• Citations for exhibit catalogs can be found in the Exhibitions List page

• Note: "(i)" in the label for a listing of a work indicates the citation contains an image of the work.

• "James E. Allen (artist)". (Wikipedia)

• "James E. Allen [exhibit catalog]". Mary Ryan Gallery, 1984. (Stanford Digital Repository)

  • Includes reproductions of 91 of Allen's prints

• "James Edmund Allen (1864-1964)". (AskArt)

• "James Edmund Allen (1864-1964)". (Brier Hill Gallery)

• Parmelee, Patricia. "James E. Allen, American Artist, A Thumbnail Sketch". unpublished. (James E. Allen Papers - Smithsonian Archives of American Art)

  • Preface: The following brief word sketch of James E. Allen and his career, I write purely from a lay point of view. Through it, perhaps you will understand better why I feel so strongly that Jim's story should be told in detail as a product of pioneer America. one whose life and works exemplify some of the best qualities built into this country.

• Rizzi, Allen E. "On James E. Allen, Illustrator". unpublished. (Allen Rizzi web site)

  • Document originally published online at http://www.violoetbooks.com/jamesallen.html. A version of this text was taken from the author's web site.

• Rizzi, Allen E. "The Horse Whisperers from Anaconda". published by the author, 2014.

  • work (i): "Grizzly Madonna" (lithograph)

• Rizzi, Allen. "James Edmund Allen, biography". https://rizziallen.wordpress.com/2018/03/16/james-e-allen-etchings-iron-men/. (Allen Rizzi web site)

  • Short biography from the great-nephew of James E. Allen, taken from web entry for a print for sale. Reproduced with permission from the author.

Biographical References

• "American Art Annual". Washington, D. C., The American Federation of Arts, 1929, vol. 27.

  • Brief biographical entry.

• "Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: a Checklist of the Collection". Washington, D. C., Smithsonian Institution, 1975. (HathiTrust)

• Beall, Karen F. "American Prints in the Library of Congress". Baltimore, Mayland, John Hopkins Press, 1970.

  • work (i): "Up Above the World" (etching)
  • work: "Iron Men (lithograph)" (lithograph)
  • work: "Menace" (lithograph)

• Bénézit, E. "The Bénézit Dictionary of Artists". Paris, Gründ, 2006. (Oxford Art Online)

  • English edition

• Busse, Jacque, E. Bénézit. "Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintures, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays". Paris, Gründ, 1999.

• Castagno, John. "American Artists: Signatures and Monograms, 1880-1989". Metuchen, N. J., The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1990.

  • Incorrectly identified as "James Edward Allen"

• Castagno, John. "Artists as Illustrators: An International Directory With Signatures and Monograms, 1880-Present". Metuchen, N. J., The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1989.

  • Incorrectly identified as "James Edward Allen"

• Coppel, Stephen, Jerzy Kierkuc-Bielinski. "The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock". London, The British Museum Press, 2008.

  • "This catalogue presents an overview of American printmaking in the first half of the twentieth century, beginning in 1905 with John Sloans etchings of everyday urban experience, dubbed the Ashcan School, and concluding with Jackson Pollock and abstract expressionist prints. About 140 powerful prints by approximately 75 artists will be featured. A substantial introduction sets the prints in context, showing how this dynamic tradition arose and how it relates to other media such as magazine illustration, photography, cinema and poster design. Biographies of all the artists are included in this book." / "Published to accompany the exhibition 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock 1906-1960' at the British Museum from 10 April to 7 September 2008 and its subsequent tour in 2009 to the Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham; Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester"
  • work (i): "The Connectors" (etching)

• Ekedal, Ellen, Susan B. Robinson. "The Spirit of the City: American Urban Paintings, Prints, and Drawings, 1900-1952". Los Angeles, Laband Art Gallery, 1986.

• Falk, Peter Hastings, Andrea A. Bien. "The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design 1901-1950: Incorporating The Annual Exhibitions, 1901-1950 and The Winter Exhibitions, 1906-1932". Madison, CT, Sound View Press, 1990.

• Falk, Peter Hastings. "Dictionary of Signatures and Monograms of American Artists: From the Colonial Period to the Mid 20th Century". Madison, Conn., Sound View Press, 1988.

  • Incorrectly identified as "James Edward Allen"

• Falk, Peter Hastings. "Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Year of Artists in America". Madison, CT, Sound View Press, 1999.

• Fielding, Mantle. "Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters Sculptures & Engravers". Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Apollo, 1983.

• Fielding, Mantle. "Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters Sculptures & Engravers". Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Apollo, 1986.

• Gilbert, Dorothy B. "Who's Who in American Art: A Biographical Directory of Contemporary Artists, Editors, Critics, Executives, etc.". Washington, D. C., The American Federation of Arts, 1947.

• Gilbert, Dorothy B. "Who's Who in American Art". Washington, D. C., R. R. Bowker Company, 1959.

