Phoebe Erickson

Artist Details

• First Name Phoebe
• Maiden Name Erickson
• Surname Erickson
• Spouse’s Full Name n/a
• Birth Date November 23, 1907
• Birth Place North Bay, Wisconsin
• Death Date August 23, 2006
• Death Place Concord, New Hampshire
• Ethnicity Swedish-American
• Residence(s) Chicago, Illinois
  
  1937: New York, New York
  
  1948-1955: RFD 1, New Milford, Connecticut
  
  ?: Concord, New Hampshire
• Active In Chicago, Illinois
  
  New York, New York
• Categories Illustrator, Painter, Watercolorist
• Training 1931-1933: School of the Art Institute of Chicago: design and painting
  Columbia University, New York, New York
  
• Exhibitions History [caption id="attachment_2800" align="alignright" width="219"] Phoebe Erickson (1907-2006)
  
  Read-Aloud Nursery Tales (cover), 1957[/caption]
  
  The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: The Harbor
  
  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
  
  January 31-March 21, 1948: 48^th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York: Passing of the Troop Train, watercolor
  
  January 2012: A Passion for Pets, Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
  
  January 31-March 30, 2015: A Tale of Two Artists, Green Briar Nature Center, East Sandwich, Massachusetts
• Collections Thornton W. Burgess Museum, Sandwich, Massachusetts
  
  Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
  
  Bailey’s Harbor Library, Bailey’s Harbor, Wisconsin
• Awards Daniel 'Coon won William Allen White Award
  
  Double or Nothing won Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award
• Archive(s) Phoebe Erickson Collection (1946-1966), Elmer Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Other Occupation(s) started illustrating books for children when she moved to New York; started writing them, too, in 1945
• Website(s) page on Goodreads website
  
   
• Biography She grew up on a farm where the love of animals and nature would serve as inspirations for many of her illustrations and stories. Phoebe Erickson attended the Chicago Art Institute from 1931-1933 and studied at Columbia University in New York. She began writing and illustrating children's books in the 1940s. She worked in a variety of media and her illustrations are noted for the accurate detail and loving depictions of animals and nature. While she wrote and illustrated primarily to entertain and interest young readers, Erickson believed that her books conveyed a message that could be felt by children, such as the cruelty of steel traps evident in Daniel 'Coon, and that they could understand this best when the message isn't forced or blatant. Erickson also believed that young readers want characters in books, especially the children, to be realistic not "goody-goodies" so they can identify with them and their problems. Her stories try to convey these beliefs along with her respect for nature and all life, and that caring for any creature demands responsibility and respect.
  
  Parents:  Axel and Emelia Erickson
  
  Siblings:   Julia, Edith, Grace, Ruth, Alice, Ethel, Ellen, Herbert, Elmer, Ralph, Hjalmar,  Conwell
  
  She is buried in Bailey’s Harbor Cemetery, Bailey’s Harbor, Wisconsin.