board of directors, the
Superintendent of Schools, the Director of Art Instruction, and two other
persons nominated by the School Board. Further, it was to
…give free admission, at reasonable times, to its museum and art galleries
to all teachers and pupils of the public, private and parochial schools in
said city; and which shall provide free illustrated lectures on some art or
kindred subject, throughout the public school year of said city not less
frequently than one lecture a week for school children, the same to be
given at its museum or in a public school; and which shall, at half the rates
established in other cities for similar service, provide instruction in the
teaching of drawing and design for all teachers in said city nominated by
the superintendent of schools of said city, and which shall provide
throughout the school year free for not fewer than fifty pupils to be
nominated on competitive examination by said superintendent of schools
advanced instruction in drawing and in such applied arts as it teaches…9
The first competitive examination for free scholarships to the John
Herron Art Institute under the new law was held on October 16, 1909, at
Shortridge High School, under the direction of Miss Wilhelmina Seegmiller,
8
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1945, p. 12.
“Extracts from the Acts of 1909,” Annual Report of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana,
1909, p. 30.
9
84
then Director of Art in the schools, and twenty-four teachers. Four hundred
seven seventh grade children filled thirteen rooms during the examination.10
The judges were Otto Stark and Miss Estelle Peel Izor of
Manual Training High School and Miss Lillian Weyl of Shortridge. The
test consisted of lead pencil, grass study and water color drawings from
nature. The students were given a limited period of time in which to make
the drawings….No names were signed to the drawings so there would be
absolute fairness in the selection.11
The next day after the examination had been administered, the following
account appeared in the Indianapolis Star:
An interesting phase of the tests was the opportunity given
the contestants during the morning to work on optional subjects. When
this was announced there was an immediate clamor for additional
instruments and different paper. So great was the insistence that the
directors finally granted ten minutes’ time in which the pupils could get
together all the things necessary for their work. Some wanted to draw
cartoons and must have different kinds of paper. Others found that the
pens given them were not suitable.
When the work began again the supervisors found before
them an interesting array of subjects. Six boys were drawing cartoons.
The newspaper supplements were represented in full force by “Happy
Hooligans,” the “Newlyweds” and other well-known characters. The
evidence of moving picture theatres was evident in a number of drawings
that could have found an inspiration nowhere else.
The girls who were contesting left these subjects to the
boys. They worked out figure sketches, landscapes, street scenes, and
illustrated such poems as “My Old Kentucky Home.” The subjects were
as varied as there were “inspirations” and the supervisors made no
suggestions.12
Under another act of the Legislature on February 22, 1915, a fund
consisting of “one-quarter of one cent on each one hundred dollars of the
taxables of said city”13 was to be paid to the Art Association by the Board of
School Commissioners. This made possible further cooperation
10
The Indianapolis Star, October 17, 1909, p. 30.
The Indianapolis Star, October 21, 1909, p. 14.
12
The Indianapolis Star, October 17, 1909, p. 30.
13
“Acts of 1915,” Annual Report of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, 1915, p. 38.
11
between the schools and the museums. Through this relationship, the doors of
the Institute were opened to the public on Saturdays and Sundays, school
children and teachers were admitted free to at least fifty lectures annually,
works of art and reproductions were loaned to the schools, and special
exhibitions in the museum supplemented school subjects.14 In addition,
regular lecture programs with high school classes in history of art were
arranged.
Interest in the public school classes continued to grow.
Scholarships granted by the Art Association to the city originally numbered
one hundred twenty-five to the high schools and seventy-five to the grade
schools. Then, there had been only two high schools, but as the population
grew, with a consequent increase in the number of high schools to five, the
Art Association by 1925 had doubled the amount of scholarships granted.
Public school scholarship classes, 1921, with
the Colleoni statue in the background
Fig. 11
In November, 1927, a course in art appreciation planned in
collaboration with the Children’s Museum for selected scholarship children
from each of the city schools was organized. This course gave way to a
drawing class in 1933. The next year the number of children in the class
14
Ibid., p. 38.
86
had doubled and it became necessary to hold a new class on Saturday
afternoon. By 1939 these classes had more than reached their capacity. The
present status of the children’s class is revealed in the following report:
The popularity of these classes is attested by the steady
increase in attendance and the need for more teachers, equipment, and
space. During the year five teachers and their assistants were in charge
and the classes outgrew the space allotted to them on the second floor.15
In 1923 a Saturday morning class for members’ children was
begun, but due to lack of cooperation it was opened to other children, also.
Later, the children of members comprised a separate class which gradually
grew to the extent that in 1939 it was managed by two teachers and three
assistants and needed another subdivision. In 1946, there were three divisions
conducted by Miss Carolyn Ashbrook, Miss Claire Williams, and Mrs. Marie
Shanks Pruitt. The course given is designed for the child of pre-high school
age and is so planned to develop both his ability and his power of selfexpression.
The annual meetings of the Art Section of the Indiana State
Teachers’ Convention, which met in the museum for the first time in 1922,
continue to be held there each year.16
A sketch class for business men and women was organized in 1929
continuing with much interest and success until the fall of 1939.17
The studio drawing class, begun in 1933, for adult members of the
Art Association,18 assembles in the Museum on Thursday mornings from 9:30
to 12:00. The class conducted by Miss Anna Hasselman combines discussion,
drawing and painting from still life, and outdoor sketching.
15
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1945, pp. 11-12.
Interview with Miss Grace Speer, May 13, 1947.
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
16
87
Social Entertainment – Beginning with Sunday, December 17,
1911, Sunday afternoon musical programs were introduced as a means of
bringing the Museum and the public into closer contact.
The Association is indebted to Mrs. Hugh McGibney for
instituting and carrying forward with diligence and success a series of
Sunday afternoon concerts in the museum. The effort has been to increase
the attendance, to add to the pleasure of many and to interfere not at all
with the enjoyment of the exhibitions.19
This form of entertainment became quite popular and was carried
on intermittently until the fall of 1934. At this time, “upon the
recommendation of the Executive Committee the Sunday afternoon musicales
were discontinued.”20 Instead, a regular program of Sunday gallery talks by
the staff members and invited speakers was initiated. However, it is evident
that music was not altogether divorced from the Museum’s social program for,
in the Director’s annual report for 1921, we find that a series of concerts were
conducted by the “Musical Art Quartet in the newly constructed assembly hall
from March 31 to April 4.”
Early in its career, the Art Museum was the scene of several semipublic receptions. In 1911-12 a farewell reception was held for Calvin N.
Kendall, superintendent of schools; and Dr. Morrison, president of the Board
of School Commissioners also gave an inaugural reception for J. G. Collicott,
the incoming superintendent.21
Two years later the records make mention of seventeen women’s
clubs entertained and eight teachers’ meetings held in the Museum, as well as
other meetings of various organizations. Some of the meetings were held by
regular organizations, while others were informal social gathering
19
Annual Report of the President, April 2, 1912, pp. 5-6.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1934, p. 12.
21
Annual Report of the Secretary, April 2, 1912, p. 8.
20
88
with tea in the galleries.
During 1915-16 the “Little Theatre Society of Indiana” rented the
Sculpture Court on Friday and Saturday evenings for the presentation of its
plays.22
An activity distinctly new in connection with the work of
the Institute…is the work of the “Little Theatre.” Though the Institute
merely acts as a landlord it, nevertheless, must, in a measure stand sponsor
for the activities beneath its roof. The “Little Theatre” movement had an
initial meeting at the Institute considerably over a year ago which was
followed last fall with the engagement of a director, the formation of a
company, and the successful adaptation of the Sculpture Court and the
corridor connecting it with the front exhibition gallery for an auditorium
and a stage respectively. Portable fittings of the most ingenious yet
effective sort, including lights, scenery and proscenium devices, have been
made and are installed and removed before and after each performance
with no trace of this activity evident at other times. The close affinity of
the drama with the other arts would seem to make an Art Institute not an
inappropriate setting for the high type of drama which the ideals of the
“Little Theatre” movement suggest. It is hoped that a fair percentage, new
to the Art Institute, in the audiences will thus become interested in our
regular activities.23
Since 1941, the policy of social entertainment in the Institute has
been modified. Such features as music, drama, and entertainments were
formerly employed mainly as a means to attract the public and to arouse an
interest in the Museum, its collection, and its services. This purpose having
been accomplished, the Museum has ceased its program of entertainment as
such. However, societies, study clubs, and special groups throughout the state
are invited to make full use of the galleries and equipment at all times.
Appointments for such visits should be made in advance if guidance to the
collections is desired.
22
23
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, V, December, 1915.
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, April 4, 1916, p. 12.
PART III
THE JOHN HERRON ART INSTITUTE – THE ART SCHOOL
CHAPTER VI
MATERIAL EQUIPMENT
Temporary Quarters – During the various stages of its
development, the John Herron Art School was housed in several quarters.
From its first home with the Museum in the old Tinker residence, the school
was moved in the fall of 1905, to a suite of rooms on the fifth floor of the
Union Trust Company’s building, while the new museum building was being
constructed. The beginning of the next school year, October 1, 1906, found
the school temporarily situated in T.C. Steele’s old studio at the rear of the
new structure, eagerly awaiting the completion of the Institute building.
Although the handsome new building of the John Herron
Art Institute, at Sixteenth and Pennsylvania streets, is not quite completed,
the Herron Art School, which is an integral part of the institute, and which
is in its fifth year, will open today in the little studio adjoining the
uncompleted structure under the most flattering prospects of its
history….The school will be conducted in the old studio until rooms can
be fitted up in the new building for the use of the various classes. It is the
hope of the directors of the school to have at least two of the new rooms
fitted up for students by the last of this week or the first part of next….1
Immediately following the inaugural opening of the new Museum
building on November 21 and 22, the art school was established in the east
and west rooms of the first floor where it remained until a school
89
1
The Indianapolis Star, October 1, 1906, p. 10.
90
building was completed in 1907. The new school was a one-story, frame
structure, erected by the Art Association, on the same lot with the Museum, at
a total cost of $12,364.94.2
It contained an assembly hall, corridors, and a number of welllighted and ventilated class rooms. The class rooms were especially adapted
to the teaching of drawing and painting and design work, as well as, for
modeling purposes. The architects, Vonnegut and Bohn, conformed the style
of the building to that of the main Institute building.3
Steady growth of the school with a consequent increase in the
number of students and in school activities, soon made more working space
imperative. For the fiscal year 1912-13, Mr. Coughlen reports:
The school has outgrown its present quarters and must have
more space if it is to continue to grow and do efficient work. Last summer
new participants were placed in the basement so as to provide three
additional class rooms. Giving over two of the first floor rooms to the
public school classes, the sculpture, design and ceramic classes are now
quartered in the basement. Of the three rooms on the first floor used by
the drawing and painting classes one is also used on Saturday by the
public school classes. This crowded condition necessitates the use of one
room for several purposes and the constant rearrangement and shifting of
equipment hinders, to some extent, the work of the school.4
With the beginning of the next school year, the Director had some
of the partitions moved, thereby greatly increasing the studio space and
facilities. Nevertheless, he reports that “the cramped space for much of the
work, the inadequacy, the makeshift condition and bad repair of much of the
furniture is a source of constant discouragement.”5 Since
2
Dunn, op. cit., p. 488.
Annual Report of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, April 11, 1907, “Statistics
Compiled from the President’s and Secretary’s Reports,” pp. 9-10.
4
Annual Report of the Secretary, 1913, p. 16.
5
Annual Report of the Director of the Art School, 1914, pp. 9-10.
3
91
Fig. 12
(Image unavailable for digital version)
Fig. 13
92
funds for the buildings were unavailable during the years immediately
following, every inch of space was utilized to the best advantage, some of the
classes being held in the Museum’s library and galleries.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, 1920, a serious fire broke out in the
Art School. Fortunately, it was checked in time to save the working part of
the building and classes proceeded without delay. Insurance adjustments
allowed for prompt reconstruction of damaged parts of the building, as well
as, “certain improvements and repainting.”6
Early in the spring of 1926, plans were made for the temporary
addition of an annex to the John Herron Art School.
Enrollment of the last two years has passed the capacity
registration of two hundred students. Recognition of overcrowded
conditions and lack of adequate space for lectures and for the group of
casts recently presented to the school by Mrs. Elizabeth Marmon, has led
to the immediate plans for building.7
The annex was a small frame building containing two classrooms
and an assembly hall.
The assembly room is used for lectures given by Mr.
Forsyth, Miss Hasselman and Miss Stillson, and furnishes a place for
social gatherings for the students. One room provides much needed place
for classes drawing from casts….With more space available, a large room
is now used for Mr. Forsyth’s advanced painting class. Exhibitions are
held at various times in the building.8
On July 4, 1928, the magnanimous gift of a permanent Art School
building by an anonymous donor, was gratefully received by the Art
Association. Thus, in August of that year, when the old building was
wrecked, the school moved its equipment to the annex and to the University
Extension Building at 122 East Washington Street, where the first and fifth
6
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum and Art School, 1921, p. 12.
The Indianapolis News, February 10, 1926, p. 1.
8
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1926, pp. 15-16.
7
93
floors were rented for the accommodation of the remainder of the school. The
fall semester was begun in these temporary quarters, some of the classes being
held in the Museum as well.9 The school continued in this manner until June
10, 1929.
Buildings and Grounds – The permanent Art School building of
the John Herron Art Institute was designed by Paul Phillipe Cret, of
Philadelphia, and Robert Frost Daggett, of Indianapolis. Mr. Cret is well
known as the architect of the Indianapolis Public Library, the Detroit Art
Museum, the Pan-American Building, in Washington, and other notable
structures.10 Mr. Leslie Colvin, of Indianapolis, was the contractor.
At the time the school was erected, it was reputed to be “the
second building erected in the United States for the express purpose of art
instruction.”11 The plan allows for a capacity of two hundred fifty full-time
students. The building of fire-proof construction, is faced with brick so as to
harmonize with the Museum, and is seventy feet long by fifty-eight feet in
width, with two stories and a semi-basement.12 An outstanding features is the
lighting of the second floor rooms by means of a glass wall on the north,
supplemented by large skylights.
Construction of the school building, costing $200,000,13 was begun
on October 1, 1928,14 and was completed and ready for formal dedication
9
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1928, p. 17.
Annual Report of the President, 1928, p. 8.
11
Announcement of the Art School, 1929.
12
The Leisure of a People. A report of a Recreation Survey of Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis
Council of Social Agencies, 1929, p. 432.
13
Ibid., p. 432.
14
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1928, p. 17.
10
94
Fig. 14
95
(Image unavailable for digital version)
Fig. 15
96
by September 3.15
According to the original arrangement of rooms, the first floor
contained the administrative offices, three studios, and a general lecture room
seating two hundred fifty people, which could be changed into two classrooms
by movable partitions. On the second floor were five studios, a recess room to
students, and a small assembly room for teachers. The basement provided
dressing rooms and space for lockers for the students, and three studios used
for modeling and craft work.16
Since then, the first purpose of some of the rooms has been
changed. At present, the first floor comprises two offices, one studio, and
three classrooms. The second floor includes three studios and three
classrooms; while the basement is occupied by two sculpture studios, one
lecture room, two classrooms, and a bookstore. One of the sculpture rooms,
now used for advanced sculpture, was added later, in 1931, at the rear of the
building in the area way. At the same time, a new stone walk and steps
leading to the Museum drive, and a cement walk and steps leading to the
Pennsylvania Street curb at the school entrance were constructed. The
addition to the building and the new walks were given by members of the Art
School committee.
Instructional Equipment and Supplies – Upon the opening of the
Art School on October 4, 1902, to enter upon its first regular year, a circular
was published which stated therein that: “The school has an adequate
equipment and is prepared to offer excellent facilities in drawing and painting
from the life and antique and for work in applied art.”
15
16
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1929, p. 19.
Announcement of the Art School, 1929.
97
Students were required to furnish their own materials and a
portfolio, though they had the free use of easels, drawing boards, tables, and
other equipment belonging to the school. Later, in 1911-12, articles required
for the classes were sold at the school at the lowest possible prices. Lockers
for storing work and materials were rented at a small charge. In 1906-07,
when a course in metal work was introduced, a Braun enameling furnace, a
forge, etc., were provided for the students.
Casts, costumes, draperies, and still life articles were acquired by
gift and purchase. In its early days the school was in dire need of these
teaching accessories, especially of costumes used in life drawing and painting.
A plea for aid in this respect was sent out to the members of the Art
Association who generously came to the rescue.
In 1926, Mrs. Elizabeth Marmon presented to the school two
important gifts. The first, a group of casts, added to the small collection
which had been damaged in the fire, made the equipment adequate for the
antique department. The second gift, a stereopticon lantern, was a valuable
asset in illustrating lectures.17
Equipment for the new art school building in 1929 was presented
by several friends through a committee under the chairmanship of Mrs. Edgar
M. Evans.18
The sculpture department was greatly improved in 1931, when
added room and equipment were provided. Five years later, a casting room
was equipped, thus adding a finishing touch of adequacy for teaching
modeling and sculpture.
17
18
The Indianapolis News, February 10, 1926, p. 1.
Announcement of the Art School, 1929.
98
Present equipment of the Art School, besides easels, drawing
tables, lockers, and other furniture, includes a printing press and lithography
equipment, a ceramic kiln, properties for life and still life drawing and
painting, casts, armatures, and a potters wheel, lately acquired as a gift from
Mrs. Clarence Efroymson.
A supply department is maintained by the school where the
students may purchase at cost all instructional materials required. It is
estimated that the average student spends about fifty dollars annually for
supplies. No charge accounts are permitted.