• Gilbert, Dorothy B. "Who's Who in American Art". Washington, D. C., R. R. Bowker Company, 1962.

• Goodstone, Tony. "The Pulps: Fifty Year of American Pop Culture". New York, Chelsea House, 1970.

  • work (i): [The Evil Shepherd} - Cover art for "Blue Book Magazine", July, 1922

• Haining, Peter. "The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines". Chicago, Ill., Chicago Review Press, 2000.

  • "Illustrating the Pulps was nearly as important for sales in the 1930s ... Supplying the considerable quantity of artwork was the task os a few dozen well-worked professional ink, watercolor, and oil artists ... Among the roll call of these artists are such names as ... J. E. Allen..."

• Havlice, Patricia Pate. "Index to Artistic Biography". Metuchen, N. J., The Scarecrow Press, 1973.

• Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge. "Mallett's Index of Artists: international-biographical, including painters, sculptors, illustrators, engravers and etchers of the past and the present". New York, R. R. Bowker Company, 1935.

• Reed, Walt. "The Illustrator in America 1860-2000". New York, The Society of Illustrators, 2001.

  • work (i): Illustrations for "The Stone Growers" by Terhune, Albert Payson (Saturday Evening Post, November 5, 1921)

• Reed, Walt. "The Illustrator in America 1900-1960's". New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1966.

  • work (i): Illustrations for "The Bride of the Sacred Well" by Squier, Emma-Lindsay (Good Housekeeping, November, 1927)

• Smith, Donald E. "American Printmakers of the Twentieth Centiry: A Bibliography". Haworth, N. J., St. Johann Press, 2004.

• Tatham, David. "An Examination at Century's End: An Examination at Century's End". Syracuse, N.Y., Syracuse University Press, 2006.

  • “Last year [1999] the New York Public LIbrary had an exhibition called Order and Disorder, and these prints of 1930s and 1940s featured the tearing down of old buildings and other structures to make room for new skyscrapers, highways, bridges, and dams. … A remarkable artist named James Allen was in that show, and he made lithographs of workers really working. You could see them sweating at the hearths of open-faced furnaces of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. You could see them “riding the iron” high up in the building of skyscrapers. … In those days, workers did not have safety belts and hard hats. James Allen noticed all these details. In the catalog [for the 1999 exhibit], the prominent academician John Taylor Arms [was quoted as having made] a statement back then about how Allen was coming along beautifully as an artist, pointing out how nicely he composed--how he put that dark silhouette against a light area, and how he had the half-tones coming in just here. Mr. Arms praised Allen’s composition highly, but not a word about the fact that this guy was portraying people’s lives and the way they made a living a great risk. This was an example of the primacy of form over content.” -- Charles Keller, from Chapter 9, "Printmaking in the 1930s and 1940s, A Conversation with Abe Blashko, Mark Freeman, and Charles Keller", by Dominic J. Iacono.

• Williams, Lynn Barstis, comp. "American Printmakers, 1880-1945: An Index to Reproductions and Biocritical Information". Metuchen, N. J., The Scarecrow Press, 1993.

• Williams, Reba, Dave Williams, Karen F. Beall, David W. Kiehl. "Graphic Excursions-American Prints in Black and White, 1900-1950: Selections from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams". Boston, Mass., David .R. Godine Inc, 1991.

  • work (i): "The Connectors" (etching)

• Wilson, Raymond L. "Index of American Print Exhibitions, 1882-1940". Metuchen, N.J., & London, Scarecrow Press, 1988.

• Wooden, Howard E. "American Art of the Great Depression: two sides of the coin: Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas, October 27 Through December 1, 1985". Wichita, Kansas, The Museum, 1985.

References

• "142 Specimens for Art Show". The Evening News, February 20, 1937, p. 3. (Newspapers.com)

  • “An interesting collection of 142 etchings, drypoints and aquatints by forty-seven masters of the copper-plate medium, will be exhibited by the Art Association of Harrisburg at the State Museum, beginning next Wednesday.”

• "17th Art Directors Annual of Advertising Art". New York, Longman Green & Company, 1938.

  • "The 241 illustrations are from the exhibition of the Art Directors Club of America, held in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia in the Spring of 1938."
  • work (i): "Pipe and Brawn" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Aqueduct" (lithograph)

• "24th Annual of Advertising Art: Reproductions from the National Exhibition of Advertising Art shown at Rockefeller Center Galleries in the spring of nineteen hundred and forty-five, by the Art Directors Club of New York". New York, Watson-Guptill Publications, Inc.1945. (WorldRadioHistory.Com)

  • [Entry 67 - Ad and reproduction of print "The Breakers"]Ad titled "A Strong Pull Together Does It"Artist: James E. AllenArt Director: Deane UptegroveAdvertiser: International Paper Co.Agency: Alley & Richards Co.
  • work (i): "The Breakers" (lithograph)

• "A Nation on the Move: Industrial Prints of America". Nassau County Museum of Art, 1988.

