Frank Holme timeline
Holme, John Francis “Frank”[1]
BORN: June 29, 1868 Corinth, WV
DIED: July 27, 1904 Denver, CO[2]
MARRIED: May 1893 Ida Van Duke of London, England and Grimsby, Ontario[3]
TRAINING
Primary and secondary schools in Keyser, West Virginia
1892-1894 Art Institute of Chicago
1897 Art Academy of Chicago[4]
ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT
c.1885-c.1888 Newspaper reporter and artist Wheeling Register, West Virginia;[5]
c.1888-1890 Illustrator Pittsburgh Press
c.1890-1892 Illustrator Chicago Blade[6]
1892-1895 Illustrator Chicago Times[7]
1893 Established Bandar Log Press[8]
1894-1895 Illustrator San Francisco Chronicle[9]
1896-c.1900s Illustrator, Chicago Evening-Post;[10] Chicago Chronicle; Chicago Daily News[11]
1896 Illustrator, Inland Printer[12]
1896 Publishes Just For Fun, Bandar Log Press[13]
1898 Contributor, Brush and Pencil[14]
1899 Wrote “The Training of a Newspaper Illustrator” in July issue of Inland Printer
1901 Wrote “Suggestion in Drawing,” Brush and Pencil, January.
1901 Wrote, “Practical Lessons in Illustration,” privately published in Chicago
1901 Founded Bandar Log Press in Phoenix, AZ[15]
1901 Illustrated with woodcuts a special edition booklet published by his Bandar Log Press[16]
1903 Illustrated, Poker Rubaiyat by Kirke La Shelle for his Bandar Log Press[17]
1903 Illustrated with woodcuts, The Strenuous Lad’s Library, by George Ade, published by Bandar Log Press[18]
[1]Samuels’ Encyclopedia of Artists of The American West, (Castle, 1976), p.233. This source is used for numerous references to his career.
[2]“Frank Holme Dead In Devner,” Chicago American, 7/27/1904 and “Current News Of Art. Death of Frank Holme, the Clever Newspaper Illustrator,” Chicago Record-Herald, 7/31/1904. Members of the Palette & Chisel club gathered for a memorial service which was detailed in the Chicago Chronicle, 8/16/1904 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 20.
[3]Information courtesy of Robert Loerzel website, author of Alchemy of Bones, who obtained most of his information from the Newberry Library, Box Case, Wing Z, 311.H739. Contained in the material is information on the Frank Holme Memorial Group, which acted to maintain the memory of Holme. The most thorough information in the material comes from Edwin B. Hill, More Than A Memory, (Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1936). AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 10, p.155. His wife was an accomplished book illustrator. She died 6/10/1941, see: obit., New York Times, 6/11/1941.
[4]J. Francis Smith, “The Art Academy,” Brush and Pencil, Vol. 1, No. 5, February 1898, p.175.
[5]Isabel McDougall, “Frank Holme, Newspaper Artist,” Brush and Pencil, Vol. 2, No.3, June 1898, pp.107-108.
[6]Op. cit., Hill, More Than A Memory, 1936.
[7]Op. cit., Hill, More Than A Memory, 1936.
[8]The name comes from Kipling’s description of the organizational effectiveness of monkeys. Some of the creative work he did while convalescing was discussed in James W. Pattison, “Pattison’s Art Talk,” Chicago Journal, 4/18/1903, p.6.
[9]Op. cit., Hill, More Than A Memory, 1936.
[10]An example may be found in “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/8/1896, p.10.
[11]Op. cit., McDougall, Brush and Pencil, June 1898, p.110. Holme was a notable illustrator of the Luetgert trial in Chicago in 1897. Some of his drawings are in the Special Collections department of the University of Arizona Library. Information courtesy of Robert Loerzel.
[12]“Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/6/1896, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 7, p.91. “A frank, uncompromising truthfulness in the rendering of character and a surprising facility, the result of much hustling to catch the first edition, are the pronounced characteristics of Mr. Holme’s work and workmanship.”
[13]Op. cit., Robert Loerzel.
[14]He wrote, “The Palette and Chisel Club,” Vol. 2, April 1898, pp.37-43. His illustration was used for the cover of the February 1899 issue.
[15]“Frank Holme, Newspaper Artist, Succumbs To Illness In Colorado,” Chicago Journal, 7/27/1904, p.4.
[16]James W. Pattison, “Pattison’s Art Talk,” Chicago Journal, 12/30/1901, p.4.
[17]“Art and Artists,” ChicagoEvening Post, 9/27/1902in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 17, p.36. The book was a series of quatrains on draw poker written by La Shelle, paraphrasing Fitzgerald’s version of The Rubaiyat of Omar. A complete discussion of the printing and creation appears in Chicago Record-Herald, 4/19/1903 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 18, p.87.
[18]Chicago Record-Herald, 9/20/1903 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 19, p.16. This was the first of a series of seven books comprising the “Stenuous Lad’s Library.”