CHAPTER VII
ORGANIZATION
Management – The John Herron Art School and the Museum are
operated jointly by the Art Association of Indianapolis. Until 1909, no
provisions were made for the individual direction of the Art School. At that
time bylaws were adopted, “pursuant to the amended Articles of Association
adopted at the last annual meetings,”1 which provided for two co-ordinate
directors, one of the Museum, and one of the Art School. Mr. William Henry
Fox held the former position at this time, but despite a search during the
twelve months following the amendment, no one was found to fill the latter
position. Nor was it filled during the following year, although the Art School
catalogue lists Annette J. Warner as principal of the school.
It was in the fall of 1911 that William Coughlen, then secretary of
the Art Association, became the first acting director of the Art School.
Having failed in a persistent effort to find a director of the
school, Mr. Hugh McK. Landon, the chairman of the school committee,
suggested last autumn that our secretary, Mr. William Coughlen be asked
to serve as the acting director of the school. This he has done with an
efficiency and devotion that have surprised even those of us who have
long known of his great value to the Association. He has done much
toward coordinating the activities of the school and achieving an unified
instruction as distinguished from some un-coordinated classes.2
Mr. Coughlen acted successfully in this capacity until the
appointment of Harold Haven Brown in 1913, who became the director of
both the
99
1
2
Annual Report of the President, April 5, 1910, p. 7.
Annual Report of the President, 1912, p. 5.
100
Museum and the Art School. When Mr. Coughlen resigned his position as
secretary of the Art Association in 1921, Mrs. Brown took his place in
assisting her husband in the direction of the affairs of the Institute’s museum
and school.3
With the withdrawal in the spring of 1921, of Mr. and Mrs. Brown
as directors of the Art Institute, Miss Edna Mann Shover was appointed as
principal of the school in the emergency. Miss Shover had come to the John
Herron Art School the year before to teach design and normal art. She was a
graduate of the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, Philadelphia,
and was a pupil of Pafe under Faber and Deigendesch, of H. G. Davison,
Thomas Scott, Philip Muhr, and J. Frank Copeland.4 When J. Arthur
MacLean became the director of the Art School two years later, Miss Shover
continued to serve as its principal, a position she was destined to fill until
1933.
After Mr. MacLean’s resignation in 1926, the School was without
a director until 1933 when Donald M. Mattison was appointed. Then for the
first time in several years, the School and Museum were managed by two
coordinating directors. The School, like the Museum, too, was fortunate in
acquiring an able manager, devoted and persevering in his work.
Mr. Mattison was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1905. When a boy
of fourteen he went with his parents to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where
he lived until he entered the Yale School of Fine Arts. He graduated from this
school with a B. F. A. degree in 1928. That same year he married and, having
won the Prix de Rome Scholarship, went to Rome where he studied and
painted for three years. After his return to the United States,
3
4
Annual Report of the President, April 5, 1921, p. 9.
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1923-1924, p. 5.
101
he lived in New York City for two years, teaching fine arts in Columbia
University, and in New York University.5 It was from this latter school that
Mr. Mattison came in the fall of 1933 to be director of the John Herron Art
School, a position which he has quite successfully filled to the present day.
Table 2 lists the directors of the Art School, together with the
respective length of service of each.
TABLE 2
DIRECTORS OF THE ART SCHOOL
Length of Service
Name
William Coughlen
Harold Haven Brown
J. Arthur MacLean
From
1911
1913
1923
Donald M. Mattison
1933
To
1913
1921
1926
1970
(Died July 26, 1975)
Departments – With the beginning of Mr. Brown’s regime in 1913,
the School’s several scattered classes were unified and coordinated in specific
courses of study. At that time four departments were organized: 1) Drawing,
painting and illustration; 2) Decorative and industrial design; 3) Modeling and
design; 4) Normal art. Courses given in these four departments led to training
along specific lines. However, students in all departments were required to
take the first year preparatory class. Upon the satisfactory completion of this
work, any student could specialize in any one department for one or two
years.6
5
6
The Indianapolis Star, December 13, 1936, p. 18.
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1913-14, pp. 11-12.
102
When Miss Shover took charge of the school in 1921, the
departments were rearranged.
As the work is now arranged there are four departments,
that of Fine Arts, Normal Art, Commercial Art, and Junior. All four
courses have a certain amount of time devoted to the fine arts, such as
study of anatomy, drawing from the casts and living model, drawing and
painting from objects….
The students of the Fine Arts department are those who are
interested in portrait painting, illustration and landscape work….
The Commercial classes provide instruction for those who
expect to secure positions in engraving houses, show card studios, art
departments of newspapers, theaters, department stores, advertising
houses, etc….
The fourth department or Junior Class includes the children
from the public grade and high schools. These are subdivided into four
groups – 1) 6B grade or under; 2) 6A to 8A grades – groups two and three
according to time spent in the Art School; 4) High School age. One
hundred scholarships are given each year in the Junior Department.
Others pay regular tuition.7
The departments thus arranged continued without much change
until the 1933-34 school term when Mr. Mattison designed a curriculum
bearing more upon the fine arts. The Normal Art department, heretofore so
popular in the School gave place in prominence to that of painting and
sculpture, a policy more in keeping with the purpose of the School. Sculpture,
which had been merely a course included in the fine arts division, now
became a separate department.
The curriculum designed by Mr. Mattison is still in use and
provides four departments in the school, viz., painting, sculpture, advertising
art, and teacher training. In the last mentioned department there are three
subdivisions, viz., the Five-Year Course for which the degree of Bachelor of
Arts Education is granted by the Art Association; the Four-Year Course I,
taken in conjunction with the Art School and the
7
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1921-22.
103
Extension Division of Indiana University; and the Four-Year Course II in
which the Art School and Butler University cooperate.
Types of Classes – Several kinds of classes have been held in the
Art School since its beginning. From 1902 to 1905 inclusive, there were day
or full-time classes, special or part time classes, evening classes, Saturday
classes, Saturday children’s classes, and, during the first year, a summer class.
If summer classes were in session in 1903 to 1906 inclusive, there is no
information available concerning them. An announcement published in 1902,
reveals that this class was held at the Institute six hours daily, six days a week
during a period of twelve weeks. Summer classes along similar lines were
held in 1907 to 1909, inclusive. In 1911, the advanced painting and sketching
class made its headquarters at the studio of Mr. Forsyth, in Irvington, this
arrangement being repeated each summer until 1919. A six-week course was
inaugurated in 1920. The first summer school to be conducted away from
Indianapolis was held at Winona Lake in 1923.8 This lake resort became the
regular summer quarters of the Art School until 1931. Since that time, all
summer classes have been held at the Art School.
A teachers’ class in grade school drawing was established in 1906,
with Miss Selma Neubacher in charge. It was held weekly on Saturdays and
was repeated each year until about 1920.
Academic classes in the Art School are listed in the School
catalogue for 1922, and from 1924 to 1933, inclusive.
8
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1924, p. 18.
104
Affiliations with Butler and Indiana Universities have
resulted in the presence of six students, who are preparing to take the
degree of Fine Arts at Butler, and forty-six students, who are taking their
academic courses with Indiana University. Nine classes are taught by
Indiana University instructors during the year. It is an advantage and
convenience to have these classes in the Art School building. It gives the
art students an opportunity of having classes especially for their groups,
and the instruction applied to their specific problems.9
Alumni classes were inaugurated in 1923 and continued until 1933.
An Art School catalogue announces the following privilege for alumni
members:
Students who have attended full-time classes for two
successive years may attend the Saturday afternoon sketch class free of
charge. Students who have satisfactorily completed a regular four-year
winter course in the Art School and wish to enroll for further study will be
entitled to a discount of twenty per cent on the tuition fee.10
When the Alumni Association was formed in 1930, only members
had the privilege of attending these classes. The purpose of this association
was to keep in touch with the art students after they left school, and to
preserve the fellowship which was created among the younger artists. It
rendered valuable service in securing positions for students and afforded “an
opportunity for exchange of views both stimulating and broadening.”11
Classes for children have been held in the John Herron Art School
since the first year of its existence. From 1902 until 1922 these classes were
held weekly on Saturdays from 9:00 to 12:30 A.M., and from 1:30 to 4:00
P.M. Instruction included “drawing from objects, casts, still life, and the
costume model in various mediums.”12
In 1922, the Saturday children’s class became the junior course in
the Art School. Classes for high school students were held in the Art
9
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1925, p. 17-18.
John Herron Art School Catalogue, 1923-24, p. 7.
11
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1924, p. 18.
12
John Herron Art School Catalogue, 1913-14, p. 29.
10
105
School where they sketched the living model in costume and completed
problems in cast drawing, still life, and design. The younger children
sketched from objects in the Museum, and received instruction in art
appreciation. The classes met on Saturday and the students were placed at
various classes according to age and ability. A large percentage of this group
was enrolled as scholarship students from the Indianapolis Public Schools.
Since 1933, junior classes in figure sketching have been conducted
in the Art School on Saturdays, for high school scholarship students only, the
work with the younger children having been taken over by the Art Museum.
In the School’s early period, besides the Saturday children’s class
and the Teachers’ class for grade school drawing, there was also held on
Saturday a special class for those unable to attend the regular sessions
throughout the week. Adults and pupils of high school age attended this class
which was held weekly from 9:00 to 12:00 A.M., and from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Saturday classes were thus conducted from 1902 until 1922, the work
consisting of drawing from still life, the antique, and the life model, according
to the ability of the student.
Evening classes were popular in the Art School from 1902 until
1926. Then they were discontinued to be taken up again in 1937.13 Such
classes are now held every Tuesday from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. They provide
busy persons with exceptional opportunity to avail themselves of subjects
taught in the day school under members of the regular school faculty.
Special or part-time classes have always been a part of the school’s
program. Those lacking time or funds for regular daily attendance may
arrange to study half-days or take as few as one class a week.
13
Interview with Miss Mary Finke, April 8, 1947.
106
Terms – With the opening of the fall term of the John Herron Art
School in October, 1911, the old system of monthly tuition was discarded and
the school year was divided into three terms: a fall term of twelve weeks, a
winter term of eleven weeks, and a spring tem of eleven weeks. No student
was allowed to enter for a shorter period than a full term, though students who
had been in the school for a period of two years or more could “arrange for
shorter terms at advanced rates.”14
In 1920, when Miss Edna Mann Shover assumed the principalship
of the School, the winter term was dropped from the calendar, thus reducing
the regular school year to two terms of eighteen weeks each, an arrangement
which has been continued to date.
A three-day vacation is usually granted at Thanksgiving and at
Easter, while the Christmas vacation is extended to two weeks.
Entrance Requirements – From the opening of the Art School in
1902 until 1913, no previous instruction was required to enter the various
classes, and pupils were permitted to join at any time. However, those who
had never studied in any regular school were expected to take the elementary
courses in order to discipline themselves in drawing. Actual ability was the
determining factor and upon entry in the school, each student was placed in
the class for which he or she was best fitted, advancement being regulated by
the judgment of the instructor.
With the reorganization of classes by Harold Haven Brown in the
fall of 1913, entrance requirements became more stringent. Applicants for
admission to all adult classes must have completed the grammar school
14
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1911-12, p. 11.
107
courses, while those registering for the teachers’ normal course had to present
a diploma of a four-year high school course or its equivalent. All new
applicants were required to pass a “simple test in outline drawing from a cast
or group of models and a piece of ornament.”15 Students were expected to
enroll at the beginning of a term and those entering later made special
arrangements for the completion of work missed.
By 1922, no student under sixteen years of age was admitted to
any class in the regular school except the junior classes. A high school
education was desirable but not required. All new students, other than
prospective teachers, entered the beginners class unless work submitted by
them merited admission to more advanced classes.
Since 1938, graduation from a commissioned high school has been
required of applicants to the regular school who desire to work toward a
degree. No special requirements are demanded of students in the commercial
or part-time classes when credit is not desired.
Public School Relationships – As a result of the contract entered
into between the Art Association of Indianapolis, the Board of School
Commissioners, and the City of Indianapolis, as referred to in Chapter I, the
Art School became the recipient of a share in the public funds received by the
Art Association. In return, cooperative relations have been maintained
between the Museum, the Art School, and the public schools of the city.
The Art School’s responsibility in this matter is reported by Harold
Haven Brown at the end of the first year under the new law:
15
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1913-14, p. 11.
108
Space was given in the Art School building for the
accommodation of ten classes of scholarship children from the
Indianapolis schools, enrolling 161. They meet on Saturdays. A class of
fifty-two high school pupils who will receive high school credits toward
graduation meet three afternoons per week. All these classes are under the
supervision of the public school teachers. Of the staff of instructors, two,
Mr. Forsyth and Miss Margaret Seegmiller, are furnished by the Art
Association.
Four special classes for teachers to which Indianapolis
teachers are admitted at half the usual rates, are conducted.16
This last mentioned class was particularly intended to meet the
needs of teachers in rural and ungraded schools, as well as for those from city
or town schools. Instruction included such subjects as drawing, water color,
perspective and object drawing, composition, design, etc., as taught in the
public schools.
Work with talented school children has been continued from year
to year. In 1932, there were six classes of grade school children and seven
classes of high school students, meeting regularly in the school. At that time
also, the Art Association offered eighteen full-time scholarships for one year
in the regular school to high school graduates.
At present, in addition to the full-time scholarships in the Art
School, awarded to graduates from the city high schools, a limited number of
scholarships for advanced students in the high schools is awarded for the
Saturday class held in the Art School.
Credits and Degrees – The unit of credit given in the Art School is
two hours of studio work per week for a semester of eighteen weeks. No
credit is given for less than one semester’s work, except that earned during the
summer session.
16
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum and Art School, 1914, p. 8.
109
Credits for work taken at Indiana University and at Butler
University will be given by the Art School, and likewise, credits for work
taken in the Art School will be given by the two universities.
By 1928, an amendment to the first article of the constitution of the
Art Association was made to allow the granting of degrees by the Art School.
A cooperative plan was worked out with Indiana University and Butler
University whereby joint degrees could be conferred by the Art School and
either of the two universities on graduates of the teacher training department.
By the arrangement with Indiana University, John Herron Art School students
were enabled to secure credit to apply on the degree of Bachelor of Science.
Students working for a baccalaureate degree at Butler University were
allowed to take fourteen semester hours’ work at the Art School, the elective
work being distributed thus: Not more than four hours in history and
appreciation of art and not more than ten hours in studio work.17
The John Herron Art Institute granted the degree of Bachelor of
Art Education for the four-year teacher training course. After 1936 this
degree was conferred by the Art Association on graduates completing a fiveyear term of study in the Art School.
In 1938, a closer affiliation with Indiana University was entered
upon with the establishment of a new four-year course in teacher training.
Graduates completing this course receive the degree of Bachelor of Science in
Education from Indiana University.
Upon completion of the four-year Teacher Training Course II,
graduates are given the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Art Education by Butler
University.
17
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1933.
110
In 1938, also, five fifth-year graduates were granted the Bachelor
of Fine Arts degree by the Art Association for the first time. Five graduates of
previous years, Edwin Fulwider, Gail Martin, Paul Wehr, Clifford Jones, and
Robert Weaver, were also awarded degrees in recognition of outstanding
achievement in art since leaving the school.18
Students in the fine arts course receive a diploma after successfully
completing four years of work and the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts upon
the completion of five years of work.
Students registered for the Bachelor of Fine Arts course at the Art
School may, with additional studies, become eligible for the advanced degree,
Master of Fine Arts, offered by Indiana University. Five years of work are
taken in the Art School and a final year on the campus of Indiana University
in Bloomington is required.
18
Annual Report of the Director of the Art School, 1938, pp. 16-17.
CHAPTER VIII
THE TEACHING STAFF
It is interesting to note that three of the well-known, original
“Hoosier Group” of Indiana artists were among the early teachers in the John
Herron Art School. Primarily, the little band consisted of T. C. Steele, J. Ottis
Adams, William Forsyth, Otto Stark, and Richard B. Gruelle. Although they
were Impressionists and followers of Monet, though only in the sense of
having studied his work, their choice of subject and technique was quite
different. Indeed, they have expressed pictorially something quite as
indigenous as the works of James Whitcomb Riley and other literary men of
note during Indiana’s formative period.
On the occasion of an annual exhibition, in 1915, of works by
Indiana artists in the John Herron Art Institute, the International Studio
published the following critique:
The work of the painters of Indiana is not very well known
in the East, but the representation from that State has always been one of the
strongest features of the exhibitions of the Society of Western Artists. There
are many who believe that the real American art of the future will come out of
the Middle West, from those artists who have received their inspiration
directly from the American country and people….As always, the real
mainstay of the Indiana exhibitions is the work of the so called, “Hoosier
Group”….Although they have taken root in Indiana, they have not permitted
themselves to become provincial, but have kept in touch with the general
movements of art in the world. Under their tutelage many young men and
women have carried a love of art and a knowledge of its technical practice to
all the various corners of the State.1
111
“Indiana Artists of the John Herron Art Institute,” International Studio, LV, June, 1915, p.
cxxviii.
1
112
Fig. 16
113
It was J. Ottis Adams who assisted in establishing the Art School
in connection with the John Herron Art Institute where he was the leading
instructor from 1902 until 1905.
