Dates: 1943-1965.

Originals are restricted. Microfilm must be used instead.

 

Biography:

Walter (Bob) Inglis Anderson

Walter (Bob) Inglis Anderson was born on September 29, 1903, in New Orleans. He was the son of George Walter Anderson, a cotton exporter, and Annette McConnell Anderson, the daughter of a local judge, James McConnell, Sr. The Andersons had two other sons: Peter Anderson, born in 1901, and James McConnell (Mac) Anderson, born in 1907. Annette Anderson had been schooled as a painter and encouraged all three of her sons to become involved in art.

At the age of eight, Anderson attended Manlius Military School in Manlius, New York, and was enrolled there for seven years. On October 1, 1919, he attended Isidore Newman Manual Training School in New Orleans, Louisiana, completing his high school education. By 1923, Anderson was accepted into Parsons Institute of Design in New York, only to transfer to Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts the following year. While attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he won second place for the Packard Prize in 1925. In June of 1927, Anderson won the Cresson Traveling Scholarship for traveling abroad, and studied in France. After failing to obtain a second Cresson Scholarship, Anderson returned to his family in the spring of 1928. His family had recently taken up permanent residence at their summer home in Ocean Springs, Jackson County, Mississippi, and it was there that Anderson helped decorate pots for his brother, Peter, who had just opened up a pottery shop on the property.

Shearwater Pottery was opened to the public in January 1928 and was run by Peter and his father, George Walter Anderson. In June 1929, Peter took Anderson to meet Patricia (Pat) and Agnes (Sissy) Grinstead at their summer home, Oldfields, in Gautier, Jackson County, Mississippi. The following summer, in 1930, Anderson proposed to Agnes Grinstead and spent the next three years making clay figurines with his brother Mac, hoping to acquire a regular income to marry her. On April 29, 1933, Anderson and Agnes Grinstead were married at St. Pierre’s Episcopal Church in Gautier, Jackson County, Mississippi. After spending a week in Oldfields for their honeymoon, Anderson and his wife returned to Shearwater to live in the cottage that was given to them as a wedding present from the Andersons.

In 1935, during the Depression, Anderson was hired through the Federal Arts Project to paint a Work Progress Administration mural in the Ocean Springs public high school. This work was titled, Ocean Springs: Past and Present.

In late February of 1937, Anderson’s father, George Walter Anderson, died. Anderson suffered a nervous breakdown soon after, and was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with dementia praecox, the same diagnosis that had been given to Annette’s sister, Delphine (Dellie) McConnell. He was taken to the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland, and placed under the care of Adolf Meyer. Anderson was thirty-three years old. For the next three years, from February 1937 to February 1940, Anderson was in and out of hospitals, including the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, Rankin County, Mississippi.

During this time, Anderson’s wife bore two of his children: Mary Anderson on December 8, 1937, and William Walter (Billy) Anderson on October 26, 1939. In January 1941, Anderson moved to Oldfields to live with his wife and children, as well as Agnes’ father, Billie Grinstead, who was in poor health. Anderson’s third child, Leif Anderson, was born on May 23, 1944. During his stay at Oldfields, Anderson created many illustrations for classic works such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Paradise Lost, Don Quixote, and Alice in Wonderland. By mid-December in 1946, Anderson had moved back to Ocean Springs, living in the Shearwater cottage. On March 12, 1947, he and Agnes had their fourth child, John Grinstead (Johnny) Anderson. After the death of her father in February 1948, Agnes and the children moved out of Oldfields in the fall of that year. They moved back to Ocean Springs, Jackson County, Mississippi, where they rented a house in town.

Anderson’s work had been noticed by John and Loise Lehman, friends of the family, and in 1948, Anderson agreed to show some of his carvings and block prints for an exhibit at the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee. The collection soon became a traveling exhibit sponsored by the American Association of University Women. From May 26 to October 1, 1949, the Brooklyn Museum of Art also showed a series of Anderson’s prints in an exhibition titled “Folk Tale and Fantasy: Modern Scroll Prints in Color.” These block prints contained illustrations of well-known fairy tales such as Thumbelina, Beauty and the Beast, and the Pied Piper.

Upon receiving two thousand dollars after the death of his aunt Dellie, his mother’s sister, Anderson traveled to China on July 18, 1949, with the intention of crossing over into Tibet. On his way to Tibet, Anderson’s passport and money were stolen, which forced him to return to Hong Kong where his family could wire money to him. He returned to Ocean Springs, Jackson County, Mississippi, on September 11, 1949.

In February of 1951, Anderson painted a mural in Ocean Springs’ newly built Community Center, charging only one dollar for the making of the mural. This mural was divided into three parts with the landing of Iberville on the south wall, the “seven climates” of Ocean Springs on the north wall, and a representation of the sun and the rose on the east wall. Later that year, Anderson traveled to Costa Rica, using the proceeds made from the Brooklyn show, spending most of his time sketching the exotic plants and animals that he found there. Anderson even brought some of these exotic plants back with him to Ocean Springs.

