Clara Brian

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Artist Details

  • Clara
  • Brian
  • Brian
  • n/a
  • October 20, 1875
  • Urbana, Illinois
  • July 10, 1970
  • Bloomington, Illinois
  • Grayville, Illinois

    San Jose, Illinois

    1912-1915: Bloomington, Illinois

    1915-Salinas, Kansas
  • Bloomington, Illinois
  • Photographer
  • 1915: graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University, degree in home economics
    summer 1919: completed master’s in dietetics and nutrition, Columbia University, New York, New York
    1920s: University of Minnesota on fellowship to study child development and training
  • November 20, 1999-January 16, 2000: Clara Brian: Home Bureau Photographs 1918-1926, Tarble Arts Center, Charleston, Illinois

    October 30, 2010-?: Clara Brian: Home Bureau Photographs 1918-1926, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mt. Carroll, Illinois

    2013: Making Their Mark, Illinois Women Artists, Peoria Riverfront Museum, Peoria, Illinois

    2017: Farming in the Great Farm Belt, McLean County Museum of History, Bloomington, Illinois
  • McLean County History Museum, Bloomington, Illinois
  • Czach, Marie. A Directory of Early Illinois Photographers: Preliminary Investigations into Photography as Practiced in Illinois, excluding Chicago, from circa 1846-1914. Western Illinois University, 1977. Denny, Margaret. "Image Makers, Picture Takers: Illinois Women Photographers 1850-1900," in Journal of Illinois History, vol. 10, 2007. Esposito, Margaret. Places of Pride: The Photography and Work of Clara Brian. McLean County Historical Museum, 1989.
  • McLean County Museum, Bloomington, Illinois
  • ran millinery shop, San Jose, Illinois

    published a weekly newspaper, San Jose Journal, in San Jose, Illinois

    established a home economics department at Kansas Wesleyan University, Salinas, Kansas

    June 1918-1945: Home Bureau advisor in central Illinois (with two-year leave of absenece in 1920s)
  • biography by Bill Kemp librarian at McLean County Museum of History

    biography by Rhondal McKinney
  • Clara Brian was the first Home Bureau advisor in Illinois. As she traveled to remote parts of McLean County during 1918-1926, carrying with her a folding 3 x 4 camera, she documented the women she served, their families, homes, schools, and other aspects of their lives.