C.A. Seward: Artist and Draftsman

C.A. SEWARD: Artist and Draftsman

CONTRIBUTORS Grandchildren and Great-grandchildren of C.A. Seward Kate Meyer, Curatorial Assistant, Prints and Drawings

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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his exhibition and project, C.A. Seward: Artist and Draftsman, represents a commitment by the descendants of C.A. Seward to honor this significant Kansas-born artist and share his work and artistic legacy with a broader audience. Although this exhibition and project celebrate one individual who dedicated so much of his life to the arts, the combined efforts of many contributors have been necessary to do justice to his memory. In 2006, the children and grandchildren of C.A. and Mabel Seward’s four daughters generously donated prints and preparatory material

by Seward to the Spencer’s collection. The Spencer’s spring 2010 exhibition of the same name includes many of those donations and additional loans from the family. Seward’s family and Spencer staff members have collaborated to provide information about Seward’s life in context as a more permanent component to the exhibition.

Seward’s eleven grandchildren, spearheaded by the efforts of Barbara Thompson and Carole Gardner, have produced a thoughtful tribute to Seward. Carole and Barbara have also drawn upon the documentation and archival materials initially compiled by their mothers to create a chronology, exhibition history, and bibliography

for Seward that helps make this project as comprehensive as possible. They served as consultants for the catalogue essay and also contributed extensively to the Seward print catalogue raisonné project. Numerous Kansas public collections also assisted in supplying information for the catalogue raisonné, particularly the Wichita Center for the Arts, Bethany College Library, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Wichita Art Museum, Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery, and Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. I am especially grateful to Seward’s great-grandsons Jason and Drew Elder for providing financial support for the exhibition and publication. We are also fortunate to have the expertise of Kate Meyer, a member of our curatorial staff, on which to draw. Kate is a doctoral candidate with deep knowledge in the area of the art and cultural history of the plains. She wrote the catalogue essay and guided the entire project, with affirmation and support from senior curator Steve Goddard.

SARALYN REECE HARDY

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Fig. 1. C.A. Seward, Adobe Village, New Mexico, 1936, lithograph, Spencer Museum of Art, Gift of Stephen Schmidt, Class of ’58, Prairie Print Makers’ Gift Print Collection, 1992.0044 (L81)

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A TRIBUTE TO C.A. SEWARD

By His Grandchildren C.A. (Coy Avon) Seward Kansas, 1884-1939

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he eleven children who had the great fortune to have C.A. Seward as a grandfather grew up thinking it was normal to live in a home filled with art. This experience continues to influence us, and our grandfather would be delighted to visit any of our homes, where the walls, like his were, are filled with art.

As children we were unaware that our grandfather had spent his life not only making art, but also working to make art a part of everyone’s life. As adults we came to know the broad legacy of C.A. He was a skilled illustrator and commercial designer, author, inexhaustible mentor, arts promoter, and a well-recognized artist and printmaker. Artists across the country respected the work he produced as a fine artist and innovative printmaker; this increased his reputation and legacy. Our grandfather’s multi-faceted legacy continues to be something to celebrate for its lasting effect not only on the lives of his grandchildren, but on the history of art in Kansas and the Midwest.

C.A. was born in Chase, Kansas, on March 4, 1884. The Seward family had a reputation as well-recognized fine horse breeders, and C.A. was as comfortable in his chaps, hat, and spurs

as in the immaculate suit in his professional portrait photograph.

C.A.’s maternal grandfather, Dr. Godfrey Bohrer, was perhaps his greatest influence during his formative years. C.A. followed in Dr. Bohrer’s path in many ways as he lived a life that encompassed a broad range of interests and activities. Dr. Bohrer was among those many Civil War veterans who moved their families to homestead in Kansas. He settled on land outside of Chase in 1873 and split his time between farming and doctoring. Dr. Bohrer’s special interest was planting orchards on his own land and throughout the county; to this he added bee keeping. He also served two terms as a state legislator. C.A. grew up watching (and most likely helping) his grandfather tend his trees and listening to his stories about his Native American patients and the causes Dr. Bohrer fought for in the state legislature.

C.A. began drawing as a child and never stopped. Though in a 1931 letter to R.P. Tolman, assistant curator at the Smithsonian, he noted that he was “primarily self-taught,” he did study briefly in Topeka with painter George M. Stone and cartoonist and illustrator Albert T. Reid. For a short time in 1907 he taught drawing classes 3

in Lindsborg, Kansas while studying with painter Birger Sandzén.

C.A. Seward was a lifetime student and collector of prints. Prints by European masters (Dürer, Rembrandt, Whistler), Japanese ukiyo-e printmakers (Hiroshige, Hokusai), and American printmakers (John Taylor Arms, Martin Lewis, Francis Gearhart, Gustave Bauman, Blanche Lazell, Cornelius Botke, J.J. Lankes, and Ernest Watson) could all be found in C.A.’s collection, and thus they too can be included in the list of his teachers.

By 1908 C.A. had married and settled in Wichita, Kansas, to continue pursuing his career as a commercial artist and illustrator to support his growing family, which soon included four daughters.

He devoted his evenings and weekends to sketching excursions, painting, and making prints in his studio. His days were spent working as a commercial artist and illustrator. He held several positions, including working for William Allen White as the staff artist for Kansas Magazine; he produced all twelve of the magazine’s covers in 1909. C.A. was the manager of the art department for Capper Engraving for about ten years. When an opportunity arose for him to combine his work in commercial art and illustration with his interest in fine art, he took it and, in 1921, with several associates he formed the Seward Studio. The Studio offered commercial design services, fine art exhibitions, and a sales gallery for his work and that of other artists. He soon had a staff member responsible for art exhibitions that traveled throughout Kansas and the Midwest.

Through the Seward Studio, C.A.’s passion for making good art a part of life for all Midwesterners was at last being realized.

In the early 1920s Seward worked with other founding board members of the Wichita Art Association who shared his dream of art classes and exhibitions in Wichita. The programs held at the Seward Studio were expanded under the auspices of the Association, so he closed the Seward Studio in 1923 and accepted the position of Director of Art for the Western Lithograph Company. In his previous work as a freelance commercial artist Seward had designed 4

promotional pieces for Coleman Lighting, Carey Salt, Dye’s Chile, Mentholatum, and E.M. Laird’s Swallow Airplane Company. In this new position with Western Lithograph, Seward and his staff continued creating signature advertisements for leading businesses in Kansas and the Midwest. In addition, C.A. directed the expansion of the firm’s capabilities into printing fine art editions for artists such as Gerald Cassidy, Birger Sandzén, Ward Lockwood and Kenneth Adams. In his capacity as the secretary-treasurer of the Wichita Art Association, he expanded their programs. In 1928 he organized the first annual juried exhibition in the Midwest beyond Chicago. The exhibition “American Block Prints” included prints by artists from the United States and Canada; this annual exhibition still continues today.

In 1930 C.A. instigated the formation of The Prairie Print Makers, which through his many contacts, quickly grew into a nationally recognized organization with three annual traveling exhibitions. From 1932 to 1937, C.A. served as the director and president of the Kansas Federation of the Arts. In this position he focused on expanding the art lectures and exhibitions offered to schools and community groups throughout the state. He also helped establish an acquisition and exhibition program in the Wichita public schools and was co-chairman of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) arts committee in Wichita. Seward mentored countless up-andcoming artists, providing instruction and encouragement during what many later fondly described as “Saturdays at Seward’s studio.”

As early as 1918 C.A had begun to combine his commercially honed technical printing knowledge and his skill as a draftsman into the creation of his own print images. “The lithograph is the medium for the man who wants to draw a thing not once, but a hundred times,” said Seward. With prints, he could realize his dream of making his art available and affordable. He quickly developed a way to capture his strong, deceptively fluid and easy appearing personal style of drawing into prints. His first few prints were woodblocks,

and he soon tried etching. In 1923, he began making lithographs; it is through this medium that he is best known. His book on the subject, Metal Plate Lithography for Artists and Draftsmen, was published in 1931.

C.A.’s second block print, Twilight, resulted in an invitation to exhibit his work at the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1920. From this point and through the rest of his life, his prints received numerous awards and national and international recognition. In 1924, Seward’s first lithograph, Summer, was awarded first prize at the Midwestern Artists Exhibition at the Kansas City Art Institute. The same year, Joseph Pennell selected Seward’s lithograph Red Sandstone Banks for exhibition at the National Academy of Design. In 1931, a one-man exhibition of 60 prints was held at the Smithsonian, and three of these prints were purchased for the permanent collection. By the end of his life, Seward had been invited to join over ten national printmaking groups, and his work had been in over 70 juried or invitational exhibitions including 12 known one-man exhibitions. Over his lifetime, C.A. produced over 150 prints, the vast majority of which were lithographs. His edition sizes were normally 50, though some editions ran as high as 75 and some were much smaller. As he noted in the 1931 letter to the curator at the Smithsonian, “five prints are reserved for my family, more go immediately to private collections, so the actual number in circulation is quite small.” In addition, he printed small editions of note cards, postcards, and miniature prints, which made his images even more available.

The signature aspect of C.A.’s work is his very personal view of the landscape. His initial group of prints focused on the landscape around his home in southern Kansas. The second is a group of images of the high desert landscape and pueblo architecture of Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Images from both of these groups garnered him recognition and linked him with other wellrecognized artists of the time. Seward prints were included in a 1925

exhibition at the Museum of New Mexico with Santa Fe artists Arthur B. Davies, George Plowman, and Frank Applegate, and then in a two-man, 1930 exhibition with sculptor Albert Stewart. In addition, his prints were among those chosen for the 1927–1929 American Federation of the Arts Exhibitions that traveled throughout Europe, the First International Exhibition of Lithographs and Engravings at the Chicago Art Institute in 1930, and the 1928 Annual Water Color and Print Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

The images for C.A. Seward’s prints were most often taken from his sketchbooks. An examination of these sketchbooks reveals his instinctive way of quickly capturing the essence of a particular place and moment in time. Throughout his career his attention was held by the smaller, intimate moments in the vast prairie and desert landscapes he so loved. Perhaps no image better represents this than his lithograph Adobe Village, New Mexico (fig. 1), the gift print he made for the Prairie Print Makers. This image is part of the last major group of prints made in the three years before his death in 1939.

This special group draws influence from Seward’s highly informed knowledge of technical printmaking, his skilled draftsmanship, his life of teaching, writing about and collecting art, as well as his friendship and exchanges with other artists across America. These last images are among the best testaments to what C.A. once said in an interview: “Making a lithograph is easy, all you need is a piece of zinc, a lithograph crayon, a proof press, and something to say.”

He expounded upon the statement in “Lithographs”, a museum guidebook published in 1936 by California-based Esto Publishing Company, and added, “Progress in any field of learning is necessary for accomplishment, and the most assuring guarantee of progress lies in our ability to maintain an open minded desire to learn. We may derive immeasurable pleasure from the brilliant technical performance of a printmaker, and it is highly desirable that our sensibilities should be 5

tuned to register this enjoyment, but technique as such is only a means to an end and not the end itself.”

Today anyone with computer skills and a camera can create images of their choosing on their home computer and broadcast them throughout the world. It is thus perhaps difficult to appreciate the skills required of commercial illustrators and designers in the early years of the 20th century. Success for a commercial illustrator required a chameleon-like ability. One client’s needs might require a humorous cartoon-like character; another, a glorious depiction of an unfurling American flag; and another, a truer-than-life cowboy riding off into a sunset. Only a highly skilled artist alone at his drafting board could meet all these special needs with the pencils, pens, and paints of his trade. C.A. Seward was such an artist.

Possessed even as a child with a discerning eye and a keen urge to make a drawing of anything he saw, Seward steadily applied his above average skill as a draftsman and painter to any commercial project set before him. He then combined his expertise in printmaking with careful and thoughtful viewing of those subjects closest to his heart—the Kansas prairies and flint hills, and the deserts and small pueblo villages he saw when he traveled to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico—to produce consistently fine images that art institutions, collectors, and historians have celebrated and awarded. Whenever art lovers have the opportunity to view Seward's work, particularly those who are familiar with these places and landscapes, they experience the alluring ease of Seward's technical skill, his obvious reverence for nature, and his keen eye for iconic compositions and subtle detail, as his well-designed and crafted prints reconnect them with images in their own memories.

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C.A. Seward, Somewhere in New Mexico, 1925, lithograph, Spencer Museum of Art, Gift in memory of Mildred Seward Pierce, 2006.0118 (L29)

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Fig. 2. C.A. Seward, at drawing board about 1915. All images are from the collection of the C.A. Seward family unless otherwise noted.

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C.A. SEWARD: HIS LIFE IN CONTEXT

By His Grandchildren; Carole Gardner, Barbara Thompson, and David Thompson C.A. (Coy Avon) Seward Kansas, 1884-1939

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n his brief 54 years C.A. Seward saw the birth of the automobile and airplane and the tragedy of the First World War. He camped out at Indian reservations, drove a 1920s Dodge touring car 2,000 miles through the American West, bird watched in Kansas salt marshes, and had his work exhibited in major U.S. museums.

He and his wife raised four daughters, and he met with continual success as an artist, even during the Great Depression. He organized groups of artists and art exhibitions, helped found an art museum, and assisted in the development of many organizations. Seward taught art, assisted artists, promoted art and collecting, and won the respect and love of his colleagues. During his short life, he created over 150 fine prints and over 20 paintings.

By 1920 Seward had chosen printmaking and particularly lithography as his preferred medium for artistic expression. Seward’s works illustrate what he often stated: “the lithograph is the medium for the man who wants to draw.” And draw he did (fig. 2). In countless sketchbooks he captured the subtle nuances, the necessary particulars, and the essential elements of what he saw, which he later transferred to metal plate, and finally with ink onto paper, in a

reflection of his keen eye and love for subject. Today, some 70 years after they were produced, Seward’s images resonate with iconic timelessness.

This chronology places C.A. Seward and the events of his life into the historical context of his times to reveal that he is indeed the fine artist and innovative printmaker that his friends and fellow artists knew him to be.

1884-1920 The Santa Fe Trail began as a commercial route across Kansas forty years before it became a state in 1861. The Trail crossed very close to the land settled by C.A. Seward’s grandparents in the 1870s. Cattle drives and railroads followed the route of this historic trail and continued to change the face of the state as the population expanded. Also near the Seward’s farm is the site where the Spanish explorer Coronado stopped in 1541, unsuccessful in his search for “the cities of gold.” On nearby Cow Creek, William “Bat” Masterson established a trading post in 1853, supplying buffalo meat to Kansas settlers. Further west along this trail lies Dodge City. This, as well as the Plains Indian tribes who lived close by, 9

in 1876. It was here that Roscoe met and the nearby salt marshes, home to an and married Hettie Ann Bohrer, the abundance of wild birds, made an daughter of Dr. Godfrey Bohrer and impression on Seward. Many of his later Maria Bethana Boggess (fig. 3). prints can be sourced to the environment Dr. Godfrey Bohrer had served as and experiences of these early years of his an assistant surgeon in the Civil War. In life. The United States celebrated the 1873 he left an eight-room house and a wisdom of Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana physician’s practice in Alexandria, Purchase with an international exposition Indiana, and with his family of seven in St. Louis in 1904 and it was during headed west; one child died on the way.

Seward’s visit to the exposition that he was The Bohrer family left the Santa Fe Trail inspired to seek formal training as a near Little Cow Creek in Rice County Fig. 3. Dr. Godfrey Bohrer and his wife, Maria Bethana (Boggess) Bohrer. professional artist. After finishing school, he and took up a claim southeast of Lyons, married and moved to Wichita to pursue his where Dr. Bohrer built a sod house, career. Wichita was an ideal location for a typical for this western Kansas region commercial artist, a town transitioning from (fig. 4). a cattle boom-town to a rapidly developing As the senior male in Seward’s city. Carrie Nation had made national childhood, Dr. Bohrer was an headlines fighting whiskey, tobacco, and influential figure throughout Seward’s rising skirt lines a few years before. At the life. He was the first physician in the same time, businessmen were working on county, and was elected to the Kansas city improvements from bridges and more Legislature in 1876 and again in 1883. paved streets to entertainment and cultural Bohrer was a member of the state events, and on attracting new companies such Fig. 4. Seward painting of Bohrer sod house in Rice County, KS, collection of the horticultural society, planted hundreds as the pioneering aircraft industry.

