Burbank, E. A. (Elbridge Ayer), 1858-1949

Artist. Born in Illinois, trained at Old Academy of Design, Chicago (1874) and in Munich, Germany (1886-1892). Nephew of Edward E. Ayer of Chicago, owner of fine private library on Native Americans that was later acquired by Newberry Library. Ayer influenced Burbank to paint Native Americans and West. Herb Hamlin, owner of a Pony Express Museum and editor of "Pony Express Courier," commissioned works from Burbank (1930-1940s) and later acquired many earlier sketches and oils. Burbank wrote "Burbank among the Indians" (1946) with Ernest Royce.

American painter and illustrator.

Elbridge Ayer Burbank was born in 1858 in Harvard, Illinois. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and in Germany, where he developed his technique in life drawing and portraiture. At first specializing in Negro subjects, in 1897 Burbank was commissioned by his uncle Edward E. Ayer, to do a series of portraits of prominant Indian chiefs in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. Accepting the commission, Burbank began his career as an Indian portrait authority. He painted Apache Chief Geronimo five times, the only artist to paint the old warrior from life. This began his most productive and successful period as a painter of Amercan Indians. By 1902, Burbank was roaming the west and southwest, seeking out the native peoples, painting and drawing. He depicted not only the great chiefs but also ordinary individuals, groups and ceremonies of more and 125 tribes. Burbank made friends wherever he traveled, among them was Juan Lorenzo Hubbell of the famed Hubbell Trading Post, a hub for artists, ethnologists and tourists. There he did red chalk drawings of Navajos and many of the patterns for their rugs. During the Depression, Burbank supported himself by drawing and selling scenes for postcards and greeting cards, pictures of famous Americans, and copies of his Indian studies. His reproductions were inexpensive, and were widely distributed and collected. His last years were spent at the Manx Hotel in San Francisco, where he died in 1949, after having been struck by a cable car.