Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Robinson, Irene B. (Irene Bowen), b. 1891
- Abstract:
- The Irene Robinson Collection of Artwork contains artwork relating to Irene Robinson's professional work. The collection contains illustrations from sixteen texts, all authored by W.W. Robinson. These texts, published largely between 1931 and 1966, include both children's picture books and perspectives on Southern California history. The collection also includes a number of sketches for potential new books and miscellaneous artwork by Irene Robinson. The collection contains charcoal, pastel, and pencil drawings, oil paintings, watercolors, and textual materials.
- Extent:
- 4 oversize boxes and 3 oversize flat drawers
- Language:
- Languages represented in the collection: English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Irene Robinson drawings. Ella Strong Denison Library, Libraries of The Claremont Colleges.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Irene Robinson Collection of Artwork contains artwork relating to Irene Robinson's professional work. The collection contains illustrations from sixteen texts, all authored by W.W. Robinson. These texts, published largely between 1931 and 1966, include both children's picture books and perspectives on Southern California history. The collection also includes a number of sketches for potential new books and miscellaneous artwork by Irene Robinson. The collection contains charcoal, pastel, and pencil drawings, oil paintings, watercolors, and textual materials.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Irene Margaret Bowen Robinson (1891 - 1973) was born in Washington state, but she grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Pasadena, California. In 1915, she attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, and later studied at the University of Chicago, the Broadmoor Art Academy with John Carlson in Colorado Springs, and in Los Angeles at the Chouinard and Otis Art Institutes. In the early 1920s, she taught art in Los Angeles and then married W. W. (William Wilcox) Robinson, a businessman and writer.
Irene Robinson and her husband Will began to publish collaboratively in approximately 1931. Under the authorship of Will, with Irene as illustrator, their published works include more than fifteen illustrated works for children and adults. Will was an avid collector of Southern California ephemera and knowledge, and published books on the subject include The Story of Pershing Square, The Malibu, and The Island of Santa Catalina. The couple also published many children's books, including some of the first children's books on the subject of prehistoric animals (Ancient Animals and The Beasts of the Tar Pits).
Irene and Will Robinson were in their late 70s when they began to search for a home for their collaborative work. At the suggestion of Lawrence Clark Powell, the majority of Irene's artwork (valued at approximately $5000 in 1968 by Glen Dawson) found its home at Denison Library, Scripps College, in 1968.
Irene died in January 1973, less than a year after her husband.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of W.W. and Irene Robinson in 1968.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Elizabeth Gallagher, Scripps College, Spring 2007.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is organized into 16 series:
- Series 1: At the Seashore
- Series 2: On the Farm
- Series 3: Lions
- Series 4: The Book of Bible Animals
- Series 5: At the Zoo
- Series 6: Beasts of the Tar Pits
- Series 7: Animals in the Sun
- Series 8: Ancient Animals of America
- Series 9: The Story of Pershing Square
- Series 10: The Island of Santa Catalina
- Series 11: The Book of Elephants
- Series 12: Big Boy
- Series 13: Animal Babies
- Series 14: The Forest and the People: The Story of the Angeles National Forest
- Series 15: Ranchos Become Cities
- Series 16: Miscellaneous artwork
- Physical location:
- Please consult repository.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Denison Library.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Irene Robinson drawings. Ella Strong Denison Library, Libraries of The Claremont Colleges.
- Location of this collection:
-
1030 Columbia Avenue, #2031Claremont, CA 91711, US
- Contact:
- (909) 607-3941