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UPDATED
08-12-08
• WORDS IN DARKRED ARE LINKS •
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Swain School of Design
1881-1988
The Swain School of Design, founded in 1881, is a non-profit educational instituation established under the will of the founder, William W. Swain. The school holds the distinction of being the oldest private school in the State (Massacheusetts) devoted exclusively to the teaching of Fine and Commercial Art. Ideally located in the finest residential area of the City (New Bedford), it is sufficiently near the business center to make good stores, restaurants, and theaters easily accessible. Nearby is the famous Old Dartmouth Historical Society Museum, housing one of the finest collections of whaling articles in the world. Local drama, music, literary and art groups provide opportunities for participation in those interests. Also, within easy commuting distance of the school are recreational facilities that make the student's leisure hours more pleasant. The school is a charter member of The American Federation of Arts. The curriculum is approved by the Board of Collegiate Authority, Veterans Administration, and the United States State Department for the training of foreign students.
(from 1962-63 school catalog)
INDEX
1880s
FACULTY | STUDENTS | TIMELINE
The Swain Free School (1881-1902) in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was established in 1881 through the provisions of the will of New Bedford shipping & oil magnate and philanthropist William W. Swain" - as a memorial to his beloved son, Robert Swain (1820-1844).
The William W. Swain homestead at 391 County Street, New Bedford was originally the only building occupied by the school, when it opened in this building in 1882.
Classes were offer in English, History, German, French, and Design and Industrial Art. Tuition for full time student per year without room and board for was free of charge for area residents plus a deposit of $10 per semester, as a "measure of good faith".
1900s
FACULTY | STUDENTS | TIMELINE
In 1902 the school redefined its mission and called itself Swain Free School of Design (1903-1920), with the purpose of providing a "more complete and thorough course of instruction in the fundamental principles of design. . . and. . . instruction in the practical application of these princloples in all branches of decorative art."
One should . . . go to the Swain School to find out about local art. The money for the maintenance of this school was left by William A. Swain, for whose son Robert Swain Gifford was named. - R. Swain Gifford was born on the island of Naushon, his father the boatman to William Swain, then the island's owner and founder of the Swain School, for whose son he was named. - It was incorporated in 1881 and now has courses in general and normal art - arts and crafts, design, architecture, jewelry and metal, ceramics, painting, sketching, modeling, etc. Harry A. Neyland, a well-known artist, is the director and former directors and members of the faculty have shown marked ability. Here are held exhibitions from time to time of posters, paintings, arts and craft work of the school pupils and of artists outside and once a year the Swain Camera Club displays its talent.
Artists of This Vicinity
by Mrs. Elwyn G. Campbell
The Roundabout Club, 1921
Portrait class, around 1912 Swain Free School of Design
(UMass Dartmouth Library Swain School Archives)
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William W. Swain homestead, 391 County Street (ca. 1940)
Originally the only building occupied by the Swain Free School.
The building was completed destroyed by fire on March 13, 1948.
1920s-1959s
FACULTY | STUDENTS
TIMELINE
1920-29 | 1930-1939 | 1940-1949 | 1950-1959
In 1921 the school's name changed again to Swain School of Desgin (1921-1988). Classes were offered in designing various crafts, and the school offered its graduates a certificate when they completed their studies. In the 1950s commerical art was emphazised - the school was sometimes referred to as the "cut and paste" school.
William W. Crapo Gallery
image source: Umass Dartmouth Archives
The William W. Crapo Gallery was built in 1925 with funds provided by William W. Crapo. The Gallery was attached to the main school building and easilty accessible to students. On the main floor, it had a large central exhibition hall and student lounge. In the 1960s, gallery activities were supported by the Crapo Gallery Sponsors. Programs included a series of lectures on art and important exhibitions of 19th and 20th centruy pasterpieces, a yearly drawing show and surveys of the work of significant contemporary artists. (based on 1966 catalog description)
"Sunday, July 28, 1946 -- "I talked with Mrs. Casey and Helen Leary at the station. Miss Leary said that she, Ruth McGurk and Ruth Jefferson have a room at Mrs. Casey's. Last night the three girls went to a dance at the Colonial. Ruth McGurk was dancing with a fellow named Frank. He is unknown to the other girls. Ruth left with him and said that she would be home early. She has not returned. Description of Ruth McGurk: 25 years; 5'2"; 102 lbs.; auburn hair; very fair skin; slender; pink sport dress; brown and white shoes. -- Notes of former Wareham Police Chief Chester A. Churchill."
