Art History Lesson

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This is the first installment of what I hope becomes a monthly series, propelled by your submissions. Each month, I’ll feature an image or video from Penn’s arts history: performances, paintings, people — anything arts-related is fair game.

To get the ball rolling, here’s a Penn calendar illustration Thornton Oakley produced in 1905:

Calendar of the University of Pennsylvania, 1905, illustrated by Thornton Oakley. (Image used courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Archives)

Calendar of the University of Pennsylvania, 1905, illustrated by Thornton Oakley. (Image used courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Archives)

Oakley received his B.S. and M.S. from Penn in architecture and was later hired as head of the Department of Illustration at the Philadelphia Museum’s School of Industrial Art (now the Philadelphia College of Art). Over the course of his career, his illustrations appeared in numerous books and magazines, including Harper’s Monthly, Collier’s Weekly and National Geographic.

More than a century later, versions of this devoted-yet-disorganized student can still be spotted inside the library — especially during finals and midterms. (And is that a Daily Pennsylvanian I see in the lower left?)

Please send me your images or videos from the Penn arts-related past. (The not-so-distant past is welcome, too.) Just be sure to include the month and year, along with a brief description: penngazettearts@gmail.com.

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