Upon hearing about the exhibition of the work of a former Pennsylvania Academy teacher, Henry McCarter, Anderson traveled up to Philadelphia, in April 1953, on his bike in order to see it. In December 1960, Anderson went to visit Frank Baisden, an old friend, who had recently bought a grapefruit grove near Vero Beach, Florida. During his time there, Anderson spent his nights sleeping underneath Baisden’s porch and spent his days painting grapefruits in the orchard.

On January 25, 1964, Anderson’s mother, Annette McConnell Anderson, died. Anderson spent more and more time at Horn Island, only coming back to decorate ten pieces of pottery for Shearwater Pottery for ten dollars a week. Anderson would then use the money to buy supplies so he could return to Horn Island to paint.

In November 1965, Anderson was taken by his wife to see a doctor after explaining to her that he had been coughing up blood. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and sent to Baptist Hospital in New Orleans, where he was taken into surgery on November 23. Anderson collapsed the morning of November 30, 1965, and died later that day at Baptist Hospital. His body was sent by train to Ocean Springs where he was buried in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery.

Upon entering his cottage after his death, his family discovered more than 8,640 works by the artist, including a number of line drawings, wood carvings, block prints, and decorated pottery pieces scattered throughout the Shearwater cottage. Watercolors that Anderson had done during his visits to Horn Island from 1948 to 1965 were also found, as well as around ninety journals that he had written of his experiences on the island. There was also a padlocked room which contained a mural, covering all four walls and the ceiling. This particular mural has been titled Creation at Sunrise, and documents the movement of the sun from day to night.

 

Scope and Content Note:

The Walter Inglis Anderson papers include thirty-five journals, known as “logs,” of Anderson’s travels to areas such as the Chandeleur Islands, Horn Island, and Oldfields; miscellaneous writings; and notes composed for the teaching of an art history class. The papers are composed of loose pages and spiral-bound notebooks. There are also strips containing annotations presumably made by family members. The logs in folders twenty-nine through thirty-two contain miscellaneous entries. 

The collection has been microfilmed. The microfilm contains material still in possession of the donor as well as that in the collection. The papers are arranged in the same order as they appear on the film except in the case of the logs which have been arranged by place by the archivist. The folder numbers that appear first were established by the archivist. Where different, Anderson’s original folder numbers are given in parentheses.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Journals; ca. 1943-1965; n.d. 
This series consists of Anderson’s journals that he constantly referred to throughout his life as “logs.” The logs mostly consist of Anderson recording his activities which include sketching and painting watercolors of wildlife and documenting his daily living habits. Anderson’s handwriting is very irregular—neat and legible on some pages and nearly illegible on others. The number of sketches that can be found also vary, ranging from only a few small sketches in the bound logs to many sketches in great detail in other logs and miscellaneous writings.

The first four logs of this collection are titled the “Chandeleur Island logs,” dated July 1948, and contain accounts made by Anderson when he was traveling by boat from Oldfields to different islands off the coast, such as Horn Island and Ship Island, in order to observe the pelicans nesting. In log number two of the Chandeleur Island logs, the handwriting is very neat and regular and there are many sketches done in ink and pencil that accompany the entries. One particular sketch includes the study of a dead pelican; written in are color notations. In log number three, Anderson records the time when he and his brother Mac attempted to buy a fishing boat. While on a visit to Horn Island, Anderson describes the disappearance of his boat during his first night on the island; in order to sketch pelicans and man-o-war birds, he ended up “crawling” through the bayous with his sketching materials lashed to his head. Anderson also describes his method of sending post cards to his mother and brother, Peter, by giving the cards to other boats that eventually ended up visiting the island. In log number four, Anderson mentions that he tried to dig out his boat that had filled with sand. He later found an abandoned skiff with the side smashed in and decided to repair that skiff instead.

Boxes 1, 2 and 3
Microfilm Roll 41940

The Horn Island Logs are accounts of Anderson’s visits to Horn Island from March of 1954; and from 1959 to 1960; and from January, March, April and May of 1965. These logs are numbered one through ten and twelve through seventeen. Most of Anderson’s accounts include his encounters with the animals he befriended and the people who occasionally visited there. In one entry, Anderson relates an incident where some hunters come to the island and are so astonished to see him living there that they are unable to act when six large mallards fly out of the bushes behind his camp. Anderson also reflects on his role as an inhabitant on the island as well as his role within society.

Box 4, folders 2-11
Box 5, folders 12-17
Microfilm Roll 41940

Other log books include the Oldfields logs, which were written while Anderson was living at Oldfields with his wife, two children, and father-in-law. In this log Anderson mentions talking to his brother, Peter, about building a kiln at Oldfields, as well as making drawings for his calendar series. There is also an entry that records an incident in which Anderson took his son, Billy, to the doctor when Anderson’s wife, Sissy, was out of the house. There are sketches on the backs of some of these pages including a study of chickens and a knight on horseback. Toward the end of the log, there are entries concerning one of Anderson’s visits to Horn Island, and a poem that Anderson wrote with a sketch of Santa Claus coming down the chimney.

