Herschel Logan’s intricate wood prints take viewers back to Kansas’ Dust Bowl Days
How a rural Kansas printmaker immortalized scenes from the early 20th century heartland
It is easy to tell that Herschel Logan loved the prairie.
Just take a look at any of Logan’s detailed woodcut prints and you’ll see the painstaking care Logan took to depict what some may view as simple, ordinary parts of rural life.
Herschel Logan was born on April 19, 1901, in Magnolia, Missouri. After the death of his mother a year after his birth, his father took the family to live on his grandparent’s farm in Winfield, Kansas where he spent the rest of his childhood. After showing an interest in cartooning early on, he moved to Chicago to study commercial art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. After a year in the Windy City, Logan accepted a job as a commercial artist for the McCormick-Armstrong Lithography Company in Wichita.
While in Wichita, Logan began to connect with various Kansas artists and printmakers and was a charter member of the Prairie Print Makers (PPM). The PPM focused their efforts on commissioning prints from members and sponsored low-cost traveling exhibits around the country. After a fruitful career, Logan retired to Santa Ana, California, where he passed away in 1987.
Logan’s work are currently housed at the Kansas Museum of History, the Spencer Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art, among others.
Learn more about Herschel Logan and the Prairie Print Makers on the Kansas Historical Society website.