  • work (i): "Arch of Steel" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "Engine Aloft" (lithograph)

• "American Art Today: Gallery of American Art Today, New York World's Fair. ". New York, N. Y., National Art Society, 1939.

  • work (i): "Prayer for Rain" (lithograph)

• "American Federationist". American federationist, November, 1938.

  • work (i): "Teeming Ingots" (etching) -- Inserted between pages 1168 and 1169 in 1938 annual accumulated edition.

• "American Federationist". American federationist, October, 1938.

  • work (i): "Drydock Men" (etching) -- Inserted between pages 1040 and 1041 in 1938 annual accumulated edition.

• "Among the Print Makers, Old and Modern: 391 Prints Selected from 2,000 for American Etchers’ Annual". The Art Digest, December 15, 1932.

  • "To James E. Allen’s “The Builders” went the Henry B. Shope prize for “the best etching as judged from the standpoint of composition only,” an award made by a jury of three architects."
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "Annual Advertising Awards 1937". Advertising & Selling, January, 1938, p. 82.

  • "Honorable Mention / For a Series of advertisements most distinguished by excellence of layout, art, and typography. / Agency: Alley & Richards CompanyAdvertiser: United States Pipe & Foundry Company / Objectives: To meet competition with other materials rather than with other manufacturers; to enhance prestige in anticipation of stronger than present competition in own line. Appeals: Economy and long life of cast iron pipe; modern improvements in manufacture, Character: unusual use, in industrial advertising, of lithograph on stone -- by James E. Allen; artistic presentation that brings distinction among neighbor advertisements on a matter-of-fact level; action subjects."
  • work (i): Advertisement for U. S. Pipe & Foundry, "The job calls for a corrosion-defying material ..." - The Aqueduct
  • work (i): Advertisement for U. S. Pipe & Foundry, "This pipe line was planned for permanence" - S-Curve

• "Art and Artists -- Music and Musicians". Oakland Tribune, October 14, 1934, p. 66. (Newspapers.com)

  • "Fifty Print of the Year, selected by the American Art Dealers Association, are on view at Gump's, San Francisco." /

• "Artist to Hold Special Exhibit in Washington". The Larchmont Times, February ?, 1938.

• "At the Galleries". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 26, 1935, p. 20.

  • "Paintings, Watercolors and Etchings by a group including ... James E. Allen are being shown at the Hotel Lombardy."

• Beall, Karen F. "American Prints in the Library of Congress". Baltimore, Mayland, John Hopkins Press, 1970.

  • work (i): "Up Above the World" (etching)
  • work: "Iron Men (lithograph)" (lithograph)
  • work: "Menace" (lithograph)

• Bender, J. H. "Fine Prints: James E. Allen". The Print Collector's Quarterly, April, 1940.

  • "The 37 most important print makers in america: James E. Allen; John Taylor Arms; Beatrice Harper Banning; Albert W. Barker; Isabel Bishop; Lowell Bobleter; G. A. Bradshaw; Syd Browne; A. Ray Burrell; Paul Cadmus; Charles M. Capps; Samuel Chamberlain; Asa Cheffetz; Kerr Eby; Wanda Gag; Arthur William Heintzelman; Morris Henry Hobbs; Hans Kleiber; Gene Kloss; Alexander Z. Kruse; Armin Landeck; J.J. Lankes; Martin Lewis; Leo J. Meissner; John C. Menihan; Max Mougel; Thomas W. Nason; Roselle H. Osk; Carl Pickhardt; Doel Reed; Ruth Starr Rose; Louis C. Rosenberg; Ernest D. Roth; Ruth Doris Swett; Walter Tittle; Stow Wengenroth; R.W. Woiceske" / Includes a brief biography. / Listings: / 600. THE PRAYER FOR RAIN. Lithograph. Size, 10 3/8 x 14 1/8 in. Limited edition 40 signed proofs This print was awarded the Isador prize at the Salmagundi Club in 1938. Undoubtedly the best lithograph Allen has produced up to now. With one year's subscription to "The Print Collector's Quarterly” $12.00. / 601. THE AQUEDUCT. Lithograph. Size, 11a5/16 x 14 5/8 in. Limited edition 40 signed proofs. It is in the rich blacks that dominate this print that one realizes lithography, in the right hands, is a powerful medium. With one year's subscription to "The Print Collector's Quarterly” $10.00. / 602: ARCH OF STEEL. Lithograph. Size, 11 1/4 x 14 5/8 in. Limited edition 60 signed proofs. Another of Allen’s industrial subjects that he, handles with so much' power and proficiency. A masterpiece of lithography. With one year's subscription to "The Print Collector's Quarterly” $10.00. / 603. THE BUILDERS. Etching. Size, 9 7/8 x 11 3/4 in. Limited edition 100 signed proofs. This print won the Shaw prize at the Salmagundi Club and the Shope prize at the National Arts Club in 1932. A really great print. With one year's subscription to "The Print Collector's Quarterly” $18.00. / 604
  • THE SKY MAN, Etching. Size, 12 3/8 x 11 3/4 in. - Limited edition 100 signed proofs. It its remarkable the way Allen can turn.from lithography to etching without loss of strength. Etchings of this quality have a future. With one year's subscription to "The Print Collector's Quarterly” $18.00.
  • work (i): "Arch of Steel" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "Prayer for Rain" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Aqueduct" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Sky Man" (etching)