Mr. Adams was born in Amity, Johnson County, Indiana, on July
8, 1851. His elementary education was received in the schools of Franklin
and Shelbyville, and his high school work was completed in Martinsville,
Indiana, after which he took two years work in Wabash College. Although he
never completed the course, the college conferred on him the honorary degree
of Master of Arts in 1898 in recognition of his artistic ability.2
When scarcely twenty-one years of age he went to London, where
he studied for two years under John Parker in the famous South Kensington
Art School. He then returned to America to live with his parents at Seymour,
Indiana, and later, in Martinsville. He opened a studio at Muncie in 1876,
where he worked at portrait painting for four years, but in 1883 he returned to
Europe, this time to study art in the Royal Academy at Munich, Germany, for
seven years. While there, he was privileged to study drawing under Benczur,
and painting under Loefftz.3
Upon his return to the United States in 1887, Mr. Adams again
opened a studio at Muncie, Indiana, where he painted landscapes and portraits
and taught art classes. He was one of the organizers of the Society of Western
Artists of which he became an active member, at one time serving as its
president.
In October, 1898, Mr. Adams married Miss Winifred Brady, of
Muncie, also an artist and a member of the Art Students’ League, of New
York. They lived in a quaint, old home in the Whitaker valley near
Brookville, the
2
Burnet, Mary Q., Art and Artists of Indiana, New York: The Century Publishing Co., 1921, pp.
163-164.
3
The Indiana Woman, VII, February 25, 1899, p. 9.
114
same house which Mr. Adams and Mr. T. C. Steele had bought in 1897 to use
as a studio. Mr. Steele later sold his interest in the “Hermitage,” as it was
called, to his partner, who made it his permanent home. So attracted was he to
the beauty of the spot that he later preferred to resign his position in the John
Herron Art School in order to return to Brookville where he could devote his
time to serious painting. For several summer he conducted sketching classes
in landscape in and about his home town.
During his four-year stay as chief instructor at the John Herron Art
School, Mr. Adams taught drawing and painting from life and the antique in
day, evening, and Saturday classes. He proved to be an admirable teacher of
art and it was with regret that the authorities of the Art School accepted his
resignation. He lived to enjoy many years of the work of his choice. In 1926
he passed away at the age of seventy-five years.
William Forsyth who had already accomplished much for art
instruction in Indiana, succeeded Mr. Adams in the Art School. Twenty-eight
years of his life were devoted to student art activities in this capacity, and
those who have come under his influence will ever revere the memory of this
teacher par excellence who instilled into his pupils the true meaning and
purpose of art and respect for the profession.
A descendent of a Scotch-Irish family, William Forsyth was long
established in America, his original ancestors having come from the North or
Ireland in the latter quarter of the eighteenth century. William’s father, Elijah
J. Forsyth, came west from Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 1840’s and
settled in Hamilton County, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Here William, the oldest
of four children, was born. After a few years, the family went to southern
Indiana for a short time, but soon moved to Indianapolis.4
4
Commemorative Biographical Record of Prominent and Representative Men of Indianapolis and
Vicinity, Chicago: J. H. Beers and Co., 1908, pp. 429-430.
115
Although the artist had attended the public schools in Ohio for a
short time, most of his early education was gained under private instruction.
It is said that he inherited his talent for art from his mother who keenly
appreciated the beautiful things of life, though both parents looked kindly
upon their son’s inclination to study art. Mr. Forsyth began his studies in
Indianapolis under John Love and James F. Gookins in the first Indiana
School of Art during the two years the school continued. He then opened a
studio in Ingalls Block, but shortly afterward, through the patronage of a
friend, the opportunity came to study in Europe. In 1883, he went to Munich
where he entered the Royal Academy of Art, studying in the life classes under
Benczur and Gysis, and painting under Loefftz. For almost seven years he
studied faithfully and successfully, receiving honorable mention three times
and a medal in 1885. Before returning home he began exhibiting, some of his
work being shown at the Munich International Exhibition, and in the National
Academy at New York.5
Following his return to the United States in 1889, Mr. Forsyth
became an active factor in the development of the art schools in Indiana. He
conducted schools at Muncie and Fort Wayne for about two years, after which
he was associated with T. C. Steele in establishing the second Indiana School
of Art in Indianapolis, of which he soon took charge and became its principal
instructor for about six years. When it closed in 1897, he continued to teach
privately until he joined the faculty of the John Herron Art School in 1906.6
On October 14, 1897, Mr. Forsyth married Alice Atkinson, of
Atkinson, Indiana, one of his students. Eight years later he bought a
commodious home for his family at 15 Emerson Avenue. It was here that he
5
6
Ibid., p. 430.
Forsyth, op. cit., p. 29.
116
built the studio which later became a mecca for numerous summer school
students studying at the Herron Art School.
Constance, one of Mr. Forsyth’s three daughters, followed in her
father’s footsteps and, during the last three years of his teaching career in the
Art School, she also taught drawing in the same school.
Although Mr. Forsyth was preeminently a teacher, sacrificing
much time that he might have used for painting, in order to guide his students,
his accomplishments outside the classroom were numerous. With other
members of the “Hoosier Group,” he assisted in the organization of the
Society of Western Artists, holding at various times, every office except
treasurer. From his establishment in this country until his death, Mr. Forsyth
exhibited work regularly at most of the important western exhibitions,
winning many awards. At the time the Burdsal hospital units were erected in
the City Hospital of Indianapolis, he supervised several artists and students in
the decoration of the children’s ward and personally painted the murals for
one ward himself.
After many years in the service of art, Mr. Forsyth laid down his
palette and brushes in death which overtook him in 1935. The John Herron
Art School had lost its dean of painting, and Indiana, a pioneer and leader in
the interest of art.
The third member of the “Hoosier Group” to teach in the Art
School was Otto Stark. This distinguished artist was born in Indianapolis,
January 29, 1859. Like many another artist he found himself through
lithography. As the result of a weakened ankle, he was obliged to discontinue
his work at the woodcarver’s bench in a commercial shop. Instead, he began
to study lithography and was apprenticed at the age of sixteen years to a
Cincinnati lithographer, studying the while in the evening classes
117
of the Art Academy of Cincinnati.7
In 1879, Mr. Stark went to New York where he entered the Art
Student’s League, supporting himself by lithography, designing, and
illustrating. After five years of combined study and work he was able to go to
Paris to study in l’Académie Julien, working for two years under Gustav
Boulanger and Léfébvre, and one year under F. Carmon.8
Mr. Stark returned to America in 1887, with a wife and a little
daughter. He remained in New York for a while, painting and illustrating;
after which, two years were spent in Philadelphia working with a commercial
firm. He had planned to make his home in New York, but the death of his
wife decided him to bring his four motherless children to his former home in
Indianapolis in 1894. He began painting again and child life naturally
dominated his work. His understanding of youth later served him to good
purpose as a teacher of art. In 1899, Mr. Stark joined the faculty of the
Manual Training High School as the supervisor of art, a position he held until
the close of the school year in 1919.9
For about fifteen years, Mr. Stark was one of the instructors in
composition at the John Herron Art School. This work in the two schools
required hours of his time but he deemed it more worthy to mold young artists
for the future, yielding a far-reaching influence on the coming generation,
than to leave a painted record to posterity. A fellow artist who shared this
sentiment with regard to teaching writes:
Teaching has, for those who have a liking and a talent for it
from a technical point of view, been a benefit rather than a reverse, for
through it they have always kept their practice, especially in drawing, in
full vigor.10
“Otto Stark, Artist,” The Indiana Woman, VII, April 8, 1899, p. 8.
Ibid., p. 8.
9
Burnet, op. cit., p. 208.
10
Forsyth, op. cit., p. 17.
7
8
118
Evidently, Mr. Stark’s painting did not suffer too much from lack
of time for he produced a “great many pictures in all mediums, landscapes,
figures, etc.”11 He exhibited at the world’s fairs at St. Louis, Argentina, Chile,
and San Francisco, and took several prizes. In 1915, he supervised the
Indiana educational exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San
Francisco, of the work of children in the rural consolidated schools. A notable
contribution to the state is his full-length portrait of General George Rogers
Clark, which hangs in the State House.12
Mr. Stark performed his first work in mural painting in 1913, when
he decorated two large panels in the auditorium of a new school building at
Pennsylvania and Thirty-third Streets. Soon after, he painted murals in the
children’s dining room for convalescent children at the City Hospital.13
In 1910, he purchased a home at 1722 North Delaware Street and
built a studio at the rear, where he worked when not engaged in teaching.
Nine years later he resigned both his position as Director of Art in the Manual
Training High School and the class in composition at the John Herron Art
School in order to devote all of his time to painting. However, his period of
retirement was brief, for after seven short years a bulletin of the Art
Association reported his demise on April 14, 1926, at the age of sixty-seven
years.14
Another teacher of long standing service in the Art School, though
somewhat younger in age and of a later period, was Clifton A. Wheeler. A
former student himself in the Art School, he later returned to impart the
11
Ibid., p. 28.
Burnet, op. cit., p. 396.
13
Ibid., p. 207-208.
14
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, September, 1926, p. 27.
12
119
the benefits of his talent to other students.
Mr. Wheeler was born in Hadley, Indiana, September 4, 1883. His
first studies in art were taken with Mr. Forsyth in Indianapolis. This period
was followed by further study with William M. Chase, Robert Henri, and
Kenneth Miller, in New York. Later, he joined a student party who studied
with Chase in Rome, Florence, Venice, and Vienna. On the occasion of a
second visit to Europe for the purpose of studying masterpieces in the art
galleries of Italy, France, and Germany, he met and soon married Miss Hilda
Drake, daughter of Alexander Drake, art editor of the Century Magazine.
After their return, they built a home and studio in Irvington at 5317 Lowell
Avenue.
Since the sale of pictures is an uncertain and unreliable source of
income, particularly in the earlier days, most of the western artists took up
either teaching or portrait painting as a dependable means of earning a
livelihood. Mr. Wheeler, too, like his other colleagues, engaged in teaching,
though more from necessity than a love for it. For twenty-one years he taught
drawing and painting in the John Herron Art School, and later, from 1934 to
1944, he was an instructor in the art department of Shortridge High School.15
Since his retirement he has been able to paint at his leisure and to great
advantage.
Mr. Wheeler’s best work has been in landscape, though he does
not confine himself to any particular technique or subject. His paintings are to
be found in the John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana; the Public
Libraries at Thorntown and Mooresville, Indiana; Indiana University at
Bloomington; Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana; Rose Polytechnic
Institute, Terre Haute; and the Syracuse Indiana Public Library. He is
15
Interview with Mr. Clifton Wheeler, June 3, 1947.
120
represented with mural paintings in the Indianapolis City Hospital; St.
Joseph’s Convent, Tipton, Indiana; the Circle Theatre; Brookside and Whittier
Schools; and Technical High School, Indianapolis.16
We cannot speak of the early teachers in the Art School without
mentioning the name of Rudolf Schwarz, who established and directed the
class in sculpture from 1905 to 1912. A German by birth, Mr. Schwarz came
to Indianapolis in connection with the sculpture commission on the Indiana
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, in 1877. He afterward settled here, locating
on East Raymond Street, on the south side of Indianapolis, where he
established a bronze casting foundry for his work.17
Had he not been hampered by the continuous battle for existence,
Mr. Schwarz might have been an outstanding figure in American art. As it
was, probably the best work of his lifetime was accomplished on the
Indianapolis monument. This work soon established his reputation and he
received other important commissions. His work on the Monument included
the designing and carving of “The Return Home” and “The Dying Soldier”
groups surmounting the cascades, and four sentry soldiers at the base of the
shaft. The “Peace” and “War” groups were carved by Mr. Schwarz but
designed by Herman N. Matzen.18
Later, he produced the Oliver P. Morton monument, placed at the
east entrance of the Capitol building; the statue of Governor H. S. Pingree in
Detroit, Michigan; and several other public monuments throughout the state
and elsewhere.
Who’s Who in American Art, The American Federations of Arts, Washington, D. C., 1940.
Forsyth, op. cit., p. 22.
18
Burnet, op. cit., p. 326.
16
17
121
The last seven years of his life were spent in successful teaching at
the John Herron Art School. His untimely death occurred on April 14, 1912,
when he was but forty-seven years of age.
Mr. Schwarz’s place in the Art School was filled after a
“temporary cessation of the sculpture class”19 by George Julian Zolnay who
came to Indianapolis each month from his home in St. Louis.20
Other teachers of sculpture and modeling appearing on the faculty
were Helene Hibben, Alexander Sangernebo, Rosana Hunter, Walter Reid
Williams, Clara B. Sorensen, Myra Richards, Forrest Stark, Theodore Beck,
and David Rubins.
Myra Richards taught anatomy and modeling in the John Herron
Art School from 1920 to 1930. She was a native of Indianapolis, having been
born here on January 31, 1882. She was another product of the Art School.
Her teachers were Mary Y. Robinson, Roda Selleck, Otto Stark, J. Ottis
Adams, William Forsyth, Clifton Wheeler, Rudolf Schwarz, George J. Zolnay
and Isador Konti of New York. She was a member of the Sculpture Society of
Indiana, and is represented by a bust of John S. Duncan, in the Law Library of
the Court House, in Indianapolis; and by a statue of James Whitcomb Riley
erected at Greenfield, Indiana, in 1918.21 After Miss Richards left the Art
School she went to New York where she died a short time later.
The present teacher of sculpture in the Art School, David Rubins,
was born at Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 5, 1902. Diligent study and
outstanding talent won for him the Paris Prize in Sculpture in 1924; the Prix
de Rome in 1928; and the Avery Prize, Architectural League of New York
19
The Indianapolis Star, September 29, 1912, p. 14.
Annual Report of the Secretary, 1913, p. 15.
21
Burnet, op. cit., p. 389.
20
122
in 1932. He has been a member of the faculty of the Art School since 1935,
during which time he has supplemented teaching with representative works of
merit such as the carved stone ornament over the doorway of the Federal
building; sculptured work on the United States Post Office; and other work
carried on in connection with the Section of Fine Arts of the Federal Works
Agency. He is a member of the American Artists Congress.22
An influential teacher in the commercial department of the Art
School was Paul Hadley, painter and designer. He is a native of Mooresville,
Indiana, and studied at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art.
For eleven years Mr. Hadley taught a variety of subjects in the Art School,
including illustration, commercial design, interior decoration, and costume
design. In later years, he is best known for his work in watercolor. The most
important work of his earlier career was his design for the Indiana flag which
was accepted by the legislature in 1917. Mr. Hadley was Assistant Curator of
the John Herron Art Institute in 1940.
At various times, commercial and applied design was also taught
in the School of Brandt Steele, A. B. Lyon, Frederick H. Robison, Harry E.
Wood, Harry W. Ballard, Annette J. Warner, Mary E. Brewer, Edna Browning
Ruby, L. Everett Holt, H. H. Brown, Jane Rawls, J. Earl Schrack, Edna Mann
Shover, Edward H. Mayo, Burling Boaz, Jr., Max Adams, Oakley Richey,
Herschell M. Sanders, Mabel Mason DeBra, Millard V. Warner, Alberta
Heese, Walter McBride, Lois Gabbert, Frank E. Schoonover, Walter White,
and Paul Wehr.
Commercial composition and theatre design were taught by Oakley
Richey during eleven years from 1924 to 1936. This versatile artist who is
known as a painter, craftsman, writer, lecturer, and teacher, was born in
Hancock County, Indiana, on March 24, 1902. He is a graduate of
22
Who’s Who in American Art, The American Federation of Arts, Washington, D. C., 1940.
123
the John Herron Art School where he studied under Forsyth and Hadley.
Later, he studied with Pogany, Stuart Walker, Frank Dumond, G. Bridgman,
and Austin Purvis, Jr. Schools in Lafayette and Connersville, Indiana, as well
as the FERA building in Indianapolis, contain murals executed by Mr. Richey.
Besides his long service in the Art School, he has been teaching art at Arsenal
Technical High School in Indianapolis, and has lectured in the Extension
Division of Indiana University in this city. He is also the writer and director
of a number of pageants and masques, and was assistant curator in the John
Herron Art Museum from 1933 to 1937.23
Mr. Richey was followed by Walter White in the commercial
department. The latter taught only one year, to be replaced by Paul Wehr who
held this position for nine years. Mr. Wehr graduated from the John Herron
Art School as a fifth-year student in June, 1937, and became a member of the
faculty the following September. During the last two years as a student in the
Art School he had been a commercial artist for important insurance firms of
Indianapolis, beginning with the United Mutual and continuing with it when it
merged with the American Central as the American United.24 It was to take a
position with a firm of advertising artists in Chicago that he finally gave up
his teaching position in 1945.
Edwin Fulwider was appointed temporarily in Mr. Wehr’s place,
teaching advanced commercial art subjects until Gordon W. Fiscus was
employed for this purpose in 1946. Mr. Fulwider then taught composition and
drawing. Upon his graduation from the John Herron Art School in 1936, Mr.
Fulwider received the Milliken Fellowship. He has been represented in
several exhibitions including the Golden Gate Exposition in 1939, and
23
24
Who’s Who in American Art, The American Federation of Arts, Washington, D. C., 1940.
The Indianapolis Star, April 19, 1937, p. 6.
124
has executed mural decorations in the First Methodist Church in Bloomington,
Indiana.25
Miss Anna Hasselman, the Curator of the Art Museum since
1917,26 is listed in the School catalogues as having taught and lectured in the
Art School during 1918-1919, and from 1922 to 1934. Indianapolis is her
native city. She was born on January 12, 1873, and except for several trips
abroad and for periods of study in New York, this metropolis has been her
permanent home. Here she began to study art under Steele and Forsyth. She
was graduated from Mt. Vernon Seminary, Washington, D. C., and later
studied at Columbia University, the Art Students’ League, and the Chase
School.27 She is a member of the American Watercolor Society, of New
York; the Indianapolis Art Association, the Indiana Print Club, and the
Portfolio Club. “Storm Beaten Pine,” a watercolor by Miss Hasselman, is
owned by the John Herron Art Institute.28
During the 1930’s Miss Lucy Taggart taught painting in the Art
School. Born in Indianapolis and a pupil in the early school, she subsequently
studied under William Forsyth. Later, she had the opportunity to study with
Chase and Hawthorne, and traveled in Europe. She was prominent in art
affairs, being a life member of the National Art Club, New York; the Art
Workers Club for Women; the North Shore Art Association; the National
Association of Women Painters and Sculptors; the Grand Central Art
Galleries, New York; and the American Federation of Arts.29 She has been a
frequent
Who’s Who in American Art, The American Federation of Arts, Washington, D. C., 1940.
