Phoebe Erickson

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Artist Details

  • Phoebe
  • Erickson
  • Erickson
  • n/a
  • November 23, 1907
  • North Bay, Wisconsin
  • August 23, 2006
  • Concord, New Hampshire
  • Swedish-American
  • Chicago, Illinois

    1937: New York, New York

    1948-1955: RFD 1, New Milford, Connecticut

    ?: Concord, New Hampshire
  • Chicago, Illinois

    New York, New York
  • Illustrator, Painter, Watercolorist
  • 1931-1933: School of the Art Institute of Chicago: design and painting
    Columbia University, New York, New York
  • [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: 48th 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
  • Thornton W. Burgess Museum, Sandwich, Massachusetts

    Miller Art Museum, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

    Bailey’s Harbor Library, Bailey’s Harbor, Wisconsin
  • Daniel 'Coon won William Allen White Award

    Double or Nothing won Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award
  • Phoebe Erickson Collection (1946-1966), Elmer Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
  • started illustrating books for children when she moved to New York; started writing them, too, in 1945
  • page on Goodreads website

     
  • 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.