• Bender, J. H. "Prints of Today - Locomotive". The Print Collector's Quarterly, December, 1940, p. 506.

  • Lithograph is identified as "Engine Aloft" in this catalog / Page number is within annual abound compilation
  • work (i): "Engine Aloft" (lithograph)

• Bender, J. H. "Prints of Today - Stowing the Jumbo". The Print Collector's Quarterly, October, 1940, p. 386.

  • Page number is within annual abound compilation
  • work (i): "Stowing the Jumbo" (lithograph)

• "Best Prints of the Year". The New York Times Magazine, December 29, 1940.

  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• Bonte, C. H. "Eleventh Annual Showing by American Etchers at the Print Club ...". The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 29, 1934, p. 15. (Newspapers.com)

  • "... at the Print Club last week, where the Charles M. Lea print of $100 for the best etching in the eleventh annual exhibition of work by living Americans was awarded to James E. Allen, for 'Brazilian Builders.'"
  • work: "Brazilian Builders" (etching) -- "[Brazilian Builders] shows a group of men erecting what appears to be a metal smoke stack, the grouping of the figures being notably good, the etching workmanship of fine quality, and the sense of stress and strain among the male muscles, giving force to the creation."

• "Boy Who Won His First Art Prize at Anaconda Wins High Award". Montana Standard, January 12, 1933, p. 1. (Newspapers.com)

  • “ANACONDA, Jan.1 — (Special) —Encouragement offered a small boy studying in the little Willow Creek school some years agoi is having effect, as demonstrated in the success achieved by James E. Allen, formerl yof Mill Creek and Anaconda who recently won the Samuel B. Shaw prize for his print "The Builders" in New York City. ... Allen won his first prize in art at the Geer Lodge Country Fair of 1906. The picture was painted with the interested encouragement of the Misses Agnes and Addie Furst, who were teachers at the Willow Creek school." / Article first appeared in the Anaconda Standard, (Anaconda, Montana) January 1, 1933, p. 1

• Cohen, Barbara. "New York Observed: artists and writers look at the city, 1650 to the present". New York, H. N. Abrams, 1987. (Internet Archive)

  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• Coppel, Stephen, Jerzy Kierkuc-Bielinski. "The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock". London, The British Museum Press, 2008.

  • "This catalogue presents an overview of American printmaking in the first half of the twentieth century, beginning in 1905 with John Sloans etchings of everyday urban experience, dubbed the Ashcan School, and concluding with Jackson Pollock and abstract expressionist prints. About 140 powerful prints by approximately 75 artists will be featured. A substantial introduction sets the prints in context, showing how this dynamic tradition arose and how it relates to other media such as magazine illustration, photography, cinema and poster design. Biographies of all the artists are included in this book." / "Published to accompany the exhibition 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock 1906-1960' at the British Museum from 10 April to 7 September 2008 and its subsequent tour in 2009 to the Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham; Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester"
  • work (i): "The Connectors" (etching)

• Currie, George. "Starvation in the Midst of Plenty: A review of The Economy of Abundance, By Stuart Chase". The Sunday Review of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 25, 1934, p. 14.

  • "Courtesy Kennedy & Co."
  • work (i): "The Laborer" (etching)

• Debus, Allen A. "Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction: A Thematic Survey". Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland and Company, Inc., 2006.

  • Chapter 7: Rise of the Raptor - "One of the earliest visual representations of a dino-"raptor" published in a popular vein was the dinosaur Troodon issued in 1938 on a collectible Sinclair Dinosaur stamp. James E. Allen's restoration, hardly resembling modern raptor restorations and lacking characteristic sickle-shaped toes, is a relatively light-bodied sort curiously adorned with a pachycephalosaur-like dome."
  • work: Illustrations for "Sinclair Dinosaur Stamp Album No. 2 with Other Ancient Reptiles"

• Edward L. Bernays. "Madison Avenue Heavies, review of "The Shocking History of Advertising" by E. S. Turner". Saturday Review, January 23, 1954, p. 45. (The Unz Review)

  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "Etchings and Lithographs of Industrial Subjects Make Fine Show". The Sunday Star, February ?, 1938.