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, December, 1917, p. 5.
27
Who’s Who in American Art, op. cit.
28
Interview with Miss Anna Hasselman, June 10, 1947.
29
Who’s Who in American Art, op. cit.
25
26
125
exhibitor in the Eastern galleries, and is represented in the John Herron Art
Museum by an oil painting entitled, “Eleanor.”
An outstanding teacher in the School who resigned only last year
after fourteen years of service was Henrik Martin Mayer. This painter,
teacher, and assistant director to Mr. Mattison, is an eastern man, born in
Nashua, New Hampshire, on December 24, 1908. He is a graduate of the
Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences, in New Hampshire, and the Yale
School of Fine Arts. An award of the Winchester Fellowship enabled him to
travel abroad. Before coming to Indianapolis he was an instructor at Cooper
Union, New York. Mr. Mayer has painted several murals, some of which are
in the Solarium of the Woman’s Cosmopolitan Club, New York; the Marine
Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky; United States Post Offices at Lafayette and
Aurora, Indiana, and at Louisville, Kentucky; and the Section of Fine Arts
Federal Works Agency.30 He left his position in the John Herron Art School
to direct the Art School of Hartford Museum of Fine Arts in New Hampshire.
In the fall of 1938, Edmund Brucker of Cleveland, Ohio, was
engaged to teach first and second year composition, classes in portrait
painting, the class for high school students, and drawing and painting classes
in the evening school.31
A graduate of the Cleveland School of Art, Mr. Brucker
had much of his art training under Henry George Heller, long recognized
as one of the ablest art teachers in the country.
Since his graduation, Mr. Brucker has been an instructor in
the Cleveland School. He has displayed portraits and figure compositions
in a number of important exhibitions over the country….
30
31
Ibid.
Annual Report of the Director of the Art School, 1938, p. 16.
126
Born in Cleveland, November 20, 1912, Edmund Brucker
has much to his credit in art accomplishments. He had the Prix de Rome
honorable mention for a collaboration problem in 1936 and second prize
for figure composition in 1937. The same year he also took a second prize
at the Butler Art Institute at Youngstown, Ohio. He had three mural
panels at the National Youth Administration exhibition and convention in
Chicago. The city of Cleveland owns his “Sober Eighties.”32
Mr. Brucker continues to take awards each year, the latest being a
merit prize for an oil composition, “Hoosier Woman,” exhibited at the Indiana
Artists’ Club’s show in October, 1946; and a second cash prize for a
lithograph shown at the third annual Tri-State Print Exhibit, in November,
1946.33 He is still a popular teacher in the Art School.
Since Mr. Mattison’s appointment as director of the Art School,
other instructors have served on the faculty at various times. They are: Philip
Clarkson Elliott, Alan Tompkins, John M. King, Charles West, Jr., and Harry
Inge Johnstone. The last named was an instructor in architectural design in
the Art School from 1934 to 1937.
The latest additions to the faculty are Robert Weaver, Harry Davis,
John R. Grepp, and Gordon W. Fiscus, all appointed in 1946. Of this number,
the first three are worthy products of the School. Mr. Fiscus studied at the
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and has had several years experience in
advertising agencies.
Table 3 was compiled from data given in Table 4 in the Appendix,
page 176. Of the total number of teachers listed in Table 4, each one served a
span of time in the Art School of between one and twenty-seven years. About
one-half the total number of teachers in service from 1902
32
33
The Indianapolis Star, June 5, 1938, p. 8.
The Chronicle, X, January 1947.
127
to 1947 were men who taught on an average of 4.42 years. Women teachers
numbers a little more than two-fifths of the total with an average of 3.14
years. Both sexes, or the entire number of teachers taught an average of 3.79
years.
TABLE 3
SERVICE OF TEACHERS ACCORDING TO SEX
Years
Men
Women
Total
27
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
4
2
2
1
3
4
2
3
6
4
20
0
0
1
1
3
1
1
0
1
0
0
1
3
6
5
21
1
1
2
2
5
5
3
2
2
3
4
3
6
12
9
41
57
44
101
4.42
3.14
3.79
Total
Average Years
CHAPTER IX
THE CURRICULUM
During almost forty-five years of its career, the John Herron Art
School has run practically the entire scale of subject offerings which might be
included in the curriculum of an institution of this nature. In accordance with
changing social and economic world conditions, making various demands
upon it from time to time, the School’s curriculum has included the fine arts
of drawing and painting and sculpture, the applied arts as used in industry,
commercial art, and the fine and practical arts as related to pedagogy.
The subjects comprising the first program of studies included
drawing and painting from life and the antique, and two classes in designing,
viz., “Modern Ornament,” which was the study of nature and its application to
design; and “Modeling and Wood Carving,” on the basis of historical
ornament.1 Thus we find subjects in applied art introduced in the very
beginning. But this fact follows naturally since the rise of manufacturing,
begun in Massachusetts in the latter half of the nineteenth century, had
increased and spread westward to such a degree as to create a demand for the
artistic designing of the products of industry here as well as in the East.
The two classes in design were continued for many years, later
developing into a special course. Other related classes were added from year
to year. In 1905-06 there were taught enameling, metal work, leather work,
128
1
Circular of the John Herron Art School, October 2, 1902.
129
pyrography, gesso illuminating, interior decoration, stencils, and ceramic
decoration. The following year a class in hammered metal work was
inaugurated to continue until 1911. Ceramic decoration was very popular
during the school’s early period and was taught from 1905 until 1912.
When William Coughlen organized the various design classes into
a systematic course in 1911, it embraced “the study of the theory of design,
historic ornament, practice in drawing and watercolor, and exercises in
original designs and decorative work of all kinds.”2 It was intended to cover a
period of two years, but the following year, the length of the course was
extended to three years in order that “greater emphasis may be laid upon the
fundamental principles of good design.”3 During the first year, the student
gave his time to drawing from the cast and from life, to modeling, and to the
study of the history of art. The principles of design were taught and simple
problems in design given. The following work was scheduled for second year
design students:
1. Problems illustrating the principles of design
2. Problems illustrating the principles of color
3. Copies of fine examples of industrial art of various periods
4. Study of costume
5. Elementary arts and crafts problems
6. Analysis of plant, insect and animal forms
7. Comparative anatomy
8. Practical designs for industrial art purposes such as silks,
cretonnes, lace, wall paper, rugs, metal work, tiles, mosaic, etc.
In his annual report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1913,
Mr. Coughlen reported that:
2
3
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1911-12, p. 23.
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1912-13. p. 17.
130
The year (1912-13) was the most successful in the history
of the school, and was marked by the graduation of the first class
completing a required course in applied design.
In 1913-14, the School, under Harold Haven Brown, offered a full
diploma to students who continued this course for two more years in advanced
specialization.
Practical design held a prominent place in the curriculum until
1933 when design was turned to pictorial account under the title of “Pictorial
Composition.”
During the World War I classes were formed in the Art School for
handwork planned as recreational aids to convalescent soldiers. The students,
in turn, taught in different camps and hospitals with admirable results. Even
after the war was ended, the call for such classes was strong, an increasing
interest in the handicrafts as a means of personal pleasure and profit being
very pronounced. Subject to this demand, the John Herron Art School, in the
fall term of 1920-21, added a course in handicrafts including interior
decorations, pottery, china painting, batik and other dyeing, toy making,
basketry, weaving, and rug making.4
After this time, commercial advertising, too, began to receive
increasingly wide attention, and skilled commercial artists were in demand.
Although a class in commercial design had been taught in the Art School as
early as 1906-07 continuing until 1912, a special course in advertising art was
begun in 1920 which could “be taken separately or as a part of the school
course.”5
A student taking the full course in commercial art began with the
regular first year course, studying the general principles of design, color,
4
5
Announcement of the John Herron Art School, 1920-21, pp. 9-10.
Ibid., p. 9.
131
and free hand and mechanical drawing. In the second year he studied drawing
from the cast and life, painting from still life, design and lettering, show card
designing, interior decoration for advertisement and posters, and rendering in
pen and ink. The third year included the study of general commercial work,
lectures on processes of reproduction, drawing from life, interior decoration,
show card design, and painting in black and white. During the fourth year the
student learned the retouching of photographs, the use of gold leaf, decorative
composition in black and white and color, drawing from life, and general
commercial art.6
A course in illustration, inaugurated in 1922, covered a period of
four years, preparing the student for professional newspaper, magazine, and
book illustration. During the first three years he took the regular beginners’
course, the second year commercial course, and the third year painting course,
respectively. Requirements for the last year were figure sketching, the study
of historic costume, composition, special reading and research work, and
illustration for books and magazines.
The next year, courses in costume design and interior decoration
were organized, followed by a theater design course in 1924.
The poster design course appeared for the first time in the 1925-26
catalogue of the Art School. Subjects constituting the basis of this course
were brush lettering, design, decorative composition, color, and drawing and
painting from the figure and objects.
From 1930 to 1933, theater design and poster design were listed
with the commercial course, while interior decoration and illustration were
placed under the fine arts course, the former appearing thus in the catalogues
for 1930-31 and 1932-33, the latter in 1930-31 and 1931-32. When Mr.
Mattison
6
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1923-24, p. 13.
132
revised the course of study in 1933, the courses in commercial art and fine arts
were retained, and other related courses were either discontinued or
incorporated into these two courses.
Today, the four-year course in advertising art covers the study of
drawing, painting, composition, lettering, advertising layout, cover design,
poster design, package and label design, fashion illustration, advertising
illustration, anatomy, perspective, and lectures. The first year student in this
course begins the specialized work in commercial art together with the regular
foundation classes in figure drawing, painting, perspective, and anatomy. In
the second and third years the time devoted to advertising subjects is
increased, while drawing, painting, and composition are continued as
companion studies. The student specializes in the branch of advertising of his
choice in the fourth year. Lectures on pictorial art and sculpture provide an
historical background and give an analysis of styles and composition.7
Until the school year 1905-06, the study of fine arts in the School
consisted only in drawing and painting from life and the antique. At that time
instruction in the production of etchings, monotypes, and miniatures, portrait
and still life painting, composition and illustration, watercolor, and modeling
from life were added to the curriculum. For the most part, during the School’s
early period, the fine arts program consisted in preparatory and advanced
drawing and painting, composition and illustration, watercolor, modeling from
life, sculpture, and anatomy.
In 1913-14, Harold Haven Brown organized modeling and design
into a separate course, while drawing, painting, and illustration formed
another course. This arrangement was continued until 1923 when Miss
Shover relegated
7
Announcement of the John Herron Art School, 1946-47.
133
sculpture to the fine arts department where it remained until Mr. Mattison, in
1933, again designated it as a separate course.
During Miss Shover’s principalship students of the fine arts course
were expected to complete the regular first year course required of students in
all departments. This course consisted of drawing from the cast and costumed
model, anatomy, still life drawing and painting, deign, lettering, mechanical
drawing, history of design, and history of art. The second year he entered the
life class, studying the figure more seriously; he began painting still life and
drapery in watercolor or oil, and started to work in composition. The next
year he began to paint the figure, attended lectures on painting and sculpture,
and prepared himself for the work of the fourth year. During the final year, he
was expected to produce and exhibit finished work.8
The following is an outline of the subjects studied each year with
their time requirements:
FINE ARTS COURSE9
Year I
Semester I
Half Days
Cast Drawing……………………2
Anatomy……………………...…1
Design………………………...…2
Mechanical Drawing………….....2
Lettering……………………...….1
Hist. Design and Lecture……...…1
Still Life Drawing………………..1
8
9
Semester II
Half Days
Cast Drawing……………………2
Anatomy…………………………1
Design……………………………2
Lettering………………………….1
Hist. Design and Lecture………....1
Still Life Drawing……………...…1
Decorative Composition………….1
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1931-32, pp. 11-13.
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1932-33, pp. 15.
134
FINE ARTS COURSES – Continued
YEAR II
Semester I
Half Days
Portrait Drawing……………..…2
Life Drawing.………………..…2
Modeling – Fig. Constr…….......1
Still Life – Oil……..…………...2
Still Life – Water Color………..2
Commercial……………………1
Composition - Lecture
(Demonstration of Principles of
Composition, with attention to
Design and Pattern)
1 hr.
Semester I-II
Semester II
Portrait Drawing……………..…2
Life Drawing.………………..…2
Modeling or Sketch………….…1
Still Life – Oil…...…………..….2
Still Life – Water Color.……..…2
Commercial…….…………..…...1
Composition – Critical
(Composition either decorative or
practical to be made outside of school
hours)………………………..1 hr.
YEAR III
Half Days
Semester I-II
Portrait Painting, Sculpture or
Comp.…………………….…….4
Life Painting..…………………..2
Half Days
Half Days
Decorative Comp., Theatre Design, or
Interior Decoration.………………2
Hist. of Costumes and Interiors Lecture…………………………...1 hr.
Still Life – Oil or Water Colo…..2
YEAR IV
Semester I-II
Half Days
Portrait Painting, Sculpture or
Composition.…………....5
Life or Sketch………………..….2
Semester I-II
Half Days
Decorative Composition.……...….1
Appreciation of Old Masters, and
Modern Art - Lecture………….1 hr.
Still Life – Oil or Water Color.....2
The above course of studies was broad and prepared the student for
the highest type of study, fitting him to meet adequately the demands of the
day. However, the changing social and economic problems showed the
necessity of a course that would train both hand and eye combined with actual
working experience in professional fields of the fine and commercial arts. To
this end, Mr. Mattison, in the fall of 1933, revised the curriculum, providing a
studio-workshop plan, which proved very effective. A full explanation
135
for the almost complete revision of the program of studies is given by the
Director as follows:
The curriculum that has gone into effect this fall has been
designed to give in its four-year duration consecutive and exhaustive
studies to enable the painter, sculptor, teacher, and commercial artist to
enter upon his respective career completely trained and with a
comprehensive variety of practical working experiences. A firm
foundation in drawing, painting, modeling, and composing will be linked
up closely with workshop experience of carrying out definite projects in
the studio. Analytical lectures are given in the various arts of sculpture
and painting this year, and in the future, architecture, to give the student a
background of knowledge of what the great periods of art of the past have
been, and how the important works in each period were created.
While it is the intention of this plan to give finished
training in drawing and painting, equal emphasis is placed upon the core
around which such training should evolve – that is, composition. Great
care has been taken to impress the student with this point – that he learns
to draw and paint and model in order to present a complete performance of
his final product to the beholder through the unifying composing study.
The result may then fulfill the meaning of the words, “Fine Arts” by
achieving fine relations in the ultimate structure of a complete work of art.
Thus all of the studies are bound together by an intensive inquiry into and
practice in creative composition. Projects of great variety are carried out
in this composition division, starting with practical work in the principles
of design which are then applied to specific problems of varying
complexity throughout the four and five years’ course.
With this training we hope that the student will be
adequately equipped to compete for some of the greater prizes in the art
student world – Prix de Rome, Paris Prize, Guggenheim Awards, and the
Milliken Scholarship.
The aim of the professional training so given is to develop
an artist capable of a wide range of activity. He is not limited to
portraiture, landscape or mural painting, commercial work or teaching, but
may practice any one of them more adequately because of his exhaustive
training in all of them.10
With the exception of a few changes, the curriculum remains the
same in effect today. The former fine arts course has become the course in
painting and includes drawing, painting, and composition. Drawing is studied
during the first three years, supplemented by a special
136
10
Annual Report of the Director of the Art School, 1933, pp. 16-17.
clay modeling class in anatomy and a course in perspective. The clay
modeling class is a recent experiment. Painting in the first year is done from
still life, during the second year in portraiture, and in the third, fourth, and
fifth years from the figure. In 1936, a class in tempera painting was
introduced during the second semester for fourth and fifth year students of
portraiture.11 Composition is stressed throughout all the five years. In the
third year mural problems are solved in connection with the Beaux-Arts
Institute so that such designs may be practical and professional. Advanced
classes in composition work in varied media at a scale most suited to the ideas
evolved.12
The four- and five-year courses in sculpture may be begun without
previous experience since both preliminary and advanced work are provided
in the course. It includes figure drawing, portrait modeling, figure modeling,
composition, advanced sculptural design, carving, casting, anatomy,
perspective, and lectures. Two years are spent in drawing, three years in
modeling from life, and three years in composition. During the fourth and
fifth years the student works entirely on compositions of his choice and in
various materials.13
Early in the history of the Art School, we find a teachers’ class in
grade school drawing listed in the School’s prospectus. At this time America
was slowly awakening to the necessity of art education in the schools. The
city of Indianapolis, in 1872, appointed Miss Millie Morey as its first teacher
of drawing in the public schools, though very little progress was made in this
field until Miss Wilhelmina Seegmiller became the Supervisor of Drawing in
1895. It was she who realized the great social and economic value that might
be derived through inculcating high artistic standards and
11
The Indianapolis Star, April 19, 1937, p. 6.
Announcement of the John Herron Art School, 1946-47.
13
Ibid.
12
137
practices into the youth of our country. With this in mind she endeavored to
place art on a practical working basis in the public schools of Indianapolis.
