Hale Woodruff Collection

Hale Aspacio Woodruff was a renowned artist and educator, attending the John Herron Art School in Indianapolis, Indiana; the Chicago Art Institute; Academie Moderne and Academie Scandinave in Paris, France; Fog Art Museum of Harvard University; and studying in Mexico with Diego Rivera. Woodruff began his teaching career at Atlanta University in 1931 helping to develop an art curriculum and build a strong faculty. Among his most noted achievements was the establishment of the Atlanta University Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture and Prints by Negro Artists, a national competition for new and established artists, held from 1942 through 1970. Woodruff left Atlanta University in 1946 to accept a position at New York University, where he retired in 1967. Among his most outstanding works are the murals - The Amistad Mural, and The Founding of Talladega College, Talladega College, Alabama, The Art of the Negro, Atlanta University, Georgia, The Golden State Mural, Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, California. This small collection about Hale Woodruff is primarily materials accumulated by Winifred Stoelting in doing research for her dissertation, Hale Woodruff, Artist and Teacher: Through the Atlanta Years, Emory University, 1978. Upon completion of the dissertation, Dr. Stoelting donated her research materials to the Atlanta University Trevor Arnett Library Negro Collection.

At the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library we are always striving to improve our digital collections. We welcome additional information about people, places, or events depicted in any of the works in this collection. To submit information, please contact us at DSD@auctr.edu.