Call Number:

SCRC 825

Repository:

Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center

Extent:

0.8 linear feet (2 boxes + 1 map folder)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Violet Oakley Correspondence, SCRC 285, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Date:

1918-1938 (inclusive)

Creator:

Oakley, Violet, 1874-1961

Form:

Correspondence

Abstract:

Violet Oakley was an American painter, illustrator, and muralist. She studied at the Arts Students League of New York, in England and France, and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Howard Pyle's class at Drexel University. Oakley was the first American woman to receive a public mural commission and to receive the Gold Medal of Honor from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She lived and worked in both Philadelphia and New York. Along with several other women artists, including Oakley's life partner Edith Emerson, Oakley was a member of the "Red Rose Girls." Among her best known work is her series of murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg.

Collection contains letters, postcards, and telegrams from U.S. art museums, schools, and universities concerning subscriptions for a portfolio of Oakley's paintings. These letters to Oakley are from some of the nation's major museums including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Society of Arts & Crafts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The collection also contains a letter from Alice Paul of the National Woman's Party. Also included is a certificate of appreciation from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) for Oakley's help installing an exhibit of Jessie Willcox Smith.

Collection is generally organized chronologically.