Guide to the Evaline Sellors Papers

Biographical Note

Evaline Clarke Sellors was born August 30, 1903 in Fort Worth, Texas. Her parents immigrated to Texas from Ireland. Her father, Edward M., a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, had been a barrister (lawyer) and was a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Her mother had attended art school in London and was well known in Fort Worth for her lingerie and linen designs. Sellors began her art studies at the age of 8. She continued them at the prep school Texas Women's College Academy (now known as Texas Wesleyan College). After prep school, Sellors attended Washington University in St. Louis, MO (1921-1923) where, with the help of her sister, she came up with the idea to create a stuffed dog. The dog was called Tut's Pup named for the recently discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb. Sellors applied and was granted a patent for the design of Tut's Pup and later won an infringement suit against the manufacturer of the "Charleston Pup." The name "Tut's Pup" was later changed to "Woof Woof" when Sellors agreed to allow the Averill Manufacturing Company to manufacture the stuffed dog. The royalties from sales of the Woof Woof dog made Sellor's enough money that she was able to finance her education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1925-1929). While at the Pennsylvania Academy, Sellors twice won the prestigious William Emlen Cresson scholarships (1929 and 1930) to study art while traveling Europe.

After the Academy, Sellors returned to Fort Worth and with the help of artists Blanche McVeigh and Sallie Gillespie opened the Texas School of Fine Arts in 1932. The school later incorporated under the name Fort Worth School of Fine Arts. Gillespie left after one year and was replaced by Wade Jolly. McVeigh and Jolly left after a few years to greater prospects leaving Sellors to run the school alone for three years until she finally decided to close the school in 1941 because of WWII. During the war, Sellors worked at North American Aviation as an instructor in the mockup department. The department created plaster models of plane parts that were later became casts used to manufacture plane parts for the company. After the war, Sellors became an art instructor teaching for the Fort Worth Art Association (1946-1968), the Fort Worth Children's Museum (1949-1955), Texas Women's University (1956), the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1950-1968), Fort Worth Art Center School (1955-1972), and at Columbus College in Columbus, Georgia (1978-1980). In 1950-1951 Sellors studied in California at Pond Farm with Marguerite Wildenhaim. While teaching, Sellors continued to exhibit her work through 1989. Many lists of her exhibitions are contained in the Papers. Evaline Sellors died May 17, 1995 at the age of 92.

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, photographs, recipes, production notes, publicity, financial records, artifacts, scrapbooks, and ephemera through the years 1914-1993 make up this mix of professional and personal material. The Papers are divided into 7 series.

Series 1: Bio/Education contains correspondence, printed material, photographs, artifacts, books, and ephemera about Evaline Sellors' family, her early career as an artist and her artist education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Series 2: Teaching contains correspondence, printed material, teaching materials, exhibition schedules and catalogs, business and financial records, photographs in three subseries: Fort Worth, Dallas, and Other. Subseries 1, FortWorth contains material relating to Sellors' relationships with the Texas School of Fine Arts (later known as Ft. Worth School of Fine Arts), which she helped found, Fort Worth Art Association, Fort Worth Art Center, and Fort Worth Art Center School. Subseries 2, Dallas contains material relating to Sellors' relationships with the Dallas Evening Schools, Dallas Museum of Fine Art (known now as the Dallas Museum of Art), and the Dallas Craft Guild. Subseries 3, Other contains material relating to Sellors' relationships with the Texas Designer/Craftsman and Assorted Teaching Material of which it is unknown which organization it belongs.

Series 3: Exhibitions/Commission contains documents supporting the creation of specific exhibitions and commissions that Sellors received as well as Exhibition catalogs either collected by Sellors or containing Sellors' work. Most commissions material is complemented by photographs of the resulting sculpture.

Series 4: Production Files contains correspondence, financial records, printed material, notes and recipes supporting Sellors' process of creating sculpture.

Series 5: Subject Files contains mainly printed material in three subseries: Artist Files, Organizations, and Assorted. Subseries 1, Artist Files contain information about artists known by Sellors. There are also four files on persons who are not artists but nevertheless interested Sellors. Subseries 2, Organizations contains information about organizations that had some relationship with Sellors though it is not always clear what that relationship was. Subseries 3, Assorted contains printed material, mostly newspaper articles on various art-related topics.

Series 6: Correspondence contains both professional and personal correspondence. Personal correspondence is divided by senders whereas professional correspondence is contained in one folder. Personal correspondence comes from family, friends (most of whom are artists), and former students.

Series 7: Photographs of Works is divided by title of work when known with 5 folders containing photographs of unknown or untitled works.

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Open to the Public

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Acquisitions within this collection: AR.2004.009

Alternative Form Available

Evaline Sellors Papers Finding Aid - Raw XML

Detailed Description of the Collection