"Sunday, Aug. 18, 1946 -- Charles Russell Goodale was locked up for Lt. Sullivan and Lt. Dempsey, for reasonable suspicion of the murder of Ruth McGurk. -- Police Chief Churchill's notes.
Within days of the discovery of her body, Charles Russell Goodale was taken into custody in connection with Ruth McGurk's murder. Mr. Goodale, a Naval veteran who lived with his family on Onset Avenue, was 25 years old at the time of his arrest. Newspaper clippings described how Mr. Goodale, who studied at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, painted pictures of fellow inmates while awaiting his trial...."
TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!
If you have any information about this unsolved mystery or the Swain School student, Charles Russell Goodale, please contact me and I will forward your information to an individual who is researching and hoping to resolve this unresolved mystery of murder and rape...
index
1960s
TRUSTEES | FACULTY | STUDENTS | TIMELINE
Catherine Crapo Bullard
(1897-1977)
JOSEPH COLETTI (1898-1973)
Bronze Portrait Relief of
Catherine Crapo Bullard
(Mrs. John Morgan Bullard)
Mr. Coletti was a close friend of Catherine Bullard (resident ol Nonquitt, Mass), a generous patron of the arts, whose influence was strongly felt in her native city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Mr. Coletti executed this portrait medal of
Mrs. Bullard. This example, from an edition of perhaps ten, was given by her to her protege Carl Crossman. Northeastern Auctions
• April 6, 1962 letter from Mrs. Bullard to Scattergood-Moore
• 2006 WHALE preservation awards
"The Catherine Crapo Bullard Award is awarded periodically to extraordinary individuals or organizations that have followed their hearts in pursuing nearly impossible preservation projects. Catherine Crapo Bullard was one of WHALE's earliest supporters and was directly responsible for saving the Benjamin Rodman Mansion."
• Captain Edmund Gardner by John M. Bullard, 1958
• in Memory of John C. Bullard, MD
Crapo Studio Building (Studio "D"), built in 1967
Umass Dartmouth Archies & Special Collections
Beginning drawing class, 1960
Scattergood-Moore is standing on the right next to
Bruce Childs; Arthur Smith and Bob Ostiguy are
at the left and Josephine Grasso in foreground.
In 1960, under the patronage of Catherine Crapo Bullard (William W. Crapo's granddaughter), and advise from a distinguished group of advisors on attracting talented professional artists as instructors, the school put a stronger emphasis on the Fine Arts, especially drawing from life.
I have tried so hard to bring to New Bedford a grade of teaching equal to that in bigger cities so that our students could go out into the world of art with equal chance of success. . . The letters in the paper this last week have been discouraging - they make you wonder if New Bedford is fertile soil for growth and improvement . . .
Catherine C. Bullard April 6th (1962)
Painting class, 1964 - Swain School of Design
on left: A. D. Tinkham - on right: Meredith Wildes
In keeping the the original wishes of the founder, William W. Swain, tuition is maintained at a minimum. An individual tuition payment represents less than one-half of the actual costs incurrred in the education of that individual at Swain. (1963-64 catalog)
Tuition for full time students per year without room and board:
• 1963-64: $400.00 plus $21.35 in fees.