Teachers were willing, but unprepared, to handle the new subject
in a proper manner. To meet the deficiency, the John Herron Art School
added the above mentioned class to its curriculum in 1906. In 1911, the work
given included: “instruction in drawing, watercolor, perspective, and object
drawing, composition, design, etc., as taught in the public schools.”14
This class was continued until 1922 when a teachers’ training
course was introduced into the regular school. Subjects required for the two
years of normal work in the School were as follows:
First Year:
Special Normal
Introduction to Art Education
Psychology of Childhood
Drawing from Costume Model and Cast
Modeling and Study of Anatomy
Design
Lettering
Perspective and Mechanical Drawing
Pictorial and Decorative Composition
Drawing and Painting from Still Life
Lectures on History of Art and Decoration
Second Year:
Special Normal
Principles of Teaching Art
Special Methods in Art
Observation and Supervised Teaching
Drawing from Life
Pictorial and Decorative Composition
Interior Decoration
Design
Drawing and Painting from Still Life15
14
15
Circular of the John Herron Art School, 1911-12, p. 27.
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1922-23, p. 12.
138
Further, four other subjects were required, English and history, twelve term
hours, and sociology and science, twenty term hours, which could be taken in
a college or normal school. Critic teaching was conducted on Saturdays.
The following year the normal course of study was extended to
four years. Subjects taken in the first and second years remained the same and
prepared students for positions in the elementary schools. Those added for the
last two years, preparing high school teachers and art supervisors, are as
follows:
Third Year:
Educational Psychology
Methods of Teaching in High School
Practice Teaching of High School Classes in Art School
Community Problems
General Psychology
Methods of Supervising
Practice Work in the Art School in Supervision of Grade and
High School Classes
Fourth Year:
Lesson Plans for High School Art Classes
Observation of Work in the City High Schools
Lesson Plans for Supervision of Art
Observation of Work in the City Grade Schools
Painting from Life
Outdoor Sketching and Landscape Painting
Sketching from Costume Model
Applied Design
Stage Settings, etc.
Costume Design
Plans for School Pageants, Plays, etc.
Physical Training
Games, Gymnastics, Swimming
Civic Excursions: Art Exhibition, Public Buildings of Artistic
Interest16
After 1936, degrees for the teacher training course were given
upon the completion of a five-year term of study. The first three years
16
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1923-24, p. 14.
139
were devoted to the painting course in the Art School. In the fourth year, half
of each day was given to the commercial course, and to other specialized work
in the teaching field. During the other half day, academic subjects, some
required and some elective, were studied. The fifth year was devoted to
required academic work which included practice teaching and elective work
either in art or in academic subjects.17 This program is still in effect for
students following this course.
Two other courses covering a four-year term are also offered.
Course I requires the first three years of work to be taken in the Art School,
and the fourth year on the campus at Indiana University in Bloomington,
Indiana. Course II provides a cooperative plan of study between the Art
School and Butler University. Both courses prepare the student to obtain a
teacher’s license in a companion subject as well as in the field of art.
17
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1937-38, p. 20.
CHAPTER X
STUDENT LIFE
Sex, Age-range – A perusal of the list of students in the Art School
during its early years reveals the fact that more than half of the day class were
women. In the evening classes, however, this number was reversed, with the
men in the majority. This situation may be explained by the economic status
of Indianapolis at that time. The city was then in the throes of early industrial
endeavor and members of the community spent most of their time in
establishing homes and in promoting rising business concerns. For those men
and women who were interested in the finer things of life, the former eked a
few evening hours from a busy day, while the latter found more leisure during
the day to devote to the study of art.
From the first, day classes were intended for adults only, younger
students being cared for in the children’s classes. As it is to be expected in a
school of this kind, young amateurs as well as older professional students
have always been included among the regular classes.
In 1922, when a minimum age limit of sixteen years was required
for students in the regular school, all younger students from eight to sixteen
years of age were placed in the junior class. Both high school students and
adults attended the Saturday class.
When the Art School became affiliated with Butler and Indiana
Universities in 1926, there was an increased enrollment in mature students.
Many college students became interested in attending the art classes and it
“brought into the school a group of students who have had from one to
140
141
four years of college training.”1
With the rapid increase in the number of jobs for men in the art
field after World War I, particularly in commercial art, more and more men
were enrolled as students in the School until their number gradually exceeded
that of women.
The 1940 enrollment of students was considered large, but during
the war years immediately following, 1941 to 1944, there was a considerable
decrease in the number of students, particularly of men, who left to enter the
armed forces. In 1944, the enrollment had almost doubled that of the year
before. Since the end of the war, the returning G I’s who have registered
under the G I Bill of Rights, have filled the School to capacity. It is now
estimated that about two-fifths of the student body is composed of women,
and three-fifths are men. The median age range for both men and women
students is twenty-six years.2
Discipline – The word “discipline” evidently was not a part of the
School’s vocabulary in its first years. At the close of the third school year in
the temporary Museum building, a reporter from the Indianapolis Journal
wrote the following:
As yet there is little of the Bohemianism which marks the
usual art school about the Herron Institute. Perhaps because the school is
too new, perhaps because the classes are still comparatively small, the
conventions of ordinary life are still adhered to in the classes and even the
night class indulges in none of the wild pranks with which night classes of
other art schools are sometimes credited in their hours of ease.3
1
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1926, p. 16.
Interview with Miss Mary Finke, May 15, 1927.
3
The Indianapolis Journal, May 15, 1904, p. 10.
2
142
Later, when the Art School was well established in its own
building and the number of students had greatly increased, it became
necessary to provide and enforce a definite set of rules as a guide for conduct.
These regulations thus formulated, appeared in the School catalogues for 1911
and 1912:
Rules
The school rooms will be open for work every week day
from 8:15 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., and in the evenings, except Saturdays and
Sundays from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M. Exceptions to this rule will be made on
the dates of the Composition Class.
The school will be closed on Sundays, Thanksgiving Day,
Christmas, New Year’s Day and Decoration Day. During Christmas week
the building will be open, but no models will be furnished or criticisms
given.
Students should be in the building, secure all materials, and
be in position for work in the studios at least five minutes before the
opening of the classes at 9:00 and 1:00.
Students have the privilege of remaining after the close of
the session for serious work in the studio until 4:30 o’clock, but not later.
The material salesroom will be open between 8:25 and 8:55
A.M., 12:25 and 12:50 P.M., and 7:00 to 7:25 P.M. Students must procure
their materials at these hours.
Except in matters of urgent importance, students will not be
called from the classroom. When desiring to bring visitors into the
classrooms they are expected to notify the office.
Promptness and regularity of attendance is expected, and
irregularity in this respect or failure to do the work required will be
regarded as sufficient reason for dismissal.
Students at work must not be disturbed.
No one will be permitted to remain in any of the
classrooms during the special work of that class.
Members of Life Classes must under no circumstances
speak to models who are posing.
143
Any damage to the property of the Institute must be made
good by those causing it.
Studies are not allowed to be taken away from the School
before the end of the School year, except by special permission. Work
reserved by the various instructors should be reclaimed at the close of the
annual students’ exhibition. Studies not called for by the beginning of the
fall term will be destroyed.
The school reserves the right to retain at least one specimen
of every student’s work in each class.
Lockers may be rented for 35 and 50 cents per term, or 75
cents and $1 for the year.
The Art Association will not be responsible for personal
property left about the school rooms. All articles should be marked with
the owner’s name.
Students will not be permitted to leave canvases, drawing
boards or other materials about the school rooms, but must place them
while not in use in the racks provided for that purpose.
It shall be the duty of the monitor to maintain order and if
necessary to report to the Director any interferences with the work of the
class.
Monitors shall have charge of the model and of the
classroom during the session and shall see that the room is properly
lighted and ventilated.
The monitor in charge shall superintend and approve all
arrangements of still life objects, but students desirous of having any
particular subject arranged may do so by reporting to the monitor on
Monday and Thursday mornings only.
Students must not move the casts or still life except under
the direction of some instructor or monitor.
Under the supervision of the instructors, sketching from the
works in the permanent collection will be permitted, but no copying shall
be done without special permission from the Director of the Museum.
Smoking in the building will not be allowed.
144
Students are expected to be self governing, and to know
and obey the rules of the school from principles of honor. Violation of the
rules will result in suspension or dismissal from the school. Any conduct
unbecoming a student is a violation of the rules, but subject to this general
provision the students are allowed every reasonable liberty so long as they
do not interfere with the rights of other students of other classes.
Discipline in the school was thus made as simple as possible. Any
one who violated the rules reaped the penalty of his own actions, for at the end
of each term, a student who had made little or no progress in his classes and
also had shown an indifference to proper department or disregarded
punctuality was dismissed without further ado.
In recent years, at the opening of each school year the student body
is acquainted with the School’s regulations through an assembly meeting at
which the director reads and explains the code of rules, after which they are
posted upon the bulletin board, there to remain throughout the year. The
present general regulations are set down as follows:
1. Good standing in regard to payment of tuition, attendance, conduct,
and required work is necessary for eligibility to compete for awards
and scholarships.
2. No credits are allowed for work until tuition fees are paid in full.
3. The school reserves the right to retain permanently or temporarily
work executed under the guidance of the faculty.
4. Materials may be purchased from the store during the hours from 7:45
to 8:15 A.M., and 12:45 to 1:15 P.M. only. Cash must be paid for
supplies. Because of scarcity of some items, we can sell only those
supplies needed for class work. Veterans should keep their accounts in
line and are roughly limited to $75.00 a year.
5. Sinks are provided for washing brushes. Paper towels are not to be
used for paint rages.
6. Waste, and paint, should be put in baskets. Do not throw anything out
windows.
7. Canvases must be placed in racks after class, and drawing boards are
not to be left in the drawing rooms. Painting classes should fold up
easels at close of class and put along wall.
8. Students are responsible for the drawing board and easel assigned
them. No school property is to be taken from the school without
permission. Property destroyed must be paid for.
9. A fee of 75¢ will be charged if students lose both locker key.
145
10. Students should watch bulletin board for notices, such as review
notices.
11. The telephone is not for general use. Students cannot be called to the
phone during class periods except in case of emergency.
12. No record players or radios are allowed in the classrooms.
13. No liquor is to be brought into the building at any time.
14. Students should leave the building by 4:30. Students may not work in
the school during evening school except by permission of the faculty.
The evening school monitors have the authority to expel any student
who violates this regulation.
15. Extra clothing must be kept in lockers and not left lying in restrooms.
The school is not responsible for lost articles.
16. Students not measuring up to the standards for grades, attendance, and
conduct will be dropped from classes in mid-year.
With regard to attendance, special regulations are given as follows:
1. Regular attendance in classes is required for credit.
2. Classes begin at 8:00 in the morning and 1:00 in the afternoon,
Monday through Friday. Arrival in class after 8:20 in the morning and
1:15 in the afternoon constitutes full cuts. Three tardies count as a full
cut. Veterans should bear in mind that their subsistence payments
depend upon good attendance.
3. A certain number of absence may be taken without penalty, each
semester. For two hours spent per week in a morning class, on
absence is allowed per semester. For each three hours spent per week
in an afternoon class, one absence is allowed per semester. Double
cuts are given before and after vacation periods.
4. When there are more than eighteen excess absences in all, per term,
the student may be dropped from class or from school. Work and
problems should be made up and turned in at all times regardless of
absences. In case of extended illness, special arrangements for makeup work will be made up with the Director of the School.
5. Excess absences, at the discretion of the faculty, will be taken off the
term mark.
6. Recess bells will be rung mornings at 9:55 and 10:10 and at 2:45 and
3:00 in the afternoons, giving in each 15 minutes of recess. Students
not in class after final bells are rung are counted tardy or absent.
146
7. Going home during the class period without permission constitutes a
cut. Students are not to leave the class rooms for cokes, etc., except
during rest periods. No visiting from room to room during class
periods.
Tuition and Expenses – As compared with the cost of art education
of today, the tuition fees of early classes in the John Herron Art School were
negligible.
From 1902 until 1920 the tuition fee for the day class in drawing
and painting was twenty-five dollars for three months, which period of time
was designated in 1911, as a term of twelve weeks. Until the introduction of
the term system, persons interested in a shorter period of study or merely by
preference, could pay a fee of ten dollars monthly.
In order to encourage the students to study the close relationship
between the various branches of art, combinations of classes were offered in
1907-08, at special tuition rates as follows:
For the privilege of attending all classes of the school for the year, $100,
payable $50 on entrance, $25 on January 1, and $25 on March 1.
For attending the day class in drawing, forenoons, and design, afternoons,
$11 per month, or $30 for three months.
For ceramic class (one criticism a week) and design, $8 per month; two
criticisms and design, $10.
For bookbinding (two criticisms a week) and design, $10 per month.
Day classes and modeling in clay (one criticism a week), $11 per month.4
With the beginning of the term system, tuition fees for each of
various classes could be paid by the year as well as by the term, and payments
were required “strictly in advance.”5
4
5
Circular of the John Herron Art School, 1908-09.
Catalogue of the John Herron Art School, 1911-12, p. 10.
147
Two years later, Harold Haven Brown prescribed a general fee for
the day class regardless of the course followed by the student. The yearly fee
of $65 for the day class, however, remained the same. Tuition fees for the
other types of classes were as follows: evening or Saturday class - $8 a term,
or $20 for the year; watercolor class - $8 a term, or $20 for the year;
children’s class - $1 for four weeks, $2.75 a term, or $8 for the year; Saturday
teachers’ class - $5 a term, or $15 for the year.
This arrangement was continued until 1920. At that time a
registration fee was introduced. One dollar a term was charged for the day
class, and fifty cents a term for the evening and other classes. Tuition fees in
all types of classes were increased. The student now paid $35 a term, of
eleven weeks, or $95 a year, for the privilege of attending the day class. Fees
for other classes were increased about thirty per cent of the former price.
With the gradual rise of the cost-of-living from year to year,
paralleled by a greater expense incurred for maintenance of the School, further
increases in tuition became necessary. In 1922, it was raised to $70 for one
term of eighteen weeks, or $130 a year. Two years later, students were
allowed to attend the winter school half time at the rate of $40 a term. One
hundred seventy dollars a year was charged for the newly organized teacher
training course in 1924-25, though this is not listed with the expenses after
that year.
In 1925-26, one class per week for eighteen weeks was offered in
the winter school at a fee of $18. Academic subjects were $5 per credit hour,
and lectures were $10 a course.
148
The following year, the tuition fee for the full-time school was
increased to $150 with a subsequent rise in the amount charged for part-time
attendance. Expenses remained at this level for eleven years, after which the
full-time tuition became $200.
With wartime prices still soaring and no end to the high cost-ofliving yet in view, the school was finally obliged once more, in 1945-46, to
augment its resources by increasing the tuition fees. Nevertheless, the tuition
expenses are moderate in comparison with other art schools of this caliber.
The present fees (1946-47) are as follows:
Winter School, one semester, eighteen weeks ………………….…$125.00
Winter School, two semesters, thirty-six weeks ……………………250.00
Winter School, morning classes, eighteen weeks ……………………81.00
Winter School, afternoon classes, eighteen weeks …………………...62.00
Locker fee, per year ……………………………………………………1.50
(Registration fee for Winter School included in tuition fee)
Evening School, one night per week, sixteen weeks …………………20.00
Evening School, two nights per week, sixteen weeks ………………..30.00
Evening School Registration Fee, per semester ……….…………..…...1.00
Summer School, one term, six weeks, full time ………………………55.00
Summer School, one term, six weeks, half time …………………...…30.00
Tuition must be paid in advance and fees will not be refunded because of
absence.
Extracurricular Activities – Students of previous years have not
lacked for a pleasant social life in the School during their leisure hours any
more than do students of today. In an announcement published by the Art
School in 1912, we read:
The social life of the school is an attractive feature to the
pupils. Under the supervision of the faculty the student body engages in
masque balls, vaudeville, entertainments, and similar social affairs.
Picnics and tramps into the surrounding country, both for pleasure and for
work, are frequent.
In May, a costume party featuring historic costumes of great art
epochs was held in the Sculpture Court of the Art Museum which was quite
149
a success.6
During the 1920’s, school pageants were given in which all the
students in the School participated. The settings were originated by the
members of the theatre design classes, and the costumes by those attending
the costume classes. These elaborate entertainments were usually held at the
opening of the annual school exhibitions in the spring.
On February 18, 1916, the students of the Art School held an “Art
Material Party.” All came dressed in costumes representing different kinds of
art material, many of which were quite clever and original. During the
entertainment a painting contest was held “in which all those present
decorated small pasteboard boxes, which were afterward auctioned off.”7
The following month another interesting party marked the opening
of the “Fakir’s Exhibition,” a show consisting of caricatures of the paintings
shown in the Indiana Artists Exhibition.8
Extra-curricular activities, however, were not all play, some leisure
time being used to educational advantage, ultimately resulting in honors and
pecuniary profit for those participating. For example, lithography equipment
purchased in 1937, aroused the interest of a group of students in learning the
possibilities of this graphic art. Their interest grew and during four weeks in
May and June of 1939, special donations made possible a class in lithography
taught by Francis Chapin and Max Kahn, from Chicago. As a result, Herron
students were represented
6
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum and Art School, April 4, 1916, p. 14.
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, V, 1916.
8
Ibid.
7
150
that year with lithographs in the National College Art Galleries at
Washington. In the fall of 1946, three cash prizes were awarded to John
Herron instructors and students for lithographs shown in the third annual TriState Print Exhibit.
Tours and trips to other museums to view special exhibitions is
another profitable activity. A member of the faculty accompanies the
students, acting as mentor and guide.
