William D. White
DELAWARE ARTIST, ILLUSTRATOR & MURALIST
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Phase 1 – Examination
Phase 2 – Conservation of the Canvas Support
Phase 3 – Inpainting and Frame Conservation
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Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner
Conservation Team
University of Arizona Mineral Museum
In 1923, at the age of 27, William Davidson White was commissioned by Percy G. Beckett (1882-1973), the Vice President and General Manager of Phelps Dodge Corporation, to travel to Arizona and paint the miners of Bisbee and nearby Nacozari, Mexico. White’s paintings adorned the offices of Phelps Dodge until 1958, when the corporation donated these 16 paintings to the University of Arizona in Tucson. Today they may be viewed at the Mineral Museum located in the Flandrau Science Center on the University of Arizona campus. Images courtesy of the Minerological Record, http://www.minrec.org.
Jerome Historical Society
The Jerome Historical Society Mine Museum opened on June 20, 1953, in large part due to the gift of these six paintings created by William D. White. The paintings represent a second commission by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in the mid-1930s depicting copper miners in Arizona. According to one account, the paintings were given to the American Legion Post in Jerome to hang in their hall until the building was eventually condemed. Then some of the paintings were hung in the Phelps Dodge Club House and the rest were packed and stored. At some point, James Brewer, Director of the Tuzigoot National Monument in nearby Clarksdale, fell in love with Jerome. While digging into the town’s past history, he uncovered the paintings by William D. White. He began plans for a Mine Museum in Jerome, built around the paintings. For more information on the Jerome Historical Socitey Mine Museum, visit www.jeromehistoricalsociety.org.
The Dover Delaware Post Office Mural: Harvest, Spring and Summer
An article on page 6 of the September 9, 1936 issue of the Sunday Star (Wilmington, Delaware newspaper 1881-1954) reads as follows: New Dover Post Office Murals Portray Phases of Kent County Life W. D. White, Local Artist, Winning Wide Acclaim in Wall Decoration; Huge Panels Symbolic of Farm and Industry The saga of the life and industries of Kent County is depicted in the mural being prepared for the Dover Post Office by William D. White, of Carcroft, near Wilmington. Mr. White is one of the many artists throughout the nation contributing his talent towards the decoration of post office buildings,working for the United States Treasury Department’s Relief Art Project. Murals are no stranger to this well known Delaware artist. Under the Civil Works Administration, he did some fine work for the U. S. Veterans’ Hospital in Coatesville, Pa., and has decorated private homes. His specialty, however, has been illustrating and his work has appeared in many magazines. He has illustrated several books, chiefly biographies. More recently he has attracted widespread attention by his drawings and portraits of children, catching them in delightfully informal poses. Mr. White is a native of Delaware, and was born in Wilmington. He is a…
Delaware Historical Society
Following the death of her husband, Charles, Naomi Klein donated 168 drawings by William D. White, plus his poems, to the Delaware Historical Society. Enjoy this selection of artwork.
Privately Owned Artwork
Klein Family
When I was a child, the Klein family were neighbors of mine and friends of William D. White. Dr. Charles Klein’s dentist office was across the street from Brown’s Drug Store on Marsh Road near Penny Hill in Wilmington, Delaware. Brown’s had a soda fountain and sold sandwiches and quarts of hand-packed ice cream. Klein befriended White over lunchtime sandwiches White enjoyed “on account,” as he had no money. Mrs. Klein remembers her husband receiving monthly bills from Brown’s requesting payment for White’s account. White reimbursed the dentist with these and other artworks. The Klein Family also donated to the Delaware Historical Society roughly 80 drawings by White plus letters and poems he wrote.
Kelsey Family
Other Private Collections
Nancy Carol Willis Collection
Oil Paintings
Children
People
Nature
Architecture
Biography
Willis: W. D. White’s Military Service
William D. White (Service Number 2 773 814) served in Company B, 73d Engineers of the United States Army from August 15, 1918 until his honorable discharge on January 15, 1919. He was stationed at the Washington Barracks, District of Columbia. Evidence of his activities during this time include these four photographs that he said he took while in France during the war. He also kept a slip granting Cpl. William D. White permission to be absent from this (Washington Barracks) Post from 2:00 p.m. on November 19 (eight days after the November 11 signing of the Armistice between Germany and the Allies) until Reveille November 20, 1918 with permission to visit Washington D. C. with his mother. White’s military rank is unclear, as the above mentioned permission slip lists his rank as Corporal, yet his Transcript of Military Record, dated June 12, 1956, lists his rank as Private. The Veterans Administration awarded White a monthly pension of $85 at age 65 in July, 1961. If you have information or photographs about Company B, 73rd Engineers in World War I, I’d love to hear from you.
