{{short description|American painter}} {{Infobox person | name = Stephen Olin Dows | image = | caption = | birth_date = August 14, 1904 | birth_place = Irvington-on-Hudson, New York | death_date = {{death date and age|1981|6|6|1904|8|14}} | death_place = Rhinebeck, New York | alma_mater = | political_party = | occupation = | parents = Tracy "Pup" Dows<br>Alice Olin Dows | spouse = {{plainlist| * Carmen Vial de Señoret }} | children = | relatives = Stephen Henry Olin (grandfather)<br>Julia Lynch Olin (aunt) }}
'''Stephen Olin Dows''' (August 14, 1904 – June 6, 1981) was a United States Army artist who served in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.
==Early life== Dows was born in 1904, at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York. He was the only son of Tracy "Pup" Dows and Alice Olin Dows, a socialite and poet.<ref name="AODObit1963">{{cite news |title=Deaths -- DOWS--Alice Townsend |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1963/09/01/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=1 September 1963}}</ref> He had two younger sisters, Margaret "Bargy" Dows (who married Swedish diplomat Knut Richard Thyberg)<ref name="1925Engagement">{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New YorK |title=MISS DOWS IS ENGAGED.; Betrothed to Knut R. Thyberg, Swedish Vice Consul Here. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/02/25/archives/miss-dows-is-engaged-betrothed-to-knut-r-thyberg-swedish-vice.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=25 February 1925}}</ref><ref name="1925Wedding">{{cite news |title=AMONG THE AUTUMN WEDDINGS; Knut R. Thyberg and Miss Margaret Dows Are Married at Rhinebeck -- Other Ceremonies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/10/11/archives/among-the-autumn-weddings-knut-r-thyberg-and-miss-margaret-dows-are.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=11 October 1925}}</ref> and Deborah Dows (who married, and divorced, Harvard lawyer John Lancaster Burling, son of Edward B. Burling).<ref name="1935Engagement">{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special to THE NEW YORK |title=DEBORAH DOWS ENGAGED.; Daughter of Mrs. Tracy Dows Will Be Wed to John L. Burling. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/05/13/archives/deborah-dows-engaged-daughter-of-mrs-tracy-dows-will-be-wed-to-john.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=13 May 1935}}</ref><ref name="JLBObit1959">{{cite news |title=JOHN L. BURLING, LAWYER, WAS 47; First Assistant to Halley During Crime Committee Investigation Is Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/12/10/archives/john-l-burling-lawyer-was-47-first-assistant-to-halley-during-crime.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=10 December 1959}}</ref><ref name="Thompson-Stahr2001">{{cite book |last1=Thompson-Stahr |first1=Jane |title=The Burling Books: Ancestors and Descendants of Edward and Grace Burling, Quakers (1600-2000) |date=2001 |publisher=Jane K Thompson |isbn=978-0-9613104-0-0 |page=236 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_WMvEcaVBkC&pg=PA236 |access-date=15 August 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
His maternal grandparents were Stephen Henry Olin, the acting President of Wesleyan University,<ref name="1922ActingHead">{{cite news|title=COL. OLIN HEADS COLLEGE.; Will Act as President of Wesleyan University for a Year.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/08/04/archives/col-olin-heads-college-will-act-as-president-of-wesleyan-university.html|accessdate=25 August 2017|work=The New York Times|date=4 August 1922}}</ref> and Alice Wadsworth "Elsie" ({{nee}} Barlow) Olin.<ref name="SHOObit1925">{{cite news|title=S. H. OLIN DIES AT 78; 50 Years A Lawyer; Specialized on Copyright Law and Represented Foremost Publishing Houses. ACTING HEAD OF WESLEYAN For 30 Years He Was Trustee of the New York Public Library -- A Founder of Players Club.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/08/07/archives/s-h-olin-dies-at-78-50-yer-a-laer-specialized-on-copyright-law-and.html|accessdate=25 August 2017|work=The New York Times|date=7 August 1925}}</ref> His maternal aunt was author and Baháʼí Julia Lynch Olin (who married former Lieutenant Governor of New York, Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler).<ref name="JLOCObit1961">{{cite news|title=DEATHS: CHANLER|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/03/12/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html|accessdate=25 August 2017|work=The New York Times|date=12 March 1961}}</ref><ref name="OlinObit1882">{{cite news|title=DIED. OLIN|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1882/11/10/archives/obituary-2-no-title.html|accessdate=25 August 2017|work=The New York Times|date=10 November 1882}}</ref>
He was educated and trained at Harvard's Department of Fine Arts, and Yale's Student's League (New York).<ref name="SODObit1981"/> He studied under Eugene F. Savage, Edward C. Taylor, and C.K. Chatterton.<ref name="ACMH"/>
