Robert E. Judah (1912-1991)

Robert Easton Judah was born on December 30, 1912, in Stinesville, a small town in the northwest corner of Monroe County, Indiana. That region of the state is known for its high-quality limestone, which has been used in the construction of the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and thirty-five out of fifty state capitol buildings. It should come as no surprise that Robert E. Judah landed his first job at a local stonemill.

Judah graduated from Stinesville High School in 1931. After working in the stonemill and beginning his art education at the Kansas City Art Institute, Judah went to work for a utility company in Martinsville in 1940. He went into the U.S. Navy in 1943 and returned to his Indiana home in December 1945 after twenty-six months with the Seabees. Upon his return, Judah once again worked for a utility company, this time in Columbus, Indiana. In December 1951 he became public relations director for the Monroe County Farm Bureau Coop, then in 1952, advertising manager for Wicks Department Store in Bloomington. The following year, Judah started his own advertising business in Ellettsville, Indiana. Finally, in 1955, Judah joined the staff of the Indiana Geological Survey, a division of the Indiana Department of Conservation (now called the Department of Natural Resources) based at Indiana University in Bloomington.

As an artist and draftsman with the geological survey, Judah illustrated several booklets published by the agency, including Let's Look at Some Rocks by William J. Wayne (1958), Adventures with Fossils by Robert H. Shaver (1959), and Pages from the Geologic Past of Marion County by Wyman Harrison (1963). (Marion County is the county in which Indianapolis is located.) He also created pictures for the departmental exhibit at the Indiana State Fair and a mural at Indiana University. Incidentally, the drafting section of the Indiana Geological Survey included William H. Moran (chief draftsman), Micky P. Love (geological draftsman), and John E. Peace (senior geological draftsman). It's safe to say their workplace was one of Peace and Love.

Robert E. Judah stayed close to home and was always involved in his community. He built an art studio in Ellettsville, where he painted landscapes from photographic slides taken in his travels. He was also a cofounder of the Hoosier Hills Art Guild in Bloomington and a member of the first board of directors of the Monroe County Museum. And Judah was a member of the local school board, the local Baptist church, and a president of Community Brotherhood and the Richland-Bean Blossom Family Store. He retired from the geological survey after twenty-three years of service. In retirement he worked on a book on the stonecutting industry in Indiana. Robert Judah died on December 20, 1991, just ten days short of beginning his eightieth year on earth.

Here is Robert E. Judah's cover for Adventures with Fossils (1959). Note the very neat and distinctive signature at the bottom left.

With his work for the Indiana Geological Survey, Judah can be added to the list of Indiana artists who drew and painted dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Here's an illustration from Adventures with Fossils with a likeness of Judah's young son, now Dr. Robert E. Judah II.

Here's another illustration from Shaver's booklet showing the Hoosier State and its rock formations. Mary Chilton Gray did equivalent work with the Denver Museum of Natural History. She also painted a dinosaur mural. Other Indiana dinosaur artists have included Gray Morrow and Reed Crandall.

Here's a very small image of a mural Robert Judah painted at the Geology Library at Indiana University. I'm still on the trail of a larger image. Photograph by Dr. Robert E. Judah II.

Finally, a photograph by Dr. Judah of one of his father's paintings. If you have been to rural Indiana, you have seen places that look like this. If you're away from Indiana, you may very well long to see them again.

Update (Jan. 17, 2021): An unknown commenter below has let us know that Robert Judah also designed the Great Seal of the Town of Ellettsville. I went looking for it and found this image on the website of the Ellettsville Police Department. It's a nice design, and I hope this is the right one. Thanks, Unknown.

Thanks to Dr. Robert E. Judah II for much needed information and clarification on the life and career of his father. Thanks to Dr. Judah also for the last two images.

Text and captions copyright 2013, 2024 Terence E. Hanley

Mary Chilton Gray (1888-1969)

Marie L. Chilton Gray, better known as Mary Chilton Gray, was born on November 22, 1888, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Georgette P. Gray, was a social worker and superintendent at the Indianapolis Home for Friendless Women. She also worked at the Indianapolis Orphans Asylum and the Indiana Industrial Home for the Blind. Mary Chilton Gray studied off and on at the Herron School of Art between 1902 and 1911. Only thirteen years old in the spring of 1902, she was one of the first students at Herron. Among the other artists of note in that inaugural class were William Merle Allison, Fanny L. Burgheim, Harry Carlisle, Helen Eaton Jacoby, and Tempe Tice. The instructors were William Forsyth and Otto Stark.

Mary Chilton Gray was a painter active in Indianapolis as late as 1930. She exhibited in the Hoosier Salon in 1931 and 1933 and lived in Taos, New Mexico, for ten years as part of an artist's colony that at various times included Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Nicolai Fechin, and D.H. Lawrence. The height of her career came in Denver where she worked for the Colorado Museum of Natural History and the Denver Art Museum as a muralist and illustrator. Her books include three from the Denver Museum of Natural History Popular Series: Fossils: A Story of Rocks and Their Record of Prehistoric Life by Harvey C. Markman (No. 3), Ancient Man in North America by H(annah) M(arie) Wormington (No. 4), and Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest, also by H.M. Wormington (No. 7). You can see photographs of Mary Chilton Gray on the website of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, here. The photographs show the artist alone, with staff members, and--of special interest--preparing dinosaur murals at the museum. Mary Chilton Gray was married to Robert J. Mendenhall, a commercial artist. She died in Denver on November 9, 1969, at age eighty.

"The Shadow Taos Pueblo," a watercolor by Mary Chilton Gray.

Three illustrations of Southwestern Indian dress and dance.

The cover of Fossils by Harvey C. Markman, with a cover design and illustration by Mary Chilton Gray. Photographs of her murals appear inside.

Finally, a floral still life from about 1942.

Text and captions copyright 2012, 2024 Terence E. Hanley