Extra-curricular activities were formerly managed by a student
council, but at present the arrangement of parties and entertainments has
become traditional. Each class usually entertains in turn with dances, parties,
hay rides, etc., the cost being covered by the students themselves.9
Scholarships, Competitions, and Awards – Until 1915, the Art
Association had no fund available for the purpose of aiding talented students
in the Art School, but had, nevertheless, granted annually two or three
scholarships, carrying fee tuition for one year, to students whose work was
meritorious. The Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, for
December of that year, announced the establishment of a special fund for
financing student scholarships.
A friend of the John Herron Art Institute and of young art
students, whose identity is to remain anonymous, has given the Art
Association one thousand dollars to establish a fund, the income of which
will be used to aid deserving students. The gift has been placed in a fund
to be known as the “Students’ Aid Fund,” the principal of which will be
invested by the Treasurer of the Association, and the income only used for
the purpose directed by the donor, at the discretion of the Art School
committee.10
9
Interview with Miss Mary Finke, April 8, 1947.
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, V, December, 1915.
10
151
Added to this fund in 1920 were gifts given in memory of Emma
Harter Sweetser, of $5,000; Cornelia McKay, of $5,000; and Mary A. Dye, of
$1,050.11 Donations given for this purpose still later were the Mary Milliken
Memorial Fund, for scholarships to be awarded for the study in some place at
least five hundred miles from Indianapolis; the Martha Delzel Memorial Fund,
to provide scholarships for young women; the Elizabeth C. Marmon
Scholarship Fund; the Mrs. Edgar H. Evans Scholarship Fund; and the Charles
Latham Award. From these funds the Art Association has offered each year,
scholarships to graduates of the public high schools of Indianapolis and other
cities of Indiana, and also scholarships for work worthy of merit to students
who have been in the Art School for at least one year.
Formerly, scholarships were awarded through competition to
young men and women in each Indiana county. Competitors were required to
be at least sixteen years of age and grammar school graduates. Winners were
selected by an examination arranged by the John Herron Art Institute. The
following is an example of a test given in 1922:
1. How many terms of art study have you had? State grades
received. Give brief outline of work you have taken.
2. In what kind of art work are you especially involved? Why?
3. Make a sketch of a spray of flowers in pencil and one in
watercolor.
4. Make an original design for a border, using a flower as a unit.
5. Draw from nature a landscape showing one or more trees.
6. Draw or paint a still life study.
7. Make a sketch for a poster using not more than three colors.
Show at least one line of lettering.
8. Sketch in pencil or pen and ink a piece of furniture.
11
Interview with Miss Grace Speer, May 15, 1947.
152
9. Make a simple original design for an all-over pattern.
10. Give the names of two or more art books or magazines you
have read.12
In 1931, after more than twenty years of awarding free
scholarships to high school graduates throughout the state, the practice was
discontinued. Despite the change, forty-five Indiana counties, and seven
states were represented in the student body that year.13 However, the change
was not permanent for in the annual report of the principal of the Art School
in 1936 mention is again made of a like competition.
According to the present arrangements, a scholarship contest is
held at the School at a given date each spring, application having been made
in advance. High school graduates competing for the full-time and half-time
tuition scholarships are required to execute simple problems in drawing and
pictorial composition assigned by the School faculty. Not more than ten
examples of their previous work should also be submitted, as well as two
character recommendation.
During the depression years, the maintenance of the School as well
as financial aid to the students was dependent to a great extent upon
scholarship funds. Several students also, in the fall of 1934, received financial
assistance through work provided by the FERA Student Aid Program. This
assistance was replaced by the limited help given by the National Youth
Administration in 1937. Students receiving this aid performed a variety of
work at the School and the Museum and in off-campus activities; such as, that
carried on in the American Settlement and among the Girl Guides. NYA
assistance was received by students in the Art School until 1941.
12
13
The Indianapolis Star, April 16, 1922, p. 6.
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1931, p. 17.
153
Besides the scholarships given by the Art Association, advanced
students in the Art School enter national competitions for special scholarships
and awards. The most outstanding and coveted of these is the Prix de Rome,
the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon an art student in the United
States. The Prix de Rome enables students chosen each year in a nation-wide
competition to spend two years in residence at the American Academy in
Rome. For four successive years, 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940, the Prix de
Rome scholarship was awarded to students of the Art School, viz., Clifford
Jones, Harry Davis, Jr., Robert Pippinger, and Loren Fisher, respectively.
Another very distinguished award, the Chaloner Foundation Paris
Prize, came to Robert Weaver upon his graduation from the Art School in
1937. The Chaloner Prize entails a scholarship of $2,000 a year, during a
period of three years, together with traveling expenses and a furnished studio.
Robert Parks received a Tiffany Foundation scholarship and
painted under Hobart Nichols on Oyster Bay for part of the summer in 1938.
Since 1933, student effort in the department of mural painting has
received recognition with the winning of prizes and honorable mentions in the
monthly nation-wide competition for problems issued by the Beaux-Arts
Institute of New York. Important mural commissions have also been given
students for excellence in the nation-wide Federal Government Post Office
mural competitions. Grant Christian, a fifth-year student, was appointed by
the Federal Project Commission to execute murals for the post office of
Indianapolis, in 1935. Other students who received such commissions were:
Joe Cox, Raymond Morris, Robert Purdy, Gail Martin, and Fay Davis.
154
Students have been successful in securing various other important
assignments. In 1928, Robert Davidson, a student of sculpture, designed and
executed two decorative panels in bas relief for the front walls of the
Shortridge High School building. Through competition, Will Hunt, assisted
by Grant Christian and Harold Horwitz, decorated the ceiling of the Riley
Hospital Therapeutic Pool in 1935. Recent commissions have come to Paul
Zimmerman and Louis LeVier who designed and executed a religious mural
for St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, in Indianapolis; and to Robert Weaver who
is now completing mural decorations on the walls of the solarium and
corridors of the Taggart Children’s Floor at the Methodist Hospital.
During the war years no national competitions were offered, and
the students availed themselves of the opportunity to send work to
professional exhibitions. They have taken honors and prizes in several
outstanding exhibitions; such as the Indiana Artists’ Exhibition, the Butler Art
Institute’s annual exhibition at Youngstown, Ohio, the Kearney Memorial
Exhibition in Milwaukee, the Hoosier Salon, the Richmond Art Association’s
annual exhibition, the Ohio Valley exhibition at Athens, Ohio, print exhibits
in the National College Art Galleries at Washington, the National Academy
Show in New York, and others.
The Milliken Award, which in 1936 was applied to travel abroad,
continued to be given during the war; but in 1940, due to the critical European
situation, further study was pursued in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and
Cuba instead of going to Europe. The latest recipient of this scholarship, Paul
Zimmerman, is now painting and studying in New York.
Student Publication – Early in December, 1927, the first issue of
the John Herron Art School’s first magazine, The Chronicle, was placed in
155
the mail. The Art Association for many years issued an illustrated bulletin
periodically, though emphasizing activities in the Museum. The Chronicle is
the School’s own paper and deals exclusively with events in the Art School.
An account of the first issue follows:
Printed on deep cream, enameled paper, the single-fold
sheet has four pages, measuring 103/4 by 8 ½ inches. The first number
has four good-sized illustrations – that of the cover-page is a photograph
of Elio O’Hara demonstrating his method of watercolor painting to Herron
School students on the steps of the school building; two reproduce the
painting “Carnival,” that won the Prix de Rome for Clifford Jones of
Kokomo, and the bareback riding scene in Madison Square Gardens, New
York City, that was painted by Robert Weaver of Peru in the final tryout
for the Chaloner prize…; the third illustration gives a partial view of the
new Indianapolis Federal Building with the doorway over which the
carved stone ornament is to be done by David K. Rubins.
Paul Wehr, recent graduate of the Herron school, who
became a member of the faculty this fall as a teacher of commercial art,
had charge of the magazine layout. He is to be congratulated for using
every fractional inch of space to the advantage of attractive appearance
and inclusion of a wealth of material – both pictorial and newsprint….It is
the plan to have each cover page carry a different illustration and
accompanying news article for the succeeding numbers of the magazine.
While the art school faculty, the student body and alumni
of the Herron school are all to have a hand in furnishing material for the
paper, the editor, it is announced by Donald M. Mattison, director of the
Herron school, is Mrs. Wendell Sherk, who is the school’s registrar.
…………………………………………………………………………….
Those who are on the mailing list to receive free copies of
the “Chronicle” in addition to the faculty and regular students, are the
members of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Herron School graduates,
art supervisors and art instructors in the high schools of Indiana, art
schools and museums of the state, Indiana libraries, prospective art
students and art magazines over the country.14
The purpose of the Chronicle, which furnishes information about
the School and news of the students and their work, is to keep in touch with
former students and other interested persons, and to serve as a recruiting agent
for the School. The paper, at first published three
14
The Indianapolis Star, December 12, 1937, p. 5.
156
times a year and later, twice, has been most effective as a means for
contacting prospective students throughout the state and elsewhere. In 1945,
just eight years after the magazine’s first publication, the director was able to
report as follows:
The registration revealed that, more than ever before,
students came to us not only from our own state but from distant parts of
the country. This was to be expected since, in addition to local and statewide publicity through our catalogue, newspaper articles, and direct mail
announcements, the school publication, the Chronicle, was sent to libraries
and individuals throughout the United States and to former students
overseas.15
A late copy of this “little but mighty” magazine is included on the
following page.
15
Annual Report of the Director of the Art School, 1945, p. 15.
157
(Images on pp.157-160 unavailable for digital version)
Fig. 17
158
159
160
PART IV
CONTRIBUTIONS AND INFLUENCE
CHAPTER XI
CONCLUSION
Contributions as Represented by Alumni – Former students of the
John Herron Art School have entered various fields of art work for which they
were prepared in the Institute, winning high distinctions for themselves,
preaching the creed of beauty to the youth of the nation, and creating civic
landmarks of high artistic merit.
Among the earlier students in the Art School one in particular,
Wayman Adams, has achieved national fame. Mr. Adams is listed in the
School catalogues as being a student in the John Herron Art School from 1904
to 1910, after which he went to Italy with Chase and, in 1912, to Spain with
Robert Henri. His work is outstanding in the field of portraiture. For several
years he maintained a studio in Indianapolis and in New York where he
painted portraits of a number of distinguished persons; such as, Otis Skinner,
the actor; Alexander Ernestinoff, director of the Indianapolis Orchestra; Booth
Tarkington, writer; Eugene Costello, artist and critic; Jonas Lie, president of
the National Academy,1 and others. The portraits of three Indiana governors,
J. Frank Hanley, James M. Ralston, and Thomas Marshall, were painted by
Mr. Adams and hung in the State Library. The American Portrait Foundation
established
161
1
Arts and Decoration, XLIII, October, 1935, p. 27.
162
in 1918, appointed him as “one of the ‘twelve eminent portrait-painters of
American birth’ commissioned to paint portraits of Americans who won
renown in the world war.”2 In 1921, he was elected as Association member of
the National Academy. Since that time he has enjoyed an unflagging
popularity as a painter of portraits.
Some of the early students remained in Indiana where they gained
local recognition. A few of these are: Marie Goth, Simon P. Baus, and
Randolph Coats, portrait painters; Helen Hibben, Myra Richards, sculptors;
Francis Focer Brown, supervisor of art in the public schools of Richmond,
Indiana; Frederick Polley, instructor in art in Arsenal Technical High School;
Clifton Wheeler, art instructor in Shortridge High School; Lillian Volland,
teacher, Myra Richards, Tempe Tice, Lucy Taggart, Bessie Hendricks, and
Helen McKay Steele, members of the faculty of the John Herron Art School;
E. Chase Cassidy and Walter Isnogle, mural painters; Roy M. Ketcham and
Don Herold, illustrators; and Carl C. Graf, Dorothy Morlan, Julia Graydon
Sharpe, and William Scott, painters. Martinus Andersen, Worth Brehm,
Harvey Enrich, and Justin C. Gruelle became illustrators in the East.3
In the later years, when art became a vital part of the commercial
and educational worlds, a greater interest was taken in the affairs of the Art
School and it became an important source of supply for competent artists,
craftsmen, and teachers of art. By 1925, the director of the Art School was
able to report as follows:
Business men and school supervisors are beginning to look to the Art
School to supply their needs for trained artists and teachers. Seven
students of Fine Arts received recognition in large exhibitions, or have
received commissions worthy of note. Ten students have been placed in
teaching positions in the state, and eight are holding good commercial
positions.4
2
Burnet, op. cit., p. 247.
Ibid., pp. 353-402.
4
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1925, p. 17.
3
163
The following years, inquiries were received from supervisors of
schools from all over the state in regard to prospective graduates.
Every graduate from the class last June now has a good
position – one or more being employed at Manual Training High School,
Technical High School, Shortridge, and Broad Ripple High School in
Indianapolis, and one in the University of Indiana at Bloomington.5
During the depression years most of the Alumni members in
professional work held their positions.
The graduates who had positions at the beginning of the
depression, with very few exceptions, are employed by the same company
or school. Records show that former students are employed in New York,
Illinois, Montana, Colorado, Georgia, and California, in addition to the
large number having positions in Indiana.6
Many concrete examples may be given of former students in the
Art School who have performed successful work in the professional field.
One of these is Robert Davidson, who later studied with Lorado Taft and was
employed in the art department of the Chicago Tribune. He worked on the
Civil War Memorial carved on the face of Stone Mountain in Atlanta,
Georgia, after which he went to New York. The two decorative panels in bas
relief, placed on the front walls of the Shortridge High School building, are
his contribution to the civic beauty of Indianapolis. For several years he has
been employed as a teacher in Skidmore College at Saratoga Springs, New
York.
Charles G. Yeager, who before the war was the head of the art
department in Manual Training High School, studied in the Art School when
Edna Mann Shover was the principal and William Forsyth was dean of the
faculty. He was appointed to the art faculty of the Indiana
5
6
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1926, p. 16.
Annual Report of the Principal of the Art School, 1932, p. 16.
164
Central College in September, 1933, after assisting Miss Ethelwyn Miller in
the teacher training department of the Herron Art School.7 Since his return
from service, Mr. Yeager has been head of the art department at Shortridge
High School.
Another sculpture student of note, Robert Pippinger, who was
graduated from the Art School in 1938, became a “full-time assistant to the
eminent portrait sculptor, Jo Davidson, in his studio at Lahaska,
Pennsylvania.”8
After completing the four-year course in the Art School in June,
1933, Robert Owen Parks was appointed Art Director of Memorial Union
Building of Purdue University. He was given a year’s leave of absence from
Purdue to return and complete his studies in the John Herron Art School
where he was graduated in 1943, winning the Milliken scholarship. The latest
Chronicle states that Mr. Parks, “after an interval of war work, resumed his art
studies at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, [and] has been
appointed graduate assistant in the fine arts department of that institution.”9
Clifford Jones, the first student from the School to win the Prix de
Rome prize, was appointed in September, 1926, to a full-time teaching
position at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Another graduate, Perry Davis, was made a member of the Carnegie faculty at
the same time.10
After completing his graduate studies at Iowa University, Robert
Van Sickle, a former graduate from the Art School served as an assistant
7
The Indianapolis Star, January 14, 1940, p. 6.
The Chronicle, January, 1946.
9
The Chronicle, January, 1947.
10
Ibid.
8
165
teacher in the School. He now teaches art in the Orchard School in
Indianapolis, and delivers lectures on the history of art in Butler University.11
Grant Christian, nephew of the designer, Franklin Booth, and
Hanson Booth, illustrator, both of New York, designed and executed nine
large mural paintings on the walls of the northwest corridor on the third floor
of the Indianapolis Federal Building.12 He is an Art School graduate and a
member of the Keeling Advertising Agency of Indianapolis. Recently, he has
achieved distinction and two cash awards in a Scripps-Howard newspaper
Coach-of-the-Year contest.13
A recent graduate, Louis LeVier, during the past summer, designed
sets and scenery for stage production in a summer playhouse in Milford,
Pennsylvania. At present, he is working in the interior decoration department
of the William H. Block Company.14
During both World War I and II, students and former students were
active in the armed forces, in professional and teaching positions, and in the
war effort on the home front. Regarding the first war, the Indianapolis Star,
July 28, 1918, announced that the Herron Art School then had thirty-six Yank
stars representing students, practically all of whom were engaged in either
“cartography or camouflage for the Allies over there.”
In the last war the School was proud to point out several students
who were prominent in war work. Harry Davis, Jr., a graduate in 1938, was
selected as one of five staff artists to make a pictorial record of
11
Interview with Miss Marian Greene, April 5, 1947.
The Indianapolis Star, December 12, 1937, p. 5.
13
The Chronicle, January, 1947
14
Ibid.
12
166
his division in Italy where he served in the Historical Service Division of the
Fifth Army.15 Richard Wingert was singled out by Ernie Pyle for special
mention in his Hoosier Vagabond sketches. A former student in commercial
art in the Art School from 1937 until his enlistment in the army in 1940, Mr.
Wingert was the only staff artist for the famous A.E.F. paper, The Stars and
Stripes.16 Joe Cox and Helen Holmes contributed art work to Navy
publications,17 and Garo Antreasian painted war records in the Phillipines and
the Marianas.18 Students in the School contributed their part by serving in the
arts and crafts program at Billings Hospital and in other volunteer work.19
At present, three veterans-alumni are teaching in the Art School,
viz., Harry Davis, Jr., John Grepp, and Robert Weaver.
