MS 476 Tom Lea papers Span Dates, 1875-2007 Bulk Dates, 1924-1995 136 feet 3 inches (linear) Processed by Laura Hollingsed, 2005 Donated by Sarah Lea in 2002. Citation: Tom Lea papers, 1875 – 2007, MS 476, C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department, The University of Texas at El Paso Library. C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department University of Texas at El Paso 2 Tom Lea Papers Table of contents Images Biography Selected Literary and Artistic Work Series Description Scope and Contents Note Provenance Statement Restrictions Literary Rights Statement Notes to Researchers List of Materials Removed Related Collections Container List Biography El Paso native artist and writer Tom Lea (Thomas Calloway Lea, III) was born on July 11, 1907 to Tom and Zola May Utt Lea. His father, the elder Tom Lea, was a prominent attorney, and served as mayor of El Paso, Texas from 1915-1917, during the tumultuous years of the Mexican Revolution. People and events during this period in the Southwest and on the United States-Mexico border greatly influenced Lea’s life and his art. Tom Lea and his younger brothers, Joe and Dick, attended El Paso public schools, where Tom displayed an early talent for art. After graduating from El Paso High School in 1924, he left home to attend the Chicago Art Institute. After two years of instruction, Lea quit art school in 1926 and began various residential and commercial art projects in the Chicago and Midwest areas. To supplement his income he worked part-time as an art teacher. In 1927, Lea became an assistant to Chicago muralist, John Norton. Lea also married his fellow art student, Nancy June Taylor, that year. He and Nancy toured Europe in 1930 where they studied the great art masterpieces of Italy. When Lea and his wife Nancy returned to Chicago, Norton urged them to move to the art colony in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Lea could continue his career in the Southwest, the area which was most familiar to him. 3 Tom Lea Papers In New Mexico Lea built a small house near his old friend, artist Fremont Ellis, and found part-time work at the Santa Fe Laboratory of Anthropology. When Nancy became ill, the Leas moved back to El Paso where she passed away in 1936. During this time, Lea won commissions to paint murals in government buildings for the United States Department of the Treasury and the Works Progress Administration. Those projects included The Nesters mural for the Post Office Department Building in Washington, D.C.; Back Home, April 1865 for the Pleasant Hill, Missouri post office; Comanches for the Seymour, Texas post office; and the dramatic Stampede for the post office in Odessa, Texas. In 1938, while working on the Pass of the North mural for the Federal Courthouse in El Paso, Lea met and married Sarah Dighton, who was visiting a friend in El Paso. Sarah became his lifelong companion and inspiration, and he adopted Sarah’s son, James, as his only child. In the same years, Lea also worked as an illustrator for various authors. His father’s longtime friend and famous Texas writer, J. Frank Dobie, asked Lea to illustrate his books, including Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver, published in 1939, and The Longhorns, published in 1941. Lea’s finely-crafted drawings for books by Dobie and other authors helped establish his national reputation as an illustrator. Tom Lea began another enduring professional relationship with El Paso printer and book designer Carl Hertzog in the 1930s. In 1936, Lea and Hertzog printed a limited edition of The Notebook of Nancy Lea, 1932-1936, in memory of Tom’s late wife. Later, in 1947, Hertzog designed and printed the Calendar of Twelve Travelers through the Pass of the North, containing reproductions of Tom’s original drawings of the Twelve Travelers which had appeared on the covers of menus for the Hotel Paso del Norte’s restaurant in El Paso. Tom’s interest in bullfighting led to the publication of his Bullfight Manual for Spectators, printed in 1949 by Hertzog. In 1940, Tom Lea received a Rosenwald Fellowship but turned it down later because Life magazine hired him as a war artist and correspondent. From 1941 through 1945 his art and stories on the war front appeared regularly in Life. During his association with Life magazine, he traveled all over the world with the military, including the North Atlantic, Great Britain, North Africa, Italy, the Middle East, India, China and the western Pacific. While in China in 1943, Lea painted portraits of important military figures such as Jimmy Doolittle, Claire Chennault, Generalissimo Chaing Kai-shek and his wife, Madame Chaing. 