Willis: The Phelps Dodge Corporation Commissions
William Davidson White (1896-1971): The Hercules Powder Company magazine, Explosives Engineer, and the Phelps Dodge Corporation copper mines commission of 1923. In March, 1923, the Hercules Powder Company, located in Wilmington, Delaware, published its inaugural issue of Explosives Engineer, a trade magazine for the explosives industry engaged primarily in mining and construction activities. Pages 13 through 16 featured the following oil paintings of anthracite miners from Pennsylvania by William Davidson White. Below: In the Pennsylvania Anthracite Field, March 1923, pages 13-16. W. D. White, as he signed his paintings, was 26 years old at the time of publication. It is unknown whether White made these paintings on his own initiative, or whether Hercules commissioned the work. Regardless, they caught the attention of Percy G. Beckett, General Manager of the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Douglas, Arizona. Beckett invited White to spend several weeks in the summer of 1923 documenting the activities of the open pit copper miners at Sacramento Hill in Bisbee, Arizona and at Nacozari in Sonora, Mexico. As a result, White created 17 oil paintings for the Phelps Dodge Corporation which were donated by Percy Beckett in 1958 and are currently displayed at the University of Arizona Mineral Museum…
C. C. Robbins: The Hardrock Miner in Arizona
NOTE: Carolyn C.Robbins, currently the Curator of Education for the Scottsdale Museum ofContemporary Art in Scottsdale, Arizona, wrote her Master’s Thesis comparing the hardrock miner paintings of William D. White with those of Arizona native artist, Lew Davis, a contemporary of White’s. The excerpt presented below is copyrighted material and may not be used or reproduced in any form without express written permission from the author. In the early 1920s, William Davidson White traveled from his home on the East Coast to the remote yet bustling mining communities in southern Arizona and northern Mexico to fulfill a commission to paint images of the miners employed by the Phelps Dodge Corporation.(1) Little has been discovered about the life and career of this artist from Wilmington, Delaware, yet his legacy is apparent in Arizona, for twenty-three of his paintings of the copper miners are still located in the state.(2) Before coming to Arizona, however, White received artistic training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied with Emil Carlson and Cecilia Beaux, among others, from 1914 to 1916.(3) During the economically disastrous years of the 1930s, White found employment with the Works Progress Administration in Delaware, which classified him as…
Steven Leech: Preeminent Unknown Artist
William D. White, Delaware’s Most Preeminent Unknown Artist of the 20th Century By Steven Leech The history of art from Delaware really begins with the art of illustration by Felix Darley, who lived and worked in Claymont, Delaware where he died in 1888. Darley’s art graced works by such notable figures of the American literary canon as Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving. Nearly on the heels of Darley’s passing, the art of illustration from Delaware artists such as Howard Pyle and N. C. Wyeth rose to the level of what today is clearly recognized as fine art. Students and aspiring artists who followed in Pyle’s and Wyeth’s footsteps eventually formed what has been called “The Brandywine Tradition,” culminating in the bucolic and sublime work of Andrew Wyeth. There are other strains of artistic work that have contributed to Delaware’s artistic legacy. One strain comes from contributions to the arts and craft movement in Arden, which was established in 1900. Another influence on Delaware artists came from the Pre-Raphaelite works purchased, beginning in 1890, by local industrialist Samuel Bancroft, which later found a home in the Delaware Art Museum when its current facility opened on Wilmington’s Kentmere Parkway in 1938.…
Willis: Where W. D. White Lived
William D. White Description of White and his home A casual observer might not notice the extra mailbox wired to the chain link fence. It’s painted white with a neatly hand-lettered red “228” and aligns with the other mailboxes along Weldin Lane. However, no two bedroom, brick-and-frame ranch home with manicured lawn stands behind this mailbox; only a slightly worn footpath. The curious observer might follow the path alongside the honeysuckle-covered fence that marks the backyards of two homes facing Marsh Road. To the right, through gaps in the foliage, appears a weathered gray stucco wall with an inset red block, creating a focal point of sorts. On the back side, the wall frames a tiny courtyard paved in crumbling cement and marked by a pointed stone set upright like an obelisk. Eight round stones contain a shallow pool in the corner, and a large flat stone serves as a landing for the two steps leading to the front door of a small, reddish-yellow, adobe cube of a house. Once the surprise has passed from discovering such a primitive dwelling tucked within suburbia, the careful observer may admire several unique design features. Five beams break the line of a gently…
