The Haydon Art Club and Nebraska Art Association: A Meaningful Change and Transition
Dylan Kapustka, History 250: The Historian Craft, Spring 2024
The Nebraska Art Association was born in 1900 when it changed its name from the Haydon Art Club to the Nebraska Art Association. Before the name change, the Haydon Art Club, or HAC, had already been making a name for itself in the university through annual exhibits during the winter months and programs in place for students. Professors and their lectures also helped to bring popularity and attention to the club, by encouraging students to engage with and learn about art. Through its history, the Haydon Art Club's transition into the Nebraska Art Association laid the groundwork for the University of Nebraska arts program. Without its successful exhibits and influential people, the Nebraska Art Association would not have created such a rich artistic atmosphere.
The Haydon Art Club’s creation can be credited to Sarah Wool Moore, who came to the university in 1884-85 and left in 1891 for rest and special study. Eventually, in 1893 a woman by the name of Cora Parker replaced Moore as head of teaching staff. In 1885 the School of Fine Arts was created, listing Moore as a teacher of painting, drawing, and lecturing on the history of art.[i] During her time in Lincoln, she made friends with people around town and within the university. As she became more popular and made these friends, she began to gain the support of large groups both on and off campus that wanted to enhance the culture of the capital city.[ii]
Moore was also popular with the students at the university, By the time she left the university she was teaching 147 students during her lectures. During her time teaching she taught notable people like Louise Pound, who later became a professor at the university, Elizabeth Donlan, and Alice Righter[iii] who both became popular artists. Alice Righter’s work specifically was featured in the art exhibition of 1902. Moore also taught a woman named Anna Hall more commonly called in writing and print Mrs. F.M. Hall, art for four years[iv] allowing them to become close friends. With Moore's popularity growing and the help of Mrs. F.M. Hall, a meeting was called in the home of Moore in 1888.
Upon calling for this meeting sixty-seven men and women got together to discuss the formation. This newly created fine arts group had the goals of forming an art collection, writing papers on art, acquiring a suitable art museum, and encouraging young artists. Although one thing had not been decided on during this meeting, the group did not have a name. Weeks later another meeting was held to finalize and perfect the group. During this meeting it was decided that the group would be called the Haydon Art Club after a famous British painter Benjamin Robert Haydon, marking the start of the University’s artistic culture.
Art exhibits were crucial to bringing more popularity to the Haydon Art Club in its early days. They were typically held during the winter months of the year and displayed a multitude of different artworks. The first art exhibit held in 1888 contained only one artwork from Karl Von Piloty a famous 19th-century German artist, the displayed artwork was called “Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins”. To acquire this piece for the exhibit HAC paid the New York Metropolitan Museum $500[v] to put this on display in what was at the time Lincoln's post office and later city hall. To see the artwork schools took field trips and a man named Thomas E. Calvert arranged for low-cost round trips from places like Beatrice, Crete, Seward, Milford, and Fairbury to see the annual exhibits which initially worked. But eventually became unsuccessful due to the distance of these towns.[vi] This exhibit wasn’t just the HAC's first art exhibit it was also the first time an art exhibit had been displayed in Nebraska which helped to further boost the HAC’s initial popularity.
Years after, the painting continued to float around the U.S. until 1963 when an art association trustee Samuel Waugh learned where the painting ended up. It now belonged to the Haussners, a couple living together in Baltimore. Using the connections, he had in the art world Waugh contacted the couple and told them about Piloty's painting and how it was the first work of art displayed. After hearing the story, the Haussners gave Piloty’s painting to the university where it is now kept in storage and only taken out on special occasions.
