Description:

Minnie Ellsworth Bartlett
Indiana, (1890-1977)
"After Paul Sollner", young man playing guitar
illustration style watercolor on paper
signed lower left. In a carved and gilt frame.

From the collection of Keith Little, Indianapolis, IN.


Minnie Ellsworth Bartlett was born on June 29, 1890, in Seymour, Indiana. Her real name was Joan Ellsworth Bartlett; her nickname may have come in honor of her aunt, Minnie Bartlett EuDaly (1867-1944). Minnie Ellsworth Bartlett's father, John E. Bartlett (1862-1940), was a well-admired artist and sign painter in his hometown and in southern Indiana. Minnie's mother, Rhoda Marie (Coulborn) Bartlett (1861-1922), died of pneumonia when she was still quite young. The Bartletts and related families were prominent in the civic life of Seymour.

Minnie Bartlett carried on in her father's mix of art and business. The first notice I have of her work is for cartoons she drew for a log-rolling and carnival in Seymour in 1905. These were displayed in the window of Cox Pharmacy when she was just fifteen years old. One was of Kin Hubbard's famed Abe Martin character from the Indianapolis News.

Minnie Bartlett graduated in 1907 from Seymour High School, an edifice surrounded by trees and once bordering a tract of forestland. From 1909 to 1911, she studied at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis where her instructors were Clifton Wheeler, Otto Stark, and William Forsyth. In her last year at Herron, Minnie had her art on display in a student exhibit at Herron. More importantly, she landed a plum assignment to provide 133 illustrations for the Eleventh Annual Report of the State Board of Forestry, 1911 (1912). Her drawings were of the trees of Indiana, a botanical key that proved to be the life's work of Charles C. Deam (1865-1953), a self-taught botanist and the first Indiana state forester. The Trees of Indiana was issued in book form in 1919. According to one source, Minnie Ellsworth Bartlett's drawings were used in that edition as well. I have the first revision of The Trees of Indiana from 1932, a book illustrated not with drawings but with photographs.

  • Dimensions: 15 1/2"H x 11 1/2"W(sight), 21"H x 17"W(frame)
  • Medium: illustration style watercolor on paper

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December 14, 2024 11:00 AM EST
Indianapolis, IN, US

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