Dr. William H. White, Paternal Grandfather
Dr. William H. White Civil War Diary
The following diary has been transcribed as originally written, without attempts to correct punctuation or standardize formatting. NCW Diary of Brigade Surgeon Dr. Wm H White Wil. Del. Friday, May 2nd, 1862 – Left Wil. in the morning train for Balt. when we started rained a little. Took with me A. C. Brown and John Beck. Arrived at Baltimore about half past 12. called on Genl Dix. Left the boys at the depot to take charge of the baggage and horse. Left Baltimore at 6 p.m. had some trouble to get Fanny on the boat. The boat (Adelaide) was very full of freight on the deck. Took a state room and all slept there, had breakfast on board passed near the Monitor, Galena, Vanderbilt, and several other war vessels. Capt. Crossley of the first Del. reg’t came on board before we went on shore. Arrived about 9 a.m. Saturday 3rd. had the horse fed at the Govern’t stable and left at 2½ p.m. on the steamer Nantasket and arrived at Cheeseman’s Creek at 4½ p.m. Slept and had breakfast (Sunday morning on the steamboat). The first thing we heard of when we got up was the evacuation of Yorktown by…
Dr. William H. White Letter to the Sercetary of War
To the Hon the Secretary of War The Petition of the Subscriber Respectfully represents That in the early part of last August at the earnest Solicitation of the line and field officers of the Second Del Regiment I consented to serve as Surgeon for that Regt. and accordingly presented myself before the State Medical Board who passed me but on application to the Governor of Delaware he refused to Commission me and as I was advised for no other reason but that I was very active in my support of the Lamented Douglass for President. The officers of the Regt. then applied to the Hon Simon Cameron then Secretary of War for my appointment as their Surgeon, and the Secretary of War replied “If a vacancy exists Doctor White will be mustered into Service.” Colonel Wharton immediately notified me that I was the unanimous choice of the regiment, of which he cordially approved and directed me to report myself immediately which I did leaving Wilmington and arriving at Camp Wharton Cambridge on the 2d October having been mustered in on the 30th September. I was cordially received by the Regt from and recognized by Genl Lockwood and other officers –…
Dr. William H. White Obituary
Delaware State Journal April 12, 1867 Death of Dr. W. H. White. – Dr. William H. White, died at his residence in this city, on Monday night last, in the 43rd year of his age. Dr. White was a native of Sussex County, Delaware, where he resided until after he arrived at his majority, when he removed to Wilmington. He was a skillful physician, an enjoyed an extensive practice. He was the Democratic candidate for Mayor in 1855 but was beaten by George W. Sparks. He was several years Port Physician, and for a short time in the newspaper fraternity as one of the editors and publishers of the Delaware Democrat, which had a brief existence about 1855. In the early part of the war for the suppression of the rebellion Dr. White was appointed Surgeon in the United States Army, and was ordered to the Army of the Potomac, near Richmond. While thus employed, he was taken prisoner, and conveyed to the latter city, and confined to Libby Prison. Upon his release he returned home and renewed the practice of medicine. He was a gentleman of fine abilities, and excellent social qualities, and his death will be much regretted…
Publications
Saturday Evening Post
Explosives Engineer Magazine