SWAIN STABLE 140 Orchard Street, built c.1820 - This stone carriage house is located on the original Swain property and was used at different times as faculty housing (Joyce Reopel & Mel Zabarsky lived here in the early 1960s), a library, a bookstore, supply store, and visiting artists' quarters. - source: Umass Dartmouth Archives
I was at Swain in the early 1960s ... it was an exciting time to be a student there ... great faculty, trustees, and some really interesting students. It was, in many ways, like living in another century... New Bedford was then rated as the most underdeveloped city in the United States; it was more like a city of the 1800s than the bombed out metropolis it became under urban-renewal in the 1970s. I will always remember my time in New Bedford with great affection. - Scattergood-Moore
Swain was a little miracle, an academy of art that felt as if it should have been in Paris at the turn of the century rather than New Bedford in the days of disco." - anonymous alumni
... During the 80's though there was a good deal of positive development in the downtown area and the heart of downtown became an attractive place. - Steven Leahy
An exhibition titled, Swain Resurgent, opened in January, 1999 at the New Bedford Art Museum. "I'm not sure, but I think Richard Kellaway came up with the original idea," Lyn Newton, administrator of the Museum, said. "The museum has long wanted to feature the talent that was there at Swain School." "Only Sig Haines of the Swain School faculty is still at UMass Dartmouth from the group absorbed in the merger," she said. The exhibit was curated by Severin Haines with associate curators Carolyn Dlouhy and Deborah Healy.
The exhibit was a celebration of the Swain School of Design during the 1960s and featured the work of 17 faculty and students of that time. Representing the Swain School faculty were Sigmund Abeles, Ron Kowalke, Ed Lazansky, Joyce Reopel, David Loeffler Smith and Melvin Zabarsky. The Swain alumni exhibiting included Dennis Broadbent, Eliza (Lidie) Collins, Meredith Wildes-Cornell, William D'Elia, Richard Dougherty, Leonard Dufresne, Severin (Sig) Haines, John Hopkins, Robert (Tex) Lavery and Scattergood Moore. The exhibit focused on the period when Swain School shifted its focus from a mainly design education to an emphasis on fine arts.
In 1962, David Loeffler Smith became director of the school, and Swain School put a stronger emphasis on fine arts. Catherine Crapo Bullard, granddaughter of William W. Crapo, proved to be a great benefactress to the school. Professor Haines, exhibition curator, was present at the major transition in the '60s, and said that the faculty members included in the exhibit are representative of that shift. . .
Mr. Haines said that the time period represented by the exhibit was significant for the school and highly influential. "At the local level, people did not always realize what they had here," Mr. Haines pointed out. "All the New York schools would take our students into their graduate programs. At one point, the Parsons School of Design in New York City had over 40 percent of its graduate students from Swain School of Design. These people in the exhibit were seminal in making this one of finest small art schools in America." Adapted from an article by Richard Pacheco Standard-Times correspondent
1970s
FACULTY | STUDENTS | TIMELINE
Although the school was an exciting and vibrant art community in the 1970's it began to suffer financial difficulties. The Program in Artinasry, which was being cancelled by Boston University, was taken over by Swain School of Design, adding areas of study in ceramics, metals, textitles, and furniture that Swain did not have - unfortunately at a great expense!
Swain remembered by Scott Nash:
In the fall of 1978, with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation, I entered the hallowed halls of the Swain School of Design and it's unique environment of bohemian academia. It was to become a dream come true for me.
Swain was a little miracle, an academy of art that felt as if it should have been in Paris at the turn of the century rather than New Bedford in the days of disco. The school boasted large studios for majors, accesable 24 hours, and a rigorous cirriculum with long studio classes and "alternative " liberal arts.
The school's faculty was true to its promise of art academy Included were an assortment of exhippies, expressionists and expatriates from universities. Marxists, New Wavers, Punks and deconstuctionists. Chain-smoking historians, chain-smoking poets, chain-smoking critics. They were all so AUTHENTIC.
1980-1988
FACULTY | STUDENTS | TIMELINE
 Dr. Bruce H. Yenawine presided over the Swain School of Design from 1982 until 1987. He is widely credited with keeping the then-struggling school alive. "Bruce was here trying to make the Swain School work, and in the process, he did miracles," said Maximillian Ferro, the owner of New Bedford's Preservation Partnership and an architect who worked extensively with Mr. Yenawine.
"For Bruce, everything was full of potential," said Bill Shattuck, a visiting professor in the UMass Design Department who was on the Swain School's board of trustees during Dr. Yenawine's tenure.
Among Dr. Yenawine's major accomplishments was the Swain School's merger with SMU. Many believe the outcome was the best possible outcome for the struggling school. Former mayor John K. Bullard characterized it as a "regrettable, but necessary transition." "If it hadn't happened, the Swain School would have just drifted away like so many other things in this town," Mr. Ferro said.