Box 6, folder 18
Microfilm Roll 41940

The “Brown bag Louisiana walk” log is a five-page account written on remnants of a brown paper bag about Anderson’s journey back from his stay at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, to Ocean Springs. This log also includes detailed sketches of himself during the journey, and is not dissimilar to the brown-bag log that Anderson created during his escape from Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Towson, Maryland.

Box 7, folder 20
Microfilm Roll 41940

In the New Orleans log, which includes a full-page sketch of him on his bicycle, Anderson writes about his trip to New Orleans in 1943. Most of what is written in this log is of Anderson sketching within the city. There are only a few incidents mentioned such as Anderson being arrested for not having his draft card. This matter was soon resolved after Anderson telephoned his family for help, and his mother and brother, Mac, brought a copy of his draft card to the station in order to get him out of jail.

Box 7, folder 28
Microfilm Roll 41941

The China log consists of two separate logs that give the account of Anderson’s trip to China, in 1949. The second log is of particular interest because it talks about the incident when Anderson woke up to find his travel bag gone along with everything in it, which included his passport. The last pages of this log describe Anderson traveling to Hong Kong, recognizing that his trip was now over.

Box 8, folders 25 and 26
Microfilm Roll 41941

The next six logs include a trip to New York and bicycle trips to various destinations including Atlanta and Texas. On his visit to New York, Anderson writes about how he spent his time going to museums and sketching areas in the city until he was forced to leave by a policeman. During his bicycle trips, Anderson traveled to different towns observing the animal and plant life in each area and recording them in his sketches and log.

Box 8, folders 19, 21-24, 27
Microfilm Rolls 41940 and 41941

The miscellaneous papers from different journals were most likely written during his time at the Oldfields plantation, and include a log of a bike trip in which Anderson has recorded his entries in third-person narrative. Logs of a canoe trip on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were also written by Anderson in which he gives a recipe for “bread sauce” as well as a reference to his trip to China, when his passport and money were stolen one night by soldiers. There is also a log in which Anderson praises water and two entries from the time Anderson was living with Sissy at Oldfields. Of interest are several different pencil-and-ink drawings which include a sketch of Anderson swimming, more studies of chickens, a detailed sketch of a beetle and grasshopper, and of a small herd of cattle lounging under a tree.

Box 9, folders 29-32
Microfilm Roll 41941

 

Series 2: Writings; n.d. 
This series includes Anderson’s writing folders which have been organized by subject. These subjects range from American history and politics to parables and short poems. In his Nature writings Anderson has developed designs for a play with the characters taken from nature. The writings are arranged in folders numbering thirty-three to fifty-three by the archivist and contain pages in a variety of different states, proving that Anderson wrote on any piece of paper that he could find. There are various sketches throughout these writings, most of which have been drawn on the back of the pages.

Box 10, folders 33-35 (original folders 1-3)
Box 11, folder 36 (original folder 4)
Box 12, folders 37-38 (original folders 5-6)
Box 13, folders 39-40 (original folders 7-8)
Box 14, folder 41 (original folder 9)
Box 15, folder 42 (original folder 10)
Box 16, folder 43 (original folder 11)
Box 17, folders 44-45 (original folders 12-13)
Box 18, folders 46-47 part 1 (original folders 14-15)
Box 19, folders 47 part 2-48 (original folders 15-16)
Box 20, folders 49-50 (original folders 17-18)
Box 21, folders 50-51 (original folders 18-19)
Box 22, folders 52-53 part 1 (original folders 20-21)
Box 23, folder 53 part 2 (original folder 21)
Microfilm Roll 41941

 

Series 3: Art History Notes; n.d. 
This series includes the outline for an art history class. The subjects mentioned in these notes include the descriptions of art from ancient Egypt, Western Asia, Sumeria, ancient Greece, Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, and Rome. The art mentioned in these notes is that of monuments, reliefs, and sculptures, some of which are owned either by the Louvre or the British Museum. Included with these descriptions are a number of sketches whose numbers vary with each subject: for example ancient Egypt and Greece have the largest number of sketches while Western Asia has none at all. Most of the original sketches were retained by the donor and have been replaced with photocopies. Along with the description of different art works, Anderson writes about the history of each culture. This includes an explanation of the culture’s religion and its rulers. Anderson has also described the influences of one culture on another as a result of trade or political expansion. Along with these comparisons, Anderson mentions illustrative figures and plates, which suggests that he was planning to have images accompany his notes.

While many of the pages are numbered, there are certain sections that are not. Some pages are also missing: for example in “Greek Art History” pages forty-two and two-hundred and seventy-nine are missing. Towards the end of these notes the page numbering is even less organized. There is considerable damage to some of the pages rendering some illegible.

Box 24, folders 54-58 (original folders 22-26)
Box 25, folders 59-61 (original folders 27-29)
Box 26, folders 62-64 (original folders 30-32)
Box 27, folders 65-66 (original folders 33-34)
Box 28, folders 67-70 (original folders 35-38)
Box 29, folders 71-73 (original folders 39-41)
Box 30, folder 74 (original folder 42)
Microfilm Rolls 41942 and 41943