ILLINOIS HISTORICAL ART PROJECT

Because of our historical focus we come into contact with family members of artists. This has led to our purchase of several print estates. Previously we acquired the print estate of Charles William Dahlgreen (1864-1955) and subsequently donated the body of work to a dozen museums around the country.

 

Lawton Parker (1868-1953) was our next acquisition where we purchased the entire body of remaining prints and drawings, discovered in 1976 in a storage locker. The first selection of these works went to Beloit College where Parker had founded the School of Fine Arts. Later other institutional print collections were recipients of donations.

 

We acquired the pen/ink drawings used for over sixty newspaper political cartoons by Harold R. Heaton (c.1863 - 1942) who began his career at the Chicago Tribune as its first employed artist/illustrator and cartoonist. This body of work was donated to the Newberry Library in Chicago.

 

Letterio Calapai (1902-1993) was a master printer who ran Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17 in New York City. We purchased the estate of the artist who spent the last half of his career in Illinois.

 

Allan Randall Freelon (1895-1960) was a Philadelphia-based  African American printer and painter who spent his career in his home city as an educator in the public school system. We purchased twenty-three of his printing plates. Most had never been printed, hence seen by contemporary audiences. We printed an edition of fifteen prints from these plates, then cancelled the plates and donated them to the Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, NC.