Dr. Yenawine left the Swain School in 1987, shortly before it merged with the then Southeastern Massachusetts University's College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Dr. Yenawine is also remembered for orchestrating the Swain School's merger with Boston University's program in artistry. The union - which combined a craft-focused BU program with the more classical Swain program - is now lauded by many artists. "Swain needed something at the time and this was a way of doing it," said Chris Guston, a UMass professor who moved from BU as a result of the merger. Many of Mr. Yenawine's former colleagues added that the recent growth in the UMass art department has its roots in the Yenawine years.
Dr. Bruce H. Yenawine, 47, died on Aug. 18, 1997 following serious head injuries from a car accident on Aug. 8.
Dr. Bruce Yenawine, ex-Swain School chief, dies
by Richard M. Burnes, New Standard: 8-20-97
In 1988 the Swain School of Design merged with Southeastern Massachusetts University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. Today it exists as part of the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth).
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For the 2000-2001 school year, tuition for a full time student per year without room and board was $1417 + $2722 in fees for Massachusetts residents or $7845 tuition + $2938 in fees for out-of-state students
Swain School of Design Links:
• Swain Resurgent, Standard-Times, January 28, 1999
• New Bedford Alumni Registry | Alumni.NET
• 7th UMass Art Auction, 5/09/96
• Swain Free School Archives
• UMass Dartmouth Swain School of Design Timeline:
1881-1092 | 1903-1919 | 1920-1929 | 1930-1939 | 1940-1949
1950-1959 | 1960-1969 | 1970-1979 | 1980-1988
• Swain Buildings
• Presidents of Swain School of Design
• Swain Records in the UMD Library
The archives consist of the minutes of the Board of Trustees, 1879-1988, treasurer's records, reports to the Board by the school's directors, 1889-1988, the files of the last Swain directors, a full run of the school's course catalogs, scrapbooks, gallery notices and some posters, dating from 1966 through the early 1980s. Please consider sending them your photographs, student art work or related materials!
• Swain School of Design Reunion (1981-1991) [update]
Press Release by Dawn Viola & Scott Tetreault
• Google Search Results for "Swain School of Design"
• Yahoo Search for "Swain School of Design"
• SWAIN SCHOOL OF DESIGN ON FACEBOOK •
The Spouter Inn, New Bedford
illustration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick
woodcut by Rockwell Kent, Random House, 1930
New Bedford Area Artists:
Some of America's finest painters lived & worked in the
New Bedford area during the last half of the 19th century...
ENTER HERE
Related Links:
• Artists of This Vicinity by Mrs. Elwyn G. Gampbel
Presented at the Roundabout Club in 1921 and
the Fairhaven Colonial Club in 1922
• A romantic art colony in Marion by painter: Nancy Dyer Mitton
• History of City of New Bedford
• New Bedford Art Museum
608 Pleasant Street, New Bedford, MA 02740
• Exhibit revisits creative energy...
• Whaler Out of New Bedford: Smithsonian Global Sound
Whaler Out of New Bedford
performed by
Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger & A.L. Lloyd
The Fitting Out
• New Bedford Whaling Museum
Artists and Artisans
• Umass History Timeline
• Swain School of Design: Wikipedia
• Gems of the City: 6-4-2005
• Boris Mirski Gallery
• Henry Howland Crapo family papers collection
• International School of Art, Umbria, Italy
• SIRIS Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
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THIS IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS
YOUR PARTICIPATION WOULD BE APPRECIATED
Peter McClure holding sign, 1980s
photo credit © 2007 Clayton Lewis
I'M LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO ATTENDED SWAIN
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The Years You Attended & Classes You Took at Swain
Graduation Year & Areas of Study or Degree
if you didn't graduate don't worry most students didn't!
Information on Swain School Faculty
Stories and Remembrances of Life at Swain
Photographs of People, Campus Life and Artworks
IF YOU CAN HELP
CONTACT
SCATTERGOOD-MOORE
(class of 1963)
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Swain was a place where we had a strong, personal connection to the faculty, and we learned more. . .
Joan Franco Briand
Cover Liberal Content 1960
© 2008 Scattergood-Moore
© copyright 2008 PantherProUSA
updated 08-12-2008
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