ILLINOIS HISTORICAL ART PROJECT
Please credit our Project when using source material: The Illinois Historical Art Project [IHAP] is dedicated to original materials and biographical information on artists of Illinois. Because we have consulted over 100,000 source documents our information is accurate.
Your first source for biographical information on artists should be the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute. Their library catalogue is on-line at http://www.artic.edu.
After you have checked with the Ryerson Library, we will be pleased to help with information on Chicago and Illinois artists. IHAP has compiled histories of over 1,500 artists who meet the following criteria:
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BORN before January 1, 1900.
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LIVED at least half their career in Illinois or closely attached to the state.
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PAINTERS while we show fine examples of sculptors here, we study primarily painters.
Our relational database can help the scholar who is seeking to organize an exhibition and generate thematic plans. Our library covers all of the art organizations functioning in Illinois since 1859 including articles and exhibition catalogs.
In 1892 Thy Will Be Done by Oliver Dennett Grover won the first Yerkes prize in Chicago. It was exhibited the next year at the World's Columbian Exposition. Then, it disappeared for for 105 years! It turned up at a small country auction in upstate New York. The auctioneers contacted the Branford, CT Library where Grover's murals adorn the rotunda. The library contacted the Illinois Historical Art Project, who then purchased the painting at auction.
Now in the Schwartz Collection, this painting is an example of recovering history through our Project. We seek original source biographical materials on Illinois artists.