{{Short description|American painter (1902–1992)}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Edith Hamlin | honorific_suffix = | image = Edith Hamlin, American artist.jpeg | image_size = | alt = Portrait in black and white of woman in black dress with a large white bodice, lit from the right, against a black background. | caption = Hamlin, photo by Sonya Noskowiak | birth_name = | birth_date = June 23, 1902 | birth_place = Oakland, California, US | death_date = February 18, 1992 (aged 89) | death_place = San Francisco, California, US | education = | alma_mater = California School of Fine Arts<br>Columbia University | known_for = Painting, murals | notable_works = | style = | movement = Social realism | spouse = Albert Barrows (1933–1936) <br>Maynard Dixon (1937–1946) | awards = <!-- {{awd|award|year|title|role|name}} (optional) --> | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | module = | native_name = | native_name_lang = }}
'''Edith Ann Hamlin '''(June 23, 1902 – February 18, 1992)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thunderbirdfoundation.com/learn/edith-hamlin/ |title=About Edith Hamlin (June 23, 1902 - February 18, 1992) |access-date=January 22, 2015 |website=Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123030139/http://www.thunderbirdfoundation.com/learn/edith-hamlin/ |archive-date=January 23, 2015 }}</ref> was an American landscape and portrait painter, and muralist. She is known for her social realism murals created while working with the Public Works of Art Project, Federal Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture during the Great Depression era in the United States and for her decorative style paintings of the American desert.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url = https://bancroftlibrarycara.wordpress.com/edith-hamlin-1902-1992/|title = EDITH HAMLIN (1902-1992)|access-date = January 22, 2015|website = California Art Research Archive|date = 27 March 2014}}</ref>
== Biography == Born in Oakland, California, she was exposed to art by her father, Charles Hamlin, who took her on sketching trips as a small child. Hamlin won a scholarship to the California School of Fine Arts (1922–1924) and later attended the Teachers College at Columbia University from 1929 until 1932.<ref name="edith">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thunderbirdfoundation.com/about/edith-hamlin/|title=Edith Hamlin {{!}} Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts|last=www.gowestweb.com|first=GoWest Web Design|website=www.thunderbirdfoundation.com|access-date=2018-04-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Emerging from the shadows : a survey of women artists working in California, 1860-1960|author=St. Gaudens, Maurine|isbn=9780764348877|oclc=1061807224}}</ref>
She maintained a studio in San Diego throughout the 1920s. In 1933, Hamlin established a studio in San Francisco, and was briefly married to artist Albert Barrows. By 1936 they divorced.<ref name=":0" />
During the early 1930s, she traveled around New Mexico and Arizona. She was selected to paint murals for the Public Works of Art Project at the Coit Tower,<ref>{{cite web|title=Coit Tower: Hamlin Mural – San Francisco CA|url=https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/coit-tower-hamlin-mural-san-francisco-ca/ |publisher=Living New Deal|access-date=2016-03-22}}</ref> and completed a WPA Federal Art Project mural for Mission High School in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mission High School Murals – San Francisco CA|url=https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/mission-high-school-civilization-arts-crafts-taught-neophyte-indians-mural-san-francisco-ca/ |publisher=Living New Deal|access-date=2016-03-22}}</ref><ref name="trenton" /> On the second floor of Coit Tower, she completed a mural named "Sports and Hunting in California". It currently has limited public access due to its location.