  • The exhibition of etchings and lithographs by James E. Allen, which may be seen all month in the Smithsonian Building under the auspices of the Division of Graphic Arts of the United States National Museum, is exceedingly interesting. Technically the work is excellent, in some instances better than others, but invariably on a high level of achievement, Subjectively it stands quite alone, for none other has so strikingly set before us the romance and dignity of labor in our own day and time. We are great hero worshipers, but our heroes have for the most part been military leaders, conquerors, adventurers, the bold and the brave who have risked their lives under the high tension of excitement, gallantly and without thought of self, but sometimes for the sheer love of the exploit. The heroes that Mr. Allen pictures in his etchings and lithographs are those whose daily labor is never free from the menace of death and who meet danger, courageously, merely as a part of every-day life. No one could see these etchings and lithographs of laboring men performing their daily tasks without being profoundly impressed by the fact that bravery has not been outgrown, that we are still a hardy race, strong, virile and fearless, when necessity calls for action. The Labor Department affirms that in recent years, through new regulations, much unnecessary danger for industrial works has been abolished, and this is well; but it is still a fact that no skyscraper is built that one or more lives are not sacrificed in the process. / “Sky Riders,” “The Spider Boy,” “The Skyman,” all picture stalwart workers on steel skeleton frames or swinging over space on derricks, with apparent blithe indifference to personal danger. Obviously, they do not fear, and there is something splendid in such attitude. They are engaged, it will be remembered, in creative effort--they are builders, not workers. It is the same with the workers in other fields of activity. A specially distinguished print in this collection is “Teeming Ingots,” men at a burning furnace door, selected a couple of years ago by the Society of American Etchers because of its masterly handling and superb treatment of light and shade. There are also pictures of men laying an aqueduct, building a bridge, making an excavation, heaving coal; in short, as Joseph Pennell once termed it, “the wonder of work,” not sentimentalized but seem from the standpoint of man’s achievement over the material--his conquest of self and physical obstacles. Pennell in his lithographs showed us the result; James Allen has manifested the power which controls and creates. It is interesting to note furthermore that the purely industrial does not absorb all opportunity along these lines; graphically Mr. Allen shows similar courage in other fields, such as in life on the sea and for that matter on the farm. Memorable, indeed, are his “Plowman.” driving his team over the rise of a hill, and his “Breakers,” men taking a small boat to sea in the teeth of the surf. / And just as there is no sentimentality in these prints, also there is no exaggeration of ugliness, which, in these later days, those who have called themselves artists, seem to think essential to the expression of strength. There is strength here and beauty--in fact, strength is most often beautiful. This recalls the fact that only the other day Thomas Mann, in an address at Yale University, reminded his hearers that the first concern of art had always been and must always be “the great and the good,” and that only by carrying on this tradition does an artist justify his calling and fulfill his duty to man. Mr. Mann’s meaning could not be better exemplified than in these prints produced by James E. Allen with such technical skill and artistic understanding.

• "Etchings Displayed at Public Library". The Larchmont Times, November 17, 1938.

  • "Etchings and lithographs by James E. Allen, of 41 Mayhew Avenue, are on display for a month at the Larchmont Public Library" / Lists “Knoll Creek” among works, assumed to be “Kill Creek”

• "Etchings of Superior Quality Exhibited at the Art Center". Democrat and Chronicle, March 12, 1933, p. 6D. (Newspapers.com)

  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "'European Scene' Scarce at Print Show". The Art Digest, June 1, 1935, p. 19. (The American Artists Professional League, Inc.)

  • Allen listed in review on page 19; no work mentioned. Event listed in calendar, p.21

• " Exhibit of Prints / Works of Contemporary Masters of Etching to be shown Feb. 24-March 5". Harrisburg Telegraph, February 22, 1937, p. 12. (Newspapers.com)

  • "The collection ... comes to Harrisburg from The Print Club of Philadelphia ..."

• Falk, Peter Hastings, Andrea A. Bien. "The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design 1901-1950: Incorporating The Annual Exhibitions, 1901-1950 and The Winter Exhibitions, 1906-1932". Madison, CT, Sound View Press, 1990.

• "Fifty Prints of the Year 1933". The Los Angeles Times, January 20, 1935, p. 34. (Newspapers.com)

  • “Fifty Prints of the Year 1933”, selected by a committee of the American Art Dealers Association, have just reached Los Angeles. This year they are at the Jake Zeitlin Gallery. “ / “Among the etchers … James E. Allen”

• "Fine Prints of the Year: An Annual Review of Contemporary Etching and Engraving, Eleventh Annual Issue, 1933". London, Halton & Company, 1933.

  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "Fine Prints of the Year: An Annual Review of Contemporary Etching and Engraving, Fourteenth Annual Issue, 1936". London, Halton & Company, 1936.

