National School of Illustrating

At one time, Indianapolis was a leader in the arts. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, prominent Indianapolitans banded together to establish the Art Association of Indianapolis, the Society of Western Artists, the Indiana Artists Club, and other art institutions. In 1893, Modern Art, a magazine of the arts and crafts movement and the first of its kind, began publication in Indianapolis. During that same decade, the second Indiana School of Art, under William Forsyth, operated out of studios in downtown Indianapolis. Although that school closed its doors in 1897, its successor, the Herron School of Art, opened in 1902 and is still in existence as part of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. One of the most significant developments in Indiana art of the 1890s was the arrival of the Hoosier School, composed of William Forsyth, Otto Stark, T.C. Steele, J. Ottis Adams, and Richard B. Gruelle. Less well known is that during the 1890s, Indianapolis newspapers took advantage of recent technological developments to begin printing cartoons and illustrations in greater numbers. In that first decade of more advanced and reliable reproduction of artwork, newspapers in Indianapolis hired men who would make their names known in the world of book design, illustration, cartooning, and other graphic arts. They included Frederick Coffay Yohn, Arthur Sinclair Covey, Bruce Rogers, Kin Hubbard (Abe Martin), Johnny Gruelle (Raggedy Ann), and Sidney Smith (The Gumps).

If newspapers and magazines were to fill their pages with illustrations, they would need well trained illustrators, and lots of them. Schools of art flourished in late nineteenth century America, but their instruction was concentrated in the fine arts. Commercial art held a place far down on the list of worthy artistic endeavors. I have found references to a school of illustration operating in Indianapolis in the 1890s or early 1900s. There may have been more than one in fact. But there isn't any mention of such a school in The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis or other sources I have checked. Then I found two advertisements for the National School of Illustrating:

The first advertisement is from 1900, the second from an unknown date, but perhaps about 1902. The Butler University yearbook of 1899 refers to the National Illustrating Company as "the oldest, largest and leading engraving house in the state." A directory of Indianapolis from about the same time lists the institution as a company of engravers, electrotypers, designers, and artists. A man named Carl Anderson was listed as director of the school. Carl Anderson was also the name of the cartoonist who drew the pantomime comic strip Henry, but I don't see how the chronology of his life would have placed the cartoonist Carl Anderson in Indianapolis in the early 1900s. I hope someone can tell me differently because I would like to add Anderson's name to my list of Hoosier cartoonists.

The "Heeb System" was named for Emmett Jerome Heeb, also known as E.J. Heeb. Born on June 11, 1858, in Fayette County, Indiana, Heeb was an educator, publisher, auctioneer, and businessman. At one time or another he was affiliated with the Indianapolis College of Law and the National Correspondence Schools. The National Correspondence Schools had their offices in the When Building, located at 28 to 40 North Pennsylvania Street in Indianapolis (1), an address inclusive of the addresses shown in the first advertisement above. Coincidentally or not, the When Building was the work of John Tomlinson Brush, a prominent businessman and himself an artist. The 1906 directory of Indianapolis informs us that Heeb founded the Indianapolis Business University in 1850, an impossibility given his year of birth. In any case, the school offered instruction and training in every kind of business, including not only illustration and cartooning, but also bookkeeping, stenography, telegraphy, banking, law, pharmacy, writing, and advertising.

Heeb died in Los Angeles on March 29, 1950. I don't know what happened to his National School of Illustrating. I'd like to find out more about the school and its students. Some studied by correspondence, some in residence. Cartoonist Nate Collier (1883-1961) did both. William F. Heitman (1878-1945) may have been with the school as well. The name Indiana Illustrating Company, cited in articles about Heitman, may simply have been misremembered long after the school had given up the ghost.

Note

(1) Source: The Journal Handbook of Indianapolis: An Outline of History by Max Robinson Hyma, pp. 210, 211-212.