==Career== In the course of his career Dows assisted in establishing the Treasury Department's Public Works of Art Project in 1933.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Devree |first1=Howard |title=IN LOCAL ART GALLERIES: A SCORE OF EXHIBITIONS; The Progress of Olin Dows -- Recent Work By Saul -- Lynchings as an Art Theme |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/02/24/archives/in-local-art-galleries-a-score-of-exhibitions-the-progress-of-olin.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=24 February 1935}}</ref> He was assistant director of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, in charge of states east of the Mississippi, and then the director of Treasury of Relief Art Projects.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The New Deal art projects; an anthology of memoirs. |date=1972 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |others=Francis V. O'Connor |isbn=0-87474-113-0 |location=Washington |oclc=213145}}</ref> He was commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts of the Treasury Department to write a book on "Mural Designs". In 1941 he was again commissioned by the Section to paint a post office mural, ''Professions and Industries of Hyde Park'', in Hyde Park, New York. He also often worked for the Office of Civilian Defense in Washington DC in charge of a project to have artist depict the various phases of work in defense plants. His eight selectees turned in 73 pictures which were shown in a ''Soldiers of Production'' exhibition at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.<ref name="ACMH"/>
===Army=== Olin Dows enlisted in the U.S. Army in June 1942. Stationed at Fort Meade, MD, waiting to be sent to Officers training school, Dows gave up this opportunity to go instead to the European Theater of Operations as a war artist. He was appointed head of a group of three artists to cover the ETO. He remained in England for a year, attached to the Historical Section of the ETO. A month after his arrival in England, Congress denied the necessary appropriations and the art program was officially canceled. He was instead given photography missions, but nevertheless kept up with his painting. In England he was attached to the 166th Signal Photo Unit and went with them to Normandy late in June 1944. He covered the 35th Division after D-Day and was with them from June to September 1944. Dows saw action at Bastogne, Metz, and was with the Third Army in the final drive across Germany. He was present at the junction of American and Soviet Forces and depicted this meeting in several of his paintings.<ref name="ACMH"/>
===Works=== The collection of his works includes sketches of his fellow soldiers from basic training at Fort Belvoir, VA; from his trip to Great Britain, many drawings, mainly in color, of scenes of debarkation and of the life of the soldiers on the transport. These were followed by a third series of "on the spot" as well as more fully developed drawings of American soldiers training in Great Britain. He helped to organize exhibitions of the work of American artists in England. He was discharged from the Army in August 1945.<ref name="ACMH">{{ACMH|url = http://www.history.army.mil/art/dows/Dows-Biog.htm| article = Olin Dows}}</ref>
In 1949, he published ''Franklin Roosevelt at Hyde Park'' together with a collection of his drawings.<ref name="1949Drawings">{{cite news |last1=P |first1=S. |title=OLIN DOWS DRAWS ROOSEVELT SCENES; Illustrations for Book About Late President and Hyde Park Shown at Macbeth Gallery |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/04/15/archives/olin-dows-draws-roosevelt-scenes-illustrations-for-book-about-late.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=15 April 1949}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1950, Dows was married to Chilean diplomat Carmen Vial de Señoret,<ref name="1949Engagement">{{cite news |title=MME. DE SENORET FIANCEE OF ARTIST; Chilean Envoy to Netherlands and to U. N. Session Will Be Bride of S. Olin Dows |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/10/07/archives/1viwle-desenoret-nancee-ofirtist-chilean-envoy-to-netherlands-and.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=7 October 1949}}</ref> a great-granddaughter of Ramón Freire, the first President of Chile.<ref name="1950Wedding">{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=The New York |title=MME. DE SENORET, S. OLIN DOWS WED; PRINCIPALS IN WEDDING AND A BRIDE-TO-BE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/01/08/archives/mme-de-senoret-s-olin-dows-wed-principals-in-wedding-and-a.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=8 January 1950}}</ref>
After a long illness, Carmen died in January 1978 at her family's farm in Puente Alto, Chile.<ref name="MrsDowsObit1978">{{cite news |title=Carmen Viale Freire Dows, 70, A Former Chilean Ambassador |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/28/archives/carmen-viale-freire-dows-70-a-former-chilean-ambassador.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=28 January 1978}}</ref> Dows died at Glenburn, his home in Rhinebeck, New York, on June 6, 1981.<ref name="SODObit1981">{{cite news |title=OILIN DOWS, ARTIST KNOWEN FOR HIS MURALS, DIES AT 76 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/07/obituaries/oilin-dows-artist-knowen-for-his-murals-dies-at-76.html |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=7 June 1981}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://www.fdrlibrary.org/documents/356632/390886/findingaid_dows.pdf/a3516096-ebba-4118-8a0a-97d9b8992a54 Papers of OLIN DOWS: 1886-1986 and undated] at the FDR Library
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dows, Olin}} Category:United States Army artists Category:1904 births Category:1981 deaths Category:People from Irvington, New York Category:Painters from New York (state) Category:Harvard University alumni Category:World War II artists Category:20th-century American war artists Category:20th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:American muralists Category:Section of Painting and Sculpture artists Category:Public Works of Art Project artists Category:American arts administrators Category:Treasury Relief Art Project Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:20th-century American male artists