Manuscripts Collection
Evelyn Raymond was born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1908. She attended the Minnesota College of Art Design in Minneapolis before withdrawing to follow two teachers to a new program, the Minneapolis Art Students League. After working and caring for her mother in Duluth for eight years, Raymond returned to Minneapolis to begin her career as a sculptor in the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in 1938. Between 1939 and 1951 she taught at the Walker Art Center school and was the head of the sculpture department. In 1958 her statue of Maria L. Sanford was installed at the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. In addition to her ongoing career as a sculptor creating architectural sculptures for businesses and churches, busts of well-known people, and many other works, she continued to teach in her own studios. Evelyn Raymond died in 1998.
Her papers contain a variety of information on her sculptures including Erg (1938), donated to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1980; her WPA bas relief for the International Falls high school stadium (1939); Feike Feikema (Frederick Manfred) bust (ca. 1947); Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Minneapolis (1949); Maria L. Sanford (1958); Family Group/The Family, Mutual Service Company, St. Paul (1959), later moved to the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul in 1983; Bernie Bierman bust, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (1976); Legacy, Fairview Hospital, Minneapolis (1982); Firebird, Methodist Hospital, St. Louis Park (1982); and Celebration of Peace, St. Louis Park (1997).
The collection also provides information on her other sculptures, her working and teaching philosophies, and how she built her career. There is brief information related to her membership in the Minnesota Sculpture Group and the Association of Women in Architecture.
The collection was originally housed in binders with little organization. Items were removed from binder sleeves and organized by type of material and chronologically if possible.
An oral history of Evelyn Raymond is part of the Minnesota Artists Oral History Project in the Minnesota Historical Society oral history collection.
Sculptures by Evelyn Raymond are in the Minnesota Historical Society museum collection.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Accession number: 15,771
Processed by: Anne Levin, September 2005
Catalog ID number: 3712805
Includes various curriculum vitae and biographical sketches.
Includes photographs of several of Raymond's sculptures. There is a series of photographs documenting her Maria L. Sanford statue from its wire frame to completion, accompanied by a newspaper article using many of the photographs. There are also a few photographs of Raymond's WPA era works.
A sketchbook and a few miscellaneous sketches.
Class advertisements, notes of goals for class, and a reading list. Studio letterhead and advertisement.
Drafts, portions of articles or speeches, brief notes, and some full essays by Raymond. Also includes some interviews of Raymond.
Brief information relating to the Minnesota Sculpture Group of which Raymond was a founding member and president and the Association of Women in Architecture.
A few pieces of correspondence, exhibition catalogs, and clippings of various dates that were pasted onto scrapbook pages such that different years and types of materials are combined.
An extensive collection of newspaper and magazine articles documenting Raymond's career and sculptures.
A wide range of information on Raymond and her sculptures is in this folder. Undated articles may complement articles in the dated clippings folders. Multiple dates occur when articles with different dates were pasted onto a single piece of paper (e.g. undated, 1943, and 1958).
Contains information on sculptures by Raymond used to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, the Feike Feikema bust, the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepard, the Maria L. Sanford statue, and the Family Group sculpture for Mutual Services Company. There is information on other sculptures and on Raymond and her career generally.
Information on Raymond and her sculptures including the Bernie Bierman bust, the donation of Erg to the Minnesota Historical Society, Legacy, Firebird, Family Group/The Family moving to St. Thomas, and the bust of Dimitri Mitropoulos.
A video celebrating Raymond and her sculpture on her 80th birthday, March 18, 1988. Length: 8:00. (See also notice of her birthday party, March 18, 1988 in Memorabilia and Miscellaneous Materials folder.)
An interview with Evelyn Raymond by Reg Dunlap, shown on City of St. Louis Park Civic Channel 35. Raymond speaks of her life and work. The video also shows the exhibition of her work held at the St. Louis Park Recreation Center in June 1997.
Speakers honoring Raymond at a dinner given as part of the St. Louis Park, Minnesota celebration of the completion of its Rec Center Renaissance project. Raymond's sculpture "Celebration of Peace" was installed at the new Recreation Center and a showing of her sculptures was part of the dinner event. (See also Memorabilia and Miscellaneous Materials folder and Clippings, 1972-1997 folder for additional items relating to this event.)