Collection Guide
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Landacre (Paul), Crisell Collection on
MS.2020.009
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Title: Crisell collection on Paul Landacre
Creator:
Landacre, Paul, 1893-1963
Identifier/Call Number: MS.2020.009
Physical Description:
6 boxes
(8 linear feet)
Date (inclusive): 1928-2020
Abstract: The Paul Landacre collection formed by Robert and Toni Crisell consists of the artist's prints and related drawings, published
examples of his work, exhibition catalogs and other works about Landacre, and research files compiled by researcher Patricia
Adler Ingram.
Language of Material:
English
.
Collection is open for research; access requires at least 24 hours advance notice.
Gift, Robert and Toni Crisell, 2020.
Organization of the Collection
This collection is organized into 3 series:
- Prints, Proofs, and Drawings
- Published Work
- Research Files, Realia, and Posthumous Publications
Paul Hambleton Landacre was born in Columbus, OH, on 9 July 1893. He attended Ohio State University where he was a track and
field athlete with dreams of participating in the Olympics. During his sophomore year, he contracted a streptococcus infection
that caused permanent damage to his right leg and meant the end of his running career. After a long convalescence, he left
the midwest for San Diego, where his father and stepmother had settled, and found work as a commercial illustrator at an advertising
firm where he met his future wife, copywriter Margaret McCreery. Margaret Gertrude McCreery had been born in Missouri in 1891,
but by the early 1910s had also relocated to San Diego with her parents and siblings.
Around 1923, Margaret moved to Los Angeles to further her career, and Paul soon followed. They married in 1925 and settled
in the Edendale neighborhood of Los Angeles, in a house on El Moran Avenue where they would live for the rest of their lives.
Landacre enrolled in some drawing courses at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, but he largely taught himself the craft
of printmaking. In 1929, Margaret introduced Paul and his work to Jake Zeitlin, the Los Angeles bookseller for whom she worked
at the time, and Zeitlin became an important early champion of Paul and his artwork. Through Zeitlin, Landacre also met Delmer
Daves, another significant supporter and friend. During the 1930s, Landacre produced editions of single prints, in addition
to working on book and magazine illustration. He also received some income from the Landacre Association, a subscription scheme
organized by Zeitlin and Daves. Increasing commissions for book illustrations drew his attention away from art prints during
the 1940s. The most notable books containing his work are
California Hills (1931),
The Boar and Shibboleth (1933), five books by Donald Culross Peattie (1939-1953),
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1943),
De Rerum Natura (1957), and
On the Origin of Species (1963). From 1953 until his death he taught a course at Otis Art Institute.
Over the course of their lives together, Margaret played an instrumental role in Paul's career, continuing to work outside
their home in addition to working behind the scenes to organize his business affairs and running their household (which included
a succession of bulldogs). In 1963 Margaret McCreery Landacre died of cancer, and four weeks later, Paul Landacre died of
injuries sustained in an attempt to take his own life.
This collection was physically processed and described in 2022 by Rebecca Fenning Marschall. The entire Crisell collection
is also included in the finding aid to the Clark Library's
Paul Landacre Collection , which seeks to describe all Landacre materials at the Clark, for the ease of researchers.
Paul Landacre Collection , Press coll. Archives Landacre, UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
This finding aid describes the Paul Landacre collection formed by Robert and Toni Crisell and includes a wide variety of the
artist's wood cut prints and related drawings, as well as published examples of his wor, and works about him, such as exhibition
catalogs. Prints collected by the Crisells include not just editioned prints, but preliminary proofs and progressive trial
prints. Research files compiled by collector Patricia Adler Ingram, whose Landacre collection the Crisells acquired, include
a significant amount of correspondence about Landacre with his printer colleagues and friends.
The Crisell collection is also enumerated in the finding aid to the Clark Library's
Paul Landacre Collection , which has been compiled over time through various donations and purchases.
Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Clark Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.