Coronado Quivira Museum, Lyons, KS. of apple trees, and for a number of Enterprising pioneer stock is an years was president of the state beekeepers association. apt description for both Coy Avon Seward’s parents and On March 4, 1884, C.A. (Coy Avon) Seward was born in grandparents. Seward family members were highly regarded Chase, Rice County, Kansas, to Roscoe Conklin Seward and Hettie pioneers in Indiana, well known for their expertise in horse Ann Bohrer. Three years later, C.A.’s only sibling, sister Gail Vernelle breeding. C.A.’s paternal grandfather, Francis C.L. Seward, died at Seward was born. After a brief move to southwestern Missouri, age 50 in an accident caused by a run-away team of horses. Seeking Roscoe Seward and his family returned to Rice County to a farm a new beginning, Francis’ widow, Phoebe VanDyke Seward, and north of Chase. C.A. Seward was the 1901 class valedictorian at three of her sons, including Roscoe Conklin Seward, C.A.’s father, Chase High School. Both his parents and grandparents had inspired came to Kansas and settled on a small farm near Lyons (Rice County) 10

long working relationship and friendship with his drive to learn and encouraged his broad interest Arthur Capper, Kansas' primary newspaper owner in the world around him. While still in school, and eventual Governor and State Senator. When Seward turned his interest and natural drawing Stone left for an extended summer painting trip skill into a source of income by creating signs and in Europe, Seward enrolled at Bethany College in advertising for local businesses.

Lindsborg, Kansas, to study painting with Birger In 1904 he traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to Sandzén. The McPherson Republican newspaper attend the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The reported in 1907 that “C.A. Seward illustrator and amazing exhibits from every corner of the globe designer of Chase, Kansas, has located in made an impression on 20-year-old Seward. The Lindsborg…a few samples of his work are now on defining moment of his visit was at the 40,000 display in one of the west windows of J.O. square foot Palace of Fine Arts, where he made a Sundstrom’s store. While here he will be closely decision to become an artist. In 1905, at the age of associated with the college and will instruct a class 21, he opened a small art studio at Chase, Kansas. in hand drawing.” While in Lindsborg, Seward The Chase Register published a souvenir edition on produced a three-color cover design for a June 1, 1906, that included his illustrations and a catalogue for the Smalley Seed Company biographical sketch: Fig. 5. C.A. Seward, “pen and ink” drawing, headquartered in McPherson, Kansas. Carl J. “The cuts and pen drawings which appear in undated.

Smalley, Jr., the son of the company owner, shared this little book were all designed and finished Seward’s interest in art, and they began to under the direction of Coy A. Seward, and no collaborate in promoting art in the Midwest. further comment is necessary, as they speak After finishing his studies, Seward moved to for themselves…while only a young man, it is Wichita, Kansas, where Fred Wieland hired him plain to be seen that he has a bright future to design advertisements and lettering for The before him.” (fig. 5). The article further noted Western Tractor and Power Farm Equipment that Seward “recently opened up a shop in the Company. In Wichita, Seward established himself Dexter building, south of the Farmer’s as a full-time artist, paying his first monthly rent Telephone office, where he would be pleased check of 14 dollars in April 1908 for his own to figure with anyone who needs his services Fig. 6. Wedding photograph of Mabel Elizabeth studio and shop. as a painter or decorator.”

Drew and Coy Avon Seward, May 11, 1908.

He briefly returned to Chase to marry his In the summer of 1906 Seward decided to high school sweetheart, Mabel Elizabeth Drew (fig. 6), and they seek formal art training and moved to Topeka, Kansas, to study at rented their first home on Lawrence Street (now Broadway) in Washburn College with Albert Turner Reid and European-trained Wichita. William Allen White, nationally recognized author, painter George Melville Stone. To pay his expenses he took a job political commentator, and editor of the Kansas Magazine, hired with Capper Engraving as a designer and illustrator, beginning a 11

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Fig. 7. Cover design, The Kansas Magazine, July 1909, ink with white and graphite on illustration board, KSU, Beach Museum of Art, John F. Helm, Jr. Memorial Fund, 2000.236 Fig. 9. C.A. Seward, bookplate for Walter Stanley Campbell, 1930s, lineblock (photomechanical relief print), Spencer Museum of Art, Gift in memory of Dorothy Seward Thompson and Mabel Drew Seward, 2006.0201 Fig. 8. Cartoon of Seward by Ben Depew.

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Seward as staff artist for the magazine in 1909, and Seward designed the covers for all the year’s issues (fig. 7). In the August 1909 issue, he wrote an eloquent article entitled “The Millet of the Prairies,” which praised George Melville Stone, his instructor at Washburn College, and established his talent as a writer.

By 1908 Seward was actively pursuing his goal of establishing himself as a commercial artist and illustrator as well as a painter. He also began a lifelong commitment as an advocate and promoter of the arts by continuing to author magazine articles about artists and by organizing art exhibitions. In 1909 he arranged for Birger Sandzén’s first exhibition outside of Lindsborg. In 1910, at the age of 26, Seward and his friend Arthur J. Kruckenberg, expanded his commercial art studio and opened the Southwestern School of Art in Wichita, where they held a wide range of classes from drawing and painting to clay modeling and leathercraft. Evening and correspondence classes were also offered.

By 1916 Seward and his wife had become parents of four daughters; Dorothy, Helen, Mildred, and Virginia, and had purchased their first home. The needs of his growing family persuaded Seward to accept the position of Manager of the Art Department of Capper Engraving Company. He remained with the Capper Company through 1919, moving briefly to Topeka to help facilitate a reorganization of their art department for the newly-elected Governor, Arthur Capper, the owner of the company. After returning to Wichita, Seward began a new venture, serving as both an investor and art director for the newly established Southwestern Advertising Agency.

While his daytime hours were committed to building the advertising business, Seward spent as much free time as possible sketching and painting. He also continued to pursue his lifelong interest in Native American cultures, which had begun as a boy in Chase while observing his Grandfather Bohrer treat patients from the nearby Native American communities.

During his lifetime Seward amassed a large collection of

Native American objects and artifacts (fig. 8). He often traveled with his artist friends Ben Depew and Leo Courtney, as well as author William Stanley Campbell (pen name Stanley Vestal), to observe ceremonies of Plains Indian tribes in Western Kansas and Oklahoma. Depew depicted some of these adventures in cartoon drawings and photographs. A newspaper clipping, entitled “Bookplates of Bookmen,” quotes Campbell: “I went to the Sun Dance of the Cheyenne Indians in Western Oklahoma in 1913, when I was just a young fellow. There I met an artist from Wichita, Kansas, Coy Avon Seward. It was he who designed the bookplate (fig. 9) which we planned together in the pup tent we shared on that blistering prairie.”

The Seward family also traveled to Comanche County along the Oklahoma border to visit family, and sketches from this trip were sources for many of his first prints, including Red Sandstone Banks and Red Sandstone Ledge.

Commissions for commercial illustrations and designs continued to come his way. He designed the official color postcard for the anniversary of Kansas statehood in 1911 (fig. 10). During World War I, Seward volunteered to aid the U.S. Food Administration by making posters and cartoons for the Kansas campaign (fig. 11). He also worked on the planning committee for the design of the WWI Victory Arch that spanned Douglas Avenue in Wichita in celebration of the end of the war. And, like many others in Kansas, Seward caught the influenza in 1918 that spread quickly around the globe and caused the death of an estimated 50 million people.

Fig. 10. C.A. Seward, official Kansas Day postcard, 1911, offset color lithograph, Spencer Museum of Art, Gift in memory of Mildred Seward Pierce, 2006.0176 Fig. 11. C.A. Seward, drawing for the U.S. Food Administration, Kansas campaign, pen and ink.

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1920-1930 Expansion of commerce continued throughout Kansas during this third decade of the 20th century and the population grew dramatically, especially in Wichita. The businessmen of Wichita joined in the national “boom sensibility” and began their tenacious push to make Wichita not

Fig. 11

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true likeness of the city as it appeared just the largest city but a primary to him when he arrived in the late entrepreneurial and economic base in the summer of ‘69.” The painting was Midwest. “Peerless Princess of the Plains” exhibited at the Wheat Show in and “Wichita, City of Opportunities” were Wichita in 1920 and was presented to two of the many development campaign the Sedgwick County Pioneer Society. slogans. Kansas’ economy was rapidly Another painting commission spreading beyond its base of agriculture followed when the Masonic Lodge and wheat production. Efforts to attract invited five Kansas artists to create the aviation industry were successful, and large oil paintings for the new Wichita would later be known as the “Air Masonic Lodge in Topeka, Kansas. It Capitol of the World.” Several of Seward’s Fig. 12. C.A. Seward, Wichita in 1869, 1921, oil on canvas, Wichita-Sedgwick County was reported that, “Of the five commissioned prints helped celebrate the Historical Museum, courtesy of the Museum. paintings submitted, Mr. Seward’s The new aircraft industry, and his commercial Acropolis was hung in the position of honor in the client list expanded to include many Wichita-based new building.” international enterprises. With this business boom The year 1920 saw a significant increase in came an expanded interest in self-improvement as well Seward’s civic activities on behalf of the arts in as entertainment. The Wichita Art Association was Wichita and the Midwest. That same year he organized, with Seward as one of the founding helped found the Wichita Art Association. The first members. Wichita was a lively environment with officers were: President Walter A. Vincent, many entertaining venues, including the Wonderland Vice-President Mrs. Will K. (Sara) Jones, SecretaryAmusement Park and Riverside Boathouse, numerous Treasurer C.A. Seward, and Historian Miss movie theatres, and multiple festivals and parades. The Elizabeth Sprague. As the secretary-treasurer, first White Castle hamburger stand opened in Wichita, Seward originated and wrote The Museum News, serving little hamburgers at 5 cents apiece and setting the Association’s publication. The Wichita Art a precedent for the fast food industry. Other booming Association was founded to support the planning companies included Coleman, Beech, and Cessna, for a city museum of art. This museum would which continue to have a large presence in Wichita Fig. 13. Advertising brochure for the “Seward provide a home for the Roland P. Murdock today.

Studio” in Wichita. collection, which had been established by a Between 1920 and 1921 Seward produced bequest of Louise Caldwell Murdock. Seward was over 16 paintings, including a large oil painting one of two members of the museum planning committee who titled Wichita in 1869 based on a description provided by William traveled to other cities to research and develop the architectural Finn, the city’s first surveyor (fig. 12). In an article in the May 1, concept for the Wichita Art Museum.

1921, edition of the Wichita Eagle, Mr. Finn declared it to be “a very 14

Advertising and opened his own studio and art school. The Wichita Seward, with his positions as a board member of both the Eagle reported that the “Seward Studio” had opened at 315 Wichita Art Association and the Wichita City Library, played a key Sedgwick Building offering classes, exhibitions, and a gift role in organizing the Association’s wide range of exhibitions, which department selling art pottery and books (fig. 13). The article were typically held in the Library’s exhibition space. An early commented that, “C.A. Seward, well known Wichita artist has now exhibition of the block prints of Santa Fe artist Gustave Baumann attained the dignity, or unconventionality of a was followed in November 1922 with thirty studio of his own…Those who have seen it paintings by “Los Cinco Pintores” (Joseph Bakos, claim it would be a credit to even Greenwich Will Schuster, Fremont Ellis, Walter Mruk, and Village.” The Seward Studio also arranged for Willard Nash), all of Santa Fe, New Mexico. traveling exhibitions of paintings and prints for These exhibitions also included the work of towns and schools in Oklahoma and Kansas. As artists from other areas, including the Chicago the art school and exhibition program of the Society of Etchers and the Provincetown Art Wichita Art Association expanded under Colony, George Albert Burr of Colorado, and Seward’s leadership, eventually he closed the southern California painter Howell C. Brown.

Seward Studio.

The Wichita Art Association also sponsored an On January 1, 1923, Seward accepted the ongoing series of art classes as well as lecture position of Director of the Advertising and Art programs, which ranged from a demonstration Department, Western Lithograph Company in of printing techniques by Seward to a lecture by Wichita, a position he held for the rest of his architect Frank Lloyd Wright. life. Walter Vincent had started the company in From 1921 through 1935 the Association, 1893 with a press, a couple of printing stones, having no building of its own, held its meetings, and a bicycle, and promoted his services classes, and exhibitions at the Library, the Lassen throughout Kansas. By the late 1920s, it was Hotel, and numerous other locations. On May one of the largest printing companies in the 12, 1933, the Seward Family guest book region. A sixteen-page brochure, with samples documents a board meeting of the Association at of his previous work, announced Seward’s Seward’s home. After the museum opened in Fig. 14.

C.A. Seward, commercial advertisement for appointment. This brochure, entitled, “Being A September 1935, under an agreement with the Dye’s Chile, circa 1909-1920s.

Collection of the Wood Cuts, Drawings, and city, the Association finally obtained classroom Paintings of C.A. Seward, Wichita, Kansas,” and gallery space in exchange for operating the included examples and comments on the thirty-five works museum. In 2010, the Wichita Art Association (now the Wichita illustrated, and a description of the new Commercial Art Center for the Arts) celebrated its 90th year anniversary, and the Department, noting that, “The excellence of Mr. Seward’s work is Wichita Art Museum its 75th anniversary. not unknown to our clientele as much of the art service we have In July 1921 Seward resigned his position at Southwestern 15

Fig. 16. C.A. Seward, Kansas Cottonwood, 1925, lithograph (L23).

Fig. 15. Drawing from Seward sketchbook of New Mexico subjects including Taos Mountain.

Fig. 17. C.A. Seward, Kansas Meadowlark, created for the Kansas Audubon Society, color print reproduction.

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rendered our customers in the past has been from the versatile brush and pen of Mr. Seward.”

In his new position at Western Lithograph, Seward continued to create signature advertisements for leading businesses in Kansas and the Midwest. One of Seward’s longest standing designs was the logo for the Wichita-based international company Dye’s Chile. (fig.

14). This unique design from 1908 was retained until 1967 when the company closed. Under Seward’s leadership, Western Lithograph also printed fine art prints for artists.

Seward’s first lithograph, Summer, won first prize at the 1924 Kansas Midwest Artists Exhibition. He received an invitation for his first exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York City when Joseph Pennell selected his 1923 lithograph Red Sandstone Banks and he became a member of the academy. More recognition quickly followed. In 1924 Seward’s lithographs Willows and Pond Lilies and Summer were shown in the Annual Exhibition of American Art at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Seward made his first trip to New Mexico in late August 1924 to visit his artist friends Gustave Baumann in Santa Fe and Ernest Blumenschein and Walter Ufer in Taos. His sketchbooks (fig. 15) from this trip include his concepts for later lithographs Aspens in Hondo Canyon, Grasshopper Peak, and Poplars at Santa Fe. Yet another print from this trip, Somewhere in New Mexico, was exhibited at the California Society of Printmakers International Exhibition in 1925.

It was purchased by the Los Angeles Museum of History and Art in California and became the first acquisition of his work by a museum outside of Kansas.

Through all of these years, Seward continued to mentor and make connections for his wide range of artist friends. Letters from artists across the country thanked him for selling and exhibiting their work. In 1924, along with Walter Vincent and Ed Davison, he worked with flour mill owner Louis R. Hurd on the commission of a decorative frieze for Hurd’s dining room. One of Seward’s friends,

Walter Ufer, received this commission and to express his thanks he gave Seward his oil painting A Morning Ride for “services rendered.”