Text copyright 2012 Terence E. Hanley

Mary Chilton Gray (1888-1969)

Marie L. Chilton Gray, better known as Mary Chilton Gray, was born on November 22, 1888, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Georgette P. Gray, was a social worker and superintendent at the Indianapolis Home for Friendless Women. She also worked at the Indianapolis Orphans Asylum and the Indiana Industrial Home for the Blind. Mary Chilton Gray studied off and on at the Herron School of Art between 1902 and 1911. Only thirteen years old in the spring of 1902, she was one of the first students at Herron. Among the other artists of note in that inaugural class were William Merle Allison, Fanny L. Burgheim, Harry Carlisle, Helen Eaton Jacoby, and Tempe Tice. The instructors were William Forsyth and Otto Stark.

Mary Chilton Gray was a painter active in Indianapolis as late as 1930. She exhibited in the Hoosier Salon in 1931 and 1933 and lived in Taos, New Mexico, for ten years as part of an artist's colony that at various times included Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Nicolai Fechin, and D.H. Lawrence. The height of her career came in Denver where she worked for the Colorado Museum of Natural History and the Denver Art Museum as a muralist and illustrator. Her books include three from the Denver Museum of Natural History Popular Series: Fossils: A Story of Rocks and Their Record of Prehistoric Life by Harvey C. Markman (No. 3), Ancient Man in North America by H(annah) M(arie) Wormington (No. 4), and Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest, also by H.M. Wormington (No. 7). You can see photographs of Mary Chilton Gray on the website of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, here. The photographs show the artist alone, with staff members, and--of special interest--preparing dinosaur murals at the museum. Mary Chilton Gray was married to Robert J. Mendenhall, a commercial artist. She died in Denver on November 9, 1969, at age eighty.

"The Shadow Taos Pueblo," a watercolor by Mary Chilton Gray.

Three illustrations of Southwestern Indian dress and dance.

The cover of Fossils by Harvey C. Markman, with a cover design and illustration by Mary Chilton Gray. Photographs of her murals appear inside.

Finally, a floral still life from about 1942.

Text and captions copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Lottie Lyons Grow (1884-1981)

Lotta Lyons Grow, nicknamed "Lottie," was born on July 22, 1884, in Hymera, a small town in Sullivan County, Indiana. Her father was a farmer, her mother a homemaker. Lottie graduated from Central Normal College in Danville, Indiana, in 1904 and taught high school in Hymera for five years. She also attended the Herron School of Art and Marian College, both in Indianapolis, and the St. Louis Art Institute. In 1910 Lottie married Walter Smith Grow (1880-?), an osteopathic physician, and afterwards lived in Indianapolis. In 1911, a month after their daughter Bernadine was born, the Grows set off for South America, returning in 1912. Tragedy struck the Grow family in 1932 when Bernadine, a student in Chicago, died at age twenty. I don't wonder that biographical details are missing from the life of Lottie Lyons Grow for the following half decade.

From 1937 to 1944, Lottie wrote a column for Indiana Club Women, and from 1938 to 1946 for Art Digest. She also contributed to News Week. She is supposed to have been the first in Indiana to give art programs on radio and television. During World War II, she served in hospitals in the Pacific Theater and promoted art therapy for wounded servicemen. Like so many Hoosier artists, Lottie painted and sketched in the hills of Brown County south of Indianapolis, where she kept a studio. She also exhibited in the Hoosier Salon. A painter and graphic artist, Lottie created landscapes, floral paintings, and etchings. She also authored three books, at least one of which she illustrated herself. They were: Cameos of Deer-Lick in Brown County Hills (1957), Over the Split-Rail Fence (1971, illustrated by the author), and Beckoning Trails (1979).

Lottie Lyons Grow lived for nearly a century and passed away on November 2, 1981, in Wabash, Indiana. She was ninety-seven years old.

Three works by Indiana artist Lottie Lyons Grow (1884-1981).

