Preview up to 100 items from this collection below. Prints, drawings and paintings by artists Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, Helmi Juvonen, Robert Cranston Lee and others celebrate the Northwest. Many pieces hail from the 1934 Public Works of Art Project.
Nootka Method of Spearing
In 1906, Edward S. Curtis received funding from J.P. Morgan to begin work on "The North American Indian," a twenty volume set of photographs and text documenting Native American tribes throughout the western United States. The eleventh volume, featuring the Nootka, Clayoquot and Haida tribes, was published in 1916.
Identifier: spl_nai_11_374
Date: 1915
View this itemMartinez seizes Colnett's ship
Parker McAllister, born in 1903 in Massachusetts, was a Seattle Times artist from 1924 to 1965. McAllister started his career as an illustrator at 14 for a Spokane publication; he joined the art staff at the Seattle Times in 1920. His first Sunday magazine cover was a poster-type illustration celebrating the University of Washington crew races in spring 1924. During McAllister's career, he created illustrations depicting “local color” events and situations now routinely handled by photographers. As the technology improved, he expanded his repertoire - he illustrated articles, drew covers for special sections and the weekly Seattle Sunday Times Magazine, and drew diagrams, comics, cartoons, and portraits for the Times’ editorial page. In 1956, an exhibition of his watercolor and oil paintings of Pacific Northwest scenes and historical incidents - including some paintings from the “Discovery of the Pacific Northwest” series - were exhibited at the Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma. He was also a member of the Puget Sound Group of Men Painters. McAllister retired from the Seattle Times in 1965; he passed away in Arizona in 1970.
Identifier: spl_art_291985_16.149
Date: 1955
View this itemCaptain Duncan at Tatoosh Island
Parker McAllister, born in 1903 in Massachusetts, was a Seattle Times artist from 1924 to 1965. McAllister started his career as an illustrator at 14 for a Spokane publication; he joined the art staff at the Seattle Times in 1920. His first Sunday magazine cover was a poster-type illustration celebrating the University of Washington crew races in spring 1924. During McAllister's career, he created illustrations depicting “local color” events and situations now routinely handled by photographers. As the technology improved, he expanded his repertoire - he illustrated articles, drew covers for special sections and the weekly Seattle Sunday Times Magazine, and drew diagrams, comics, cartoons, and portraits for the Times’ editorial page. In 1956, an exhibition of his watercolor and oil paintings of Pacific Northwest scenes and historical incidents - including some paintings from the “Discovery of the Pacific Northwest” series - were exhibited at the Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma. He was also a member of the Puget Sound Group of Men Painters. McAllister retired from the Seattle Times in 1965; he passed away in Arizona in 1970.
Identifier: spl_art_291985_15.143
Date: 1955
View this itemLetter from Edward S. Curtis to Harriet Leitch, February 2, 1949
Letter from Edward Curtis to Harriet Leitch and Minnie Harris (of the Washington State Historical Society). Curtis discusses the importance of The North American Indian for posterity and describes the long hours that he put into the work. He reflects on his childhood and how his father's illness caused him to begin working at an early age. He writes "As I look back over my scrambled life I realize that I have rarely taken a Sunday off and but one week vacation, its safe to say that in the past sixty years I have averaged sixteen hours a day, seven days a week." In a postscript, he adds that his health has taken a turn for the worse and doctors want him to return to the hospital--an idea which he resists.
Identifier: {}
Date: 1949-02-02
View this itemPencil sketches of CCC camps: recreation hall - Captain Gray's orchestra; Lake Cushman, Wash.
Identifier: spl_art_N779Pe04
Date: 1934
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