Seward became increasingly involved in promoting and mentoring other artists when he organized the Wichita Artists Guild in 1924, serving as President of the guild’s twenty-five original artist members. The guild held its first annual exhibition in December 1925 at the Wichita Library under the auspices of the Wichita Art Association.

National recognition of Seward and his art expanded significantly. His lithograph Poplars at Santa Fe was featured on the cover of the January 1925 issue of the French publication Revue de Vrai et du Beau, and inside were the prints Summer, Red Sandstone Banks, and Willows and Pond Lilies. He was elected to membership in the Printmakers Society of California in the spring of 1925. The invitation letter to Seward from Howell C. Brown reads: “At a meeting of the Board, names for new members were considered after studying the prints in the International. I am happy to say they chose you as one of the new people to be invited to join. New members are only added by invitation, and then only when there is a vacancy. I hope that you accept the invitation…I feel sure you will be known among the big lithographers of America.”

Succeeding years brought his election to many other national and international artists’ societies including the Northwest Printmakers, Honolulu Printmakers, Canadian Printmakers, Chicago Society of Etchers, and the Chicago Galleries Association.

Seward was recognized in August 1925 when The Print Connoisseur featured an article written by Marsh Murdock, an arts supporter and owner of the Wichita Eagle, about Seward’s work. The publication included ten of Seward’s prints and an insert of the lithograph Kansas Cottonwood. (fig. 16).

In late August 1925 Seward returned to New Mexico for two weeks. His wife and two oldest daughters accompanied him on the

drive. His sketchbooks from this trip include preparatory drawings for his lithographs Cimarron Canyon, Glorietta Canyon, and A New Mexican Well. The following year, his work was first exhibited in a group show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with artists Arthur B. Davies, Frank G. Applegate, and George Taylor Plowman.

In 1926 Seward organized the Mid-West Print Makers. Two years later, for the Wichita Art Association, he initiated an exhibition of American Block Prints that became a juried, annual exhibition for block print artists from the United States and Canada. This was the third of the national exhibitions of block prints and the first one in the Midwest. His painting Kansas Meadowlark (fig. 17) was chosen

by Kansas school children to become the illustration of the state bird. The Kansas Audubon Society had it printed for distribution to Kansas schools.

The recognition of Seward’s art continued and his prints were included in the 1927 “Exhibition of American Block Prints,” the first of five juried shows organized by the Philadelphia Print Club that also traveled to the Brooklyn Museum in New York. His prints were in this exhibition again in 1929, 1930, and 1931. Seward won the gold medal, for the lithograph Yucca, at the Kansas City Art Institute’s annual Kansas Midwestern Artists Exhibition in 1928, having won the silver medal there in 1927 for his lithograph Toadstool Rock. He received a commission to create a portrait drawing of Charles Lindbergh (fig. 18) for the famous aviator’s visit to Wichita in the summer of 1927.The image was included in fullpage advertisements in the Wichita Eagle in celebration of “Lucky Lindy Day.” In 1927 a traveling exhibition of the California Print Makers Society was held in the Wichita Library. Seward was the only Kansas member of the society at the time and the exhibition included his lithograph Prairie Stream. Seward prints were included in three of the four juried “American Artists Prints” exhibitions organized by 17

the American Federation of the Arts for an exchange program with three European Museums; in 1927, at the Ufizzi Gallery in Florence; in 1928, at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, (which purchased Big Pines, Raton Pass for their permanent collection); and in 1929, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. A letter from the American Federation of Arts to Seward on September 25, 1928, enthusiastically reported, “The exhibition of etchings, engravings, lithographs, etc, by American Artists…we believe, a great success, arousing much interest and securing from the Paris critics very considerable notice.”

The June 17, 1928, edition of the Wichita Beacon, in an article titled “Pen and Graver and Rippling Rhyme,” reported the publication of the book Other Days - In Pictures and Verse by three Wichita artists. The article described the book’s features: woodcuts

by Herschel Logan, decorations by C.A. Seward, and poems by Everett Scrogin, and it noted that, “Seward’s work has long been familiar to Wichitans…Both pictures and text call up a host of delightful memories, and the book is a work of art.”

1930-1940

Fig. 18. C.A. Seward, Lindbergh, 1927, lithograph, Spencer Museum of Art, Gift in memory of Mildred Seward Pierce, 2006.0128 (L47).

18

The October 1929 crash of the American stock market and the consequent spread of this economic downturn brought an abrupt halt to the fast growth of the Kansas and Wichita economies. Even with its base in aviation and oil exploration, segments of the economy still prospered, nevertheless many Kansans experienced the hardships of the Great Depression. The economic depression in the Midwest was compounded by the drought years of the early 1930s, which culminated in what is now known as the Dust Bowl. Dry wind storms blew away the top soil of millions of acres of once fine farm land in a huge area of Southwestern Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado in the mid-1930s. The Depression brought about the election of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal policies to reinvigorate the economy. Seward assisted the Works Progress Administration when he served as one of three committee members to

select the WPA-sponsored murals for the new Wichita Post Office.

Throughout these years, Seward worked tirelessly in various positions, especially at the Wichita Art Association, where he had been a board member since its inception in 1920, to provide sales exhibitions and commissions for his many artist friends who were struggling to support themselves and their families. Despite economic challenges, the 1930s were some of Seward’s most successful years. His book on metal plate lithography was published and his prints were exhibited at the Smithsonian as well as in five other solo exhibitions across the country. By the time that the droughts and Dust Bowl years were ending, and WWII in Europe was beginning, Seward had produced a staggering amount of work for the organizations he passionately supported, as well as a substantial group of perhaps his finest prints.

Seward completed his book Metal Plate Lithography for Artists and Draftsmen in September of 1929. The book championed the use of more accessible metal plates as opposed to the traditional stones for making fine art prints. It included twenty full-page reproductions of lithographs by contemporary American artists, including Kenneth M. Adams, George Biddle, Gerald Cassidy, Wanda GĂĄg, Rockwell Kent, and Louis Lozowick. In 1931, Pencil Points Press of New York City published an edition of 3000. The book was well received when it was published and remains today an accurate historical reference on the subject.

In 1930 Seward built his own art studio in the back yard of his North Holyoke street home (fig. 19). The small building was finished with stucco, which reflected his love for the adobe dwellings in the Southwest. This studio became the new site for the long-established evening and weekend printmaking sessions where he taught young artists how to create their own personal woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings. His staff members from Western Lithograph, Lloyd Foltz, Charles Capps, and Clarence Hotvedt, were frequent visitors, as were Herschel Logan, Arthur and Norma Bassett Hall and William Dickerson.

Fig. 19. Seward studio at rear of house on North Holyoke, Wichita, Kansas, built in 1930.

Fig. 20. Photograph of founders and members of the Prairie Print Makers, December 28, 1930.

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Fig. 21. C.A. Seward, Stearman, 1930, etching, Spencer Museum of Art, Gift of Charles L. Stansifer in memory of his wife Mary Ellen Love Stansifer and her father Clarence M. Love, 2002.0170 (E28).

20

The keystone of C.A. Seward’s organizational efforts occurred on December 28, 1930. After working for a year on the idea, Seward invited nine other Kansas artists to meet at the studio of artist Birger Sandzén to publicly announce the formation of the Prairie Print Makers. Besides Seward, the charter members were Charles M. Capps, Leo Courtney, Lloyd C. Foltz, and Clarence A. Hotvedt from Wichita; Arthur W. Hall and Norma Bassett Hall, from Howard, Kansas; Herschel C. Logan from Salina, Kansas; Birger Sandzén from Lindsborg; and Edmund Kopietz, who had grown up in Wichita and had recently become the Director of the Minneapolis School of Art. A photograph of the charter members was made that day (fig.

20), which also included Carl J. Smalley of McPherson, Kansas, Seward and Sandzén’s friend, an art dealer and promoter who was elected as the first honorary member.

The stated goal for the organization was to stimulate printmaking and the collecting of prints. This was to be done not only by the original charter members, but by artists around the country who would be invited to membership in the organization after they submitted a portfolio of recent work for review. Again, Seward chose the worker’s role as Secretary-Treasurer. In this position he organized the Prairie Print Maker’s three annual traveling exhibitions, authored many of the artist biographies, wrote the association’s annual reports, and handled all the correspondence between the members. Seward also managed the selection, production, and distribution of the 200 annual gift prints, which were sent to associate members. The organization had a national presence for over thirty years. The final communication to its members, a letter dated July 27, 1966, emphasized that, “…Mr. Seward was the prime mover in organizing the Prairie Print Makers…”

Stearman Aircraft Company of Wichita commissioned Seward to make an etching of their airplane for their 1930 Christmas gift print. This etching, titled Stearman (fig. 21), was produced in a limited edition of 275. In November 1931 the Graphic Arts Division

of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, invited Seward for a one-man exhibition of 60 prints. Following the exhibition, the Smithsonian purchased three lithographs, Swans, Yucca, and Land of Mystery, for their permanent collection. The latter two are now at the Library of Congress, as is an additional Seward lithograph: Adobe Village, New Mexico. The same year his etching Squirrel Nests (fig. 22) was included in the 15th annual juried exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.

Despite his full time job as Art Director of Western Lithograph and his ongoing production of his own fine art prints, Seward still found time to pursue many of his hobbies. In 1932, he designed the stamp logo (fig. 23) for the Sunflower Stamp Club, of which he was a charter member. The logo, with the new name Wichita Stamp Club is still used on their newsletter. The Federal Government built a new Post Office in Wichita, and Seward designed the cachet for all mail leaving the U.S. Post office on opening day, April 1, 1932. He also wrote Collecting Pre-cancels by Denomination, a stamp-collecting album that was patented in 1934.

Between 1928 and 1938, Seward’s work was included in 26 national and international exhibitions, over 22 in Kansas, and twelve known solo exhibitions at libraries, galleries, and museums, and his work appeared in numerous publications. The September 1930 issue of the American Magazine of Art included Seward prints On the Road to the Pueblo and Sunlight and Shadow. The January 1933 issue of Kansas Magazine showed two Seward lithographs: Glorietta Canyon and Three Geese. A 1934 Kansas Magazine featured Seward lithographs Swans and A Taos Gate, and a 1935 Kansas Magazine featured the lithographs Land of Mystery and Blue Valley Barns.

In 1932 Paul Weigel, John Helm, Jr., and Seward re-focused the mission of the Kansas Federation of the Arts, which had been started in 1916, but had not thrived. With the revitalization and funding by membership dues, quality exhibitions of art were made available at low cost to clubs, libraries, and schools all over Kansas.

Fig. 22 Fig. 22. C.A. Seward, Squirrel Nests, 1930, etching (E29).

Fig. 23. Sunflower Stamp Club logo, as a stamp designed by Seward in 1932, courtesy of Wichita Stamp Club.

Fig. 23

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every year have asked for a Seward, but he always insisted on One of the traveling exhibitions of the Prairie Print Makers was stepping aside. This time the remaining directors were prepared for reserved for the Federation. Seward served first as Director and then him and steamrollered every objection he could raise.”

President until John F. Helm, Jr. took the reins in 1936.

The C.A. Seward publication Making Prints - Shop Talk on The November 1933 issue of Prints, a New York publication, Graphic Arts was published in 1936 and written in cooperation with included an eight-page article about Seward. The author, Margaret other artists J.J. Lankes, Paul Ulen, and Ernest Watson. The same Whittemore (another Kansas artist), noted, “The volume and year, he produced the gift print for the Wichita Friends of Art, an diversity of his activities in the artistic field are a never-ending source etching of flying geese titled Explorers. Also in of amazement to those who know him…He 1936, Seward was made an honorary member has been the guiding spirit of the Wichita Art of Delta Phi Delta for the lithograph Association since its founding, and it was Grasshopper Peak, which received the graphic largely through his efforts that the dream of a arts prize. He was elected to Alpha Rho Tau real art school in Wichita became a reality.” art fraternity at the University of Oklahoma Also in 1933, The Wichita Art Association in 1938, and in 1945 he was awarded selected Seward’s etching Washerwoman’s Alley posthumous honorary membership in Kappa for their gift print, which was also exhibited Pi art fraternity by the national chapter. in the Midwestern Artists annual exhibition Seward’s lithograph Elk Valley Farm was at the Kansas City Art Institute. Seward was the frontispiece illustration for a 1937 article the author of “Lithography,” one of the in the Kansas Magazine entitled, “C.A. Seward guidebooks in a series titled Enjoy Your - Promoter of Kansas Art,” by Birger Sandzén.

Museum published in 1936 by Esto A block print profile portrait of Seward by Publishing Corp., of Pasadena, California.

Hershel Logan illustrated the article. Sandzén Other authors were nationally known artists wrote these words of praise about his friend C.A.: and curators, including Rockwell Kent, Fig. 24. Photograph of Seward standing, his daughter, Helen, his father Roscoe, and granddaughter, Phyllis.

“In his quiet way he was the mainspring in Edward Weston, and Frederic H. Douglas. the organization of the Prairie Print Makers Seward was invited to create the 1936 Society, whose members are producing some of the finest gift print for the Prairie Print Makers, a lithograph titled Adobe work in this field…The impression of his personality is Village, New Mexico. This was the first Southwestern image used for stamped on nearly every forward move in the art of this state a gift print, although most of the founding members had strong ties during the past thirty years. He has been the soul of several and friendships with the artist colonies of Taos and Santa Fe. Charles state-wide progressive art organizations, such as the Prairie Capps wrote in the introduction: “C.A. Seward, the leading spirit of Print Makers and the Kansas Federation of Art. Through his the Prairie Print Makers, and the chief factor in the society’s lithography he has interpreted Kansas, and today is one of the triumphant growth through lean years, has finally accepted the country’s leading print makers.” responsibility of creating the Gift Print for 1936. Scores of cards 22

Fig. 25. C.A. Seward, Pueblo Memories, 1937, lithograph (L84).

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By July of 1937 three of Seward’s daughters had married and left home. In 1936 the first of C.A. and Mabel Seward’s eleven grandchildren was born (fig. 24). She was the only grandchild C.A. saw before he died and he carefully inscribed his color print Waterlilies “to Phyllis Louise from her Grand Daddy.” During this year he completed his last known lithograph, Pueblo Memories (fig. 25).

The year 1938 proved to be Seward’s most challenging. In January his father, Roscoe, who had been living with C.A. and Mabel, died at the age of 76. By the summer, C.A.’s own health was declining, and he asked his close friend and fellow artist Leo Courtney to hold a sale of his extensive art collection in an effort to provide for his wife and youngest daughter, Virginia, who was still residing with her parents. The sale was held at Courtney’s Art Shop in Wichita in October. Throughout 1938, Seward, with the assistance of his four daughters and wife, had been working to maintain his correspondence and activities with his many artist friends who were spread across the country. In May 1938 Peter Hurd wrote to Seward from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, “Thank you for your letter inviting me to become a member of the Prairie Print Makers. I know of your organization and shall be very happy to join it should I be elected.” And in October, American printmaker John Taylor Arms wrote to express his regret that Seward’s health would not permit him to serve on a committee, noting, “I know only too well when doctors decree no outside activities, there is nothing to be done about it! It is my earnest hope that your health will continue to improve.”

On January 31, 1939, Coy Avon Seward died in Wesley Hospital in Wichita, Kansas. The cause was an infection that had affected his weakened heart, damaged from childhood rheumatic fever. The Wichita Eagle headlined their obituary, “C.A. Seward nationally famous artist and beloved Wichita citizen, died in a local hospital yesterday.”

In 1940 the Kansas Magazine featured a memorial album 24

collection of Seward prints with a tribute by John F. Helm, Jr. Through the years other exhibitions of his work have been mounted in honor of the position he filled in Wichita and in Kansas, including a 1946 memorial exhibition of his prints at the Wichita Art Museum.

