Friday, February 11, 2011

Egypt

Without trivializing what the people of Egypt have accomplished, Indiana Illustrators offers an entry on Egypt.

An advertisement for Caterpillar Tractors by Junius S. Cravens (1883-1936).
A striking illustration for a short story, perhaps from Cosmopolitan, by Walter S. Louderback (1887-1941).
A.R. Tilburne (1887-1965) illustrated several covers for Weird Tales.  Animals were a specialty.
Another Tilburne cover for Weird Tales.
Hugh Rankin (1878-1956) preceded Tilburne as a cover artist for Weird Tales.
Finally, another Rankin cover for Weird Tales.
And an artist whose work, inspired by Egypt, seems to be unavailable on the Internet, despite its prominence: Helen Eaton Jacoby (1888-1967), born and educated in Indianapolis, designed a series of friezes with an Egyptian theme for the Murat Shrine Temple in her hometown sometime before World War II. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any images of her work. If anyone has access to them, please send them my way. Best wishes to the people of Egypt and throughout the Middle East in their efforts to bring democracy and prosperity to their region.

Text and captions copyright 2011 by Terence E. Hanley

2 comments:

  1. I am in possession of Helen jacoby's original drawings, from which the Murat's frieze was created. It consists of five panels, approx 10" high and varying in length from two to five feet. I am working on digitizing the panels for distribution to family members. Would you like to be kept updated on the project?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear dmme,

    Yes, please do keep me updated. I would like to see the drawings. I can even post them on my blog if you want. I'm unclear on one thing: are the friezes still in existence? Thanks.

    TH

    ReplyDelete