Text and captions copyright 2012 Terence E. Hanley

Josephine Hollingsworth (1903 or 1904-1964)

Josephine Hollingsworth was born in 1903 or 1904 in Lebanon, Indiana, and as a child lived in New Castle and Indianapolis. She attended the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis and graduated in 1926 after four years of study, making her one of the first class at Herron to receive a Diploma in Fine Arts (DFA). As a student and after graduating, Josephine taught art at Beech Grove, Shortridge High School, and George and Gordon Mess' Circle Art Academy. She also studied with Carolyn Ashbrook and Indiana University extension.

In 1929, Josephine set out for Chicago where she landed a job with a publisher of children's books. Her illustrations appeared in a book on natural history, a series of twelve readers for children, all fairy tales, and Pioneer Fire Makers by Bella VanAmburgh. Josephine also did advertising art for Indianapolis businessman Russell Fortune for publication in Good Furniture magazine. While in Chicago, Josephine continued her education at the Art Institute of Chicago.

On May 4, 1930, she married Howard Ross Poulson in Indianapolis. They had two children, Thomas Layman Poulson (b. 1934), a professor of biology at Yale University, and Carolyn Jo (Poulson) Hofstad. (See the comment below.) Jo Poulson lived with her family in Winnetka, Illinois, and Manhasset, New York. (See the postscript below.) She died on March 5, 1964, while visiting her mother in Miami, Florida.

A bookplate design by Indiana illustrator Josephine Hollingsworth.

Postscript (Dec. 6, 2012): I have found a little more on Josephine Hollingsworth Poulson, also known as Jo Poulson. After moving to the Chicago area and marrying H. Ross Poulson, Jo studied watercolor painting under Francis Chapin, a well known Chicago artist and a teacher at the Herron School of Art (1938). In March 1942, she returned to Indianapolis for a one-woman show of her watercolors at the Hoosier Art Galleries in the State Life Building. Prior to that, she had exhibited in the Hoosier Salon. She painted not only landscapes but also street scenes, circus scenes, and subjects as varied as a floral still life and a navy destroyer. At the time of her one-woman show, Jo Poulson was living in Winnetka, Illinois, and rearing a family.

This watercolor by Jo Poulson is in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Postscript dated December 6, 2012.
Revised and updated on December 6, 2019.
Text and captions copyright 2012, 2019 Terence E. Hanley

William F. Heitman (1878-1945)

William Fred Heitman was born on January 31, 1878, in Germany and came to the United States as a young child with his parents. As a boy, Heitman lived in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. He went to work for the Van Camp Company as a sign painter and decided then to become an artist. Heitman studied at the Indiana School of Art under William Forsyth and worked for the Indiana Illustrating Company. He landed a job as an illustrator with the Indianapolis News in about 1897 and spent the rest of his career doing layouts, illustrating feature stories, and drawing cartoons and caricatures for newspapers in Indianapolis, Cleveland, and St. Louis. Other artists with whom he worked included Sidney Smith (later of The Gumps), Johnny Gruelle (Raggedy Ann), and his close friend, Chic Jackson, creator of Roger Bean. Heitman also illustrated two books of verse by James Whitcomb Riley, the book Indianapolitans "As We See 'Em" (ca. 1905), and the magazine Weird Tales. Known as one of the fastest newspaper artists in the Midwest, Heitman competed with Chic Jackson when it came to beating a deadline. At the drawing board he always wore his hat. Like his friend Johnny Gruelle, Heitman made Sunday fishing trips to Sugar Creek near Edinburgh, Indiana, a place now within Camp Atterbury. Heitman continued to work for the Indianapolis Star until retiring in 1943. He died in Miami, Florida, the home city of his daughter, on January 10, 1945. His body was returned to Indianapolis for burial.

Weird Tales, May 1923, the third issue of the magazine, with cover art by William F. Heitman. 

And the cover for the fourth issue, June 1923.

An illustration for a poem by the Indiana poet Tramp Starr (Carl Wilson) from the Indianapolis Star, January 7, 1940. 

And a drawing from the same paper illustrating a feature on the Mechanic Arts School in Evansville, Indiana, May 5, 1940.