In 1991 an exhibition titled “C.A. Seward, Kansas Artist” was shown at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. In 2008, the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum included Seward’s work in the exhibition “Seminal Artists in Wichita, 1880-1940.” The 2010 exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in Lawrence related to this publication represents that museum’s first monographic treatment of Seward.

TRIBUTES TO C.A. (COY AVON) SEWARD BY FELLOW ARTISTS

“As a commercial artist, his distinguished ability won him first place in that field and for a great number of years he was art director for the Western Lithograph Company of Wichita. As a creative artist, Seward will be known to posterity as an eminent printmaker, for he reached a perfection of technique in his lithographs, etchings, and block prints that will long be a mark of honor to his ability.”

—John F. Helm, Jr., Kansas Magazine, 1940 “The volume and diversity of his outside activities, added to his duties at the Western Lithograph Company is a never-ending source of amazement to those who know him. Many of his years, too, he has been in frail health. He has had mingled joys and heavy responsibilities of building a house and rearing a family, and the numerous organizations to which be belongs draw heavily on his time and energy. Then, too, he is always ready to lend advice and encouragement to younger artists; his correspondence alone would weary Fig. 26. C.A. Seward portrait, about 1935. many; and yet he finds time to produce the lithographs, block prints, etchings, and paintings that are recognized as among the best in the country. To us, the career of C. A. Seward, his courage, industry, his consummate efficiency and ability as an organizer, his hard won attainments as an artist, his loveable character, and his unselfish service to a host of lesser artists, to his community, and to the cause of art may well serve as a noble example.”

—Clarence A. Hotvedt, The Palette magazine “The laymen of Wichita and its artists are grateful to Seward for his unselfish service in the cause of art; they honor him for his attainments; and love him for his sterling character, his genial disposition, and kindly helpfulness. Such men are rare indeed. His position in his community and the entire Middle West is unique. He is more than just C.A. Seward, the artist - he is an institution.”

—Clarence A. Hotvedt, 1936, for Delta Phi Delta Art Fraternity “In spite of illnesses, too, he is always genial and full of every droll and personal brand of wit. His friendship is a solid blessing and he withholds it from no one. He will fight anyone’s battle but his own, for his ingrained modesty shies away from the spotlight and his perfect generosity disinclines him to take an earned advantage. He is always ready to lavish help and encouragement on younger artists. Wichita is full of his protégées and many scattered about the country can testify to his guidance. He has been a leading spirit in the Wichita Art Association since its inception. Largely through his early efforts the dream of a real art school in Wichita was made a reality.”

—Charles M. Capps, 1936 Gift Print Folder for the Prairie Print Makers

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C.A. Seward, Grasshopper Peak, 1931, lithograph (L70)

26

C.A. SEWARD: ARTIST AND DRAFTSMAN

BY KATE MEYER with consultation from Barbara Thompson and Carole Gardner, granddaughters of C.A. Seward

I

n 1931 lithography was a relatively unknown artistic medium in the United States. Even the technical knowledge of lithographic printing was a trade skill guarded by few practitioners. That year C.A. Seward published a printmaking guidebook advertised as a “brief and concise but adequate manual of technique for the purposes of drawing on and printing from zinc and aluminum plates to produce lithographs.”1 This modest assessment accurately describes the contents of Metal Plate Lithography for Artists and Draftsmen, but gives no hint of the significance of such an act.

Seward’s manual, while succinct, stands as one of the few lithography guidebooks published in America during the first half of the 20th century and the only one specifically focusing on metal plate lithography. Metal Plate Lithography represents a bold effort by C.A. Seward to popularize printmaking techniques that generally had been relegated to commercial printing. It serves as a fine testament to Seward’s lifelong efforts to promote the medium of lithography and its use by artists on a local and national level.

Lithography was invented in 1798 by Alois Senefelder, who was seeking new methods to print text. The technique itself proved

highly adaptable to both fine art and commercial purposes. A lithograph can be produced by marking the surface of a prepared plate or flat limestone surface with a greasy substance and altering that surface chemically so that once-greasy passages retain ink when printed, thus reproducing the original in reverse with nearly infinite potential for duplication.2 Senefelder first utilized smooth and uniform Bavarian limestone for printing; synthetic options in the form of treated metal plates soon followed.3 Throughout the medium’s history, many artists and critics believed that lithography’s commercial associations sullied its artistic integrity.4 The relegation of commercial art as a lesser product than fine art persisted despite the propensity for many canonical artists, from members of the New York-based Ashcan School through painters who began their careers under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), to support themselves as commercial illustrators.5 Nevertheless, critics felt lithography’s compatibility as a commercial process diluted its purity as an art form, relegating it to more of a craft or trade technique.

Fears that commercial associations would adversely affect perceptions of fine art lithography manifested themselves in several 27

ways. Despite the portability and simplicity offered by metal plates, leading “artist-lithographers” such as Bolton Brown advocated the use of hefty quarried slabs of limestone as the lithographic matrix of choice. Brown, a major force in the early history of American lithography, learned the subtleties of lithographic printing largely on his own and emphasized that the best results came from working on high quality Bavarian limestone. Brown’s 1930 manual, Lithography for Artists, served as the first and best known American resource “intended to enable an artist to make a lithograph, with his own hands.”6 In this manual Brown coined the term “crayonstone” to describe lithographic drawings made directly on stone, which he felt was the only true artistic expression of the medium. While Brown was swaying his readers to utilize stone for their fine art printmaking, by 1930 commercial firms across the country routinely employed metal plates for lithography and had discarded their litho stones to allocate more space for other equipment.7 The divide in America between the few practitioners of fine art lithography and the abundance of commercial printing firms widened.

During the first half of the twentieth century, qualified fine art printers were difficult to find. Unlike today’s collegiate artistic instruction in which students learn to make and print their lithographs simultaneously, knowledge about printing was then held by few. Brown made lithographs, printed them for other artists, and taught a limited number of dedicated students how to print. The bulk of the popular Associated American Arts lithographs that were produced starting in 1934 by artists such as Grant Wood or Thomas Hart Benton were printed by George Miller in New York. Miller and a very small group of other printers acquired their knowledge through commercial training but managed to transition from the commercial arena to print professionally for artists. Artists who were interested in learning how to print lithographs found few practitioners to emulate and fewer instructional resources or manuals. As Ruth Fine notes, even in the WPA shops of the 1930s, 28

“technical information was shared to some extent, enabling artists to learn various secrets of lithographic printing although the printers themselves generally guarded special information.”8 C.A. Seward represents a wholly different perspective on the prevailing attitudes of his day which sought to distance fine art and commercial printmaking. In three publications: Metal Plate Lithography, an essay titled “Lithographs” in Making Prints: Shop Talk on the Graphic Arts, and a booklet also titled Lithographs, Seward addressed the “acquired prejudice against the lithograph.”9 He began by praising lithography as a faithful method of transferring marks made by the artist’s hand, fairly qualifying it as the “most autographic of all the graphic arts.”10 He acknowledged that “Senefelder was not an artist, but he did predict that his new discovery, in the hands of an artist, would become the simplest and most direct method of making a print.”11 Seward argued, “Lithography is a drawing process. No other form of print making can prove acclaim to such simple directness.”12 He proclaimed the medium’s significance as part of a larger effort to make art an affordable yet meaningful element of American life by declaring, “the lithograph is doing its part, in company with other kinds of prints, in bridging the gap between the cheap reproduction and the expensive painting, thus bringing not only the enjoyment but the ownership of art within the range and possibility of the average man.”13 Despite these virtues, Seward had admitted the medium acquired a “tarnished reputation” from its infancy “because it was first used in a commercial way,” which held as “it gradually fell into the hands of commercial printing establishments whose craftsmen enveloped the new art in mystery, surrounding it with trade secrets, so that the real artist had no opportunity to see the process, to practice the craft, or acquire its technique.”14 The intense division between artistic endeavor and trade knowledge was a disservice to the medium, as Seward concluded, “the artists knew little if anything about the process, and the lithographic workmen knew little if

anything about art: the results were disheartening.”15 Seward vantage point from which to motivate a creative spirit in regional defended a future for lithography that could combine the practicality art.”18 As a professional and artistic mentor to such artists as Charles of commercial technology with the pleasure of pursuing the fine Capps, Leo Courtney, Lloyd Foltz, William Dickerson, Herschel arts. His artistic training and familiarity Logan, Bruce Moore, and many others, with commercial printing as well as fine Seward served as “a catalytic agent” to art printing and printmaking all his peers, leaving Sandzén to make the contributed to the formulation of this following conclusion: “Wichita seems assessment. to be realizing its splendid opportunity C.A. Seward was born in 1884 on in the field of art and is taking a farm near Chase, a small town in the advantage of it. It is not only civiccenter of Kansas between Great Bend minded in regard to art, but also and McPherson. The young artist drew state-minded, due no doubt to Seward’s inspiration from a trip to the St. Louis vision.”19 In the 1920s and 1930s, as Art Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, Director at Western Lithograph, Seward and from instruction provided by supervised artists such as Capps, George Stone and Albert T. Reid at Washburn University in Topeka, KS, Courtney, Foltz, and C.A. (Clarence and Birger Sandzén at Bethany College Arnold) Hotvedt.20 Seward’s artistic in Lindsborg, KS.16 After serving as coinfluence on his coworkers continued manager at Capper Engraving in after the workday ended at Western Wichita, C.A. Seward became Director Lithograph. As Capps recalled, “C.A. of the Art Department at Western was not only my boss at work but my Lithograph, directing production of guiding light for many years. I enjoyed designs for commercial uses such as many happy hours in C.A.’s backyard product packaging, print advertisements, studio where we were taught the fine Fig. 27. C.A. Seward, Experimental Studies, circa 1930, lithograph, business cards, and letterhead for the points of etching, lithography, block from Metal Plate Lithography for Artists and Draftsmen. (New York: The Pencil Points Press, Inc., 1931), Gift in memory of Mildred Seward city and surrounding communities. printing, and variations on those Pierce, S2006.005 Western also printed lithographs for media.”21 For others, Metal Plate Lithography could inspire from a artists including Kenneth Adams, distance. An image from that book, Experimental Studies, circa 1930 Gerald Cassidy, and Birger Sandzén.17 As his fellow artist and former teacher Sandzén stated, Seward used his knowledge of commercial (fig. 27) suggests Seward’s willingness to push the technical potential art, design, and techniques, as well as his position of leadership of lithography and share the fruit of that experimentation with among fellow commercial artists and fellow art enthusiasts as “a others. Regarding the sketches, Seward wrote, “experimental plates 29

such as these are excellent for acquiring proficiency in handling the medium. Being small, the experiments can be carried through quickly and inexpensively.”22 Seward encouraged others to explore all forms of art making; he introduced Herschel Logan to the woodcut, reorganized the Kansas Federation of Art, and helped to organize the Wichita Art Association and Artists Guild.23 In addition to Seward’s involvement in the formation of Wichita art groups, he guided the formation of the Prairie Print Makers.24 Seward tirelessly served the group as secretary-treasurer (the officer who, in Charles Capps’ words, “did all the work!”) until 1937, a demanding position that involved extensive correspondence with other artists as the organizer of its exhibitions.25 The Prairie Print Makers group was geographically centered in Kansas, and after some initial planning sessions at Seward’s studio in Wichita, held its first official meeting in December of 1930 at Sandzén’s larger studio in Lindsborg. The society offered an annual gift print and worked to “advance the cause of printmaking.”26 Capps described Seward’s commitment to the group and the ways it benefitted from his dedication and notoriety, stating, “Immediately after our organization meeting Mr. Seward began the ground work. He enjoyed a wide acquaintance with artists and collectors and invited an impressive group of printmakers to become active members and friends and collectors to become associate members.”27 In addition to Seward, Sandzén, and Capps, the charter members of the group included artists Foltz, Courtney, Logan, Edmund Kopietz, Arthur Hall, Norma Bassett Hall, and Hotvedt.

The charter members nominated McPherson art dealer/promoter Carl Smalley as the first honorary member of the group and invited Wichita artist William Dickerson to be the first active member.28 Despite the initial meeting at Sandzén’s Lindsborg studio, Wichita was the geographic hub for the majority of the group in the 1930s.29 From this charter group of Kansas artists, in large part due to Seward’s tenacity, many of the best-known graphic artists in the 30

country went on to become active or associate members of the Prairie Print Makers, positioning the group as one of many distinguished printmaking societies in the country despite its distance from more traditional urban art centers. In a 1936 review titled “Prints in the Middle West,” Willard Hoagland could easily proclaim, “Wichita is a thriving hot-bed of print making. The school, which seems to be led by C.A. Seward…is a boon to printmaking.”30 At this period Wichita was garnering a reputation as a thriving center for the arts as well as manufacturing and commerce. Wichita’s emergence as an industrialized, urban city during the first half of the twentieth century was exemplified by its success as an aviation center during and after World War II, but the city set the stage for this success by fostering a climate promoting industry and ingenuity.

In 1909, Wichita boosters began utilizing the slogan “Watch Wichita Win” to promote their town locally and in neighboring communities and states. Their directive proved successful, as Wichita emerged from a boom-and-bust cycle as a cattle town of the nineteenth century to become “The Air Capital” by the 1930s and ‘40s. The growth of Wichita’s aviation industry as well as the city’s location on key railroad lines, its position as a storage and transportation hub for agricultural products, and its proximity to newly discovered oil fields in nearby El Dorado, were all sources of such wins. In this context, Seward stands not only as an activist promoting the arts in his community, but as one of many savvy Wichita businessmen who utilized their industrial training and adapted those skills for broader use.31 Seward drew creative as well as technical inspiration from his professional expertise in commercial art, particularly through his use of metal plate lithography for fine art prints. In Making Prints: Shop Talk on the Graphic Arts, the title of which subtly alludes to the print “shop”—a venue that could serve the production of both commercial and artistic graphic art, Seward specifically promoted metal plates as beneficial to instruction in high school art classes. He noted that “grained zinc plates, being light, easily transported and

stored, are therefore more practical and less expensive for use in the classroom, and do not require elaborate facilities for printing.”32 Though grounded in the fine arts tradition, the style of Seward’s writings about prints, particularly Metal Plate Lithography, is equally accessible to commercial artists, whom Seward encouraged to bridge the perceived gap between the disciplines. Compellingly using the word “worker” instead of “artist,” Seward defended the democratic nature of prints produced on metal plates as more accessible and convenient than the traditional limestone. In the face of criticism by printmakers such as Brown that this commercial lithographic technique departed too severely from the fine art tradition, Seward

maintained, “Stone doubtless has some advantages, but present day workers have overcome most of the disadvantages formerly charged against metal plates.”33 In addition to Seward’s published writings promoting lithography, his correspondence with William Dickerson also provided insight into his frame of mind while working on Metal Plate Lithography. While Dickerson was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Seward advocated that the younger artist attend Bolton Brown’s Scammon lectures, a series of talks in which Brown explained printing techniques.34 Seward clearly recognized the benefit of learning from Brown, despite the fact that the two artists

Fig. 28. C.A. Seward, preparatory sketch for Toadstool Rock, 1925, pencil, black crayon, Gift in memory of Dorothy Seward Thompson and Mabel Drew Seward, 2006.0207

Fig. 29. C.A. Seward, Toadstool Rock, Santa Fe, 1925, lithograph, Gift of the WPA Arts Project, 0000.0250 (L32).

31

Fig. 30. Bolton Brown (American, 1864-1936), Mountain Woods, 1923, lithograph, Anonymous gift, 1998.0236

32

Fig. 31. C.A. Seward, Rabbit Trails, 1935, lithograph, Gift of Charles L. Stansifer in memory of his wife Mary Ellen Love Stansifer and her father Clarence M. Love, 2002.0171 (L79).

