Ferner's Art

Here is the series of sketches found in the archives of the Special Collections at the University of Iowa library. For more details, please see the Ferner Nuhn page (the text for our wikipedia article)


  • William Rose Benet--poet and playwright

  • Charles Wakefield Cadman--composer

  • Carl Carmer--novelist, editor, and conservationist

  • Leo Fisher--sculptor

  • Felix Fox--composer

  • Frances Frost--poet, fiction writer (no relation to Robert Frost)

  • Robert Frost--poet

  • Horace Gregory--poet, critic, and editor

  • Albert Halper—novelist

  • Roy Harris—composer

  • Charles Hearst—Iowa farmer

  • Jeffrey Levy—painter

  • John Cowper Powys—novelist, poet, essayist

  • Evelyn Scott—poet, novelist

  • Ruth Suckow—novelist

  • John Brooks Wheelwright—poet, critic

  • Henry A. Wallace—agriculturist, author, statesman

Robert Frost
Hearst
Henry Wallace

Robert Frost, American poet (1874-1963)







Frances Frost, no relation to Robert Frost.

(1905- ) Poet, Fiction writer

John Cowper Powys (1872-1963)—novelist, poet, and essayist.

Nuhn writes that Powys liked to wear a black academic robe when lecturing, to make his gestures more dramatic.


Charles Hearst (1904- )--Iowa farmer and farm leader, as well as one of Ferner's friends.


John Brooks Wheelwright (19? to 1940) -- poet and critic




Jeffrey Levey (1908-) -- painter





Albert Halper (1904- ) -- novelist







Roy Harris (1898- ) -- composer





Horace Gregory (1898- ) -- poet, critic, and editor




Felix Fox and George Mitchell




Carl Carmer







Leo Fisher--sculptor





Charles Wakefield Cadman--composer.




William Rose Benet--poet and playwright






Evelyn Scott—poet and novelist.




Henry Wallace





Here is Ferner's whimsical portrait of Ruth, complete with one of the white cats they both loved. This was used for one of the annual newsletters in the 1990s.





Please refer to the attached file below for a sense of the booklet: I was able to make a series of scans at the Special Collections in order to capture Ferner's comments on the group of people he selected for these pictures.

List from the booklet

Thank you to the Special Collections Staff, the University of Iowa!

Last updated March 5, 2021

Cherie Dargan, Webmaster