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The Artists Associated with Hopkins Seaside Laboratory

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During the first years of Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, artists skilled in the illustration of nature were often employed at the facility.  With a bit of research, one finds the following artists associated with the laboratory, Miss Anna Louise Brown (i.e. Miss Anna B. Nash), Chloe Lesley Starks, Miss Mary Wellman, William Sackston Atkinson, Lydia Moore Hart and Charles Bradford Hudson

ANNA LOUISE (BROWN) NASH

Miss Anna Louise Brown was the artist for the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory from 1893 to 1897 during which time she created scientific illustrations for many faculty members.

The family's affiliation with Stanford University began in 1891 with the appointment of Orrin Leslie Elliott, her sister Ellen Brown's husband, as Secretary and Registrar, and her brother Bolton C. Brown's appointment as Stanford art professor. Born in Burdett, New York on May 10, 1866, Anna L. Brown graduated from Syracuse University in 1890.  She moved to Palo Alto, California with her parents in 1894.  There she met Herbert C. Nash who was Leland Stanford's secretary and first librarian at Stanford University.  The couple married in 1899 but Mr. Nash died three years later.  The widowed Anna Louise (Brown) then went to Europe where she studied art and for a while had a studio in Paris.  Returning to California, she illustrated books for scientists at University of California.  Mrs. Nash died in Santa Barbara, CA on March 11, 1945.

 

CHLOE FRANCES LESLEY STARKS

Chloe Frances Lesley Starks was born in Ohio in 1866. She attended Stanford with the 1898 class. Starks studied at Stanford University and Académie Colarossi in Paris. After her marriage to Edwin Chapin Starks, both became members of the faculty-Edwin in zoology and Chloe in graphic arts. Chloe Starks served as the head of the Stanford art department and became an internationally known scientific illustrator.  An artist of versatility, Mrs. Starks achieved worldwide recognition for her pen-and-ink illustrations of Dr. David Starr Jordan’s scientific studies of fishes. Chloe Starks was an artist for the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory in 1900. By 1915, she had settled in Palo Alto, California where she remained until her death in 1952, at the age of 85.

 

WILLIAM SACKSTON ATKINSON

William Sackston Atkinson, assistant artist of the Hopkins Laboratory in 1899 was born in Cazenovia, New York in 1864, Atkinson studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Syracuse University.  He moved to California in 1895 and lived in Palo Alto until 1921.   Atkinson received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Leland Stanford Jr. University 1899.

 

MARY WELLMAN

Mary Wellman, associate artist of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory from 1897 to 1902. She continued her work as an artist in the Department of Entomology, providing illustrations for David Starr Jordan and Vernon L. Kellogg.

From Inland Educator and Indiana School Journal, Volume 3 Educator-Journal Company, 1903 we learn of Mary Wellman’s illustrative work:

“True Tales of Birds and Beasts” are always welcome to children of every age. Messrs. D. C. Heath & Co. have already published two or three such in their series of Home and School Classics suitable for both the younger and the older children. President David Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford Jr. University, California, has recently edited a dozen stories by well known writers under the above title, which are true and which are also good for children of all ages to read. They are chosen from the growing wealth of such literature because they are told with literary skill and are not so tragic as to be painful reading, a feature of some modern writings, which has made many people hesitate about putting them into the hands of young people. It has been fully illustrated under the supervision of the editor by Miss Mary Wellman, the associate artist of the Hopkins laboratory of Leland Stanford Jr. University, both by half tone and line drawings and will be published early in the spring in one volume, cloth, at 40 cents.

 

LYDIA MOORE HART

Lydia Moore Hart was an assistant artist for the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory in 1900.  Years earlier, Lydia M. Hart, together with Charlotte M. Pinkerton, produced the original artwork for the book, The Fishes of Illinois, authored by Stephen A. Forbes and Robert E. Richardson. A native of Quincy, Illinois, Lydia began working at the Illinois Natural History Survey Department in 1891.

The final publication, The Fishes of Illinois and its Atlas, by Forbes & Richardson (1908) featured a beautiful set of color plates prepared by Lydia Hart.

 

 

CHARLES BRADFORD HUDSON

Charles Bradford Hudson was born in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada in 1865, Hudson received a Bachelors of Arts degree from George Washington University in New York City, where he studied under George deForest Brush. He then studied at the Art Students League of New York under William Merritt Chase and at the Académie Julian in Paris under William Bouguereau. Upon completion of his studies in Paris, he enrolled in the United States infantry in 1898. Hudson became a first lieutenant and served under Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War.  Upon returning home, he submitted work to the expositions in Bergen, Norway, in 1898 and in Paris in 1900, winning a silver medal at each.

Hudson next moved to California, worked as an assistant artist of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory (1901-1903) in Pacific Grove, California and established a studio near Asilomar. As a specialist in fish, Hudson prepared scientific illustrations of marine life for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries.

He was a life member of the California Academy of Sciences and painted background murals for the exhibits in the academy's natural history museum in Golden Gate Park. He also remained affiliated with the Bohemian Club. In Carmel, he became a member of the Carmel Art Association, founded in 1927. Hudson exhibited at the Hotel Del Monte gallery, the Bohemian Club, and the Carmel Art Association.