33

disagreed about the primacy of stone in lithography. In 1929, Seward wrote to Dickerson: “I am not so sure that it is always best to have an easy method like stone, for instance, for making corrections and changes. In other words, to keep scratching away, adding to and taking away until you get what you want. I believe that this preliminary work can be done on your scratch paper before you trace it down on zinc, and that you can learn to express the thing the first time just the way you want it.”35 Seward’s strongest lithographs typify the process he outlined in this letter to Dickerson. Sketchbooks and preparatory drawings reveal that he carefully prepared and finalized his overall composition on paper before transferring key elements of the composition onto the plate. A comparison of the preparatory drawing for Toadstool Rock (fig. 28) with the final lithograph (fig.

29) reveals this preparation. In this instance and several other examples, Seward carefully gridded and quartered the square piece of brown paper and then refined his design within that framework.

He used tracing paper to transfer a reversal of this drawing to the plate. Metal Plate Lithography reflects Seward’s flexible opinion on transferring designs when contrasted with Brown, who believed in working directly on stone. Seward instructs, “The artist is to be the judge as to how much of the original composition is to be traced on the plate. We have found that it suits our purpose best to trace only the main guide lines and in some cases to indicate the principle masses, this allows all the freedom possible with the crayon in the final drawing.”36 Although Joseph Pennell, another key figure in lithography at this period, stood opposite Brown in his advocacy for transfer lithography as a way to duplicate a drawing, Seward’s stance embraces the best of both positions.37 Seward believed in working directly on the printmaking matrix but used drawings to prepare 34

his composition. He maintained the ease and fluidity of those drawings on paper in the marks he made on the plate with lithography crayons. As a recent exhibition catalogue on Gauguin’s prints has suggested, these sorts of printmaking preparations may play a formative role in the development of an artist’s style. In Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889, Cleveland Museum of Art curator Heather Lemonedes argues that the zincographs Gauguin produced in his 1889 Volpini Suite not only established motifs that would interest the artist for the rest of his career, but that the process of making these lithographs clarified his style of visual expression.38 In a similar way, Seward’s preparation through sketches and his direct markmaking on the plate with crayons established a concise formal vocabulary built upon expressive use of line that makes the artist’s lithographs the most distinctive aspect of his oeuvre.

Seward’s resulting prints have a clean, deceptively facile look to their refined and well-crafted compositions. He used his deft draftsman’s hand to produce marks with a calligraphic character, but those gestural lines never overwhelm the overall control of his designs. The crisp yet fluid style of Seward’s prints may owe much design sensibility to his commercial training. Brown’s lithographs, as seen in Mountain Woods, 1923 (fig. 30) have a hazy realism and atmospheric perspective in their tonal passages quite unlike Seward’s more linear treatment of form as seen in comparable subject matter, such as Rabbit Trails, 1935 (fig. 31). In Rabbit Trails, Seward’s articulation of trees, sky, and hills converge in a pattern that emphasizes the decorative flatness of the picture plane. Brown is presented in this essay not as personal or even stylistic rival to Seward, but as a representative of the prevailing attitude toward lithography in America as the exclusive pursuit of few artists working directly on stone. By contrast, Seward recognized that commercial lithography was a widely practiced trade, and he believed that these commercial techniques and skills might be made applicable to fine-art lithography by many potential practitioners.

Fig. 32. C.A. Seward, Yucca, 1927, lithograph, Gift of Charles L. Marshall, 1992.0234 (L49).

35

Seward’s lithographs earned the artist many admirers and served as yet another way he inspired new practitioners to consider the medium. William Seltzer Rice, best known for his contributions to the American Arts and Crafts movement through woodcut imagery, wrote Seward in 1937, declaring, “I thought I should like to try your method of using plates, for a change so obtained a few plates to try out. I admire your linear way of handling the process and that is my most natural way of working with the pencil or crayon…I have your book on the subject which got me started along this line.”39 A lithograph like Yucca, 1927 (fig. 32), demonstrates both Seward’s success in zinc and the linear style to which Rice refers. In the image, Seward articulates lines of varying widths and intensities to distinguish the spiky leaves and delicate flowers of the yucca plant, but also to produce the texture and tonality of the surrounding landscape and sky.

Seward surely was pleased by Rice’s complimentary statements toward his lithographs, but his continual promotion of printmaking as a technique suggests his real passion was not just to make prints himself, but to encourage artists and students, both those with fine art and commercial training, to try their hand at making prints.

Seward’s advocacy of lithography can be viewed as part of a wave of enthusiasm toward the medium that emerged across the country in the 1930s.40 The few cities who could boast production of fine art lithography did so at the hands of the printer who acquired the skill either by applying commercial printing knowledge to fine art printing, through personal research or ingenuity, via instruction from Brown, or through participation in the graphic arts division of the Federal Art Project (FAP).41 One young artist who experimented with lithography thanks to the FAP was Jackson Pollock. His Stacking Hay, 1936 (a lithograph in the Spencer’s collection) was printed by Ted Wahl (who learned from Brown) in New York.

Thanks to these city centers and the lithographs circulated by the Associated American Artists beginning in 1934, the medium 36

continued to be practiced, although interest in lithography faded to some extent until it regained notoriety in the late 1950s due to the formation of the printmaking workshops Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE) in New York and Tamarind Lithography Workshop in California (now the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico). These workshops not only sought out established Abstract Expressionist and Pop artists to create prints in their studio, but Tamarind dedicated itself to research about the technique of lithography and training of master printers. Tamarind’s mission has greatly contributed to the current availability of lithography workshops across the country and to the training in lithographic printmaking that can be obtained in most collegiate art departments.

Many of today’s lithographers tend to prefer the experience of working with stones over plates and can find the quality of these prints to be superior to synthetic substitutes. At the same time, highquality Bavarian limestone is now rare and expensive.42 Unlike the early twentieth century when metal plates were regarded by Brown and others as a commercial, and therefore low or undesirable material for printing, synthetic plates are now widely used in the production of many kinds of prints, including lithographs. Much as Seward admired metal plates for their accessibility in 1931, the 2008 Tamarind “manual” praises aluminum plates as a practical, lightweight, compact, and affordable material that, “if processed properly…can produce an impression comparable to one printed from stone.”43 Although not widely recognized (Metal Plate Lithography receives only a brief mention in the 1971 Tamarind manual), Seward’s promotion of this material and support for the use of commercial technology applied to fine arts pursuits directly contributed to lithography’s increased viability today. More importantly, Seward’s democratic support for the practical metal plate has assisted in satisfying his broader hope that “anyone, anywhere can make a lithograph.”44 Seward’s many achievements are particularly meritorious

considering that he maintained correspondence with artists across the country. He produced over 150 prints, was regarded as one of the ten best printmakers in the Midwest in a 1936 survey, and his images were included in major national and international print exhibitions of his time.45 He coordinated national touring exhibitions for the Prairie Print Makers, all while balancing the many facets of his career and family life in Wichita. Seward was just 54 years of age when he caught a streptococcus infection that claimed his life early in 1939.46 With Leo Courtney’s passing in 1940, two charter members of the Prairie Print Makers vanished from the group even as its popularity and notoriety was at its peak. Clarence A. Hotvedt recalled not only the shifting nature of art making after the 1930s but also Seward’s impact on the artists he’d inspired, stating: “If our activities have gone into a decline in the printmaking field it is a tribute to Seward. Blame it on the craze for abstract art, if you will, or the disinterest [on] the part of Art Juries in the representational forms of Art, but a lot of it is due to the fact that we no longer [had] Seward to push us into action.”47 C.A. Seward mentored others, established social connections and organizations devoted to art, and extended his influence well outside the local sphere through his own art and his writing. These many indications of Seward’s rooted, yet flourishing existence all serve as his enduring legacy.

1

Advertisement at the end of Ernest William Watson et al., Making Prints: Shop Talk on the Graphic Arts, ed. Ernest William Watson (New York: Scholastic publications, 1936), 93. Coy Avon Seward, Metal Plate Lithography for Artists and Draftsmen (New York: The Pencil Points Press, Inc., 1931).

2

For a full discussion of lithographic technique, see Marjorie Devon, Bill Lagattuta, and Rodney Hamon, Tamarind Techniques for Fine Art Lithography (New York: Abrams, 2008).

3

According to the 1971 Tamarind Book of Lithography, Senefelder mentions use of zinc plates for printing in 1818. Aluminum plates were introduced in 1891. Full bibliographic information in note 7.

4

Clinton Adams, “The Nature of Lithography,” in Lasting Impressions: Lithography as Art, ed. Pat Gilmour (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), 27.

5

For a discussion of this phenomenon, see Richard S. Field, “Introduction to a Study of American Prints 1900-1950,” in American Prints, 1900-1950: An Exhibition in Honor of the Donation of John P. Axelrod, B.A., 1968 : Catalogue (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1983), 16-18.

6

Bolton Brown, Lithography for Artists; a Complete Account of How to Grind, Draw Upon, Etch, and Print from the Stone, Together with Instructions for Making Crayon, Transferring, Etc (Chicago: Published for the Art Institute of Chicago by the University of Chicago Press, 1930), 1.

7

Garo Z. Antreasian and Clinton Adams, The Tamarind Book of Lithography: Art and Techniques (Los Angeles: Tamarind Lithography Workshop, 1971), 263.

8

Ruth Fine, “Bigger, Brighter, Bolder: American Lithography since the Second World War,” in Lasting Impressions: Lithography as Art (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), 258.

9

C.A. Seward, Lithographs, Enjoy Your Museum (Pasadena: Esto Publishing, 1936), unpaginated.

10

Seward, Metal Plate Lithography, 7. “Polyautography,” or the act of copying one’s handwriting, is an early term used to describe lithography.

11

C.A. Seward, “Lithographs,” in Making Prints: Shop Talk on the Graphic Arts, ed. Ernest William Watson (New York: Scholastic Publications, 1936), 80.

12

Seward, Lithographs.

37

13

Ibid.

14

Ibid. and “Lithographs” (Making Prints), 80.

15

Seward, “Lithographs” (Making Prints), 80.

16

For sources on Seward, see Barbara Thompson O’Neill and George C. Foreman, The Prairie Print Makers (Topeka: Kansas Arts Commission, 1981), 12-19; Bill North, Elizabeth G. Seaton, and Karal Ann Marling, The Prairie Print Makers: An Exhibition, ed. David Conrads and Pamela Evans (Kansas City, MO: ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America Arts Alliance, 2001), 21-22, 39.

17

The lithographs by Seward, Adams, Cassidy, Foltz, and Sandzén used as illustrations in Metal Plate Lithography were printed at Western Lithograph.

Prairie Print Makers; Given Numerous Honors,” The Wichita Eagle, 20 December 1936; “C.A. Seward, Noted Wichita Artist, Is Claimed by Death,” The Wichita Eagle, 1 February 1939; and Sandzén, “C.A. Seward—Promoter of Kansas Art,” 4. Seward’s role as the guiding force behind the group was further corroborated by the interviews Barbara Thompson (formerly Barbara Thompson O’Neill) conducted with Charles Capps and Lloyd Foltz while researching The Prairie Print Makers; Barbara Thompson personal files.

25

Letter from Charles Capps to Barbara Thompson, November 1990; Thompson files.

26

Birger Sandzén (as told to John A. Bird), “C.A. Seward—Promoter of Kansas Art,” The Kansas Magazine (1937): 3.

Karal Ann Marling, “The Prairie Print Makers: Five-Dollar Culture in the Great Depression,” in The Prairie Print Makers: An Exhibition, ed. David Conrads and Pamela Evans (Kansas City, MO: ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America Arts Alliance, 2001), 25.

19

27

18

Ibid.: 2,4.

20

Capps worked at Western Lithograph Company from 1924-1925, left to work in San Francisco, and returned to a better position at Western from 1929-1933, then took a position at McCormick-Armstrong from 19331965; David C. Henry, “Charles Capps,” in Kansas Printmakers (Lawrence, KS: Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 1981), 71-73. Foltz worked at Western from 1925-1969; O’Neill and Foreman, The Prairie Print Makers, 35-39. Courtney moved to Wichita in 1918 to work at Capper Engraving Company, then Western, and finally worked as the staff artist for Cardwell All Steel Manufacturing Company; Ibid., 27-29.

Hotvedt worked at Western 1924-1931, then later from 1946-1969; Ibid., 44-47.

21

Henry, “Charles Capps,” 71.

22

Seward, Metal Plate Lithography, 28.

23

“C.A. Seward, Noted Wichita Artist, Is Claimed by Death,” The Wichita Eagle, 1 February 1939. Seward served as an officer for many of these organizations during the 1920s and 1930s, including participating as a director of the Kansas Federation of Art and serving as its president from 1935-36. He also held the office of secretary-treasurer and president at times for the Wichita Art Association.

24

Seward’s key role in the formation of the Prairie Print Makers is stated in numerous sources from the 1930s, including Albert W. Bentz, “Wichita Artist Uses Mexican Village Theme in Creating Gift Print This Year for 38

Letter from Charles Capps to Barbara Thompson, November 1990; Thompson files. The three categories of membership in the Prairie Printmakers were: Active, printmakers elected by invitation; Associate, enthusiasts elected by invitation who paid five dollar annual dues; and Honorary, elected members who did not pay dues.

28

Mrs. Richard Gray was the group’s first associate member.

29

Kopietz grew up in Wichita and gained access to commercial work and artist contacts through Seward but left the state in 1920 to study art, eventually becoming the director of the Minneapolis School of Art in 1928.

Logan worked in Wichita at another commercial firm, McCormickArmstrong, from 1921-1929 before becoming the art director for Salina’s Consolidated Printing and Stationery Company. Hotvedt moved from Wichita to Fort Worth in 1931. Seward maintained correspondence with these members after they moved from Wichita. Arthur and Norma Bassett Hall lived in El Dorado and Howard, Kansas, during much of the 1920s and 1930s, excluding time spent abroad from 1925-27, and were frequent guests at the Seward home.

30 31

Willard Hoagland, “Prints in the Middle West,” Prints VI, no. 5 (1936), 271.

For information on the history and development of Wichita see Craig Miner, Wichita, The Magic City (Wichita: Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum Association, 1988) and James Shortridge, Cities on the Plains: The Evolution of Urban Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2004), 247-254.

32

42

The Coleman lantern, Mentholatum, and the Laird Swallow airplane were invented in Wichita and the fast food franchises White Castle and Pizza Hut originated there.

Adams discusses 1920s and 1930s lithography hubs in New York City, Woodstock, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Colorado Springs, and Philadelphia; see Ibid.: 56-67, 102-18.

33

Seward, “Lithographs” (Making Prints), 80.

43

Devon et al, Tamarind Techniques for Fine Art Lithography, 123.

Seward, Metal Plate Lithography, 7.

44

Ibid., 165.

45

Seward, “Lithographs” (Making Prints), 84.

34 35

The Scammon lectures were an annual series of talks hosted by the Art Institute.

46

Letter from Seward to Dickerson, Wichita, Kansas, 7 April 1929, Dickerson Family Papers, quoted in Liz Seaton, “The Prints of William Dickerson,” in The Regionalist Vision of William Dickerson: Selected Paintings from the Devore Collection, ed. Bill North (Manhattan, KS: Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, 1997), 32.

Prints, a magazine published from 1930-38, conducted a survey of “museum directors, print curators, collectors, critics, and artists” who were asked to list their ten best national and regional printmakers. Seward appears on the “Middlewest” list along with fellow Prairie Print Maker charter members Birger Sandzén and Norma Bassett Hall. Aline Kistler, “The National Survey,” Prints VI, no. 5 (1936), 240-250.

37

47

36

Seward, Metal Plate Lithography, 10.

38

For more information on Pennell, see James Watrous, “The Constant Advocacy of Joseph Pennell, Dean of American Printmakers,” in American Printmaking: A Century of American Printmaking, 1880-1980 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984).

39

Zincographs are a term for a particular kind of lithograph produced on zinc plates in France at this period. A ball-grained zinc plate such as those used by Gauguin yields a mark with an appearance similar to toad skin.

