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Guide to the Dan Dickey Collection
MS 308
MS 308
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Title: Dan Dickey Collection
Identifier/Call Number: MS 308
Contributing Institution:
San Diego History Center Document Collection
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
5.0 Linear feet
(10 boxes)
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1920-1962
Date (inclusive): 1865-1990
Abstract: This collection contains the personal papers and family papers of Dan Dickey, a San Diego painter, sculptor, and muralist
partly known for his work under the WPA Federal Art Project.
creator:
Dickey, Daniel
Biographical / Historical Notes
Dan Dickey was born in New York on March 17, 1910 to parents Roy Dickey (1878-1953) and Ellen Rose Dickey (d. 1952). The family
moved to Chicago when Dickey was very young, and his parents divorced in 1914. Dan was raised in Chicago by his father (who
was a commercial artist working in advertising) and stepmother, Alice Manning Dickey, who married Roy Dickey in 1916. He majored
in English at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, graduating in 1932. In the years following his graduation, he studied
art in New York at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students’ League and traveled in Europe with his family.
In 1935, during the California-Pacific International Exposition, Dickey and two college friends, Malcolm McDowell (“Mac”)
and Paul Swartz traveled to San Diego, where Dickey would spend the rest of his life. He painted portraits at the Exposition,
where he met artist Foster Jewell and his wife Melisse, also an artist and a trained nurse (b. 1896). In 1937, Melisse divorced
her husband, and she and Dickey became lifelong partners. Their relationship went through a period of turmoil when, in 1950,
Dickey married former student and fellow local artist Ethel Greene, but they divorced in 1952, and Dickey and Jewell formally
married in 1955.
From 1937-1939, Dickey worked for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. In 1944, he joined San Diego muralist
Belle Baranceanu in painting six murals for a World War II bond drive. During 1944-1945 he wrote a column called “The Visual
Arts” for the San Diego Journal. He was a member of the San Diego Art Guild and the La Jolla Art Center, and his paintings
and sculptures appeared in exhibitions at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the
California State Fair. His first solo exhibition was held at the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego in 1948.
Dickey died in San Diego on November 2, 1961.
The collection contains material related to Dickey’s family, his elementary and secondary education and class notes, and other
material from his time at Carleton College. Dickey’s art career is documented by clippings, writings, correspondence, and
exhibition catalogs. Of particular significance is the voluminous correspondence that survives between Dickey and his parents,
spanning from the 1920s to the 1950s. A scrapbook (compiled by Roy Dickey) documents family activities during the first decades
of the 1900s. Many of the photographs feature Dan Dickey as a child.
Correspondence and family papers include those of his wife, Melisse Jewell Dickey; his father, Roy Dickey; his mother, Ellen
Rose Dickey; his step-mother, Alice Manning; and his maternal grandmother, Rose Higgins.
This collection is arranged in two series:
Series I: Dan Dickey Papers;
Series II: Dickey Family Papers.
Dan Dickey Collection, MS 308, San Diego History Center Document Archives, San Diego, CA.
This collection is open for research.
The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials. SDHC Library regulations do apply.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Scrapbooks are extremely fragile. Many of the letters are very soiled and some are brittle.
All original artwork has been removed to the Curatorial department. Most of original photographs have been removed to the
Photographs department.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated by Ettilie Wallace, a San Diego journalist and close friend of the Dickeys. Wallace assumed ownership
of the collection after Melisse Dickey’s death in 1963.
Collection processed by Amy Fry in September 2008.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Dickey, Alice Manning
Dickey, Ellen Rose Higgins
Dickey, Roy
Dickey, Velma Melisse Holben Jewell
Greene, Ethel J.
Ilan-Lael Foundation.
Ruocco, Lloyd, 1907-1981
Wallace, Ettilie
Art, American--California--San Diego--20th century
Artists
Artists--California--San Diego