Archtecture Hall
Annual exhibitions continued throughout the years helping the club expand and gain more popularity. Works were typically from prestigious galleries like the Chicago Art Institute, the American Federation of Arts, and the Western Art Association. In the late 1890s, two thousand teachers visited an exhibit setting a Haydon Art Club record.[vii] The exhibit of 1894 contained a full collection of 100 paintings from the Western Art Association along with different works from local artists which was the first time they were represented in an art exhibit.[viii] Their representation allowed viewers to see works of art they had never seen before due to their locality, as well as seeing potentially more popular or well-known works from the Western Art Association. Four paintings were sent to the university by Leonard Ochtman, a popular artist of the time, for the art exhibit of 1896. The university decided to buy “Evening at the Mianus Bridge” for $100 and added it to the exhibition which featured mainly local artists and was considered their first “major” art acquisition. A new university library opened in 1897, the building still exists on campus today and is known as the Architecture Hall.[ix] Its entire top floor was reserved for a gallery and classrooms for art students, it was here where annual exhibitions and permanent collections of the club and art association were held for the next 25 years.
George B. Maclean, the new university chancellor, previously a director of the HAC. Came up with a plan to officially affiliate the school of art with the university in 1897. Directors of the HAC met with Maclean and created the School of Fine Arts Under the Auspices of the Haydon Art Club.[x] From 1897 to 1899 classes remained under the sponsorship of the Haydon Art Club. During this time Professor Dan Wherry began giving popular lectures on art history and became a prominent figure in the HAC for years to come helping attract new students.
By the year 1900, smaller towns around Lincoln and within the state wanted to get involved in the fine arts. It was decided by the directors that the HAC needed to incorporate more people and their activities under a more inclusive name. A meeting was held on March 6, 1900, directors of the club decided on the “Nebraska Art Association”. To avoid any confusion the group continued to use both names for several years until finally transitioning into just the Nebraska Art Association.[xi] Frank M. Hall was named the president of the NAA (Nebraska Art Association) due to his heavy involvement in the HAC. As a result of the name change one thousand new members joined, which was five times the membership of any previous year.[xii] With the influx of new members, people were eager to create new exhibits for the holiday season. Artworks from Paris, Chicago, and New York were acquired and put up for display on December 26, 1900.
Through their successful exhibits and expansions, the association began to make a steady amount of money allowing them to buy art for their permanent collection. With their money, the NAA bought three paintings. “The Reefs” by Andrew Dauchez, “Under the Trees” by Elizabeth Nourse, and “Vibrant Notes of Autumn” by George Gardner Symons. The University of Nebraska Board of Regents and Education agreed to contribute a fixed sum towards yearly exhibits so that students could enter for free. Helping to make art more accessible, especially for students. Trustees of the association also bought reproductions of famous paintings to be placed in public schools which continued until a total of $300 had been spent.
By 1902 it had been decided that the NAA should incorporate, the incorporators were Frank M. Hall, Clara A. Walsh, Fred Morrow Fling, A.G. Greenlee, Frances J. Plym, and A. Ross Hill. On December 19, the final articles of incorporation were signed with the objectives of acquiring original works in oil, bric-a-brac, watercolor, statuary, ceramic, and curios. Along with encouraging art education within public schools and to establish a museum of fine arts.[xiii] It was also during this time that university catalogs and bulletins now listed the annual exhibitions of the NAA and the collections it was adding to each year. For the next three years, the association continued to host gallery talks, make occasional purchases, hold annual art exhibitions, and fund student scholarships using profits. The NAA also made sure to always open their lectures to students. In 1905 though there was not enough money to buy a painting so instead directors purchased plaster casts of popular sculptures from antiquity such as the Discobolus, Venus de Milo, and Michelangelo’s Cupid. Students studied and practiced drawing these sculptures until 1946 when they mysteriously disappeared and were never seen again.[xiv] Lonnie Pierson provides more info as to what happened to these sculptures in a document titled Haydon Art Club. According to Pierson, the sculptures were thrown out of the third floor of the art department and again in Morill Hall by students rebelling against classical instruction.
