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Violet Oakley engraving plates
Violet Oakley (1874-1961) was an American illustrator, portraitist, and mural artist, best known for painting the murals in the Senate and Supreme Court chambers of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. She also privately publishedThe Holy Experiment, which illustrated her Harrisburg murals and explained...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Collection: | Violet Oakley Engraving Plates |
| Collection Number: | 3334 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects and Genres: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
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| Physical Description: |
28.0 Linear feet ; 100 boxes |
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| Access: |
The collection is open for research. |
| Summary: |
Violet Oakley (1874-1961) was an American illustrator, portraitist, and mural artist, best known for painting the murals in the Senate and Supreme Court chambers of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. She also privately publishedThe Holy Experiment, which illustrated her Harrisburg murals and explained her views, andThe Law Triumphant, based on the journal she kept while in Geneva observing the League of Nations meetings. In her younger years, Oakley was known as one of the Red Rose Girls, a group of illustrators who lived and worked together in Villanova. The group included Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith, and Elizabeth Shippen Green, all of whom were trained by Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute. After the marriage of Green, the women and their household moved to the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia. They called their new residence Cogslea, deriving the appellation from the initial of each of their last names. Oakley met her life partner, Edith Emerson, while teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. They resided together at Cogslea for over 40 years.. The bulk of the collection consists of engraved printing plates for Oakley’s 1922 manuscript,The Holy Experiment, our heritage from William Penn; series of mural paintings in the governor's reception room, in the Senate Chamber, and in the Supreme Courtroom of the State Capital of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Plates for a few publication subscription letters are also present. The bulk of the collection consists of engraved printing plates for a manuscript published by Oakley in 1922, entitledThe Holy Experiment, our heritage from William Penn; series of mural paintings in the governor's reception room, in the Senate Chamber, and in the Supreme Courtroom of the State Capital of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Plates for a few publication subscription letters are also present. The plates are metal mounted on wood in varying sizes, from a small section of a folio page to a full folio page. Most pages were set to be printed in black and red, with a few also utilizing blue. There is one plate per color per page. Images were printed with six colors and plates. The set is nearly complete. |