Portrait of a Young Woman in a Chinese Robe

Pauline Dohn Rudolph (1865-1934)
Oil on canvas

The compelling style of the portrait suggests the artist’s post-graduate study with Realist painter Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Though the subject of the portrait remains unknown, the Rudolph family suggests she is most likely Mary Dohn, the artist’s younger sister. The work was exhibited widely, and before it found its new home at WHS, it hung in the Rudolph’s home.

Pauline Dohn Rudolph was born in Chicago and entered the Chicago Academy of Design, now the Art Institute of Chicago, after finishing high school at age thirteen. She studied in Europe in the 1880s and exhibited in the Fine Arts Palace of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Rudolph and her husband Franklin moved to Winnetka by 1907, purchasing a home at 745 Sheridan Road. Here she supervised the Winnetka extension of the Saturday Junior School of the Art Institute of Chicago and served on the board of the Winnetka Public Library.

To learn more about the artist Pauline Dohn Rudolph, CLICK HERE.

In 2021 the painting The Seeker: I Sent My Soul Through the Invisible, also by Pauline Dohn Rudolf, was donated to the Winnetka Historical Society by the M. Christine Schwartz Collection. It is currently on exhibit at North Shore Community Bank, 567 Lincoln Avenue, Winnetka. CLICK HERE for more information about this painting.

Portrait of Mrs. Franklin Ellis, 1944 

Anita Willets-Burnham (1880-1957)
Oil on canvas

Portrait of Mrs. Grace Shackford Ellis wearing a fur stole. The background image features imagery from a Burnham fresco also in the WHS Burnham Art collection. The work of Anita Willets-Burnham (1880-1957) is best characterized as realism with a touch of humor. Now primarily remembered as the colorful owner of the Schmidt-Burnham Log House, Anita was a formally-trained artist, teacher, author, lecturer, and world traveler. Along with owning her Log House, WHS maintains a wide collection of Burnham family artwork, archives, and artifacts.

Throughout her life, Willets-Burnham painted and showcased her work in many exhibitions throughout North America, including at the Art Institute of Chicago. She was locally active in the North Shore Art League and war bond fundraising. An enthusiastic traveler, Anita took her family on two world trips. Upon her return she published a book, ‘Round the World on a Penny, about the Burnham family’s adventures abroad. But she always considered the Log House her home, and in its studio she sketched, painted, and taught her techniques to generations of students.

Learn more about the artist Anita Willets-Burnham HERE.

Portrait of Heluiz Washburne, undated

Unknown Artist
Oil on canvas
On loan from Faith Anderson

Heluiz Washburne (1892-1970) was an author of children’s books who lived in Winnetka for many years with her family. She acquired the traditional Russian “Sarafan” or pinafore worn in the painting while visiting the Soviet Union with her husband, Crow Island School principal, Winnetka schools superintendent, and globally acclaimed progressive educator Carleton Washburne. The flowered head scarf tied under her chin was also part of the everyday dress of Russian peasants. It is not known if she was painted wearing the dress while in Russia or when she returned home to Winnetka.

The sarafan pictured here was donated along with the portrait by Faith Anderson for the temporary exhibit The Adventurers: Untold Tales of Travel in Winnetka, 1899-1930.

To learn about the impact Carelton Washburn had on Winnetka, CLICK HERE.

Portrait of Ralph Kenneth Jones, 1944

Thomas Jefferson League (1892-1954)
Egg tempra on canvas

Egg tempera painting of Lieutenant Ralph Kenneth Jones of the 15th U.S. Army Air Corps, 54th Division. Jones was a Winnetka resident and New Trier High School graduate. Lt. Jones was killed in action on April 4, 1944 while piloting a B-24 bomber over the Ploesti Oil Fields in Romania. After a successful mission, he and his crew of nine other men were on their way back to base when the aircraft crashed. You can find his name on the cenotaph memorial on the Village Green.

Thomas Jefferson League, a cousin of the Jones family, painted the likeness shortly after his death from 1944-1945. League was an American artist who came to Chicago at age 16 to study art from Galveston, Texas, where he had survived the great 1900 Galveston Hurricane. Known for his portraiture, landscapes, and genre work, he also completed murals painted for the WPA from 1933-1943 for the University of Illinois Medical Center, Clissold School, and Lane Tech, where he was an art teacher.

To learn about other Winnetkan veterans from WWI and WWII, CLICK HERE.

Untitled, circa 1920

Anita Willets-Burnham (1880-1957)
Oil on canvas

Landscape by Anita Willets-Burnham, most likely depicting the Skokie, before it was constructed into the Skokie Lagoons. Primarily remembered as the colorful owner of the Schmidt-Burnham Log House, Anita was a formally-trained artist, teacher, author, lecturer, and world traveler. Her log home was originally located on what is now the ninth hole of Indian Hill Club Golf Course. She had it moved to 1407 Tower Road, where it overlooked the Skokie’s picturesque vistas such as this.

To learn more about Anita, her family and the log house she called home, CLICK HERE.