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFNbrhds/Coit_Tower.html|title = Coit Tower & PWAP Murals on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco|access-date = January 22, 2015|website = inetours.com|publisher = Lee W. Nelson|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120531151333/http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFNbrhds/Coit_Tower.html|archive-date = May 31, 2012|url-status = usurped}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url = http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/coit-tower-hunting-in-california-mural-san-francisco-ca/|title = Coit Tower "Hunting in California" Mural – San Francisco CA|access-date = January 22, 2015|website = The New Living Deal|last = Tibbetts|first = John}}</ref> She worked with Maynard Dixon on the murals, and married him in 1937, after she divorced her first husband in 1936.<ref name="edith" />
She also painted for the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, DC.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Yesterday and tomorrow : California women artists|last=Moore|first=Sylvia|publisher=Midmarch Arts Press|year=1989|isbn=0960247696|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/yesterdaytomorro00moor/page/15 15]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/yesterdaytomorro00moor/page/15}}</ref>
Hamlin completed another project for the WPA as she painted two large murals for the Mission High School (San Francisco).<ref name=":0" />
She and Dixon moved to Tucson in 1939<ref name="Grove" /> and maintained a summer home in Mt. Carmel, Utah. In Tucson, she completed numerous public murals including two for the Santa Fe Railroad. After Dixon died in 1946, Hamlin had his ashes buried on a hill near their house where she also constructed a studio for herself.<ref name=bit/> She married the artist Frank Knight Dale<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0p3001pw/entire_text/|title = Inventory of the Frank Knight Dale collection, 1935-1956}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=July 2019}} who did not live long and she returned to San Francisco in 1953,<ref name="edith" /> where she died in 1992.<ref name="trenton" />
==Legacy== The Maynard and Edith Hamlin Dixon House and Studio, operated by the Thunderbird Foundation, offers guided tours by appointment of their home and studio in Mount Carmel, Utah.<ref name=bit>{{cite web|title=About the Foundation|url=http://www.thunderbirdfoundation.com/about|publisher=Thunderbird Foundation|access-date=26 September 2016}}</ref> Their house has been on the Register of Historic Places since 2002.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/01001450.pdf|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration form|last=Bingham|display-authors=etal|first=Paul|date=2001}}</ref>
== Notable work ==
=== Arizona projects and murals === * ''Grand Canyon Pueblo & Taos Pueblo'', Painted in the Tucson Medical Center Old Administration Building for Santa Fe Railroad Chicago City Ticket Office, Oil and Canvas 1947. Buck Weaver and Milford Zornes assisting. * ''The Legend of Sun and Earth'', Arizona Biltmore Hotel Dining Room; Phoenix, Arizona, Oil and Canvas, 1949. * ''Christ and the Children'', St. Ambrose Catholic Church; Tucson, Arizona, Ethyl Silicate, 1950. (Over Painted) * ''Fray Marcos de Niza on an Exploration Trip to Arizona'', Jacome's Department Store; Tucson, Arizona, Steel-Reinforced Concrete, 1951 with Jack Maul, Ettore DeGrazia and George Hardy assisting (Jacome donated the pieces to the city, and it now hang at the Tucson Convention Center, one at the west entrance and the other outside the Leo Rich Theatre).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://tucson.com/news/photos-jacome-family/collection_3bdf27a4-4e67-11e4-9c16-bf9ba3b98bd2.html#5|title=Photos: Jacome Family #5|work=Arizona Daily Star|access-date=2018-09-13|language=en}}</ref> * ''Tucson in the ‘70s’ Old Pueblo Club''; Tucson, Arizona, Oil and Panel, 1952.