This is most apparent when using a liquid medium such as tusche. As Seward almost exclusively used crayon in his lithographs, the resulting marks lack this textural hallmark. For Seward, the zinc material therefore only appears to be beneficial due to its availability as a commercial material and its portability. Seward’s metal plate lithograph impressions would likely not have an appreciably different appearance had they been printed on stone. This information about zincographs is drawn from a phone interview with Cleveland Institute of Art printmaking faculty and exhibition collaborators Maggie Denk-Leigh and Karen Beckwith, 19 November 2009.

For more information about Gauguin and zincographs, see Heather Lemonedes, Belinda Thomson, and Agnieszka Juszczak, Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889 (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2009).

40

Seward’s heart had been weakened by rheumatic fever as a child, leaving him susceptible to occasional illness as an adult. His health declined in 1937, the last year he produced prints.

48

Typewritten notes for C.A. Hotvedt’s lecture on C.A. Seward at the Wichita Art Association (now the Wichita Center for the Arts), circa 1964; Thompson files.

Letter from Rice to Seward, 27 Aug. 1937; Thompson files.

41

For more discussion of this topic see Clinton Adams, “The 1930s: The Great Depression,” in American Lithographers, 1900-1960 : The Artists and Their Printers (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983), 121-58.

39

C.A. Seward, A Prairie Stream, 1925, lithograph (L28)

40

C.A. SEWARD PRINTS

T

he images reproduced in this catalogue accurately represent prints by Seward in their present condition. Works on paper are prone to fading or darkening over time when they are exposed to light, stored among acidic materials, or in humid conditions. In his own lifetime, Seward consistently used a light

cream/buff wove paper and a dark warm black ink for his prints.

Prints have been reproduced here whenever possible. A complete listing of all known prints is given in the catalogue raisonnĂŠ on page 95.

41

LITHOGRAPHS All produced with metal plates, mostly zinc. Most edition sizes for lithographs were between fifty and seventy-five prints, with the exception of commissioned gift prints that had larger edition sizes.

L2

L4

L4 Red Sandstone Ledge (also titled Red Rock Ledge), 1923 L2 Old Swimming Hole (also titled The Swimming Hole), 1923 L3 Red Sandstone Banks (also titled Sandstone Banks), 1923

42

L3

L5 Strawstacks and Cottonwood Trees, 1923

43

L6 Summer, 1923

44

L7 Willows and Pond Lilies, 1923

L20 Two Elms, 1924

45

L12 Four Mile Creek, 1924

46

L10

L8

L10 Creek In Winter, 1924 L8 August in the Smoky Hills (also titled Smoky Hill Meadows), 1924 L9 Coronado Heights, 1924 L9

47

L13 Harvest Afternoon, 1924

48

L22 Glorietta Canyon, 1925

49

L18 Sunshine and Shadow, 1924

50

L19

L14

L19 Twilight, 1924 L14 Late Afternoon, 1924 L16 Old Willows by Moonlight (also titled Old Elms by Moonlight), 1924 L16

51

L21 Alfalfa Meadows, 1925

52

L39 Kansas Windmill, 1926

53

L27

L24

L24 The Little Chapel, 1925 L27 New Mexican Well (early impressions titled Mexican Well), 1925 L25 Memories of San Ildefonso, 1925 L25

54

L31

L41

L31 Taos Gate, 1925 L41 New Gate, 1926 L17 Poplars at Santa Fe, 1924 L17

55

L36 Cimarron Canyon (early impressions titled Granite Wall-Cimarron Canyon), 1926

56

L38 Foothills, 1926

L34 Where Aspens Grow, 1925

57

L15

L33

L15 Mallards (also titled Red Heads) 1924 L33 Two Geese, 1925 L37 Dad, 1926 L37

58

L42 Old Willow, 1926

L44 Winter Solitude, 1926

59

L45 An Arroyo, 1927

60

L46

L50 L46 Glimpse of the Smoky Hills, 1927 L50 Aspens in Hondo Canyon, 1928 L48 Mountain Forms, 1927 L48

61

L51

L51 Hilltop, 1928

L53

L52 Mexican Dooryard, 1928 L53 Old Cedar, 1928 L52

62

L54

L54 Old Pi単on Trees, 1928 L55 Sunshine and Shower, 1928 L56 Three Old Pines, 1928 L55

L56

63

L57

L58

L57 Waterlilies (also titled Lilies), 1928 L58 Water Lilies, 1928, color lithograph L59 Autumn Gold, 1929, color lithograph L59

64

L60 Bruce Moore, 1929

65

L62 Flint Hill Meadows, 1929

66

L65 Young Sycamore, 1929

67

L67 Blackbirds, 1930

L69 Swans, 1930

68

L66

L68

L63 Mountains and Desert, 1929, 274 x 222 mm L66, Autumn, 1929, published in Metal Plate Lithography in 1930 as offset lithograph L68, Mexican Farm, 1929, published in Metal Plate Lithography in 1930 as offset lithograph L63

69

L73 L71

L71 On a Kansas Farm, 1931 L73 Strawstack, 1931 L70 Grasshopper Peak (also titled Grasshopper Peak – Taos), 1931 L74 Mount Carmel Bridge, 1932 L70 L74

70

L75 Blue Valley Barns, 1933

71

L72

L77

L77 Penitente Shrine, 1934 L72 Pueblo Corner, 1931 L78 Peppers and Squash (also titled Squash and Peppers), 1934 L78

72

L61 Dilapidated Barn, 1929

L80 Sandhill Dairy, 1935

73

L83 Pumpkin Patch, 1936

74

OTHER LITHOGRAPHS (greeting cards, small prints)

L94

L93

L94 untitled (With Kind Thoughts), 1927 L93 untitled (Greetings from the Sewards), 1926 L95 December 30th, 1930, 1930 L96 untitled (winter scene with cardinal), 1935 L95

L96

75

COMMISSIONED FLORIDA BEACH SCENES, circa 1936

L86

L90

L86 untitled (flamingos and palms) L90 untitled (water, palms, and flying birds) L89 untitled (palm trees and sea gulls) L87 untitled (swan) L89

76

L87

L85

L91

L85 untitled (beach scene) L91 untitled (palm trees, water, and stork) L88 untitled (flying heron and palms) L92 untitled (pelican on piling) L88

L92

77

RELIEF PRINTS

R1 R5

R1 Scrub Oak, 1918, woodcut R5 Big Pines, Raton Pass, 1926, linoleum cut R7 untitled (Greetings from the Sewards), 1929, linoleum cut R3 Twilight (2), 1920, woodcut R7

78

R3

R10 Pi単ons (also titled Old Pi単on Trees), 1932, linoleum cut

R11 Flint Hill Vista, 1934, linoleum cut

79

R6 Adobe Village, 1929, linoleum cut

R9 Land of Mystery, 1930, linoleum cut

80

R12 Threshing Beans, 1934, linoleum cut

R8 On the Road to the Pueblo, 1929, linoleum cut

81

ETCHINGS It is possible that some of the small etchings were created as demonstration pieces, note cards, or for miniature print exhibitions. Some of these smaller etchings are unique impressions or were printed in extremely limited editions.

E3

E35

E3 Sand Dunes, 1918 E35 A Kansas Wheat Field, 1935 E1 Evening, 1918 E11

E11 The Shanty, 1923 E1

82

E5

E7

E7 Red Sandstone Canyon, 1922 E5 Canyon Landscape, 1922, aquatint and etching E10 Red Rocks, 1923 E41 Helen, 1936 E10

E41

83

E13 A Corner of Bryce Canyon (also titled Rocks and Pine), 1925, drypoint E16 Scrub Oak, 1927 E24 Three Pines, 1929 E13

E24

E16

E18 Three Pines (also titled Pines at Eagle Nest Lake), 1927 E20 untitled (three pines), 1927 E21 untitled (three pines and boulders), 1927, aquatint and etching E18

84

E20

E21

E27 Lone Pine, 1930 E38A untitled (lone pine and boulders), 1934 (first state) E38B untitled (lone pine and boulders), 1934 (second state) E27

E38B

E38A

E4 Study of an Old Pine, circa 1919-1923 E48 untitled (three trees by pond), 1937 E63 Dorothy Seward (bookplate), 1930s E4

E48

E63

85

E14

E15

E15 Old Pi単on Trees, 1927 E14 La Mirada, 1925 E17 Sunshine and Adobe, 1927 E17

86

E22

E34

E22 Poplars and ‘Dobe, 1929 E34 Hills and Dobies, 1933 E25 untitled (poplars and adobes, Taos mountain), 1929 E26 Adobe Land, 1930 E25

E26

87

E33 Washerwoman’s Alley, 1932

E30 Negro Village, 1931

88

E36

E61

E61 untitled (1647 N. Holyoke) E36 untitled (log house in trees), 1933 E31 The Rookery (bookplate), 1931 E42 AA Hyde Homestead, Mass, 1937 E31

E42

89

E23

E32 F. Houston Martin (bookplate)

E32

E23 Three Geese, 1929, etching and drypoint E44 Lone Goose, 1937 E44

90

E46B

E46A

E46A untitled (snowbirds), 1937 (first state) E43 E46B untitled (snowbirds), 1937, (second state) E43 Early Visitors, 1937 E40 Explorers, 1936 E40

91

HAWAIIAN CALENDAR IMAGES, commissioned by Walter Crandall (E48-E57)

E52

E49

E52 Old Royal Fish Ponds, Hawaiian Islands, 1934 E49 untitled, (hibiscus flowers, Hawaii), 1931 E57 untitled (view of Diamond Head, Hawaii), 1934 E50 E50 untitled (lei vendor, Hawaii), 1932 E57

92

E51 untitled (farm fields, Hawaii), 1933 E53 untitled (coconut palms, Hawaii), 1934 E56 untitled (ocean through palm trees, Hawaii), 1934 E56

E53

E51

E54 untitled (harbor vista, Hawaii), 1934 E58 untitled (snow-capped mountain, Hawaii), 1934 E54

E58

93

E47 E39 untitled (rocks and trees in snow), 1934 E47 untitled (country road in snow), 1937 E60 untitled (corn shocks in snow) E39

E60

E19 untitled (pines, winter stream), 1927 E62 untitled (winter creek) E59 untitled (cabin in snow with pine tree), aquatint and etching E19

94

E62

E59

C.A. SEWARD CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ

A

chronological listing of prints divided by medium, sorted by date and alphabetically by title. Known variant titles and printings are also listed when applicable. Image measurements in millimeters are provided although some are approximate. Prints have been reproduced here whenever possible; page numbers are provided. Image credits for prints from the Spencer Museum of Art follow this listing. All other images are from private collections. See http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/ exhibitions/seward/ for an online version of this listing that includes public collection holdings.

C.A. Seward photomechanically reproduced some of his prints as reduced-scale cards. These include L15 Mallards, L17 Poplars at Santa Fe, L18 Sunshine and Shadow, L24 The Little Chapel, L31 Taos Gate, L33 Two Geese, L34 Where Aspens Grow, L36 Cimarron Canyon, L44 Winter Solitude, L50 Aspens in Hondo Canyon, L56 Three Old Pines, L69 Swans, L71 On a Kansas Farm, L72 Pueblo Corner, L78 Peppers and Squash, L79 Rabbit Trails, L82 Elk Valley Farm, L83 Pumpkin Patch, R5 Big Pines, Raton Pass, R10 Piñons, and E18 Three Pines. When a collector is in possession of an impression of these prints it is useful to consult the dimensions listed here to confirm their impression is part of the original edition, rather than a reduced-scale reproduction.

Lithographs All produced with metal plates, mostly zinc. Most edition sizes for lithographs were between 50 and 75 prints, with the exception of commissioned gift prints that had larger edition sizes.

L1 Character Study, 1923, 216 x 267 mm (approx.)

L2 Old Swimming Hole (also titled The Swimming Hole), 1923, 219 x 302 mm (p. 42) L3 Red Sandstone Banks (also titled Sandstone Banks), 1923, 177 x 252 mm (p. 42) L4 Red Sandstone Ledge (also titled Red Rock Ledge), 1923, 175 x 253 mm (p. 42) L5 Strawstacks and Cottonwood Trees, 1923, 355 x 458 mm (edition includes both regular and offset “reversed” images, dated 1923 and 1924) (p. 43) L6 Summer, 1923, 175 x 256 mm (p. 44) L7 Willows and Pond Lilies, 1923, 177 x 255 mm (p. 45) L8 August in the Smoky Hills (also titled Smoky Hill Meadows), 1924, 175 x 256 mm (p. 47) L9 Coronado Heights, 1924, 145 x 104 mm (p. 47) L10 Creek In Winter, 1924, 229 x 229 mm (p. 47) L11 Early Autumn, 1924, 329 x 245 mm L12 Four Mile Creek, 1924, 178 x 253 mm (p. 46) L13 Harvest Afternoon, 1924, 225 x 305 mm (p. 48) L14 Late Afternoon, 1924, 276 x 222 mm (p. 51) L15 Mallards (also titled Red Heads) 1924, 119 x 171 mm (p. 58) 95

L16 Old Willows by Moonlight (also titled Old Elms by Moonlight), 1924, 225 x 312 mm (p. 51) L17 Poplars at Santa Fe, 1924, 228 x 230 mm (p. 55) L18 Sunshine and Shadow, 1924, 226 x 305 mm (p. 50) L19 Twilight, 1924, 276 x 225 mm (p. 51) L20 Two Elms, 1924, 221 x 301 mm (p. 45) L21 Alfalfa Meadows, 1925, 306 x 407 mm (p. 52) L22 Glorietta Canyon, 1925, 403 x 561 mm (p. 49) L23 Kansas Cottonwood, 1925, 152 x 101 mm (fig. 16, p. 16) L24 The Little Chapel, 1925, 120 x 171 mm (p. 54) L25 Memories of San Ildefonso, 1925, 221 x 297 mm (p. 54) L26 My Sculptor Friend Bruce Moore, 1925, 303 x 249 mm L27 New Mexican Well (early impressions titled Mexican Well), 1925, 177 x 251 mm (p. 54) L28 Prairie Stream, 1925, 328 x 245 mm (p. 40) L29 Somewhere in New Mexico, 1925, 224 x 294 mm (p. 7) L30 Street in Santa Fe, 1925, 143 x 102 mm L31 Taos Gate, 1925, 176 x 254 mm (p. 55) L32 Toadstool Rock, Santa Fe, 1925, 249 x 234 mm (fig. 29, p. 31) L33 Two Geese, 1925, 139 x 96 mm (p. 58) L34 Where Aspens Grow, 1925, 228 x 228 mm (p. 57) L35 Canada Goose, 1926, 121 x 172 mm L36 Cimarron Canyon (early impressions titled Granite WallCimarron Canyon), 1926, 560 x 407 mm (p. 56) L37 Dad, 1926, 284 x 228 mm (p. 58) L38 Foothills, 1926, 227 x 229 mm (p. 57) L39 Kansas Windmill, 1926, 179 x 254 mm (p. 53) L40 Mountains and Piñon, 1926, 305 x 406 mm (approx.)

L41 New Gate, 1926, 223 x 298 mm (p. 55) L42 Old Willow, 1926, 218 x 298 mm (p. 59) L43 Twilight Glow, 1926, 219 x 260 mm (approx.)