Portrait of Carrie Burr Prouty, undated

Unknown Artist
Oil on canvas

Carrie Burr Prouty (1865-1945) was a dynamic woman who holds a number of “firsts” for Winnetka: the first female president of the Winnetka Library Board from 1906-1945, a founder of the Winnetka Woman’s Club – now the Winnetka Club, and also a founding member and the first female president of the Winnetka Historical Society from 1937-1938 and again from 1939-1942. Civic-minded and dynamic, Carrie Burr Prouty embodied the progressive aura of the Village of Winnetka during her time.

The silk dress Prouty wears in this painting is also part of the WHS permanent collection. Passed down through many generations in her family, the dress was one of Mrs. Prouty’s prized possessions.

To learn more about Carrie Burr Prouty and other notable Winnetka Women CLICK HERE.

Carrie Burr Prouty was the daughter of  Sanford S. Burr, another prominant Winnetkan. Learn more about his life HERE.

Portrait of Frank A. Windes, 1942

Helen Orb Dawes (1895-1989)
Oil on canvas

Known as the “Father of Winnetka,” Frank A. Windes left a lasting legacy in his chosen hometown. Born in Jasper, Tennessee, Frank Windes (1870-1953) moved to Winnetka from Chicago when he was seven years old. After leaving Winnetka to earn an engineering degree from the University of Michigan, he returned and became Village Engineer in 1898. Windes designed the original plans for the railroad track depression and the Skokie Lagoons. He was one of the founders of the Winnetka Historical Society in 1932. The Society’s collection is rich with documents, photographs, and artifacts that he gathered and donated.

Artist Mrs. Helen Orb Dawes was a long time Winnetka resident and veteran of both WWI and WWII. She studied at the School of the Art Institute, the Art Students League in New York, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Already in France when World War I began in 1914, she served alongside the American Expeditionary Forces as one of about 200 women. A valuable recruit who could speak both French and German fluently, she was stationed in France during the war and in Germany afterwards. She also served in World War II as a Red Cross Gray Lady, sculpting artificial limbs for maimed GIs.

To learn more about Frank A. Windes and his impact on Winnetka, CLICK HERE.

Portrait of Mary Constance Bull, 1929

Pauline Palmer (1867-1938)
Oil on canvas

Mary Constance Bull Jaicks lived at 43 Locust Road in the Indian Hill Neighborhood. Mary attended the North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka and graduated from Smith College. was an ambulance driver during WWII, and an employee of Winnetka’s own Chestnut Court Bookstore. Her sons Wilson and David Jaicks donated the painting to WHS in 2013 after the death of their father Wilson A. Jaicks, Jr, to whom Mary was married for 36 years until her death.

Pauline Palmer (1867-1938) was a prolific painter deemed “Chicago’s Painter Lady” and was known for her portraits, landscapes, and as a champion of American impressionism. Though she never had children, she was particularly fond of creating portraiture of children, both commissioned and on her own, painting interesting people she met on the street. Palmer was commissioned for seventeen portraits in 1929, this one included.

Portrait of Olive Beaupre Miller, undated

Unknown Artist
Oil on canvas

Olive Beaupré (1883-1968) was born in Aurora, Illinois and is most well-known for her My Bookhouse for Children series of popular children’s books. After graduating from Smith College, she returned to teach English in her home town. In 1917, she and her husband, Harry Miller, moved to Winnetka, where they built a house at 671 Walden Road.

Beaupré Miller’s love of language and desire to find appropriate literature for her daughter led her to compose poetry and stories for children. The Millers founded a publishing company, The Bookhouse for Children, in 1919 and published their first series, the six-volume My Bookhouse, in 1920.

An active Winnetka community advocate, she helped raise funds for the construction of The Skokie School and was a founding member of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Beaupré Miller died in Arizona in 1968. Along with this painting, the WHS also holds a collection of Mrs. Olive Beaupre Miller’s dresses and books.

To learn more about Olive Beaupre Miller, CLICK HERE.

The Lady Elgin Disaster, undated

Gary Sheahan (1894-1978)
Oil on canvas

This painting depicts the Lady Elgin disaster of 1860. On the night of September 7, the steamer headed to Milwaukee from Chicago. At 2 AM on September 8, 1860 the schooner Augusta collided with the Lady Elgin off the coast of Waukegan. The rough waters swept the passengers toward Winnetka, where some of them were rescued. Reports vary, but contemporary accounts suggest that nearly 600 people were aboard when the Lady Elgin departed from Chicago. Only about 100 people survived, making this disaster one of the worst in the history or the Great Lakes.

Gary Sheahan was born in Winnetka in 1894. He left his studies at the University of Notre Dame to attend the Art Institute of Chicago. Sheahan joined the Chicago Tribune staff in 1922, and in 1943 he was sent overseas for the paper as an artist correspondent. He completed more than 1,000 portraits of Chicago area GI’s and 150 paintings of battle scenes that were printed in the Tribune. When he returned to the United States, Sheahan continues to work as an artist and illustrator.

To learn more about the Winnetkan painter Gary Sheahan, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about this historical disaster, CLICK HERE.