  • work (i): "Up Above the World" (etching)

• "Fine Prints of the Year: An Annual Review of Contemporary Etching and Engraving, Thirteenth Annual Issue, 1935". London, Halton & Company, 1935.

  • work (i): "The Accident" (etching)

• "Fine Prints of the Year: An Annual Review of Contemporary Etching and Engraving, Twelfth Annual Issue". London, Halton & Company, 1934.

  • work (i): "Brazilian Builders" (etching)

• Forrest, Wilbur. "Fatherland of Piracy: The Reported Discovery, by Means of an Ancient Pirate's Map, of a Golden Hoard on a Lonely Pacific Isle Has Quickened Interest in Treasure Hunting. Here Is the Tale of Tortuga Birth Nest of New World Piracy Where a Buccaneers Cache Was Recently Found". New York Herald Tribune, May 20, 1934.

  • "Courtesy of Kennedy & Co." / Also published in The Billings Gazette, May 20, 1934
  • work (i): "[Pirates]" (etching)

• Forrest, Wilbur. "The Birthplace of Buccaneering". The Baltimore Sun, May 20, 1934.

  • work (i): "[Pirates]" (etching)

• "Four Lithographs of Industry". Advertising & Selling, March, 1938.

  • "Rarely does an illustration meet with success in both advertising and art circles. These lithographs, after making a I. S. Pipe & Foundry campaign outstanding, were featured in important fine art print shows; dealiers handling Mr. Allen's etchings sold part of a limited edition. Gallery pictures have been used in advertising before, but never to our knowledge have galleries exhibited and sold art created expressly for advertising."
  • work (i): "Four Pipe Line" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "Pipe and Brawn" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Flats" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Trench" (lithograph)

• "frontispiece - Teeming Ingots". Fine Art Connoisseur, December, 2017, p. 3.

  • Used as Frontispiece with a quote from John Taylor, Art Historian: "In the 1930s, many artists emphasized the heroic nature of industrial jobs -- the allure of which grew partly because they were so difficult to obtain." It serves as an introduction to the article "Industrial Sights/Sites" by Kelly Thompson on contemporary artist's responses to "America's Industrial Landscape".
  • work (i): "Teeming Ingots" (etching)

• "Getty Union List of Artist Names (online): James Edmund Allen (American printmaker, illustrator, 1894-1964)". Los Angeles, The Getty Institute. (ULAN)

  • ULAN ID: 500032760

• Glut, Donald F. "Jurassic Classics: A Collection of Saurian Essays and Mesozoic Musings". Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland and Company, Inc, 2001. (Google Books)

  • "[P. G. Alen's Tyrannosaur model for the 133 Chicago World's Fair] was photographed in a three-quarters view that was subsequently rendered in oil by artist James E. Allen for the Sinclair Dinosaur Book, working under the supervision of famous American Museum of Natural History paleontologist Barnum Brown, who also wrote the text. This booklet was published in 1934 and circulated for years thereafter as a "giveaway" promotional item for the oil company. Although Allen's painting correctly showed the dinosaur's two-fingered hand, the head had a rather horselike appearance, and the legs bulged much too conspicuously from the body."
  • work (i): "Tyrannosaurus" (lithograph)

• Goltre, Raylene D. "The American Painter and Social Reform". ProQuest LLC, 1965.

  • "A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School, University of Southern California, in Partial Fullfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts (Art History), August 1965"
  • work (i): "Prayer for Rain" (lithograph)

• Goodstone, Tony. "The Pulps: Fifty Year of American Pop Culture". New York, Chelsea House, 1970.

  • work (i): [The Evil Shepherd} - Cover art for "Blue Book Magazine", July, 1922

• Green, William. "Labor and the New Deal". Herald Tribune Magazine, September 3, 1933.

  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• Green, William. "Labor and the New Deal". New York Herald Tribune, September 3, 1933.

  • Also published in The Billings Gazette, September 9, 1933
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "Herbert Halpern Fine Arts, Prints And Books, Vol. 10, April - May 1998.". Herbert Halpern Fine Arts, 1998. (Abe Books)

  • work (i): "Brazilian Builders" (etching)

• Hölscher, Dr. E., Salmond-Volkmann. "James Allen, Larchmont USA". Gebrauchsgraphik: International Advertising Art, December, 1938, pp. 29-38. (Art Historicum)

