Edgar Dorsey Taylor was born in 1904 in Grass Valley, California. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with a BA in 1928 and an MA in 1932. During the 1940s he was a lecturer in studio art at the University of California at Berkeley from 1945-1946 and at the University of Texas at Austin from 1940-1945. He also taught at the University of Southern California from 1950-1953.
During his career as an artist Taylor won awards for his work from the Texas Fine Arts Association and the San Francisco Art Association, as well as several fellowships. His work is held in numerous collections throughout the United States and was exhibited widely, including such venues as the Pasadena Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin, the Oakland Art Gallery, the Chicago Art Institute and the McNey Art Museum in San Antonio. Taylor died in Los Angeles, California in 1978. The Briscoe Center had an exhibit of his work entitled “Afternoons in East Austin: Drawings by Edgar Dorsey Taylor” in 1990.
The drawings in this collection are both literal and abstract. They represent the Texas portion of Taylor’s work, portraying primarily East Austin and containing images of barbershops, children, an ice cream vendor, families on porches, a taxi stand, a shoe shiner, evening strollers and a grain warehouse. Other subjects included are an armadillo, a boy with pigs, a cat on a wall, cows grazing and a girl with a kite. All are done in conté crayon or pencil. Also included are negatives of the drawings.
The collection is open for research. Access to negatives is by appointment only. Contact repository for appointment.
Edgar Dorsey Taylor Drawings, 1943-1945, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of
this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s