Clara Brian (1875-1970)
Unit Meeting on Chickens, circa 1918
photograph
Collection of McLean County History Museum
Clara Brian (1875-1970)
"These are why all the things we do are worthwhile," circa 1920
photograph
Collection of McLean County History Museum
Clara Brian (1875-1970)
Kitchen Sink Too Low, circa 1920
photograph
Collection of McLean County History Museum
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
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.