Influence as Reflected by Local Community Life – It has been the
endeavor of the Art Association to bring the John Herron Art Institute more
intimately to the knowledge and use of the people of Indianapolis in order to
arouse in them an intellectual interest in artistic things, and thus to create a
definite movement toward art in daily living and in city beautification. Just
how much the Association has contributed both spiritually and temporally to
the cause of humanity is nebulous. That the John Herron Art Institute has
been an influence for good along cultural and aesthetic lines, however, cannot
be denied.
15
The Indianapolis Star, October 15, 1944, May 27, 1945.
The Chronicle, November, 1942.
17
Annual Report of the Director of the Art School, 1945, p. 16.
18
The Chronicle, June, 1946.
19
Annual Report of the Director of the Art School, 1945, p. 16.
16
167
A generation of youths attending the Indianapolis public schools
have received instruction and artistic enjoyment within its walls. Of the
thousands of children (19,021 during the fiscal year 1914-15) who visited the
institute, relatively few of them ever became artists, but many have carried
away vivid impressions of better things which may have influenced their lives,
and through the knowledge thus imparted, they have served as instruments for
the enlightenment of the public.
Thirteen years after the establishment of the Art Institute, the
following eulogy appeared in the Indianapolis Star:
Indianapolis has developed, within a comparatively short
time, higher standards in civic and home beautification. More attention is
paid to architecture. Some of the downtown buildings of the city –
mentioning only two, the Fletcher Savings and Trust Building and the
Hotel Severin – are evidences of beauty combined with utility in high
buildings.
The city is famed for its pretty bridges and the design for
the Meridian Street bridge across Fall Creek is a further example of artistic
construction.
The improvements along aesthetic lines that have been
apparent to many observers were not spontaneous. They came in part as
the result of the awakened sense of the beautiful in many American cities.
It is not too much to say that the Herron Institute and the work of the Art
Association of Indianapolis have been largely instrumental in helping put
more of the artistic into everyday life in Indianapolis.20
The decoration of civic buildings, hospitals, theatres, schools,
churches, government buildings, etc., in which faculty members and students
of the Art School have played an important part, is also convincing evidence
of the influence of the Institute upon the community.
During the depression of the 1930’s the Art Institute cooperated
with the government in relieving needy artists throughout the sate. The
Museum was the center of the local division of the Public Works of
20
The Indianapolis Star, July 17, 1915, p. 6.
168
Art Project, and the state program for artists organized under the
Government’s commission for Unemployment Relief. In 1934, Mr. Peat was
responsible for the projects carried on by eighty artists throughout the state in
connection with the former program, and the activities of about twenty-five
artists in the latter.21
At present many veterans are receiving an education under the GI
Bill of Rights. Some of these men and women were former students in the
School who left to enter war work in the armed forces; others have resumed
their art studies here after having studied in other schools before the war. Still
others are taking courses in an Art School for the first time, a latent talent for
the aesthetic having been awakened while training in the armed forces. Of the
total number, however, the majority are interested in art as a profession and
are studying in the commercial field.
Following World War I, Harold Haven Brown, then director of the
Art Institute, seriously considered the need for art in daily living in these
words:
In the grave social unrest of the world today, in which our
own country is deeply involved, we more than ever forget the crying need
for beauty, yet the lack of genuine beauty and joy in the numb lives of
millions is one of the mortifying causes of the present social upheaval.
Were we as quick to see and remedy this condition as are selfish,
unprincipled and dangerous agitators to seize and enlarge upon it as an
excuse for their ugly propaganda, a genuine peace could be here and
now.22
History repeats itself; and the world is once more experiencing the
throes of great social and economic distress following a second world war.
Peace is a random thing tossed meaninglessly about on the
21
22
Annual Report of the Director of the Museum, 1934.
Bulletin of the Art Association, Indianapolis, Indiana, VIII, October, 1919, p. 7.
169
lips of many. Beauty, the sister of Peace, is lost in a maze of selfish political
gain, and is once more enslaved by repulsive propaganda. The remedy we
seek is within the grasp of all, though many are blind to its healing powers.
God, the Prince of Peace, Who made the beauty of the universe, will rule a
chastened world when independent man seeks the beauty of His love.
We mortals seek
A thing called beauty in our universe:
On snow-fringed peak,
By fern-banked creek,
In the royal green of regal forestry
Where larks converse.
In crystal dew
Upon a golden-shafted trumpet flower,
Through scenic view
E’er changed anew,
In rose-blushed dawn and misty violet vales,
In a rainbow’s bower.
In flowing line
And streaming color from the artist’s brush,
Of pure design
In marble fine,
Through poet’s plaint, and trill of harmony –
Of God is such.
Yes, beauty is there
Wherever we may find it: in earthy clod
Or jewel rare.
And beauty fair,
The essence of a kind Creator’s love,
Brings man to God.
APPENDIX
ORIGINAL ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
of
THE ART ASSOCIATION OF INDIANAPOLIS
(Organized informally, April 5, 1883; formally, May 7, 1883, and
incorporated October 11, 1883)
We, whose names and places of residence are hereunder written,
have associated ourselves together, and by these articles do hereby associate
ourselves together as a corporation under and in pursuance of the statutes of
the State of Indiana, as follows, that is to say:
ARTICLE I
Object
The objects of this Association shall be to cultivate and advance
Art in all its branches; to provide means for instruction in the various branches
of Art; to establish for that end a permanent gallery, and also to establish and
produce lectures upon subjects relevant to Art.
ARTICLE II
The corporate name of this association shall be “The Art
Association of Indianapolis.”
ARTICLE III
The corporate seal of this Association shall be a circular plate or
disc containing the words “The Art Association of Indianapolis” surrounding
the word “seal,” an impression of which seal is affixed near the foot of this
paper.
ARTICLE IV
The business and prudential concerns of this Association shall be
managed by a President, three Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, a
Corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Finance Committee consisting of
not less than three nor more than seven members, and a Board of Directors
composed of the officers of the Association; namely, the
170
171
the President, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurer, together with not
more than five other Directors to be selected from among the members.
ARTICLE V
Elections
There shall be a regular annual meeting of members on the second
Wednesday of April in each year, at which meeting officers and Directors
shall be chosen for the ensuing year, except the members of the Finance
Committee shall be chosen by Directors from out their own number. Until the
first annual election Albert E. Fletcher shall be President, John M. Judah,
Mary S. Moore and Laurel L. Fletcher, Vice-Presidents, May Wright Sewall,
Recording Secretary, H. B. Palmer, Corresponding Secretary, Anna Dunlop,
Treasurer, and in addition to said officers there shall be the following
Directors: N. A. Hyde, Susan M. Ketcham, Esther W. Bradshaw, Thomas E.
Hibben and Belle M. Sharpe.
ARTICLE VI
Membership
1. The membership of the Association shall include the following classes:
First: Annual members
Second: Life members
Third: Members in perpetuity
2. The contribution of ten dollars at any one time shall entitle the contributor
to be a member for one year. Each annual member shall have free
admission to the permanent gallery during the year of membership.
3. The contribution of one hundred dollars at any one time to the fund of the
Association shall entitle the contributor of the same to a life membership.
Each life member shall be entitled to free admission for life to the
permanent gallery.
4. The contribution of five hundred dollars at any one time to the funds of the
Association shall entitle the contributor to a membership in perpetuity.
Each member in perpetuity shall be entitled to free admission to the
permanent gallery and to all loan exhibitions made under the auspices of
the Association, and shall also be the permanent holder of one scholarship
to whatever courses of instruction may be provided, by virtue of which
such members shall have the right to confer upon one art student the
privilege of free admission to any or all such courses.
172
5. No membership for one year shall entitle the holder thereof to any voice or
vote at membership meetings unless such holder be over twenty-one years
of age.
(L. S.)
Jennie E. Roache,
Mrs. C. L. Holstein,
Mary Dean,
Gertrude Jameson,
Marcella S. Ford,
Lucy G. Duy,
Anna Dunlop,
M. A. Pratt,
L. F. Hyde,
M. B. Bybee,
Mary S. Wetsell,
May Wright Sewall,
Laurel L. Fletcher,
M. L. Warren,
M. S. Moore,
L. S. Fletcher,
B. M. Sharpe,
A. B. Mansur.
Recorded October 20, 1883, at 2 o’clock P.M.
(The above list of signers in exactly as recorded in the county archives.)
173
Will Record M. page 384
October 21, 1892
Last Will and Testament of John Herron.
I, John Herron, of Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, do make
and publish this my last Will and Testament.
Item First – I give and bequeath to Elizabeth West, wife of
William West, to James Harrison, to John Harrison, and to Margaret Harrison,
daughter of Elizabeth West, the sum of five hundred dollars each. Each of the
foregoing bequests is upon the conditions however, that if any of the above
named legatees shall take any step to contest the validity of this will, or any
provision thereof, the bequest as to such person shall be void, and that each of
the said legatees in receipting to the executor for his, or her, legacy, shall
waive all right to question or in any manner contest the validity of this will,
and every provision thereof.
Item Second – I devise to Anna E. Turrell, now residing with me,
in fee the following described real estate situated in Marion County, Indiana
to wit: Lot numbered eight (8) in Square fifteen (15) in Stoughton A.
Fletcher’s North East Addition to the City of Indianapolis. The said Anna E.
Turrell, also holds a certificate signed by me, dated July 4th, 1889, to the effect
that she is entitled to one-half the principal and interest of a certain mortgage
loan made by me, June 19th, 1889 to John George Wurgler. I direct that she
shall be paid according to the terms of said certificate. – I also give and
bequeath to her the further sum of five hundred dollars.
Item Third. I do give and bequeath to the Indianapolis Free
Kindergarten Association, to the Indianapolis Orphan Asylum of which Mrs.
John A. Bradshaw is at this date, President, and to the Association
incorporated as the Indianapolis Home for Aged Women, but now known as
the “Katherine Home,” the sum of One Thousand dollars each.
Item Fourth – Of the money now on deposit in my name in the
Indiana National Bank of Indianapolis, Indiana, there is one thousand dollars,
which was the property of my wife, Electa D. Herron – there is at this date,
the further sum of One Thousand dollars, which was also her property, in the
Safety Vault in Fletcher’s Bank Building in said city. – Should I not account
for these sums before my decease, I direct that my executor to do so to the
estate of the said Electa D. Herron.
Item Fifth – For the payment of the foregoing bequests and
legacies, debts and expenses of administration, and the residuary bequest in
the item next following, I direct that my executor, by collections and sales
shall reduce to money my entire estate, real, and personal,
174
wherever situated, and for such purpose I do direct and empower my executor,
to sell all said personal estate at public or private vendue, at such time and
upon such terms and in such manner as to him shall seem meet, without notice
or appraisement; and for like purpose, I do direct, authorize and empower my
said executor, to grant, bargain, sell, and convoy all of my real estate,
wherever situated, in such parcels or tracts, for such price or prices, upon such
terms of cash or credit, and upon such securities, to such person and persons,
at such times and within such period as he may deem to the best interests of
my estate, said sales, however, not to be unreasonably hurried or delayed.
Said sales, or any of them may be without order of court, at public or private
vendue, and when at private vendue without notice, and when at public
vendue upon such notice as my executor may determine – My Executor shall
have power to make all necessary and proper conveyances, and deeds by me
in my life time.
Item Sixth – After the payment of the special legacies, debts, and
expenses of administration as provided in the previous items, I do give and
bequeath, all the residue and remainder of my estate, as the same shall be
reduced to money, to the “Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana,” a
corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Indiana, on or about
April 5th, 1893, to be to said corporation, absolutely and forever.
Provided, however, and this bequest is upon the condition
following: That the Art Gallery and the Art School of said association, when
established and maintained, shall each be designated and named by such name
or names, as will include the names of the testator as a part thereof, and the
use of such name or names shall be perpetual, or so long as the Gallery and
School are severally maintained. The Association may, however, if it prefer,
adopt one name to include both Gallery and School.
My executor may pay to said Association under this bequest the
money realized by him from time to time, whenever he has received what is
deemed by him proper evidence that said Association has adopted the name or
names for the Gallery or School as herein set forth.
If said Association shall not see fit to comply with the foregoing
condition, or if, for any cause or reason, this bequest should fail or be or
become invalid, then in either event, I direct that my executor shall distribute
the residue and remainder of my estate in this item sought to be bequeathed, to
such religious and charitable societies, churches, organizations and
corporations, located in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, as he may select and
in such portions as he may determine, including or not, as he deems meet,
those named in item third of this will.
If said Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, shall accept the
bequest herein made, I request that it collect and appropriately
175
preserve in said Art Gallery or School my family portraits, china and other
heirlooms.
Item Seventh – I do hereby revoke all former wills and codicils by
me at any time made, and I do hereby nominate and appoint Ambrose P.
Stanton, of Indianapolis, Indiana, the executor of this my last will and
testament.
Witness my hand and seal this 21st day of October, 1892.
John Herron (seal)
Signed, acknowledged and declared by John Herron, as his last
will and in our presence and signed by us as witness in his presence and in the
presence of each other this 21st day of October, 1892.
Said will being first read to the said John Herron in our presence.
J. H. Woodburn
John E. Scott
176
TEACHERS IN THE REGULAR SCHOOL, PREPARATION, CLASSES
TAUGHT, AND TENURE
Name
J. Ottis Adams
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
South Kensington Art School,
London; Royal Academy,
Munich, under Benczur and
Loefftz.
Pupil of Aman-Jean, Grassel,
Paris; University of Munich.
Drawing and
Painting.
1902-1906
Design, Modern
Ornament.
1902-1909
Alfred B. Lyon
Boston Art School, Boston;
Pupil of Raffaelo Rainers.
Modeling,
Woodcarving,
Historic Design.
1902-1912
Virginia Keep Clarke
Pupil of Forsyth; Chase School;
Art Students’ League, New
York.
Art Institute of Chicago; Art
Students’ League, New York;
Pupil of Chase and Pyle.
Children’s class.
1902-1905
Children’s class.
1902-1905
Bessie Hendricks
Pupil of Steele and Forsyth, John Children’s class.
Herron Art School.
1902-1905
Otto Stark
Cincinnati Art Academy; Art
Students’ League, New York;
Académie Julien, Paris, under
Boulanger, Léfébevre, and
Carmon.
Painting
1905-1920
Tempe Tice
Indiana Art School; John Herron
Art School.
Watercolor, Still Life
Painting, Modeling,
Children’s Class
1905-1918
Rudolph Schwarz
Imperial Academy, Vienna;
Modeling from Life
Pupil of Eberlein, Geiger, Berlin.
Brandt Steele
Elizabeth Driggs Bacon
1905-1912
177
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
Frederick H. Robison
John Herron Art School.
Illuminating and
Lettering; Ceramics
(assistant).
1905-1906
Alice R. Hadley
Pupil of T. C. Steele, Wm.
Chase; John Herron Art School.
Ceramic Decoration.
1905-1913
Myrtle Hedrick
John Herron Art School.
Ceramics (assistant).
1905-1906
William Forsyth
Royal Academy of Art, Munich,
under Loefftz, Benczur, Gysis,
and Lietzenmeyer.
John Herron Art School; Art
Institute of Chicago.
Advanced Drawing
and Painting.
1906-1933
Harry E. Wood
Pennsylvania School of
Industrial Art.
Metal Work, Design
1906-1912
1914-1915
Harry W. Ballard
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts.
Commercial Design,
Elementary
Handwork.
1906-1912
Selma Neubacher Steele
Pratt Institute, New York.
Teacher Training
1906-1907
Demarchus Clariton
Brown
A.M.; Professor of Greek in
Butler College.
Lecturer on Greek
Art and Classical Art
1906-1912
1913-1915
H. R. Allen
M. D.
Lecturer on Artistic
Anatomy
1906-1911
Clara B. Leonard
Sorensen
Pupil of Rudolph Schwarz
Lorado Taft.
Preparatory Modeling 1907-1909
and Sculpture
1915-1916
William Henry Fox
University of Pennsylvania,
B.A.; art critic.
Director; Lecturer on
Modern Art.
1907-1908
Lillian Weyl
Pratt Institute; Columbia
University under Arthur Dow.
Teacher Training.
1908-1913
William M. Allison
Drawing and Painting 1906-1909
178
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
Lovina Knowlton
Pupil of Gertrude Stiles, Edith
Diehl.
Bookbinding.
Clifton Wheeler
Pupil of Wm. Forsyth, Wm.
Chase, Robert Henri; travel
abroad.
Drawing and Painting 1909-1920
1923-1933
Helene Hibben
Pupil of Lorado Taft.
Children’s and
1909-1913
Preparatory Modeling
and Sculpture.
Madam Josephine
Weigeldt
(no information available)
French and German
Languages.
1909-1911
Mabel West
Pratt Institute.
Teacher Training.
1909-1910
Annette J. Warner
Pratt Institute; Philadelphia
School of Design for Women.
Principal, Applied
Design
Interior Decoration.
1910-1911
Mary E. Brewer
Pratt Institute; Philadelphia
School of Design for Women;
Instructor in University of Idaho.
Design, Interior
Decoration.
1910-1911
1922-1923
Lecturer on Prints,
History of Art.
1910-1916
Alfred W. Brooks
1908-1910
Edna Browning Ruby
Art Institute of Chicago;
Pennsylvania School of
Industrial Art.
Applied Design,
Interior Decoration.
1911-1912
Martha Feller King
Pratt Institute.
Teacher Training.
1911-1912
M. Thorner
M. D.
Anatomy
1911-1913
E. Louise Guernsey
Pupil of Lorado Taft.
Children’s and
Preparatory
Modeling.
1912-1913
Alexander Sangernabo
School of the Imperial
Eremitage, St. Petersburg;
School of Industrial Art,
Hamburg; École des Arts
Décoratifs, Paris.
Decorative Modeling
1912-1915
179
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
L. Everett Holt
School of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston.