  • In German and English / Excerpt: "To the correspondingly limited circle of advertising artists who in these days may be said to be still past masters in these branches of art, belongs the industrial graphic artist, James E. Allen of Larchmont in U.S.A. He makes exclusive use of etching and lithography, and his highly excellent work proves convincingly how both these processes are peculiarly suited to designing advertisements for industrial purposes. Opportunity was given to this artist by Messrs Alley & Richards Company whose art director is Deane Uptegrove, of designing a series of large scale lithographic pictures for the U. S. Pipe and Foundry Company, whilst the subjects of his most impressive etchings are generally scenes from the lives of industrial workers showing the dangers of their calling. The peculiar charm and value of James E. Allen's graphic work are due not only to his great technical ability which is revealed in everything he does but also to his artist's attitude towards work, and his conception of it altogether. He looks at the men and things he portrays with a practical eye, in fact almost baldly, and all technical processes are executed by him with great exactitude as to details. In doing so, however, he never falls into the error of paying attention to trivialities but adheres to generous forms and pictures that are almost monumental in the forcefulness of their expression. All who view these impressive works of advertising art are given a vivid and suggestive picture of the powerful rhythm of daily labour and of the fearless readiness of the workers to perform their allotted tasks."
  • work (i): "Pipe and Brawn" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "Post Setter" (etching)
  • work (i): "Standing Pipe" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Aqueduct" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Connectors" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Excavators" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Flats" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Sky Man" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Trench" (lithograph)

• Hughes, Lawrence M. "Advertising News". New York Sun, April 28, 1937.

  • "A probable”first” in advertising art was noted when Kennedy & Co., New York dealers, offered for sale as a piece of fine art a lithograph done by James E. Allen for Alley & Richards’ client, U. S. Pipe & Foundry Company. The lithograph, entitled “The Pipe Layers,” depicts workmen on the banks of a river setting huge pipes."
  • work: "Pipe Layers I" (lithograph)

• "James E. Allen Etching Given Coveted Award: Work of Former Fresnan Wins High Praise in New York". The Fresno Bee1933, January, 1. (Newspapers.com)

  • "The only prize awarded for etchings at a recent exhibition sponsored by the Salmagundi Club of New York in the eastern city went to James E. Allen, a former resident of Fresno, and the son of W. H. Allen of 477 Inez Street. Since 1919, James Allen has lived in New York City, where he has a studio and illustrates for leading magazines. He is a member of the Salmagundi Club, the Architectural League of New York City, and the Society of Illustrators. The etching that won the Salmagundi prize also won the J. W Shope prize at the National Arts Club show for the best composition shown. The New York Tribune said of the award; "The single award, the Samuel T. Shaw prize, has been given by the jury for a print by James E. Allen, The Builders which amply merits the distinction. What has become almost a commonplace sight to New Yorkers -- men working on skyscraper girders at dizzy heights -- has been converted by the artist into a far from commonplace composition, and the void below the workers on their high perch is suggested by convincing atmospheric treatment."
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "James E. Allen, 1894-1964 [Folder]: Art & Artist files at the Smithsonian American Art Museum / National Portrait Gallery Library". Smithsonian Libraries: http://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:SILAF_7373. (Smithsonian American Art Museum)

• "James E. Allen’s Work to Be Given Showing in City". The Washington Post, February 27, 1938.

• "James Edmund Allen (American printmaker, illustrator, 1894-1964)". WikiData: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q47868857. (WikiData)

  • ID: Q47868857

• Jewell, Edward Alden. "Fifty Prints Show Has Opening Today". The New York Times, May 2, 1934, p. 19. (ProQuest)

• Katlan, Alexander W. "Salmagundi Club Painting Exhibition Records 1940-1951 and Water Color Exhibition Records 1900-1951". New York, Salmagundi Club, 2009.

  • Lists these exhibits/works:
  • 1940 - Salvage
  • 1941 - Brazilian Builders
  • 1942w - untitled (a "w" after the date indicates one of two war art exhibits of paintings, posters and drawings)
  • 1944 - Boothbay Harbor
  • 1945 - Boothbay Harbor
  • 1945T - Early Snow (painting) [the "T" after the date indicates an "Exhibition of Thumbnail Sketches"]
  • 1946 - Turkeys [Wild Turkeys]

• Katlan, Alexander W. "The Salmagundi Club Painting Exhibitions Records 1889 to 1939: A Guide to the Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings And The Annual Exhibition and Auction Sale of Pictures". New York, Salmagundi Club, 2008.

  • From the Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings -- 1931: Onions, 1932: Rhoda / From the Annual Exhibition and Auction Sale of Pictures -- 1933: Still Life, 1937:Boothbay Harbor, 1938: Panama Mail Boat [Mailboat Panama], 1939: The Plowman
  • work: "Booth Bay Harbor" (etching)
  • work: "Mailboat Panama" (etching)
  • work: "Onions" (painting)
  • work: "Rhoda" (painting)
  • work: "Still Life" (painting)
  • work: "The Plowman" (lithograph)

• Katz, Harry. "The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection.". Athens, Ga., Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 2008.

  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• Kiehl, David W. "American Printmaking in the 1930s: Some Observations". Print Quarterly, June, 1983.

