Archive The Portfolio Club Art Collection
Archive
The Portfolio’s archive and art collection are on loan to the Irvington Historical Society which is headquartered at the Bona Thompson Memorial Center in the Eastside Indianapolis neighborhood of Irvington. It can be viewed by appointment.
The Bona Thompson Memorial Center
5350 E. University Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46219
(317) 353-2662
Butler University formally resided in the area (1875 to 1928) with the Bona Thompson Memorial Center serving as the university’s library from 1903 to 1928. The building was originally financed by the Edward Thompson family in memory of their daughter and Butler graduate, Bona. After graduating, she was given a trip to Europe where she contracted typhoid fever and later died. Renovated and noted for its beautiful mosaic floors, it is one of two original Butler structures still standing in the neighborhood.
The archive contains the club’s programs, yearbooks, minutes, treasurer reports, and more dating from the Club’s 1890 inception to now. Photographs of and scrapbooks containing news clippings about Portfolians, as well as miscellaneous copies of programs given at meetings over the years, are among the ephemera that can also be found in the archive.
There are two other ways to view our archives as well.
Duplicate yearbooks and some vintage photographs are available at the library of the Indiana Historical Society.
The Portfolio Club yearbooks, 1980 to present, can be viewed on the Indianapolis Public Library’s site, Digital Indy.
The Portfolio Club Art Collection
The Portfolio Club’s art collection consists of paintings, drawings, and lithographs by Portfolian artists William Forsyth, Wayman Adams, Clifton Wheeler, Simon Baus, Frederick Polley, Constance Forsyth, Charles Yeager, and Hilah Wheeler.
Works from the collection have been loaned to various exhibitions including the notable traveling show, “Creating History: Indiana’s Historic Women Artists.”
Below are pieces in the collection. A gallery view of the artworks is at the bottom of the page where you can click on an image to enlarge it.
Wayman E. Adams (1883-1959)
“Portrait of William Forsyth” (1917)
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Signed lower right
Simon (Paul) Baus (1882-1969)
Portrait of an unknown man
Oil on canvas
26 X 21 inches
Charles Yeager
Mountain landscape
Gouache on paper
15 x 19 inches
Helen Fechtman
“Portrait of Simon Baus“
Oil on board
15 x 19 inches
Signed lower right
William Forsyth (1854-1935)
Sketch of Dr. Brayton (1925)
Pastel on paper
10 1/2 X 8 1/2 inches
Signed lower right
William Forsyth (1854-1935)
Study of women in meadow (1905)
Oil on board
9 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
Signed lower right
Clifton Alfred Wheeler (1883-1953)
Portrait of Anton Scherrer
Oil on canvas
24 x 18 inches
Clifton Alfred Wheeler (1883-1953)
Portrait of Kurt Vonnegut, Sr.
Oil on board
20 x 14 inches
Clifton Alfred Wheeler (1883-1953)
“Woman in Mountainscape”
Oil on board
48 x 60 inches
Monogrammed lower right
Clifton Alfred Wheeler (1883-1953)
“Portfolians in Classical Landscape”
Oil on board
46 x 36 inches
Signed lower left
* Front of double-sided painting, reverse of which is “Rural Landscape”
Depicted left to right, Portfolio members William Forsyth, Charles Yeager, Otto Stark, unknown woman, and Simon Baus.
Clifton Alfred Wheeler (1883-1953)
Portfolians in Classical Landscape”
Oil on board
46 x 36 inches
Signed lower left
* Reverse of double-sided painting, reverse of which is “Portfolians in Classical Landscape”
Clifton Alfred Wheeler (1883-1953)
Farm scene (1908)
Oil on board
11 x 19 inches
Signed lower left
Hilah Drake Wheeler (1877-1970)
Floral still life
Watercolor on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches
Signed lower left
Simon Baus (1882-1969)
Portrait of Hilton U. Brown
Oil on canvas
26 x 21 inches
Signed lower right
*Brown was the first Portfolio Club president in 1890.
Take a closer look at the artworks here…
View artworks individually by clicking on an image. Upon viewing an image, you can click the arrows to the left or the right of the image to view the next or previous artwork in the grouping.
