Autograph Album Containing Original Art by Students at the Massachusetts Normal Art School

Boston, Massachusetts: 1881 to 1885. Green autograph album binding measuring 9.25 x 7.5", of which 33 pages contain content, including 31 pages of original drawings and watercolors. The autograph album belonged to Minnie H.P. Boner, likely a student at Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston, today known as the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The school was founded in 1873, "in response to the Massachusetts Drawing Act, a progressive 1870 mandate requiring all cities in the Commonwealth of over 10,000 residents to include drawing in their public school curricula ('normal schools' were the precursors to teachers’ colleges)" (massart.edu/about). The album contains drawings and inscriptions by boys and girls at the school, many of whom went on to become artists and/or art teachers. The conceit of the album is poetically outlined in the first such entry: "The owner of this book invites/Each friend who in its pages writes/not merely to record their name,/...But also on these pages to trace/Something of beauty or of grace;-/a flower, a leaf a plant or tree..."

Among the 31 pieces of original art are contributions by students who went on to become artists and teachers, including W.F. Clerk, Joseph Brammer, H.F.W. Lyons, Elizabeth A. Clapp (Boston portrait painter), Frank J. Devitt, E.W. Bragdon (drawing teacher), Miss E.S. Tucker (went on to become a children's book artist, most notably for "Book of Pets" by Maud Humphrey), and Charlotte "Emma" Warton Kaan, a noted arts and crafts artist and teacher who often collaborated with her life partner, Annie L. Crawford. There are also a few entries by older individuals, noted artists of the day who may have been teachers at the school. These include Samuel Lancaster Gerry, and William Henry Hilliard (the latter with a "Paris" location noted). True to the poem at the beginning of the album, the artwork consists mostly of landscape scenes, or still lifes of trees, plants, and/or flowers. A remarkable collection of original art from the early days of a notable art school. Text block detached from binding, soiling to endpapers, mild wear to corners and spine tips. Item #11130

Price: $1,750.00