The Underground Railroad

Charles T. Webber (1825-1911) was not an Indiana artist, nor is his painting, "The Underground Railroad," set in Indiana. However, two of Webber's subjects, Levi Coffin (1798-1877) and his wife, Catherine White Coffin, were Hoosiers, having lived in Indiana from 1826 to 1847. Coffin's house, located in Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana, was a way station on the Underground Railroad and is now a National Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. For his work, Coffin was considered "the President of the Underground Railroad."

Artist Charles T. Webber, born on Christmas Day, 1825, in Cayuga County, New York, was a well known and accomplished artist in his adopted home city of Cincinnati. He painted "The Underground Railroad" to commemorate the work of the Coffins and other abolitionists. Webber considered the painting to be his masterpiece and exhibited it at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. That would make this year the 120th anniversary of "The Underground Railroad." The Cincinnati Art Museum acquired the painting after Webber's death in 1911 and holds it in their collections. So is it illustration or is it fine art? If illustration contains a narrative and fine art does not, then isn't most if not all art illustration? Does the distinction really matter?

Text copyright 2013, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Gorhea M. Offutt (1920-1998)

Gorhea M. Offutt was born on August 11, 1920, in Indiana. She attended Lincoln High School in Evansville, Indiana. As a young woman, she lived in that city with her parents. Her name appeared several times in the Evansville Argus, a black newspaper in print from 1938 to 1943. Gorhea (which may sometimes be spelled Gorohea) attended the Herron School of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Butler University. In February 1945, her art appeared on the cover of World Call, the magazine of the Disciples of Christ, illustrating a poem called "For George Washington Carver." The poem, a sonnet, was written by Graziello Maggio, a sixteen-year-old resident of The Bronx, New York, and winner of first prize in an essay contest sponsored by the Grand Street Boys Association. Entries in the contest were to be "on lessons to be gathered from the life of the great Negro scientist, who was born in slavery" (quoted from the New York Times, Feb. 13, 1944). Eleanor Roosevelt took note of the poem in her "My Day" newspaper column of May 4, 1944. Graziella Maggio's poem:

For George Washington Carver

by Graziella Maggio

He took the warm, brown earth into his hand,

The warm, brown earth which matched his own dark skin.

He closed his fist and felt the heat expand,

The heat a Southern sun had put therein.

He took the pure bright colors of the earth

And to the world he made a gift of them.

He took a plant man said had little worth

And found a use for fruit and leaves and stem.

But though he did these things and many more,

He did not take the praise, instead disclosed

That it had been the hand of God that tore

The lock which keeps the Book of Knowledge closed.

Good fertile fields he made from useless sod—

This man with willing hands and faith in God.

And Gorhea Offutt's illustration from the following year:

I know nothing more about the artist except that she lived in Indianapolis and passed away on December 4, 1998.

Thanks to the Indiana State Library for its invaluable work in preserving information and images from the past. Gorhea Offutt's illustration above is from the library's collections. I hope that the Indiana State Library is not the only place where this image still exists.

Text copyright 2013, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

George David Yater (1910-1993)

George David Yater was born on November 30, 1910, in the old Ohio River town of Madison, Indiana. Son of a truck driver, Yater studied at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis and received his diploma in fine arts in 1932. Yater also studied at the Cape School of Art. I don't know much about his career except to say that he was a fine artist, illustrator, and teacher. Yater was also a member of several art organizations, including the American Water Color Society, Indianapolis Art Association, Philadelphia Water Color Club, and Provincetown Art Association. Despite his origins in the Midwest, Yater is known as a Massachusetts artist. He lived in Truro and was a member of the artist's colony at Provincetown. Both towns are located at the northern tip of Cape Cod. Not surprisingly, Yater specialized in landscapes and genre-type paintings set in seaside villages. George Yater died in Massachusetts on April 15, 1993, at age eighty-two.

Here are three watercolors by George Yater, all from an article called "The Lady and the Flounder" by Beth Melcher from Ford Times, April 1953. The top picture is of High Bank Bridge over the Upper Bass River. The middle picture is of the Oyster Harbor Bridge in Osterville, Massachusetts. The bottom picture is of the Herring River Bridge. All are of locations in Cape Cod.

Another really fine watercolor by Yater, entitled "Morning Shape Up," from about 1960.