Applied Design.
1912-1913
Kurt Vonnegut
John Herron Art School.
Artistic Lettering.
1912-1915
Lilliam G. Swan
Pratt Institute.
Teacher Training.
1912-1915
George Julian Zolnay
Professional sculptor.
Sculpture.
1912-1913
Harold Haven Brown
Massachusetts Normal Art
School; Lowell School of
Practical Design; Cowles Art
School; Julien Academy; École
des Beaux Arts.
Director, Normal Art,
Design.
1913-1921
Rosana Hunter
(no information available)
Modeling.
1914-1915
Walter Reid Williams
Pupil of Rudolph Schwarz; Art
Institute of Chicago; Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, Académie
Colorossi and Beaux-Arts, Paris.
Modeling.
1915-1916
Marie C. Todd
Art Institute of Chicago; Pratt
Institute; Assistant Supervisor of
Drawing in Indianapolis Public
Schools.
Teacher Training.
1915-1916
Louise H. Malthy
(no information available)
Teacher Training.
1915-1916
Rhoda E. Selleck
Harvard University under
Denman Ross; Teacher of Art in
State Normal of Michigan;
Supervisor of Drawing,
Saginaw, Michigan; Teacher of
Art, Shortridge High School.
Pottery.
1915-1916
Jane Rawls
(no information available)
Costume Design,
Interior Decoration
1915-1916
180
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
Estelle Peele Izor
Pupil of Forsyth and Steele,
Costume Design,
Freer, and Vanderpoel, Wm.
Interior Decoration.
Chase, Arthur Dow; John Herron
Art School.
1916-1917
Anna E. Hasselman
Art Students’ League, New
York; Columbia University,
Travel abroad.
Children’s class.
1918-1919
1922-1934
J. Earl Schrack
Commercial Artist.
Commercial Art.
1920-1921
Edna Mann Shover
Graduate of Pennsylvania
Museum School of Industrial
Art; Pupil of Pafe, Faber, Scott,
and Muhr.
Principal, Design,
Normal Art.
1920-1932
Blanche Stillson
Graduate of De Pauw
University; Pupil of Forsyth and
Hawthorne.
Children’s Class, Still 1920-1934
Life Painting,
Illustration, Interior
Decoration.
Olive Rush
Art Students’ League; Pupil of
Richard Miller, Paris, Howard
Pyle.
Composition.
1920-1921
Myra R. Richards
Pupil of Zolnay, Rudolph
Schwarz, Isador Konti, New
York.
Anatomy and
Modeling Painting.
1920-1930
Edward H. Mayo
M. E., Cornell University;
Consulting Engineer,
Indianapolis.
Commercial Art,
Interior
1922-1933
Paul Hadley
Pennsylvania Museum School of
Industrial Art; Travel abroad.
Illustration, Interior
Decoration, Costume
Design, Commercial
Art.
1922-1933
Burling Boaz, Jr.
Professional Commercial
Designer.
Commercial Art,
Normal Art.
1922-1933
Max Adams
Commercial Designer of
Graphic Arts.
Illustration, Interior
Decoration, Costume
Design.
1922-1925
181
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
Clement Trucksess
Pupil of Wm Forsyth.
Painting.
1922-1924
Ethelwyn Miller
A.B., Franklin College; B.S.,
Columbia University; Teachers’
College, Columbia University;
Art Supervisor, Horace Mann
School, New York.
Normal Art.
1922-1933
Frances Hoar
Graduate of Pennsylvania
Museum School of Industrial
Art; Instructor at Laurel Spring,
N.J.; Oneka Summer Camp.
Illustration,
Commercial Art,
Costume Design,
Normal Art.
1923-1924
Dorothy Eisenbach
John Herron Art School;
Pennsylvania Museum School of
Industrial Art.
Graduate of John Herron Art
School; Pupil of P. Hadley,
Willy Pogany, Fiske Kimball,
and Grace Corell.
Commercial Art,
Costume Design,
Normal Art.
Theatre Design,
Composition.
1923-1927
1928-1932
Herschell M. Sanders
Commercial Artist; John Herron
Art School.
Commercial Design.
1924-1925
Mabel Mason DeBra
Designer; Graduate of Pratt
Institute; B.A. Ohio State
University.
Design.
1924-1925
Millard V. Warner
Commercial Designer; Art
Students’ League, New York.
Commercial Art.
1925-1934
Virginia True
Graduate of John Herron Art
School; Academy of
Pennsylvania
Cast Drawing.
1925-1928
Alberta Heess
Designer; Graduate of
Philadelphia Museum School of
Industrial Art.
Design.
1926-1928
Maryetta Mauck
Davidson
Graduate of John Herron Art
Institute; Oakland City College.
Drawing, Design.
1927-1930
Merle Ackerman
Graduate of Northwestern
University.
Teacher Training.
1927-1928
Oakley Richey
1924-1936
182
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
Ralph Sowell
Graduate of Art Academy of
Cincinnati; Pupil of Jean
Despujols, Paris.
Anatomy, Painting.
1930-1934
Forest Stark
Graduate Pennsylvania Academy Sculpture, Drawing.
of Fine Arts; Pupil of Grafly, A.
Laessle, D. Garber; Art
Students’ League, N.Y.; Travel
abroad.
1930-1935
Walter McBride
John Herron Art School, B.A.E.;
Harvard University.
Design.
1930-1931
1932-1933
Lucy Taggart
Pupil of Chase, Hawthorne,
Cecilia Beaux, Harriet
Frishmuth, and Forsyth; Study
abroad.
Painting.
1931-1943
Constance Forsyth
Butler University, B.S.;
Graduate John Herron Art
School; Academy of Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, Penn.
Drawing.
1931-1933
Lois Gabbert
John Herron Art School, B.A.E.;
Pennsylvania Museum School of
Industrial Art.
Design.
1931-1932
Frank E. Schoonover
Illustrator and Painter of Murals;
Author; Pupil of Pyle, Grafly;
Graduate of Drexel Institute,
Philadelphia, Penn.; Travel
abroad.
Composition,
Illustration.
1932-1933
Donald Magnus
Mattison
Graduate Yale School of Fine
Arts; Prix de Rome winner;
Instructor Columbia University,
New York University.
Life Painting,
Advanced
Composition
1933-
Henrik Martin Mayer
Graduate Yale School of Fine
Arts; Winchester Fellowship;
Instructor in Cooper Union, New
York.
Life Drawing,
Composition.
1933-1946
183
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
Phillip Clarkson Elliott
University of Minnesota; Paris
Prize; B.F.A., Yale University;
Instructor of Art in New York
and Paris.
Life Drawing,
Composition,
Pictorial Art lectures.
1934-1935
Harry Inge Johnstone
Bachelor of Architecture,
Cornell University; Instructor of
Architectural Design, Cornell
University.
Architectural Design.
1934-1937
Theodore Beck
Yale School of Fine Arts,
B.F.A.; Instructor Yale School
of Fine Arts
Sculpture, Cast
Drawing.
1934-1935
Alan Tompkins
Graduate Columbia University
and Yale School of Fine Arts;
Winchester Fellowship.
Still Life Painting
Composition,
Pictorial Art lectures.
1935-1939
David Rubins
Dartmouth College; Beaux-Arts
Institute of Design, N.Y.; École
des Beaux-Arts and Académie
Julien, Paris; Student and
assistant of James E. Fraser,
N.Y.; Paris Prize; Prix de Rome;
Avery Prize.
Sculpture, Cast.
1935-
Walter White
Art Institute of Chicago;
Commercial Artist.
Commercial
Composition.
1936-1937
Paul Wehr
Graduate of John Herron Art
School; Commercial Artist.
Commercial Design.
1937-1946
Edmund Brucker
Graduate Cleveland School of
Art; Instructor Cleveland School
of Art.
Life Drawing, Head
Painting,
Composition.
1939-
John M. King
Earlham College; Cincinnati Art
Academy; Instructor Dayton Art
Institute.
Still Life Painting.
1939-1940
Merle Ackerman
Graduate of Northwestern
University.
Teacher Training.
1927-1928
184
Name
Preparation
Classes Taught
Tenure
Charles West, Jr.
Cresson Travelling Scholarship
from Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts.
Still Life Painting.
1940-1943
Edwin Fulwider
John Herron Art School, B.F.A.;
Milliken Fellowship.
Commercial Art,
Composition
Drawing.
1945-
Robert Weaver
John Herron Art Institute,
B.F.A.; Chaloner Paris Prize
Beaux-Arts Design
1946-
Harry A. Davis
John Herron Art School, B.F.A.;
Prix de Rome.
Painting, Advanced
Painting.
1946-
Gordon W. Fiscus
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts;
Commercial Artist.
Commercial Art.
1946-
John R. Grepp
John Herron Art School, B.F.A.;
Iowa State University, M.F.A.;
Head of Fine Arts Department,
Franklin College.
Pictorial Art lectures.
1946-
Merle Ackerman
Graduate of Northwestern
University.
Teacher Training.
1927-1928
COMPLETE LIST OF EUROPEAN
AND AMERICAN PAINTINGS IN
THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
OF THE
JOHN HERRON ART MUSEUM
OCTOBER 1942
ART ASSOCIATION OF INDIANAPOLIS
INDIANA
185
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Burnet, Mary Q., Art and Artists of Indiana. New York: Century Publishing
Co., 1921. Pp. xiii-448.
Dunn, Jacob Piatt, History of Greater Indianapolis, Vol I, Chicago: The Lewis
Publishing Co., 1910. Pp. vi-641.
Forsyth, Willilam. Art in Indiana. (Reprint from The Indianapolis News of an
Indiana Centennial year series of fifteen articles beginning in The News of
Saturday, August 12, 1916, and continuing on the following Wednesday
and Saturdays.) Indianapolis: H. Lieber Col., 1916. Pp. 6-39.
Hodges, Laura Fletcher. Early Indianapolis. Indiana Historical Society
Publications. Vol. 7. No. 5. Indianapolis: C. E. Pauley and Co., 1918.
Pp. 27.
Stickney, Ida Stearns. Pioneer Indianapolis. No. 1. Indianapolis: Bobbs
Merrill Co., 1907. Pp. 66.
Who’s Who in American Art. The American Federation of Arts, Washington,
D. C., 1940.
Periodicals
Art and Decoration. October, 1935. Vol. XLIII. No. 3. p. 27.
Cottman, George S. “Forerunners of Indiana Art,” The Indiana Magazine of
History, Vol. XV. No. 1. March, 1919, pp. 15-19.
Haswell, Ernest Bruce. “The Society of Western Artists 1913-1914,”
International Studio, Vol. LII, No. 205, March, 1914, p. xv.
Gets, J. H. “The Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists,” International
Studio, Vol. XXII, No. 86, April, 1904, p. ccxlv-cclvi.
“Indiana Artists at the John Herron Art Institute,” International Studio, Vol.
LV, No. 220, June, 1915. p. cxxviii.
The Indiana Woman, February 11, 1899, Vol. VII, No. 22, p. 10.
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February 25, 1899, Vol. VII, No. 16, p. 9.
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March 25, 1899, Vol. VII, No. 20, p. 10.
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April 1, 1899, Vol. VII, No. 21, p. 10.
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April 8, 1899, Vol. VII, No. 22, p. 8.
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April 15, 1899, Vol. VII, No. 23, pp. 8-9.
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“
April 22, 1899, Vol. VII, No. 24, p. 8.
186
Periodicals (continued)
The Indiana Weekly, November 23, 1901, Vol. XIII, No. 28, p. 9.
The John Herron Art School Chronicle, November, 1942, Vol, IV, No. 1.
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“
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“
“ January, 1946, Vol. IX, No. 1.
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“
“ June, 1946, Vol. IX, No. 2.
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“
“ January, 1947, Vol. X, No. 1.
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Indiana Journal, April 10, 1828.
Indianapolis Journal, April 30, 1895.
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May 15, 1895.
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May 18, 1895.
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May 19, 1895.
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May 25, 1895.
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May 26, 1895.
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May 27, 1895.
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March 5, 1902.
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May 15, 1904.
Indianapolis News, March 4, 1905.
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September 20, 1905.
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November 25, 1905.
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December 11, 1905.
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June 16, 1906.
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August 18, 1906.
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November 17, 1906.
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April 3, 1907.
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May 30, 1908.
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April 7, 1909.
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October 2, 1909.
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June 5, 1911.
“
“
June 19, 1911.
“
“
June 6, 1912.
“
“
December 28, 1912.
“
“
May 23, 1914.
“
“
May 26, 1914.
“
“
May 8, 1915.
“
“
September 14, 1918.
“
“
January 27, 1921.
“
“
February 5, 1923.
“
“
February 20, 1923.
“
“
February 10, 1926.
“
“
February 17, 1934.
187
Newspapers (continued)
Indianapolis Star, September 24, 1905.
“
“ October 1, 1906.
“
“ November 21, 1906.
“
“ April 11, 1907.
“
“ April 8, 1908.
“
“ April 15, 1908.
“
“ October 17, 1909.
“
“ October 21, 1909.
“
“ April 5, 1911.
“
“ May 9, 1911.
“
“ June 11, 1911.
“
“ September 10, 1911.
“
“ September 15, 1911.
“
“ September 24, 1911.
“
“ February 9, 1912.
“
“ April 3, 1912.
“
“ May 16, 1912.
“
“ August 4, 1912.
“
“ August 18, 1912.
“
“ September 29, 1912.
“
“ October 24, 1912.
“
“ December 15, 1912.
“
“ May 18, 1913.
“
“ June 5, 1913.
“
“ November 11, 1914.
“
“ May 16, 1915.
“
“ July 17, 1915.
“
“ September 12, 1915.
“
“ July 28, 1918.
“
“ April 16, 1922.
“
“ December 31, 1924.
“
“ January 25, 1925.
“
“ March 8, 1925.
“
“ January 10, 1927.
“
“ January 1, 1928.
“
“ January 11, 1928.
“
“ February 6, 1929.
“
“ July 1, 1929.
“
“ September 4, 1929.
“
“ July 19, 1931.
“
“ September 25, 1931.
“
“ December 13, 1936.
“
“ April 19, 1937.
“
“ December 12, 1937.
188
Newspapers (continued)
Indianapolis Star, June 5, 1938.
“
“ January 14, 1940.
“
“ February 25, 1940.
“
“ September 5, 1940.
“
“ January 22, 1941.
“
“ June 7, 1943.
“
“ October 15, 1944.
“
“ May 7, 1945.
Sentinel, March 21, 1899.
“
March 1, 1902.
“
November 13, 1902.
Indianapolis Times, November 23, 1937.
“
“
October 11, 1943.
Bulletins
Bulletin of the Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana. The John Herron Art
Institute. (Published twice a year by the Art Association of Indianapolis,
Indiana.) Dates of Bulletins used were:
December, 1915, Vol. 5, No. 4.
March, 1916, Vol. 5, No. 7.
December, 1917, Vol. 6, No. 1.
February, 1918, Vol. 6, No. 2.
October, 1918, Vol. 7, No. 1.
October, 1919, Vol. 8, No. 1.
September, 1926, Vol. 13, Nos. 3 and 4.
November, 1926, Vol. 13, Nos. 5 to 8.
June, 1941, Vol. XXVII, No. 2.
April, 1945, Vol. XXXII, No. 1.
October, 1946, Vol. XXXIII, No. 2.
April, 1947, Vol. XXXIV, No. 1.
Reports
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the Curator of the
Art Museum, 1921-1922, 1926-1928.
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the Curator Prints,
1911, 1914, 1924-1925.
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the Director of the
Art School, 1911-1914, 1933-1946.
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the Director of the
Art Museum, 1913-1917, 1921-1925, 1929-1946.
189
Reports (continued)
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the Librarian,
1911-1912, 1914-1916, 1920-1922, 1924-1931.
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the President,
1907-1916, 1920-1929.
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the Principal of the
Art School, 1921-1922, 1924-1932.
Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana, Annual Report of the Secretary,
1911-1912.
Indianapolis Council of Social Agencies, The Leisure of a People. A report of
a Recreation Survey of Indianapolis. 1929. Pp. 571.
Catalogues
Catalogues, Circulars, and Announcements of the Art School of the John
Herron Art Institute, 1902-1918, 1920-1921, 1922-1946.
Catalogue of the First Quarterly Exhibition of the Indiana Art Association,
May 7, 1878.
Records
Commemorative Biographical Record of Prominent and Representative Men
of Indianapolis and Vicinity. Chicago: J. H. Beers and Co., 1908.
The Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana – A Historical Sketch.
Authorized by the Association and printed under its auspices. April, 1895.
Pp. 2-40.
The Art Association of Indianapolis, Indiana – A Record, 1883-1906.
Published on the occasion of the dedication of the John Herron Art
Institute, November 20, 1906. Indianapolis: The Hollenbeck Press. Pp. 528.
Interviews
Personal Interview with Wilbur D. Peat, director of the Art Museum.
September 10, 1946.
Personal Interview with Miss Marian Greene, librarian of the Art Institute,
December 31, 1946, January 31, 1947, April 5, 1947.
Personal Interview with Miss Grace Speer, executive secretary to the Board of
Directors, December 31, 1946, January 24, 1947, May 7, 1947, May 13,
1947, May 15, 1947.
Personal Interview with Miss Anna Hasselman, curator of the Museum, June
10, 1947.
Personal Interview with Miss Mary Finke, registrar of the Art School, May 15,
1947, April 8, 1947.
190
Interviews (continued)
Personal Interview with Clifton Wheeler, former instructor in the Art School,
June 3, 1947.
Letters
Wilbur D. Peat, September 18, 1946.
Christopher Morley, June 14, 1947.