Text and captions copyright 2012 by Terence E. Hanley

Grace Leslie Dickerson (1911-2001)

Grace Leslie Dickerson was born on August 27, 1911, at Brookside, her parents' home, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sometimes referred to as Bass Castle, Brookside was a grand home built by her grandparents and is now the site of the St. Francis College library. Grace Dickerson graduated from the Fort Wayne Art Institute in 1932 and received degrees from St. Francis College (1950) and the Instituto Allende at San Miguel de Allende in Mexico (1958). Grace also studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Cranbook Academy of Fine Arts in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and under Guy Pène DuBois. She worked in oil, acrylic, sculpture, and ceramics. Her art was exhibited throughout the Midwest and in New York, Chicago, Paris, and Mexico. For many years she taught at Harmar School (1950-1951), the Arcola School (1955), and St. Francis College. From 1962 onward, she also gave lessons in her home studio. In addition to being a fine artist, craftswoman, and art instructor, Grace was an illustrator. She provided the illustrations for her own book, Sketchbook of San Miguel de Allende (1964), and a children's biography, Little Turtle by Jean Carper (1959). Grace Leslie Dickerson died on July 11, 2001, in Fort Wayne. She is entombed in the city of her birth.

The cover of Little Turtle (1959), written by Jean Carper and illustrated by Grace Leslie Dickerson. Little Turtle (ca. 1747-1812) was a leader of the Miami Indians and born in what is now Whitley County, Indiana, west of the present-day Allen County and Fort Wayne. One of the men sent against him was a near contemporary, Josiah Harmar (1753-1813), for whom the Harmar School in Fort Wayne is named.

Text and captions copyright 2012 Terence E. Hanley

Ralph McQuarrie (1929-2012)

Ralph McQuarrie, the conceptual designer behind Star Wars and other science fiction, fantasy, and adventure films, has died. McQuarrie passed away on Saturday, March 3, 2012, at his home in Berkeley, California. He was eighty-two. Despite years of declining health (he suffered from Parkinson's disease), McQuarrie had a very long and productive life and career, especially given his injury while serving in the Korean War. During that almost forgotten conflict, McQuarrie received a gunshot wound to the head, an injury that--if it had proved fatal--would have changed the look of science fiction forever, depriving the world of some of the most memorable and recognizable characters ever to appear on the silver screen.

Ralph McQuarrie was born in Gary, Indiana, on June 13, 1929, and spent his formative years in Billings, Montana, where his family owned a farm. He moved to California in the early 1960s and honed his skills as an illustrator at the Art Center School in downtown Los Angeles. Early in his career, McQuarrie created technical drawings and blueprints, first for a dentist, then for the Boeing Company, and most notably and fortuitously for CBS News, for which he created posters and animation on the Apollo spaceflight program. While at CBS, McQuarrie was approached by writer, director, and producer Hal Barwood, who asked him to complete some conceptual paintings for the planned film Star Dancing. Though Star Dancing never reached the big screen, McQuarrie’s work on the project led him to George Lucas, who in 1975 commissioned conceptual designs for Star Wars (1977). McQuarrie illustrated storyboards from Lucas' script and created the initial depictions of Darth Vadar, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Chewbacca.

McQuarrie went on to work on The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). His other film credits include some of the highest-grossing films of the 1970s and '80s, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). He worked on the television series Battlestar Galactica in 1978 and earned an Academy Award for Visual Effects for his work on the 1985 film, Cocoon.

McQuarrie was offered a role as a conceptual designer for the Star Wars prequel series but turned down the offer, stating he had “run out of steam.” His last credit as a conceptual artist or designer was on the 1991 movie short Back to the Future . . . The Ride. Incidentally, McQuarrie played a character named McQuarrie--General McQuarrie--in an uncredited role in The Empire Strikes Back.

An array of images created by Ralph McQuarrie showing his great skill, taste, and imagination. As you can see, he was equally at ease with the human figure, aliens, robots, monsters, spacecraft, architecture, and planetscapes. What would Star Wars--and by extension, the world--have been without him?

Written by Bridget Hanley, Proficient Pen, and Terence E. Hanley

Copyright 2012 Terence E. Hanley