Bess Bruce Cleaveland, Illustrator for Cut and Paste

A good friend of mine lists among her many skills, "Tenacious Googler." I will be getting some advanced tips from her in the near future, but I suspect there are still some things one just can't find on the internet.

I love to find something I've never seen before--especially something with an obvious human touch. This set of illustrations by Bess Bruce Cleaveland grew on me--the sweet children in charming holiday, nursery rhyme and other idyllic settings. There are nine pictures framed identically at a framer in Slidell, La, former home of the late owner. They seem to be printed drawings with cut and applied color paper pieces. On a couple of them, some of the glue shows through. They are each signed "Bess Bruce Cleaveland."

Here are some questions I have: Who was Cleaveland? Did she make these, design them for other people to make, or did someone else make it up as an art project? Are the color pieces printed in color or painted? Are these pictures part of a book or series or random? When were they made? Are others like them available? Is there any record of sales for them?


Then, these pictures reminded me of other children's illustration art of the early 20th century--Jesse Willcox Smith, Maginel Wright Enright, Mary Louise Spoor and Margaret Ely Webb. I wonder if they ever crossed paths or knew of each other's work.

I found from the Ohio Historical Society that Bess Bruce Cleaveland was from Washington Court House, Ohio and attended art school in New York. She taught art and illustrated children's books, postcards and teaching materials for health and safety and Sunday School in the 1910s-1930s. I believe these prints were part of a kit to assemble, but I've not found this set available anywhere else. This kits may have included transparencies, colored paper and blank prints. Other completed framed pictures like these sold in 2008 and 2009. I also found simlar cut and paste posters and prints of Cleaveland's of Eskimos and still life.

The late owner made this piece of
Scherenschnitte.

The late owner of these framed pieces did Scherenschnitte, a German paper-cutting art. So her interest in these collage prints is not surprising. The internet is not been helpful at all in telling me who cut and pasted the Cleaveland pictures! Come see them in Mt. Juliet starting Thursday, February 23, 2012.