Fern bisel peat history channel
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ILLUSTRATION HISTORY: A BLOG
Critical summaries of illustrators in context, drawing on the tear sheet collection of the Walt Reed Illustration Archive at the D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library Washington University, my own collection of ephemera, and other sources including the Library of Congress. Most but not all those presented are illustrators, strictly or even generally speaking. Designers, photographers and painters also appear. What’s more, the designation “American” no longer captures everyone–though we are primarily focused on North America from 1860 to 1970 or so. The project has overflowed its banks, which is a problem I’m happy to manage.
Women Illustrators, ILLO HistoryDoug DowdFern Bisel Peat, Women Illustrators
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This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2016.
Some of the most classic and highly sought-after children’s art from the 1930s American Art Deco movement was created in Richland County.
Fern Bisel Peat was a berättare for generations of children in America. Her distinctive pastel paintings illustrated hundreds of books and magazines, and decorated dozens of favorite early childhood playthings. Most of her work was created a few miles west of Bellville at her farm called Beech Hollow.
This little exhibit shows why kids in the decades from the 1920s to the 50s recognized Fern as one of their closest friends. To see these works in a gallery just click on any image.
Every child recognizes their closest friends as soon as they see them: they are warm and round, often enough furry or made of soft cloth; they have kind eyes and make you smile inside. This pretty much describes all the characters Fern designed.
Many were animals; quite a few depicted classic roles f
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Fern Bisel Peat
(1893-1971) American Illustrator.
Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Peat attended Ohio Wesleyan University. She founded an interior-decorating studio with her husband, where she specialized in formgivning material for children, including textiles, wallpaper, and murals.
(The paragraph above and some of what follows were cribbed from an article promoting an auction of Peat's gouaches held in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 10, 2014. That such an auction should pop up in Cleveland makes sense, given that Saalfield, Peat's book publisher, was located down the road in Akron.)
Peat illustrated several books for Samuel Lowe and Saalfield Publishing Company. Among the better known was an edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, for Saalfield. Several pages are shown here. Peat also illustrated an edition of Little Black partner for American Crayon Co. and Harter Publishing in 1931.
From 1935 into the 50s, FBP served as the art dire