L44 Winter Solitude, 1926, 177 x 254 mm (p. 59) L45 An Arroyo, 1927, 182 x 260 mm (p. 60) 96

L46 Glimpse of the Smoky Hills, 1927, 219 x 298 mm (p. 61) L47 Lindbergh, 1927, 117 x 80 mm. Commission commemorating Charles Lindbergh’s visit to Wichita. (fig. 18, p. 18) L48 Mountain Forms, 1927, 120 x 170 mm (edition includes both regular and offset “reversed” images printed in 1930) (p. 61) L49 Yucca, 1927, 228 x 227 mm (fig. 32, p. 35) L50 Aspens in Hondo Canyon, 1928, 558 x 405 mm (p. 61) L51 Hilltop, 1928, 225 x 227 mm (p. 62) L52 Mexican Dooryard, 1928, 176 x 254 mm (p. 62) L53 Old Cedar, 1928, 145 x 102 mm (p. 62) L54 Old Piñon Trees, 1928, 176 x 253 mm (p. 63) L55 Sunshine and Shower, 1928, 224 x 261 mm (p. 63) L56 Three Old Pines, 1928, 176 x 253 mm (p. 63) L57 Waterlilies (also titled Lilies), 1928, 121 x 172 mm (edition dated 1928 and 1929) (p. 64) L58 Water Lilies, 1928, color lithograph 121 x 172 mm (p. 64) L59 Autumn Gold, 1929, color lithograph, 122 x 172 mm (p. 64) L60 Bruce Moore, 1929, 330 x 431 mm (p. 65) L61 Dilapidated Barn, 1929, 216 x 260 mm (p. 73) L62 Flint Hill Meadows, 1929, 260 x 222 mm (p. 66) L63 Mountains and Desert, 1929, 274 x 222 mm (p. 69) L64 Young Aspens, 1929, 102 x 146 mm L65 Young Sycamore, 1929, 302 x 405 mm (p. 67) L66 Autumn, 1929, 122 x 173 mm. Published in Metal Plate Lithography in 1930 as an offset lithograph. (p. 69) L67 Blackbirds, 1930, 317 x 405 mm (p. 68) L68 Mexican Farm, 1929, 121 x 172 mm. Published in Metal Plate Lithography in 1930 as an offset lithograph. (p. 69) L69 Swans, 1930, 228 x 227 mm (p. 68) L70 Grasshopper Peak (also titled Grasshopper Peak – Taos), 1931, 305 x 406 mm (p. 26, p. 70) L71 On a Kansas Farm, 1931, 303 x 406 mm (p. 70) L72 Pueblo Corner, 1931, 153 x 102 mm (p. 72)

L73 Strawstack, 1931, 176 x 251 mm (p. 70) L74 Mount Carmel Bridge, 1932, 128 x 179 mm. Commissioned gift print for Mount Carmel Academy, Wichita. (p. 70) L75 Blue Valley Barns, 1933, 180 x 252 mm (p. 71) L76 Mount Carmel Academy, 1933, 165 x 127 mm.Commissioned gift print for Mount Carmel Academy, Wichita.(p. 70) L77 Penitente Shrine, 1934, 226 x 294 mm (p. 72) L78 Peppers and Squash (also titled Squash and Peppers), 1934, 226 x 292 mm (p. 72) L79 Rabbit Trails, 1935, 228 x 225 mm (fig. 31, p. 33) L80 Sandhill Dairy, 1935, 216 x 291 mm (p. 73) L81 Adobe Village, New Mexico, 1936, 223 x 300 mm. Prairie Print Makers gift print. (fig. 1, p. 2) L82 Elk Valley Farm, 1936, 224 x 295 mm (p. iv) L83 Pumpkin Patch, 1936, 228 x 229 mm (p. 74) L84 Pueblo Memories, 1937, 227 x 226 mm (fig. 25, p. 23) In about 1936 Seward also received a commission to create eight prints L85-L92) of Florida beach scenes. All of these lithographs are signed in the plate, Sydney Halward. No documentation exists for this commission although Seward’s daughters all told the story that they were created for a real estate developer acquaintance who wanted to see if good art by known artists would sell under another name. The edition size for these prints is not known.

L85 untitled (beach scene), 219 x 290 mm (p. 77) L86 untitled (flamingos and palms), 290 x 214 mm (p. 76) L87 untitled (swan), 216 x 290 mm (p. 76) L88 untitled (flying heron and palms), 213 x 290 mm (p. 77) L89 untitled (palm trees and sea gulls), 213 x 289 mm (p. 76) L90 untitled (water, palms, and flying birds), 288 x 214 mm (p. 76) L91 untitled (palm trees, water, and stork), 214 x 291 mm (p. 77) L92 untitled (pelican on piling), 215 x 292 mm (p. 77)

Other lithographs (greeting cards, small prints) L93 untitled (Greetings from the Sewards), 1926, 133 x 88 mm (p. 75) L94 untitled (With Kind Thoughts), 1927, 78 x 65 mm (p. 75) L95 December 30th, 1930, 1930, 82 x 105 mm (p. 75) L96 untitled (winter scene with cardinal), 1935, 105 x 71 mm (p. 75)

Relief prints R1 Scrub Oak, 1918, woodcut, 91 x 71 mm (p. 78) R2 Twilight (1), 1918, woodcut, 102 x 124 mm (approx.)

R3 Twilight (2), 1920, woodcut, 104 x 124 mm (p. 78) R4 Rocky Hillside, 1922, linoleum cut, 178 x 254 mm (approx.)

R5 Big Pines, Raton Pass, 1926, linoleum cut, 221 x 261 mm (p. 78) R6 Adobe Village, 1929, linoleum cut, 225 x 262 mm (p. 80) R7 untitled (Greetings from the Sewards), 1929, linoleum cut, 115 x 70 mm (p. 78) R8 On the Road to the Pueblo, 1929, linoleum cut, 225 x 265 mm (p. 81) R9 Land of Mystery, 1930, linoleum cut, 222 x 265 mm (p. 80) R10 Piñons (also titled Old Piñon Trees), 1932, linoleum cut, 225 x 270 mm (p. 79) R11 Flint Hill Vista, 1934, linoleum cut, 222 x 262 mm (p. 79) R12 Threshing Beans, 1934, linoleum cut, 224 x 273 mm (p. 81)

Etchings It is possible that some of the small etchings were created as demonstration pieces, note cards, or for miniature print exhibitions.

Some of these smaller etchings are unique impressions or were printed in extremely limited editions.

E1 Evening, 1918, 83 x 117 mm (p. 82) E2 Haystacks, 1918, 86 x 124 mm (approx.)

E3 Sand Dunes, 1918 84 x 128 mm (p. 82) E4 Study of an Old Pine, circa 1919-1923, 91 x 123 mm (p. 85) 97

E5 Canyon Landscape, 1922, aquatint and etching, 98 x 124 mm (p. 83) E6 (The) Old Guard, 1922, 86 x 117 mm (approx.)

E7 Red Sandstone Canyon, 1922, 88 x 133 mm (p. 83) E8 Sandstone Banks, 1922, 76 x 111 mm (approx.)

E9 Sandstone Sentinels, 1922, 102 x 127 mm (approx.)

E10 Red Rocks, 1923, 53 x 87 mm (p. 83) E11 The Shanty, 1923, 53 x 89 mm (p. 82) E12 Wild Goose, 1923, 54 x 89 mm (approx.)

E13 A Corner of Bryce Canyon (also titled Rocks and Pine), 1925, drypoint, 150 x 115 mm (p. 84) E14 La Mirada, 1925, 120 x 169 mm (p. 86) E15 Old Piñon Trees, 1927, 70 x 90 mm (p. 86) E16 Scrub Oak, 1927, 88 x 73 mm (p. 84) E17 Sunshine and Adobe, 1927, 143 x 181 mm (p. 86) E18 Three Pines (also titled Pines at Eagle Nest Lake), 1927, 151 x 102 mm (p. 84) E19 untitled (pines, winter stream), 1927, 102 x 70 mm (dated 1927 in the plate, edition dated 1928) (p. 94) E20 untitled (three pines), 1927, 102 x 75 mm (p. 84) E21 untitled (three pines and boulders), 1927, aquatint and etching, 49 x 39 mm (p. 84) E22 Poplars and ‘Dobe, 1929, 134 x 100 mm (p. 87) E23 Three Geese, 1929, etching and drypoint, 176 x 227 mm (p. 90) E24 Three Pines, 1929, etching, 121 159 mm (p. 84) E25 untitled (poplars and adobes, Taos mountain), 1929, 99 x 71 mm (p. 87) E26 Adobe Land, 1930, 98 x 123 mm (p. 87) E27 Lone Pine, 1930, 102 x 79 mm (p. 85) E28 Stearman, 1930, 146 x 162 mm. Commissioned Christmas card for Stearman Aircraft Company. (fig. 21, p. 20) E29 Squirrel Nests, 1930, 177 x 227 mm (fig. 23, p. 21) E30 Negro Village, 1931, 175 x 250 mm (p. 88) 98

E31 The Rookery (bookplate), 1931, 98 x 69 mm. Seward collected and designed many bookplates, using both fine art and commercial techniques. His three known etched bookplates are included in the catalogue raisonné. (p. 89) E32 F. Houston Martin (bookplate), 1932, 115 x 70 mm (p. 90) E33 Washerwoman’s Alley, 1932, 200 x 253 mm. Wichita Art Association gift print. (p. 88) E34 Hills and Dobies, 1933, 103 x 124 mm (p. 87) E35 A Kansas Wheat Field, 1935, 102 x 76 mm (p. 82) E36 untitled (log house in trees), 1933, 135 x 98 mm (p. 89) E37 untitled (trees and rocks), 1934, etching and drypoint, 50 x 34 mm E38A,B untitled (lone pine and boulders), 1934 (first state, 73 x 100 mm; second state, 73 x 60 mm) (p. 85) E39 untitled (rocks and trees in snow), 1934, 48 x 57 mm (p. 94) E40 Explorers, 1936, 125 x 100 mm. Friends of Art gift print, Kansas State University. (p. 91) E41 Helen, 1936, 169 x 120 mm (p. 83) E42 AA Hyde Homestead, Mass, 1937, 224 x 175 mm.

Commissioned by A.A. Hyde of Massachusetts, a commercial client of Seward’s. (p. 89) E43 Early Visitors, 1937, 125 x 175 mm (p. 91) E44 Lone Goose, 1937, 48 x 65 mm (p. 90) E45 Pi Kappa Psi House, 1937, 133 x 98 mm (approx.).

Commissioned print.

E46A,B untitled (snowbirds), 1937, (first state 97 x 54 mm, second state 70 x 54 mm) (p. 91) E47 untitled (country road in snow), 1937, 52 x 60 mm (p. 94) E48 untitled (three trees by pond), 1937, 102 x 73 mm (p. 85) Seward’s friend and gallery owner, Walter Crandall left Wichita when he became a partner in the Halekalani Hotel in Honolulu. He commissioned Seward to create small prints (E48-E57) and calendars which he used for gift and sales items in the hotel gift shop.

Crandall sent Seward photographs of various Hawaiian landscapes which became the image sources for Seward’s prints. All of this series were etchings and they were printed not just in traditional black ink but also in sepia, green and blue ink. These prints were typically not signed or dated. These images were produced from 1931 to 1934.

The edition sizes are not known.

Other etchings E59 untitled (cabin in snow with pine tree), aquatint and etching, 50 x 35 mm (p. 94) E60 untitled (corn shocks in snow), 48 x 60 mm (p. 94) E61 untitled (1647 N. Holyoke), 98 x 70 mm (p. 89) E62 untitled (winter creek), 98 x 68 mm (p. 94) E63 Dorothy Seward (bookplate), circa 1930s, 51 x 83 mm (p. 85)

E49 untitled, (hibiscus flowers, Hawaii), 1931, 108 x 73 mm (p. 92) E50 untitled (lei vendor, Hawaii), 1932, 108 x 70 mm (p. 92) E51 untitled (farm fields, Hawaii), 1933, 105 x 72 mm (p. 93) E52 Old Royal Fish Ponds, Hawaiian Islands, 1934, 65 x 99 mm (p. 92) E53 untitled (coconut palms, Hawaii), 1934, 100 x 73 mm (p. 93) E54 untitled (harbor vista, Hawaii), 1934, 96 x 71 mm (p. 93) E55 untitled (moonlight through palms, Hawaii), 1934, 89 x 64 mm (approx.)

E56 untitled (ocean through palm trees, Hawaii), 1934, 127 x 67 mm (p. 93) E57 untitled (view of Diamond Head, Hawaii), 1934, 74 x 100 mm (p. 92) E58 untitled (snow-capped mountain, Hawaii), 1934, 98 x 74 mm (p. 93)

99

IMAGE CREDITS

Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas: Gift in memory of Dorothy Seward Thompson and Mabel Drew Seward: An Arroyo, 1927, lithograph, 2006.0182 Dad, 1926, lithograph, 2006.0181 Foothills, 1926, lithograph, 2006.0188 Mount Carmel Bridge, 1932, lithograph, 2006.0180 A New Mexican Well, 1925, lithograph, 2006.0183 Old Pi単on Trees, 1928, lithograph, 2006.0178 Old Royal Fish Ponds, Hawaiian Islands, 1934, etching, 2006.0194 Red Rocks, 1923, etching, 2006.0177 Sand Dunes, 1922, etching, 2006.0189 Sandhill Dairy, 1935, lithograph, 2006.0187 Threshing Beans, 1934, linoleum cut, 2006.0185 untitled (coconut palms, Hawaii), 1934, etching, 2006.0193 untitled (farm fields, Hawaii), 1933, etching, 2006.0191 untitled (harbor vista, Hawaii), 1934, etching, drypoint, 2006.0195 untitled (lei vendor, Hawaii), 1932, etching, 2006.0190 untitled (snow capped mountain, Hawaii), 1934, aquatint, etching, 2006.0196 untitled (view of Diamond Head, Hawaii), 1934, etching, 2006.0192 Waterlilies, 1928, lithograph, 2006.0179

Explorers, 1936, etching, 2006.0119 F. Houston Martin (bookplate), 1932, etching, 2006.0127 Land of Mystery, 1930, linoleum cut, 2006.0167 The Little Chapel, 1925, lithograph, 2006.0122 Lone Goose, 1937, etching, 2006.0123 Old Willow, 1926, lithograph, 2006.0121 Old Willows by Moonlight, 1924, lithograph, 2006.0120 Scrub Oak, 1918, woodcut, 2006.0125 Somewhere in New Mexico, 1925, lithograph, 2006.0118 untitled (Greetings from the Sewards), 1926, lithograph, 2006.0166 untitled (three pines), 1927, etching, 2006.0124 untitled (winter creek), between 1918-1937, etching, 2006.0126 Gift of Bud and Ruby Jennings, Prairie Print Makers Collection: Autumn Gold, 1929, color lithograph, 1991.0392 Summer, 1923, lithograph, 1991.0390 Swans, 1930, lithograph, 1991.0387 untitled (With Kind Thoughts), 1927, lithograph, 1991.0417 Waterlilies, 1928, color lithograph, 1991.0393

Gift in memory of Helen Seward Solter: August in the Smoky Hills, 1924, lithograph, 2006.0158

Gift of Charles L. Stansifer in memory of his wife Mary Ellen Love Stansifer and her father Clarence M. Love: A Harvest Afternoon, 1924, lithograph, 2002.0173 Hills and Dobies, 1933, etching, 2002.0169 Negro Village, 1931, etching, 2002.0172

Gift in memory of Mildred Seward Pierce: Autumn and Mexican Farm, both 1930, offset lithographs reproduced in Metal Plate Lithography for Artists and Draftsman, S2006.005

Gift of David R. Thompson: Mallards, 1924, lithograph, 2007.0027 untitled (beach scene), circa 1937, lithograph, 2007.0028 untitled (flamingos and palms), circa 1937, lithograph, 2007.0029

100

untitled (flying heron and palms), circa 1937, lithograph, 2007.0031 untitled (swan), circa 1937, lithograph, 2007.0030 Gift of Drew Elder and Carole Gardner: Bruce Moore, 1929, lithograph, 2007.0040 Gift of Jane Olson in memory of her mother, Dorothy Maureen Seward Thompson, daughter of C.A. Seward: Glorietta Canyon, 1925, lithograph, 2006.0275 Mexican Dooryard, 1928, lithograph, 2006.0272 Mountains and Desert, 1929, lithograph, 2006.0273 Red Sandstone Ledge, 1923, lithograph, 2006.0271 Strawstacks and Cottonwood Trees, 1924, lithograph, 2006.0274

Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University: Bequest of Raymond & Melba Budge:[may use family image instead] Two Elms, 1924, lithograph, 1992.77 Friends of the Beach Museum of Art purchase: Washerwoman’s Alley, 1932, etching, 2005.42 untitled (palm trees and sea gulls), lithograph, 2005.313 untitled (water, palms, and flying birds), lithograph, 2005.314 untitled (palm trees, water, and stork), lithograph, 2005.316 untitled (pelican on piling), lithograph, 2005.318 Gift of Mary Helm Pollack: untitled (winter scene with cardinal), 1935, lithograph, 2002.451

Gift of Lynda Lee, Judy Ruffner, and William Seward Pierce in memory of Virginia Seward: Dilapidated Barn, 1929, lithograph, 2007.0020 Source unknown: Big Pines, Raton Pass, 1926, linoleum cut, 0000.0419 On the Road to the Pueblo, 1929, linoleum cut, 0000.0502 Poplars and ‘Dobe, 1929, etching, 0000.0573

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EXHIBITION HISTORY

Lifetime Solo Exhibitions 1937 Solo Exhibition. Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH 1936 Solo Exhibition of Prints. Rundel Memorial Library, Syracuse, NY 1932 Solo Exhibition. Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK 1932 Solo Exhibition of 50 prints. Stanford University Art Gallery, Palo Alto, CA 1932 Solo Exhibition. California School of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA 1930 Solo Exhibition of 50 prints. Birmingham Public Library, AL. The exhibition traveled to the Municipal Galleries of the Mississippi Art Association, Jackson, MS. (now the Mississippi Museum of Art).