4 Tom Lea Papers Tom Lea accompanied the 1st Marine Division during the invasion of the tiny island of Peleliu in the western Pacific in 1944. His books A Grizzly from the Coral Sea (1944) and Peleliu Landing (1945) contain prints of some of his most famous paintings, The Price and That 2,000 Yard Stare, which portrayed the horrors of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific. In 1947, in order to recover from traumatic memories of the war, Lea painted one of his best known paintings, Sarah in the Summertime, a portrait of his wife, Sarah, standing in their backyard in El Paso with his beloved Franklin Mountains in the background. During his travels to Mexico after the war he attended bullfights and began to study the lives and training of bullfighters. His first novel, The Brave Bulls, came out of that experience and became an international best seller in 1949. Another novel, The Wonderful Country, followed in 1952. Both novels were made into films. Some of his other books include The Primal Yoke: A Novel, published in 1960, and The Hands of Cantu, in 1964. In the early 1950s, Lea began to write a history of the world-famous King Ranch in Texas. The project, a collaborative effort with Carl Hertzog as printer and book designer, Holland McCombs as researcher, Francis Fugate as annotator and Tom Lea as illustrator and writer, took five years and two volumes to complete. In 1974, Lea wrote and illustrated another book, In the Crucible of the Sun, which covered the history of the King Ranch in Australia. In his later years, Tom Lea continued to paint and write, and he garnered many honors and awards for the excellence of his work. For his lifetime achievements in the fields of literature and art, he received honorary doctorates from Baylor University in 1967 and from Southern Methodist University in 1970. Among his many awards are the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award in 1971; the Lon Tinkle Award from the Texas Institute of Letters in 1981; the Ima Hogg Historical Achievement Award in 1990; and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Hall of Great Westerners Award in 1995. In 1975 he was named to the El Paso County Historical Society’s Hall of Honor. He received numerous other awards throughout his career, including many honors by the City of El Paso and the State of Texas. His paintings hang in the Smithsonian Institution, the Pentagon, the White House and the Texas Governor’s Mansion, as well as in art galleries, museums and private homes throughout the country. President George W. Bush, a friend of Tom and Sarah Lea, has quoted Lea in his speeches many times. Tom Lea was active in many community and professional organizations. A few of his many memberships included the Century Association, the Philosophical Society of Texas, the Headliners Club, and Texas State Historical Association. 5 Tom Lea Papers He was very active in the El Paso Museum of Art, serving as president. Tom Lea passed away on January 29, 2001, in El Paso, Texas. A cenotaph in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin was dedicated in his honor on May 14, 2005. Sources: Antone, Evan H. (1988). Tom Lea, His Life and Works. El Paso, TX: Texas Western Press. Hjerter, Kathleen. G. (compiler). (1989). The Art of Tom Lea. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press. Lea, Tom (1968). A Picture Gallery; Paintings and Drawings by Tom Lea, with Text by the Artist. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Lea, Tom (1995). Tom Lea: An Oral History. R. Carver and A. Margo (eds.). El Paso, TX: Texas Western Press. Tom Lea papers, 1905-2001. MS 476. C. L. Sonnichsen Special Collections Department. University of Texas at El Paso Library. Selected Literary and Artistic Work Selected Literary Work Dobie, J. Frank. Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver. Illustrated by Tom Lea. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1939. ____. The Longhorns. Illustrated by Tom Lea. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1941. Lea, Tom. Peleliu Landing. El Paso: Carl Hertzog, 1945. ____. Calendar of Twelve Travelers. El Paso: Carl Hertzog, 1947. ____. The Brave Bulls. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1949. ____. Bullfight Manual for Spectators. Cd. Juarez, Mexico [El Paso, Texas]: Carl Hertzog, 1949. ____. The Wonderful Country. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1952. 6 Tom Lea Papers ____. The King Ranch. Research by Holland McCombs. Annotation by Francis Fugate. Kingsville: Carl Hertzog, 1957. ____. The Primal Yoke. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960. ____. The Hands of Cantu. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964. ____. In the Crucible of the Sun. Kingsville: King Ranch, 1974. ____. A Picture Gallery. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968. Selected Art Work Snake Dancers, 1933 The Nesters mural, 1936 Lonely Town, 1937 Pass of the North mural, El Paso, Texas Federal Court House, 1938 Stampede mural, Odessa, Texas Post Office, 1940 Trail Herd, 1941 Death of the Wasp, 1942 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, portrait, China, 1943 Madame Chiang, portrait, China, 1943 Maj.