South Dakota State College - Jack Rabbit Yearbook (Brookings, SD)

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South Dakota State College 13 ADA B. CALDWELL September 28, 1869— November 8, 1938 From the Painting by Harvey T. Dunn, A.N. A.

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12 The Nineteen Thirty-Nine Jack. Rabbit TO MISS ADA B. CALDWELL Art Department Head, Friend of State College Students and F in South Dakota Art Circles for Nearly Four Decades orce The 1939 Jack Rabbit is dedicated to Miss Ada B. Caldwell, for 37 years head of the Art Department of South Dakota State College. We are so dedicat- ing our book because of Miss Caldwell ' s service to State College and its students, her leadership in cultural movements in the City of Brookings and the State of South Dakota, and because of the type of teacher she exemplified. Miss Caldwell, who passed away this fall, would undoubtedly wish to be re- membered as a teacher. She chose that career in the belief that one can not be both a creator and teacher. And Miss Caldwell was eminently successful in her teaching. Today several distinguished artists point out that Miss Caldwell is in a large measure responsible for their success. Among them is Harvey Dunn, prom- inent illustrator and portrait artist, who made the painting you see reproduced on the facing page. Mr. Dunn probably expresses the feeling of scores of her former students when he writes concerning the portrait: Miss Caldwell meant so much to me that anything I might do would seem inadequate . . . With a background of training at the University of Nebraska, the Chicago Art Institute, the Pratt Institute, the Teachers ' College of Columbia University and the Chase School of Art, Miss Caldwell came to South Dakota as instructor of art at Yankton College. In 1899, she became professor of art at State College, a position she held until her retirement in 1936. But Miss Caldwell was more than a teacher. She was, in spite of her devotion to the teaching profession, an artist in her own right. Vacation periods were gen- erally spent improving her abilities in crafts and her technique of teaching but occasionally she abandoned herself to her love for landscape painting, and her work was praised by high authorities in the art world. State College will also remember Miss Caldwell as Preceptress of the College from 1907 to 1917— during which time she had charge of all women students. From 1908 to 1911 and again from 1914 to 1917, she supervised the women ' s dormitory, instituting in that period many of the fine customs of dormitory life, such as Sunday sings, a self-government association, the proctor system and receptions. In whatever project for the development of interest in the arts and crafts either South Dakota or the City of Brookings sponsored. Miss Caldwell was to be found as one of the foremost advocates. Miss Caldwell will be remembered at State College as artist, teacher and friend.

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ft ft ft ADMINI STRATION— THESE MEN AND WOMEN GUIDE MORE THAN 1,000 STUDENTS THROUGH FOUR YEARS OF COLLEGE ft ft ft