Text and captions copyright 2013, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Robert E. Judah (1912-1991)

Robert Easton Judah was born on December 30, 1912, in Stinesville, a small town in the northwest corner of Monroe County, Indiana. That region of the state is known for its high-quality limestone, which has been used in the construction of the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and thirty-five out of fifty state capitol buildings. It should come as no surprise that Robert E. Judah landed his first job at a local stonemill.

Judah graduated from Stinesville High School in 1931. After working in the stonemill and beginning his art education at the Kansas City Art Institute, Judah went to work for a utility company in Martinsville in 1940. He went into the U.S. Navy in 1943 and returned to his Indiana home in December 1945 after twenty-six months with the Seabees. Upon his return, Judah once again worked for a utility company, this time in Columbus, Indiana. In December 1951 he became public relations director for the Monroe County Farm Bureau Coop, then in 1952, advertising manager for Wicks Department Store in Bloomington. The following year, Judah started his own advertising business in Ellettsville, Indiana. Finally, in 1955, Judah joined the staff of the Indiana Geological Survey, a division of the Indiana Department of Conservation (now called the Department of Natural Resources) based at Indiana University in Bloomington.

As an artist and draftsman with the geological survey, Judah illustrated several booklets published by the agency, including Let's Look at Some Rocks by William J. Wayne (1958), Adventures with Fossils by Robert H. Shaver (1959), and Pages from the Geologic Past of Marion County by Wyman Harrison (1963). (Marion County is the county in which Indianapolis is located.) He also created pictures for the departmental exhibit at the Indiana State Fair and a mural at Indiana University. Incidentally, the drafting section of the Indiana Geological Survey included William H. Moran (chief draftsman), Micky P. Love (geological draftsman), and John E. Peace (senior geological draftsman). It's safe to say their workplace was one of Peace and Love.

Robert E. Judah stayed close to home and was always involved in his community. He built an art studio in Ellettsville, where he painted landscapes from photographic slides taken in his travels. He was also a cofounder of the Hoosier Hills Art Guild in Bloomington and a member of the first board of directors of the Monroe County Museum. And Judah was a member of the local school board, the local Baptist church, and a president of Community Brotherhood and the Richland-Bean Blossom Family Store. He retired from the geological survey after twenty-three years of service. In retirement he worked on a book on the stonecutting industry in Indiana. Robert Judah died on December 20, 1991, just ten days short of beginning his eightieth year on earth.

Here is Robert E. Judah's cover for Adventures with Fossils (1959). Note the very neat and distinctive signature at the bottom left.

With his work for the Indiana Geological Survey, Judah can be added to the list of Indiana artists who drew and painted dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Here's an illustration from Adventures with Fossils with a likeness of Judah's young son, now Dr. Robert E. Judah II.

Here's another illustration from Shaver's booklet showing the Hoosier State and its rock formations. Mary Chilton Gray did equivalent work with the Denver Museum of Natural History. She also painted a dinosaur mural. Other Indiana dinosaur artists have included Gray Morrow and Reed Crandall.

Here's a very small image of a mural Robert Judah painted at the Geology Library at Indiana University. I'm still on the trail of a larger image. Photograph by Dr. Robert E. Judah II.

Finally, a photograph by Dr. Judah of one of his father's paintings. If you have been to rural Indiana, you have seen places that look like this. If you're away from Indiana, you may very well long to see them again.

Update (Jan. 17, 2021): An unknown commenter below has let us know that Robert Judah also designed the Great Seal of the Town of Ellettsville. I went looking for it and found this image on the website of the Ellettsville Police Department. It's a nice design, and I hope this is the right one. Thanks, Unknown.

Thanks to Dr. Robert E. Judah II for much needed information and clarification on the life and career of his father. Thanks to Dr. Judah also for the last two images.

Text and captions copyright 2013, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Walt Louderback (1887-1941)

The illustrations of Walt Louderback are filled with an atmosphere of romance and drama. Like Dean Cornwell (1892-1960), Louderback worked for Cosmopolitan magazine during the early 1900s. The two men (who may have been friends) shared a painterly technique and a flair for mood, intrigue, and dramatic action in their pictures. That approach came to Louderback and Cornwell honestly, for Cornwell was a student of Harvey Dunn (1884-1952), who was in turn a student of Howard Pyle (1853-1911), the father of American illustration. Both Louderback and Cornwell would have studied illustration at a time when Pyle strode the earth like a giant.

