Author: CT State Library

Harris, George Edgerly (1898-1938)George Edgerly Harris was born in Delaware in 1898. He was the son of Charles X. Harris, a renowned painter and one of the founding members of the Noank Art Colony. Harris originally wanted to be a baseball player, but his father persuaded him to study art. He studied at the Art Students League in New York and in 1927 attended the National Acad...

Harlow, Robert Elsing Jr. (1914-1991?)Robert Harlow was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 20, 1914. He studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and received his BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS from the University of Pennsylvania in 1938. He was a member of the Fellowship of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Springfield Art League. According to a WPA report, in 1...

Hardy, Merlin C. (1910-1984)Merlin Hardy was born on July 9, 1910, in Oakland, California. After graduating from Oakland High School, he studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco for four and half years. He worked in oil, sculpture, design, and illustration. He had a one-man show at the Art Center in San Francisco and exhibited at a number of institutions i...

Hannan, Eugene Elmer (1875-1945)Eugene Hannan was born in Washington D.C. on July 26, 1875. At age two and a half he was deafened by scarlet fever. He attended Kendall School for the Deaf and Gallaudet College and later received art training at the Corcoran Art School, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Art Students League in New York. For a time, Hannan worked at the U.S. N...

Haley, Duane (1892-1959) Robert Duane Haley was born in Lambertville, New Jersey on January 6, 1892. In his youth he drew and painted what he saw on the railroad in Connecticut from Fairfield and Stratford which included engines and later Indian heads and profiles. Later he used cameras and paintings with oil. He studied at the Art Studio of NY and did studio work in Boston. I...

Category: Artists Hackney, Malcolm (1913-1982) Malcolm Hackney was born in 1913. Before he joined the WPA Art Project he was a commercial artist and student at the Yale Art School. While living in New Haven he worked for the WPA from 1938-1939, doing most of his work for the Index of American Design. Hackney died in 1982. Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; Social Security De...

Gully, Alvin (1902-1985) Alvin Gully was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 29, 1902. He attended public school in Brooklyn until his parents moved to Westbrook, Connecticut in 1911. Before working for the WPA Federal Arts Project, he worked as a factory hand, mechanical draftsman, machine designer, model builder, pianist at a silent movie theater, musician in a dance orchest...

Guidone, Thomas (1898-1990) Thomas Guidone was born in Sorento, a Province of Naples, Italy on April 4, 1898. He moved to New Haven, Connecticut when he was three years old and was educated in the public schools. According to his daughter, Reverend Vera Niestemski, Guidone was fourteen not three years old when he came to America and was not educated in the public schools. In 1...

Gruelle, Justin C.  (1889-1978) Justin Gruelle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1889. His father was the noted landscape painter Richard B. Gruelle, and his brother, Johnny Gruelle, was a popular illustrator and creator of the Raggedy Ann books. Justin studied art with his father from an early age, and moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League. After a yea...

Grimes, Thayer (1886-1949)Thayer Grimes worked for the Public Works of Art Project and then completed one known easel work for the WPA Federal Arts Project entitledMoses and the Ten Commandments. It was allocated to the Westport School System. Born in Nebraska on September 27, 1886, both Thayer and his wife Jessie H. are listed in 1939 as members of the Silvermine Guild of Arti...