Industry | Art calendar factory and advertising company |
---|---|
Founded | 1907 |
Defunct | 1971 |
Headquarters | , |
The Gerlach Barklow Co. was an art calendar factory located in Joliet, Illinois, which was "one of the largest calendar and advertising companies in America." [1] [2] the company was founded in 1907. [2] The factory employed over 1,500 people at its peak in the 1950s. [3]
Artists who worked for Gerlach Barklow included Arthur H. Hider, Bradshaw Crandell, Fletcher C. Ransom, [4] Adelaide Hiebel, [5] [6] and Zula Kenyon. [7] Many of the company's artists were women, or local residents, and many local residents served as artists' models. Lois Delander of Joliet, better known as Miss America 1927, was among the most famous models. A Gerlach-Barklow fan is displayed in the collection of the Oakland Museum of California. [8]
Gerlach Barklow calendars were purchased by businesses to be given to their important customers as gifts. [9]
Bolingbrook is a village in Will and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a southwest suburb of Chicago on I-55 and Historic Route 66. The village was a new town built on the Gateway Wetlands west of the Des Plaines River in the 1960s. Bolingbrook experienced rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s, eventually becoming Will county's second largest town after Joliet. Per the 2020 census, the population was 73,922. As of 2010, it is the 17th largest incorporated place in Illinois and the state's second-largest village.
Joliet is a city in Will and Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 census, the city is the 3rd most populous city in Illinois, with a population of 150,362.
Plainfield is a village in Will and Kendall counties, Illinois, United States. The population was 44,762 at the 2020 census.
The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway was a Class III railroad, operating between Waukegan, Illinois and Gary, Indiana. The railroad served as a link between Class I railroads traveling to and from Chicago, although it operated almost entirely within the city's suburbs, and only entered Chicago where it served the U.S. Steel South Works on the shores of Lake Michigan. Nicknames for the railroad included "The J" and "The Chicago Outer Belt Line". At the end of 1970, the EJ&E operated 164 miles of track and carried 848 million ton-miles of revenue freight in that year alone.
The Diocese of Joliet in Illinois is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Illinois in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Chicago.
Plainfield North High School (PNHS) is a four-year public high school located in Plainfield, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago, in the United States. Founded in August 2005, it is one of four high schools in the Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202. As of October 2021, it serves students who live in northern Plainfield, parts Plainfield, Wheatland, and Na-Au-Say Townships, and a small portion of southern Naperville.
Joliet Junior College (JJC) is a public community college in Joliet, Illinois. Founded in 1901, it was the first public community college founded in the United States.
"Colonel" Ed Fletcher was a real estate developer and U.S. Republican and Democratic politician from San Diego, California.
Joliet Union Station was a train station in Joliet, Illinois that served Amtrak long-distance and Metra commuter trains. It was replaced by the new Joliet Transportation Center in 2018, a train station that was constructed adjacent to the Union Station's location. Train service to Joliet Union Station permanently ceased in September 2014. The station is 37.0 miles (59.5 km) from Chicago Union Station on the Heritage Corridor, and 40.1 miles (64.5 km) from Chicago LaSalle St. Station on the Rock Island District.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × intermedia 'Lincoln' was selected from crossings of the Slippery, or Red, Elm Ulmus rubra and the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila made in Aurora, Illinois, circa 1958 and patented in 1983 by Samuel Clegg of Clegg Landscaping, Plainfield, IL and Charles McFarland of Urbana, IL.
Scott Michael Davis is a former NFL player. He played defensive end. He played for the Los Angeles Raiders from 1988 to 1991 and in 1994.
Romeo Roy Blanchette was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Joliet in Illinois from 1966 to 1979.
Bradshaw Crandell was an American artist and illustrator. He was known as the "artist of the stars". Among those who posed for Crandell were Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Veronica Lake and Lana Turner. In 1921, he began his career with an ad for Lorraine hair nets sold exclusively by F. W. Woolworth. His first cover illustration was the May 28, 1921 issue for the humor magazine Judge. In later life, he went from illustrations to oil-on-canvas paintings which included political figures. He also provided poster work for 20th Century Fox. In 2006, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. In March 2010, an illustration for the 1952 Dutch Treat Club yearbook of Crandell's sold for $17,000.
Lois Eleanor Delander was Miss America in 1927.
Adelaide Hiebel (1885–1965) was an artist and illustrator who worked for the Gerlach Barklow Co. in Joliet, Illinois, a manufacturer of art calendars. Hiebel preferred to work in pastels, and was known for her photographic detail and portraits of women, especially "women and dogs, mothers with infants, infant portraits and small children in cute situations."
Pearl Alice Frush was an American pin-up and glamour illustration artist during the golden era of the calendar art market. Pearl ranked amongst the top three female glamour artists, along with Joyce Ballantyne, and Zoë Mozert. They were a rare "Girl's Club" within the predominantly male pin-up masters of mid-century illustration: Alberto Vargas, George Petty, and Gil Elvgren. According to the co-author of The Great American Pin-Up, Louis K. Meisel, "Frush's technical brilliance was such that, upon close examination, her works even begin to take on a photographic clarity. Those knowledgeable collectors who have studied her paintings have often judged her the equal of Alberto Vargas in artistic excellence." Like Vargas she depicted women in provocative poses, however, she showed them with more proportional bodies than Vargas. She sometimes signed her paintings with her [then] married names "Pearl Frush-Brudon" or "Pearl Mann". One of her most recognizable and enduring contributions to American advertising iconography was her original rendering of Little Debbie® McKee, for McKee Foods in 1960.
P. F. Volland Company of Chicago, Illinois published poetry books, greeting cards, music, children's books, calendars, cookbooks, and children's occupational games, between 1908 and 1959. The press was noted for using new printing processes, including off-set printing techniques, and color illustrations. The P. F. Volland Company is also known for the many significant artists and writers whose work it published.
Edward Mason Eggleston was an American painter who specialized in calendar portraits of women, fashionable and fantastic. He was also a well known commercial illustrator doing work for companies such as the Fisk Tire Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Great Lakes Exposition.
John H. Barnes was an architect in the U.S. He designed several Romanesque style buildings in the late 19th century that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Zula Kenyon was an American illustrator, best known for her pastel work for the Gerlach Barklow Co.