Fred Fling, a professor at the university and NAA trustee, resigned after the association failed to buy one of four oil paintings from Robert Henri Cozad in 1910.[xv] Cozad was a popular Nebraskan artist who typically painted portraits, landscapes, and sketches. Fling was a strong advocator of the study of art, he encouraged his students to go to the art exhibits that were up at the time. The Daily Nebraskan featured a section that contained notes from Fling where he spent one of his lectures highlighting the importance of art and encouraged his students to visit art exhibits many times during their college careers. The city of Lincoln had become well known on the East Coast due to its many successful art exhibits held at the university. He claimed that “It should be regarded as a disgrace for a student to be obliged to confess to his eastern acquaintances, who know that Lincoln is on the map because of the fame of its art exhibitions, that he has never attended these exhibitions”.[xvi] This comes after the fact that in the years prior to this only about one-tenth of university students had taken it upon themselves to visit different exhibitions. To Fling, it was one of the most important things a student could do. He mentions how graduates have come to regret the fact that in their studies of law or other fields, they lost their appreciation and understanding of what is good in art.
In the year of 1912 Board Regents reorganized the school of fine arts under the College of Arts and Sciences to include music, architecture, dramatic arts, and visual arts. Paul Henry Grumman was named director of the school and made quite a name for himself until he moved to Omaha in 1931 to become the first director of the Joslyn Memorial Art Gallery. During his time as director, he was quickly made a trustee and secretary of the board in the NAA. He was always in demand to be a speaker at different women's clubs and other similar groups.[xvii] Grumman also had an interesting way of selecting artworks for exhibits. He would ask artists to choose what they considered to be their best painting, rather than just having members of the association select which works would be placed in the exhibit.
In 1927 the art school and NAA moved their collections of thirty oil paintings valued at 31,000 and 14 statue casts valued at $2963 to the recently finished Morill Hall. Unfortunately, both Frank M. Hall and Mrs. F.M. Hall passed away in 1928. The two left the university with an invaluable gift. They not only left a large trust fund to the university so it could continue to purchase new art, but the Halls also donated their own collection to the University of Nebraska, there were a total of ninety-three oil and watercolor paintings, thirty etchings, twenty-three pieces of sculpture and other items.[xviii] This generous donation from the Halls helped to bring the NAA and University of Nebraska even closer. (Put in picture of painting)
Creating the Haydon Art Club marked the start of artistic tradition and culture that would eventually evolve into the Nebraska Art Association and continue to develop. Art exhibits and different programs that were created helped to attract new students and potential club members. Without influential people like Moore, Mrs. F.M. Hall, and Paul Grumman leading the way for the HAC and NAA. The University of Nebraska would not have such a meaningful artistic atmosphere that has continued to encourage students to think about and study art since its creation in 1888.
Notes
[i] Early Art Teachers In The University of Nebraska, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 16, folder 12, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries
[ii] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[iii] The Nebraska Art Association: A History 1888-1971, Fred Wells,1972, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 12, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, the University of Nebraska Libraries
[iv] graphics, University of Nebraska at Kearney dpi. “Anna E. Reid Hall.” MONA, December 28, 2017
[v] Von Piloty Exhibition Pamphlet, 1890, RG-54-04-00 Box 1, Folder 4, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries
[vi] Haydon Art Club,1988, Lonnie Pierson,1988, RG-54-04-00 Box 16, folder 8, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries
[vii] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[viii] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[ix] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[x] The Nebraska Art Association: A History 1888-1971, Fred Wells,1972, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 12, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, the University of Nebraska Libraries
[xi] NAA Share Card, 1902, RG-54-04-00 Box 1, Folder 6, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries
[xii] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[xiii] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[xiv] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[xv] Haydon Art Club,1988, Lonnie Pierson,1988, RG-54-04-00 Box 16, folder 8, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[xvi] Nebraska-Lincoln, University of. “The Daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-Current, January 07, 1908, Image 1.
[xvii] History By Wells, Geske Notes, ND, RG-54-04-00 Box 15, folder 9, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.
[xviii] Haydon Art Club,1988, Lonnie Pierson,1988, RG-54-04-00 Box 16, folder 8, Nebraska Art Association Records, University Archives and Special Collection, University of Nebraska Libraries.