Go back

Elsa Ulbricht transcripts and thesis

Archive
Three PDFs 1. Transcript of tape-recorded Elsa Ulbricht interview, June 1964, at 246 Mary Street, Saugatuck by Hayward Ehrlich. 2. Transcript of tape-recorded Elsa Ulbricht interview, October 1974, at her home in Milwaukee, Saugatuck by Dennis Barris. 3. "Upending Unskilled: Making and marketing the Milwaukee Handicraft Project Dolls, 1935-1943" thesis by Allison L.W. Robinson, Spring 2018
Smithisonian ulbric64.pdf 7.4MB
ulbric74_legacy (1).pdf 60.6MB Robinson_udel_0060M_13312.pdf 18.2MB; Excerpt from pages 19-2. Ulbricht had a combination of professional training and experience that made her uniquely suited to lead the initiative. She had a long, pre-existing relationship with the Milwaukee State Teachers College; in fact, she trained in kindergarten education there, graduating in 1906.39 As she taught kindergarten in Milwaukee over the next three years, Ulbricht also took evening classes at the Wisconsin School of Art operated by the Wisconsin Art Students League. There, Ulbricht received her first taste of design training. Perhaps inspired by the experience, Ulbricht left Milwaukee to receive a degree art education at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating in 1911, she returned to Milwaukee as a professor at the Wisconsin School of Fine and Applied Arts, a school absorbed by her alma mater that same year.40 Ulbricht’s training from three different schools in Milwaukee and New York City gave her familiarity with the pedagogical philosophy, design theory, and passion for “crafts as an art form” that prepared her to teach on the college level. Those same skills and experiences grounded her vision for the Milwaukee Handicraft Project.41 In the years before she directed this WPA program, Ulbricht also spent her free time in professionalized artists’ circles in the Midwest. She had a finger in practically every pot of the arts community in Milwaukee, with a social and professional sphere extending to Michigan and Chicago. She founded the Wisconsin Society of Applied Art and served on the board for the Public Works of Art Project in Milwaukee.42 She was an ardent supporter of the local theater for years.43 Also, in 1913, she began her annual pilgrimage to Saugatuck, Michigan, a town frequented by Chicago-based artists seeking a summer retreat.44 There, Ulbricht attended the Summer School of Painting, perhaps more famously known as the Ox-Bow School of Painting.45 Artists gathered each summer to practice figure and landscape painting.46 Ulbricht developed a deep attachment to the school. In total, she spent sixty years worth of summers in Saugatuck, Michigan as a student, teacher, and eventually as director of the Summer School of Painting.47

2024.31.01

Three documents that give insights into the artist Elsa Ulbricht.

Artists1910 Ox-Bow

Winthers, Sally

Digital data in CatalogIt

Ulbricht, Elsa 1885-1980Ox-Bow/Summer School of Art

06/30/2024

10/05/2024