The Hagley Library announced that it has acquired the Frank Schoonover Negatives Collection from the Delaware Art Museum.
The Schoonover collection documents the life and work of the artist and illustrator who was active during the “golden age” of magazine illustration, 1890 to 1940.
Born in Oxford, NJ in 1877, Schoonover learned his craft under Howard Pyle, whose “Brandywine School” was a proving ground for many young, aspiring artists beginning in 1894 at Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. Along with Schoonover, N.C. Wyeth, Stanley Arthurs, Harvey Dunn, Jessie Wilcox Smith, and Violet Oakley, were among the over 140 artists who studied under Pyle.
Schoonover’s work appeared in most of the prominent American periodicals of his day, including Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and Harper’s Monthly. He also illustrated over 100 books. His studio, built in 1905-06 by the Bancroft family on North Rodney Street in Wilmington, served the artistic community as a place to work and teach throughout his career.
He also taught classes for children and adults in the 1940s and 50s. The studio remains an active space for artists today and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Schoonover died in 1972 and was elected into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1996.
The specific storage requirements for negatives of this age and chemical composition made it challenging for the Delaware Art Museum to retain the collection. As part of Hagley’s agreement with the Delaware Art Museum and the Schoonover family, the collection will be preserved, digitized and put online.
During his career, Schoonover used photography as source material for his artwork. Having adopted Pyle’s philosophy that direct observation is critical for an illustrator, Schoonover traveled extensively over the course of his career, and the photographs he took on these trips feature prominently in the collection at Hagley.
In addition to using travel as inspiration, Schoonover photographed costumed models in his studio that can then be connected to his published illustrations. The collection also includes many personal photographs of friends and family, particularly of his two children, Cortlandt and Elizabeth, whom he often used as models.
The work to digitize the collection and put it online is currently in progress. Researchers and members of the public can view the items currently on Hagley’s website at this link: digital.hagley.org/schoonover.
It is anticipated that the full collection will be available online by the end of September this year. A collection of photographic prints from the Schoonover collection is also available and open for research onsite at the Delaware Art Museum, which also holds the artist’s archives.
Research has begun for a book about Schoonover’s photography, underwritten by the Frank E. Schoonover Fund, with the cooperation of Hagley and the Delaware Art Museum.