In March, 1923, the Hercules Powder Company, located in Wilmington, Delaware, published its inaugural issue of Explosives Engineer, a trade magazine for the explosives industry engaged primarily in mining and construction activities. Pages 13 through 16 featured oil paintings of anthracite miners from Pennsylvania by William Davidson White. W. D. White, as he signed his paintings, was 26 years old at the time of publication. It is unknown whether White made these paintings on his own initiative, or whether Hercules commissioned the work. Regardless, they caught the attention of Percy G. Beckett, General Manager of the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Douglas, Arizona. Beckett invited White to spend several weeks in the summer of 1923 documenting the activities of the open pit copper miners at Sacramento Hill in Bisbee, Arizona and at Nacozari in Sonora, Mexico. As a result, White created 17 oil paintings for the Phelps Dodge Corporation which were donated by Percy Beckett in 1958 to the University of Arizona Mineral Museum and are currently displayed at the Flandrau Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. These paintings, and others, were reproduced in five subsequent issues of Explosives Engineer. William Davidson White’s oil paintings, drawings and sketches for the Hercules Powder Company were reproduced…
Hercules Mixer & Paper Maker magazines
Julius Caesar & the Grandeur That Was Rome
“Julius Caesar & the Grandeur that was Rome,” by Victor Thaddeus, includes four black-and-white paintings by William D. White. The 321-page volume was published in 1927 by Bretano’s, New York. For your enjoyment, the Forward reads as follows: Ancient Rome stil evokes conceptions of grandeur. The popular imagination still sees the Eternal City as eternal in the cultural sense. Was it not once the center of world-civilization? And its fall one of histories greatest tragedies? But how great actually was Rome? Have its admirers been too inclined to view it only from the Roman viewpoint? Have they, in their veneration for the stately Roman toga, failed to penetrate very deeply into the hearts and intellects of the men who wore it? Is the word grandeur applied to Rome as misplaced as it would be applied to a huge and gaudy side-show? We see the hundred-per cent Romans brawling drunkenly in their Forum–hurling execrations at one another in their senate-house–lying on the cushions of their litters caressing with obscene fingers their boy-favorites–gloating sadistically, in their ampitheatres and circuses, over the butchery of unhappy gladiators and starved wild animals. they are fat heavy-jowled men with greedy cruel eyes. To make the picture…
Other Published Illustrations
William D. White Unpublished Poems
William D. White: The Flight
W. D. White Box 243-B Edge Moor, Del. THE FLIGHT At last conditions were favorable and all was in readiness. From the southern shore of France. Pierre Paul. the daring aviator. took off in his plane with a destination of some South American city. His arrival was timed to the minute. so sure was he of the outcome of this venture, and under the elephant skin flying suit he wore his evening dress, for surely he would be welcomed in grandeur. Days and nights he rocked and roared through heavy fogs that hid land, sea and sky. Finally, short of fuel, he came into light. On the sea below he saw an island he did not know, but it was land – and ah! How weary he was. Shutting off his motor, circling, he came to a landing, closed his eyes and fell to sleep. An incessant grayness sped through his brain. When he at last awakened and looking about him nothing but black and gray rocks greeted his gaze piled crazily one upon another and jutting into a gray sea. Where the white surf met the shore, many penguins played. Quite different this all was from what he had…
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Other Private Collections
Enjoy a selection of William D. White artwork held by other private collectors.
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Home
Public Relations
Exhibition Opening
Exhibition Walking Tour
Radio & TV Programs
Lectures & Programs
Press Room
Galleries
What’s New!
Old Mauch Chunk Gets New Life
Provenance
Phase 1 – Examination
Phase 2 – Conservation of the Canvas Support
Phase 3 – Inpainting and Frame Conservation
Painting Conservation Terms
Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner
Conservation Team
University of Arizona Mineral Museum
Jerome Historical Society
The Dover Delaware Post Office Mural: Harvest, Spring and Summer
Delaware Historical Society
Privately Owned Artwork
Klein Family
Kelsey Family
Other Private Collections
Nancy Carol Willis Collection
Oil Paintings
Children
People
Nature
Architecture
Biography
Willis: W. D. White’s Military Service
Willis: The Phelps Dodge Corporation Commissions
C. C. Robbins: The Hardrock Miner in Arizona
Steven Leech: Preeminent Unknown Artist
Willis: Where W. D. White Lived
Dr. William H. White, Paternal Grandfather
Dr. William H. White Civil War Diary
Dr. William H. White Letter to the Sercetary of War
Dr. William H. White Obituary
Publications
Saturday Evening Post
Explosives Engineer Magazine
Hercules Mixer & Paper Maker magazines
Julius Caesar & the Grandeur That Was Rome
Other Published Illustrations
William D. White Unpublished Poems
William D. White: The Flight
Catalogue