1931 Solo Exhibition of 50 prints. Tyrell Hall, University of Tulsa, OK 1931 Solo Exhibition of 60 prints. Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC 1929 Solo Exhibition of 25 prints. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 1929 Solo Exhibition. Springfield Art Association, Springfield, IL 1929 Solo Exhibition. Hackley Art Gallery (now the Muskegon Museum of Art), Muskegon, MI 1928 Solo Exhibition. Paul Elders Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Other Group Exhibitions and Retrospectives 2010 “C.A. Seward: Artist and Draftsman.” Monographic exhibition, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS 2008 “Seminal Artists in Wichita, 1880-1940.” Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, Wichita, KS. Artists: John Noble, C.A. Seward, Bruce Moore, Fred Wassall, Elizabeth Sprague, Stephen Hesse, Robert Aitchison, and Edmund Davison.

2005 “The West Through my Eyes, Highlights from the Private Collection of Bill Schenck.” New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM 2004-05 “A Kansas Art Sampler.” Spencer Museum of Art. Included the lithograph Summer.

2001-05 “The Prairie Print Makers.” Exhibition organized by ExhibitsUSA, a division of Mid-America Arts Alliance. Complete set of Prairie Print Maker gift prints, including Seward’s Adobe Village, New Mexico.

1999 “Kansas Master Artists Exhibition.” Mid-America Fine Arts, Wichita Gallery, Wichita, KS 1997 “The Prints of C.A. Seward.” Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, Wichita, KS 1991 “CA Seward, A Prairie Vision. A retrospective exhibit of the work of one of the region’s most acclaimed artists.” Wichita Sedgwick County Historical Museum, Wichita, KS

102

1989 1988 1981 1977 1948 1940 1937 1936 1933 1931 1931 1930 1930 1929 1929 1929 1929 1929-35

1928 1928 1928 1927

“Spirit of the American Southwest.” Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS “Prairie Print Makers: The Gift Prints - Selections from The Bud and Ruby Jennings Collection.” Spencer Museum of Art. Included the linoleum cut Big Pines - Raton Pass.

“The Prairie Printmakers.” A traveling exhibition, with support from The Kansas Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, and others.

“New Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection.” Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM “Arts & Crafts of Kansas.” Festival of Arts & Crafts, Lawrence, KS “C.A. Seward.” A commemorative exhibition, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS “The Eighteenth International Printmakers Exhibition.” The Los Angeles Museum of Art, CA. Juried show under the auspices of the Printmakers Society of California.

Invitational Group Exhibition. Chicago Society of Etchers, Chicago, IL Midwestern Artists Annual Exhibition. Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO “The Prairie Print Makers Annual Exhibition.” 1931-1938. Wichita City Library, Wichita, KS. Traveled throughout the Midwest during these years.

“15th Annual Brooklyn Society of Etchers Exhibition.” Brooklyn Museum, NY “First International Exhibition of Lithographs and Engravings.” Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL. This exhibition then traveled to the Saint Louis Art Museum in February 1931.

Exhibition of works of C.A. Seward and sculptor Albert Stewart. Venue unknown.

National Academy of Design. Annual exhibition, New York, NY “Kansas Artists.” Group Exhibition, Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University, Topeka, KS “Exhibition of Kansas Artists.” Spooner Thayer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS “Exhibition of American Prints.” American Federation of the Arts. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England. Juried exhibition.

“American Block Prints.” Wichita Art Association. An annual exhibition, expanded to include jurors and awards in 1935, and again in 1938 to include lithographs. The 1928 invitation and introduction to brochure were written by C.A. Seward.

The exhibition traveled to various Kansas locations including the Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka. Seward’s representation in these exhibitions is as follows: 1929, On the Road to the Pueblo; 1930, Adobe Village; 1931, Land of Mystery; 1933, Piñons; 1934, Threshing Beans; 1935, Flint Hill Vista.

“Exposition of Modern American Prints.” American Federation of the Arts. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Juried exhibition.

“Annual Water Color and Print Exhibition.” Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Kansas State Free Fair. Topeka, KS. First prize for lithograph Three Old Pines.

California Print Makers Society exhibition. Library Hall, Wichita, KS. Traveling exhibition of the Western Association of Museums, sponsored by the Wichita Art Association. Seward’s 1925 lithograph Prairie Stream was shown. At this time he was the only member of the Society in Kansas.

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1927 1927 1926 1925 1925 1925-37 1924

1923 1920

104

“Exhibition of American Block Prints.” Philadelphia Print Club, Philadelphia, PA. Seward exhibited again in 1929, 1930, and 1931. Subsequently traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, NY. “American Artists Prints.” American Federation of the Arts juried exhibition for the “International Exposition of Modern Prints,” Ufizzi, Florence, Italy.

Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe. Artists: C.A. Seward, Arthur B. Davies, Frank G. Applegate, and George Taylor Plowman.

“Sixth International Print Maker’s Exhibition.” Museum of History and Art, Los Angeles, CA Wichita Artists Guild Annual Exhibition. Wichita Public Library in 1925-1934; Wichita Art Museum in 1935-1938, Wichita, KS “International Print Maker’s Exhibition.” Museum of History and Art, Los Angeles, CA., under the auspices of California Print Makers Society. Seward exhibited every year except 1933.

“Thirty-first Annual Exhibition of American Art.” Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH 1924-33 Midwestern Artists Annual Exhibition. Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO Seward prints shown in this exhibition from 1924 through 1933. First prize in 1924 for Summer, Silver medal in 1927 for Toadstool Rock, Gold medal in 1928 for Yucca.

National Academy of Design, winter exhibition, New York, NY American Academy of Arts and Letters. New York, NY

C.A. SEWARD BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES

Adams, Clinton. American Lithographers, 1900-1960: The Artists and Their Printers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.

(See p. 154) Bentz, Albert W. “Wichita Artist Uses Mexican Village Theme in Creating Gift Print This Year for Prairie Print Makers; Given Numerous Honors.” The Wichita Eagle, December 20,1936.

Craig, Susan V. Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945). KU Scholarworks: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/1028 Davison, Faye. “What I Know About Kansas Artists.” Kansas Magazine (1933): 43-48. (C.A. Seward, Ken Adams, Ed Davison, William Dickerson, Merrell Gage, Bruce Moore, and Birger Sandzén are discussed.)

Dawdy, Doris Ostrander. Artists of the American West: A Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 1: 210. Chicago: Sage Books/Swallow Press, 1974.

“Expositions of Newport and of the Cincinnati Museum—C.A. Seward.” Revue du Vrai et cu Beau. Paris: January 1925. (Contains reproductions of three Seward prints and the lithograph Poplars at Santa Fe is the frontispiece.)

Falk, Peter Hastings, editor. Who Was Who in American Art: 400 Years of Artists in America. Vol. 3: 2979. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.

Foltz, Lloyd C. “Three Men of Kansas: Sandzen, Seward and Hall in the Paris Exposition.” Community Arts & Crafts 1, no. 12 (1928): 5-6.

Gleissner, Stephen, and Novelene Ross. Wichita Art Museum: 75 Years of American Art. Wichita, KS: Wichita Art Museum, 2009. (Seward’s role in the architectural design of the museum and as promoter and mentor of artists discussed: pp. 13, 160, 187,189.)

Helm, John Jr. “Album of C.A. Seward Prints.” Kansas Magazine (1940): following 112. (A posthumus tribute to Seward, the unpaginated twelve-page spread includes reproductions of Glorietta Canyon, Sunshine and Showers, Twilight (identified as “Blockprint”), Elk Valley Farm, Land of Mystery, Three Geese, Adobe Village, Grasshopper Peak, Sunshine and Shadow, Summer, and Washerwoman’s Alley.)

Hotvedt, Clarence A. “ C.A. Seward: An Appreciation.” The Palette (1936): 7-11. (A tribute to Seward on the occasion of his honorary membership in Delta Phi Delta art fraternity, and for the graphic prize for his print Grasshopper Peak.)

Kirkman, Kay. Wichita, A Pictorial History. Norfolk, VA: Donning Company, 1981. (Photograph of C.A. Seward, p. 21, noting that he was a charter member of the Wichita Art Association and president in 1930-31.)

Kistler, Aline. “The National Survey.” Prints 6, no. 5 (1936): 240–250. (Seward is listed as one of the ten most influential printmakers in the Midwestern region according to a survey conducted by the magazine.)

Hoagland, Willard. “Prints in the Middle West.” Prints 6, no. 5 (1936): 266-271. (Mentions Wichita as a printmaking center, led by Seward.)

Murdock, Marsh M. “The Lithographs of C. A. Seward.” The Print Connoisseur 5, no. 3 (1925): 194-207. (Contains a review of Seward’s 105

work and includes the commissioned lithograph insert Kansas Cottonwood, images of five other prints, and a catalogue.)

North, Bill, Elizabeth G. Seaton, and Karal Ann Marling. The Prairie Print Makers: An Exhibition. Edited by David Conrads and Pamela Evans. Kansas City, MO: ExhibitsUSA, Mid-America Arts Alliance, 2001. (Essays about the print club, reproductions of Prairie Print Maker gift prints, and short biographies with select bibliographic citations for each of the gift print artists.)

Obituary: “C.A. Seward, Noted Wichita Artist, Is Claimed by Death.” The Wichita Eagle, February 1, 1939.

O’Neill, Barbara Thompson, and George C. Foreman. The Prairie Print Makers. Topeka: Kansas Arts Commission, 1981. (A history of the organization and biographies of the ten founding charter members, based on interviews with some of the members and original letters and papers.)

“Perpetuating a work that has gained nationwide attention since its organization here by the late C.A. Seward, Wichita commercial artist, the Prairie Print Makers was reorganized last week.” The Wichita Beacon, September 15,1940.

“Prints” In Arts and Crafts of Kansas. Lawrence, KS: printed by the World Company, 1948: 43-51. (Catalog of an exhibition held in Lawrence, in conjunction with the Festival of Arts and Crafts. Includes biographies of artists, architects, authors, and composers.

Seward’s print On the Road to the Pueblo is reproduced in the print listing and a photo by Seward of Sandzén is on p. 13.)

Rees, Amanda. “The Great Plains Region.” The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. (Seward discussed, pp. 50-51.)

Reinbach, Ena, compiler. “Kansas Art and Artists.” Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society–1926-28. Vol. 17: 582. Edited by Wm. Elsey Connelley. Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1928.

Samuels, Peggy, and Harold Samuels. The Illustrated Biogaphical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1976. (Seward listed, p. 549.)

Sandzén, Birger, as told to John A. Bird. “C.A. Seward—Promoter of Kansas Art.” The Kansas Magazine (1937): 1–5. (Seward’s lithograph Elk Valley Farm is the frontispiece.)

Seward, C.A. “American Block Prints.” American Magazine of Art 24, no. 21, September (1930): 513–517. (Includes reproductions of Seward’s On the Road to the Pueblo and prints by Frances H. Gearhart, Norma Bassett Hall, Herbert Pullinger, Birger Sandzén, and Charles A. Willimovsky.) ______. “An English Wood Engraver, A Criticism and an Appreciation.” Community Arts and Crafts 1, no. 10 (1928): 13-14. (A discussion of English wood engraver Douglas Perry Bliss’ book, History of Wood Engraving.)

———. “A Fair Disciple of Art.” The Kansas Magazine 2, no. 10 (1909): 45-47. (Discussion of drawings and illustrations of Miss Gem Abbott Vaughn.)

———. Lithographs. Vol. IIg. Enjoy Your Museum Series. Pasadena: Esto Publishing Co., 1936.

———. “Lithographs.” In Making Prints: Shop Talk on the Graphic Arts.: 79-85. New York: Scholastic Publications, 1936.

———. “Lloyd C. Foltz, Printmaker.” Prints 4. no. 4 (1934): 30–35.

———. Metal Plate Lithography for Artists and Draftsmen. New York: The Pencil Points Press, Inc., 1931. (Fully illustrated book explaining the merits and techniques for metal plates rather than stones for fine art lithography.)

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———. “The Millet of the Prairies: George M. Stone.” The Kansas Magazine 2, no. 2 (1909): 1–5. (A tribute to Seward’s instructor at Washburn College.)

———. “Our Cover Design.” The Kansas Magazine 2, no. 5 (1909): opposing the frontispiece by David L. Stewart.

———. three-article series: “Print Collecting: A Cultural Adventure That May Be Made a Profitable Commercial Experience.” Community Arts and Crafts 2, no. 3 (1929): 5–6.; “Starting a Collection of Prints: First Steps for the Beginner in this Altogether Delightful Pursuit.” 2, no. 4 (1929): 13–16; “The Care of Prints.” 2, no. 5 (1929): 5–7.

———. “Prints and Print Collecting.” The Palette 11, no. 2 (1931): 7-9. (Publication of the Delta Phi Delta art fraternity.)

Scrogin, Everett, Herschel Logan, and C.A. Seward. Other Days in Pictures and Verse. Kansas City: Burton Publishing Co., 1928. (Poems

by Scrogin, tipped-in woodcuts by Logan, decorations by Seward.)

Stone, George M. “C. Seward’s Pictures.” Community Arts and Crafts 1, no. 5 (1928): 4. (An appreciation of C. A. Seward accompanies a reproduction of Seward’s lithograph Yucca, which had just received the gold medal at the Midwestern Artists exhibition.)

Snow, Florence. “Kansas Art and Artists.” The Kansas Teacher 27 (January 1929): 14-15. (This installment from a series is a discussion of Seward’s work and career, and includes reproductions of Poplars at Santa Fe, Summer, and Sunshine and Shadow.)

Tsutsui, William, and Marjorie Swann. “Kansans and the Visual Arts.” Kansas History 25 (Winter 2002/2003): 272-295. (A review of art historical study on Kansas art and artists.)

Whittemore, Margaret. “C.A. Seward, Printmaker.” Prints 4, no. 1 (1933): 28-35. _____. “Notes on Some Kansas Artists.” Kansas Magazine (1934): 41-45. (Includes discussion about the Prairie Print Makers.)

Articles about Seward and his work also appeared in many U.S. newspapers, including the Kansas City Star, Wichita Beacon, Wichita Eagle, Topeka Daily Capital, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Brooklyn Daily.

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