Walter S. Louderback was born on February 3, 1887, in Valparaiso, Indiana, and--like Dean Cornwell--studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. He illustrated stories for Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Hearst's International, and other popular magazines. Many of those stories were also printed in hardbound editions with Louderback's illustrations. Readers of the 1910s and '20s would have been well acquainted with the art of Walt Louderback, as he illustrated books by one of the most popular authors of the day, James Oliver Curwood (1878-1927). In addition to being an artist, Louderback also taught at the Art Institute of Chicago. Robert Patterson (a student) and John Clymer (a boyhood admirer) were among the illustrators of a younger generation influenced by him. Today, Louderback is a much under-appreciated artist.

During the 1920s, Louderback lived in Europe and delivered his assignments to New York by surface vessel. He also experimented with modernist and Cubist painting. As war loomed, Louderback left Europe with his family in May 1939. He died at a sanitarium in Socorro, New Mexico, on October 15, 1941.

An illustration by Louderback for an unknown story. If this scene was set in Monte Carlo, Louderback may have studied his sources from life, for he lived in Europe during the 1920s and '30s. 

A typical Louderback treatment with a high vantage point and details around the edges left out. Oddly, the artist's signature is on the man's clothing.

A moody and dramatic illustration that approaches portraiture. Note the Oriental motif in the background.

Another illustration for an unknown story. The painting is called "The Homecoming." I wonder if Louderback would have experienced such an event upon his return to the United States in 1939.

An illustration for "Tongues of Flame" by Peter Clark Macfarlane [sic]. The source for this image says: "probably Cosmopolitan, 1923." 

This illustration for an unknown story is one of the most striking I have seen by Walt Louderback. Romantic, atmospheric, melancholic, suggestive of menace, it could be the cover of a Gothic romance of today. Probably painted eight decades ago, this canvas is as fresh and contemporary as the day it was created. (Sorry for the red line through the image.)

Text copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

James H. Cloetingh (1894-1965)

James Henry Cloetingh was born into a family of Dutch-Americans on July 3, 1894, in Muskegon, Michigan. As a young man he worked as the advertising manager for the Muskegon Chronicle. In his spare time he was secretary of the Muskegon Kennel Club. In 1923, in Muskegon's first championship dog show, Cloetingh's airedale, named Guardian Trust, took home the best of show honors.

By 1930, Cloetingh was living in South Bend, Indiana, and operating a commercial art studio with a partner. Their firm was called Cloetingh and De Man Studio. I don't know who his clients would have been--perhaps businesses in northern Indiana and the Chicago area. In addition to being a commercial artist, Cloetingh was a painter. I have found two of his pictures. Both are of boats. Cloetingh's subject should come as no surprise considering he was born on and lived close to Lake Michigan for most of his life.

Cloetingh exhibited in the Hoosier Salon in 1961. He died four years later in June 1965 at the age of seventy.

An oil painting (top) and a watercolor (bottom) by Michigan and Indiana artist James H. Cloetingh (1894-1965).

Text copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Mary (1903-1985) & Wallace Stover (1903-1983)

Wallace P. and Mary A. Stover were a husband-and-wife team of commercial artists and illustrators. Wallace Peter Stover was born on January 5, 1903, in Elkhart, Indiana, and graduated from Elkhart High School in 1921. He received a scholarship to the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis and received his diploma in 1925 after four years of study. Oakley E. Richey (later a teacher at Arsenal Technical High School), Mabel Bott (artist and wife of Earl Wayne Bott), and Josephine Hollingsworth were among the other students in attendance at Herron during the early 1920s.

Wallace Stover and Mary Alys Polk were married on August 31, 1929, in Manhattan. She was also an artist and a teacher in the Franklin, Indiana, schools. He was then living on Long Island and working in New York as a commercial artist and designer of costumes.

The 1930 census found the newlyweds living in Queens, New York. Wallace was then working as a magazine illustrator. By the 1940s, the Stovers were working together, illustrating inexpensive children's books and coloring books in a number of popular series, including the Wizard of Oz, Uncle Wiggily, and Raggedy Ann and Andy. They ran their own advertising firm, Mary and Wallace Stover Corp., in New York for forty-five years, retiring in 1971.

Wallace P. Stover died on January 13, 1983, in Princeton, New Jersey, and was buried at Florida Memorial Gardens in Rockledge, Florida. Mary Alys Polk Stover followed him to the grave in 1985. Their headstone is marked with the words "Together Forever."

Revised April 12, 2016; January 5, 2021.
Text copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley