Blanche Kerr

Artist Details

• First Name Blanche
• Maiden Name Weyburn
• Surname Kerr
• Spouse’s Full Name Robert “Bert” J Kerr (?-1918); from Chicago, Illinois; married 1896; lawyer; studied at Northwestern University; practiced with his father, also a lawyer; early president of River Forest Tennis Club; represented American oil concerns in Mexico before and after the 1917 reovlution; briefly the acting governor of Vera Cruz; contracted typhoid and died in Mexico City
• Names and Birth Years of Children n/a
• Birth Date July 18, 1872
• Birth Place Rockford, Illinois
• Death Date August 12, 1955
• Death Place Oak Park, Illinois
• Residence(s) Chicago
  
  Rockford, IL
  
  113 S. Elmwood, Oak Park, Illinois (street originally called Ogden, change in 1897)
  
  1910: moved to 150 N Elmwood Ave, Oak Park, Illinois (had been his parents’ home; her mother and sim  siblings moved in with them?)
  
  Mexico
• Active In Chicago, Illinois
  
  Oak Park, Illinois
  
  Rockford, Illinois
• Categories Illustrator, Painter-Oil, Watercolorist
• Training School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  Hull House, Chicago, Illinois
  
• Relevant Travel Mexico
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History December 1945: Austin, Oak Park and River Forest Art League, Oak Park, Illinois
  
  Arts Club, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Arts & Crafts Society, Oak Park, Illinois; founder
  
  Society for Sanity in Art, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Rockford Art Association, Rockford, Illinois
  
  San Angel Inn, San Angel, Mexico [solo]
• Collections Rockford Home for Aged, Rockford, Illinois
  
  John Vanderpoel Collection, Beverly, Illinois
  
  Nineteenth Century Woman's Club
• Memberships Arts Club of Chicago, Illinois
  
  All-Illinois Society of Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Lowell Literary Group; founding members 1897
  
  Nineteenth Century Women’s Club
  
  Society for Sanity in Art, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Rockford Art Association, Rockford, Illinois; charter member
  
  Austin, Oak Park, River Forest Art League, Oak Park, Illinois; charter member
• Other Occupation(s) Designer for woman's needle craft magazine
  
  Teacher
  
  Interior Decorator (with sister Jane)
  
  Lecturer
• Biography friends with Frank Lloyd and Katherine Wright
  
  friends with Charles and Alice White
  
  member of the Unitarian-Universalist Church, Oak Park, Illinois
  
  "Art League Book for Austin, Oak Park and River Forest Art League, 1940"
  
  Blanche Weyburn Kerr, 150 North Elmwood Avenue, Oak Park
  
  Blanche Weyburn Kerr (Mrs. Robert J.) was a student in the first class in the present building of the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation she studied arts and crafts; metals at Hull House; jewelry with private teachers; painting with Oak Park and Chicago artists.
  
  Was a teacher of the crafts and needle work and a designer for a woman’s magazine in needle craft. Was active in the art of interior decoration for fifteen years. With another decorator she formed an Arts and Crafts Society in Oak Park and held exhibits.
  
  She spent many months painting water colors and oils in Mexico, and held a one-man show in old San Angel Inn, San Angel, suburb of Mexico City.
  
  Is an early member of the Chicago Arts Club, All-Illinois Society of the Fine Arts, Society for Sanity in Art, a Charter member of the Art Society in Rockford, Ill., where she was born. Is a Charter member of the Art League, and served as Director, teacher, decorator and lecturer.
  
  Has exhibited in Rockford, Chicago and suburbs. Is represented in Rockford Home for Aged, John Vanderpoel Memorial Collection, Nineteenth Century Woman’s Club. She has been a resident of Oak Park since 1896.