=== California projects and murals === * ''Mission San Francisco de Asis'', (painted with Jay Risling assisting), Mission High School Library, San Francisco, California<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/mission-high-school-mission-san-francisco-de-asis-mural-san-francisco-ca/ |title=Mission High School "Mission San Francisco de Asis" Mural – San Francisco CA |access-date=January 22, 2015 |website=The New Living Deal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123025138/http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/mission-high-school-mission-san-francisco-de-asis-mural-san-francisco-ca/ |archive-date=January 23, 2015 }}</ref> * ''Civilization Through the Arts and Crafts as Taught to the Neophyte Indians, ''(painted with Betty Willey)'', ''Mission High School Library, San Francisco, California<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/mission-high-school-civilization-arts-crafts-taught-neophyte-indians-mural-san-francisco-ca/|title = Mission High School "Civilization Through the Arts and Crafts as Taught to the Neophyte Indians" Mural – San Francisco CA|access-date = January 22, 2015|website = The New Living Deal}}</ref> * ''Sports and Hunting in California ''mural, Coit Tower, San Francisco, California <ref name=":1" /> * ''Overland Pioneers'', Tracy Post Office, Tracy, California, (painting is now missing)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/tracy-post-office-overland-pioneers-tracy-ca/ |title=Tracy Post Office "Overland Pioneers" – Tracy CA |access-date=January 22, 2015 |website=The New Living Deal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123032930/http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/tracy-post-office-overland-pioneers-tracy-ca/ |archive-date=January 23, 2015 }}</ref> * ''Spaniards'', Tracy Post Office, Tracy, California<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/tracy-post-office-spaniards-tracy-ca/ |title=Tracy Post Office Spaniards |access-date=January 22, 2015 |website=The New Living Deal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123024740/http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/tracy-post-office-spaniards-tracy-ca/ |archive-date=January 23, 2015 }}</ref> * ''Days of the First Railroad'', Tracy Post Office, Tracy, California<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/tracy-historical-museum-days-first-railroad-mural-tracy-ca/ |title=Tracy Historical Museum "Days of the First Railroad" Mural – Tracy CA |access-date=January 22, 2015 |website=The Living New Deal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123024859/http://livingnewdeal.org/projects/tracy-historical-museum-days-first-railroad-mural-tracy-ca/ |archive-date=January 23, 2015 }}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery widths="180px" heights="120px"> Edith Hamlin Coit Tower Mural.jpg|''Sports and Hunting in California'', Coit Tower Mission-High-Mural-3-edited.jpg|''Civilization Through the Arts and Crafts as Taught to the Neophyte Indians'', Mission High School Hamlin Overland Trail.jpg|Hamlin's missing 1938 mural for the U.S. post office in Tracy, California Maynard Dixon Home in Mount Carmel.jpg|Maynard Dixon and Edith Hamlin's house </gallery>
== See also == * Maynard Dixon, her spouse and fellow muralist * Maynard and Edith Hamlin Dixon House and Studio
==References== <references>
<ref name="Grove">{{Cite web |url= http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T096248?q=Edith+Hamlin&search=quick&source=oao_gao&pos=1&_start=1 |title=Dixon, (Lafayette) Maynard |work=oxfordartonline.com |access-date=12 October 2010 }}</ref>
<ref name="trenton">{{cite book |last1=Trenton |first1=Patricia |last2=D'Emilio |first2=Sandra |editor=Jeanne D'Andrea |title=Independent spirits: women painters of the American West, 1890-1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0PoEZcs_csC&q=%22edith+hamlin%22&pg=PA150 |year=1995 |publisher=Autry Museum of Western Heritage |page=150|isbn=9780520202030 }}</ref>
</references> * Arnold, Elliott, Tucson Festival of Arts, 1951. * Ainsworth, Edward, Widening Horizons: Painters of the Western Desert, 1952. * Kovinick, Phil. The Women artist in the American West, 1976. * Eric Firestone Gallery, Women Artist of the West, 2004 * DVD- Maynard Dixon Art and Spirit 2008
==External links== * [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/collection/hamlin64.htm Oral history interview with Edith Hamlin and Dorothy Cravath, May 27, 1964] from Archives of American Art * [http://livingnewdeal.org/artists/edith-hamlin/ List of Edith Hamlin murals in California] from The Living New Deal website * [http://www.thunderbirdfoundation.com/ The Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts] in Utah, a non-profit organization furthering Maynard Dixon's legacy * '[http://www.maynarddixondoc.com Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit]', a feature-length documentary from 2008
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamlin, Edith}} Category:1902 births Category:20th-century American painters Category:American muralists Category:Artists from Tucson, Arizona Category:1992 deaths Category:Artists from Oakland, California Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni Category:Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Category:Painters from California Category:Painters from Arizona Category:Section of Painting and Sculpture artists Category:20th-century American women painters Category:American women muralists Category:Federal Art Project artists Category:Public Works of Art Project artists