Balch Institute: Selections from the Museum Collections
Introduction
Image Archive


Emily Swift BalchThomas Willing BalchPortraits of Emily Swift Balch and Thomas Willing Balch,
by Lazar Raditz, (1916). Bequest of Edwin Swift Balch. Oil on canvas. (40" x 32" each) BE.06.3 & BE.06.2. Emily Swift Balch, mother of Edwin Swift and Thomas Willing, was the member of the family who initially proposed the formation of a library or institute to collect materials related to the history of the United States. Lazar Raditz, Philadelphia's best known portrait artist in the early twentieth century, was born to Jewish parents in Russia and immigrated to the United States in 1903.


One WorldOne World, by Samuel Joseph Brown, (19 46).
Gift of the artist. One of a series of 12 serigraphs. (28-1/2" x 22-1/4"). AA.83.31.1.
Samuel Brown was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1907. He and his family moved to Philadelphia when he was ten. After he finished his education at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art and the University of Pennsylvania, he taught art in the Philadelphia public schools for thirty-five years. An exceptionally prolific artist, he participated in the federal Public Works of Art Project from 1933 to 1944. His work was praised by Eleanor Roosevelt and collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. An African American, Samuel Brown was deeply concerned with racial discrimination. He organized his One World poster series on the unifying theme of global peace and brotherhood. The serigraphs portray children of diverse ethnic backgrounds sharing chores and playing.


kakemono scroll paintingJapanese kakemono scroll painting.
Bequest of Edwin Swift Balch. (59-1/2" x 20-3/4"). BE6.10.
This scroll is one of the many pieces of art collected by Edwin Balch on his travels to study ethnic cultures around the world. The Balch family came to North America from England and Scotland; the original male ancestor, John, immigrated to Maryland from County Somerset, England in 1658, seeking "to improve his fortune."

 

 

 

 


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© 1996 The Balch Institute For Ethnic Studies

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