  • 37. James E. Allen (1894-1964), The S-Curve, lithograph, 1937, 365 X 291 mm (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 198 1. 1 2 16. 2). James E. Allen valued the worth of hard work and personal ingenuity for survival. He did not participate in the WPA programmes. His prints depict the muscular strength of American labour at work, in steel mills and locomotive assembly plants, laying pipe line and on construction. Two of his prize- winning etchings of the 1 930s, The Builders and Spider Boy , capture the derring-do of construction workers building the new American dream, the skyscrapers which transformed the skylines of American cities. The series of twelve lithographs, commissioned by the U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company in 1937, are quintessential expressions of his belief in hard work and labour. In The S-Curve, the tubular depiction of muscular strength echoes the hard iron pipe snaking through the landscape.
  • work (i): "The S-Curve" (lithograph)

• Langa, Helen. "Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s New York". Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004.

  • work: "The Builders" (etching) -- "Analyzing the kind of labor a print portrays and determining whose interests it advances can be helpful in deciding whether a particular work has such relevance. James Allen's etching "The Builders" (1932), for example, documents some of the most elite workers of the decade; the men who constructed the steel frames for the monumental buildings transforming the New York skyline. The print is typical of his interests, showing these workers as heroic figures engaged in highly technical construction tasks rather than emphasizing the powerful machinery and environments that attracted other twentieth-century artists. It also suggests his fascination with these men's extraordinary courage by contrasting their carefully observed clothing and calm businesslike demeanor with their terrifyingly precarious positions. Indeed, contemporary critics praised Allen for capturing "the dynamic strength of 'man over material'" and the "daily heroism of American's industrial workers." Yet this print seems an unlikely candidate for social viewpoint status. It emphasizes the skills of an elite class of workers while also implying the importance of continuing corporate investment in skyscraper building during the early years of the Depression. The men portrayed in "The Builders" are figures of almost mythic bravado, but they are not proletarian heroes; nor does their situation reveal the typical stresses shared by less glamorous members of the workforce."

• "Letter from Thomas C. Parker, Director, American Federation of Arts, to James Allen, June 10th, 1943 ". Allen family papers.

• "Library of Congress Name Authority File (NAF): Allen, James E., 1894-1964". Washington, D. C., Library of Congress. (NAF)

  • ID: Q47868857

• Library of Congress. "Report of the Librarian of Congress for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1937". Washington, DC, U.S. G.P.O., 19231937, 1938, pp. 165-166. (HathiTrust)

  • In Department of Fine Arts, Exhibitions -- “During the year a new group of recently acquired etchings, woodblock prints, and lithographs was put on exhibition. This group included 207 prints by American artists and 65 by artists of other countries. The Americans represented were-- James E. Allen …”

• "Lithographs and Etchings on display ...". The Adcrafter, October 8, 1940.

  • "From The Adcrafter, Advertising and Sales Magazine of Detroit, Oct 8 1940 / : Notice to subscribers: Lithographs and Etchings on display at the Club through the courtesy of W. A. McNabb, art Director of Campbell-Ewald Co. including U.S. Cast Iron Pipe and Hyatt Bearings Division of General Motors series, artist J E A " [from Allen family papers]

• "Master Prints of Five Centuries: The Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection". Detroit, MI, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1990.

  • work (i): "Teeming Ingots" (etching)

• "Men At Work". Huntington, NY, The Heckscher Museum, 2015. (The Heckscher Museum)

  • work: "Teeming Ingots" (etching) -- "Teeming Ingots is exemplary of Allen's preferred subject matter, portraying steel workers casting metal. The dramatic composition is emphasized by the artist’s vivid contrast of light and dark. Despite the tough economic conditions of the 1930s, this image evokes a sense of power and strength, typical of the artist's depictions of American labor."

• "Museum & Dealer Catalogues, Mary Ryan Gallery". The Print Collector's Newsletter, November–December 1984, 1984, p. 179.

  • "MARY RYAN GALLERY, 452 Columbus Avenue, New York, New York 10024.James E. Allen is the catalogue to an exhibition of prints held at Mary Ryan Gallery, August 15-September 16. As a Social Realist (before his switch to abstraction in the early '40s), Allen produced many etchings and lithographs, largely of men at work—pipe layers, plowmen, coal heavers, etc. Almost a catalogue raisonné, this publication reproduces all but 11 of the prints listed in Allen's print oeuvre ledger and gives edition sizes and dates when known. Reproductions are good size, occasionally full-page. 34 pp. 93 illustrations. Price: $5 postpaid." /

• Pettingill, Olin, Sewall, Jr. "Proceedings of the Wilson Ornithological Club - The Bird Art Exhibit". The Wilson Bulletin, March, 1941, p. 65. (JSTOR, Accessed: 04-05-2019 05:09 UTC)

  • "Five etchings loaned by Kennedy & Company, New York, City."

• Pittenger, Donald. "Up Close: James E. Allen". Art Contrarian, . (Art Contrarian)

  • A brief discussion and critique of the illustrations of James E. Allen using the example of "A Carolan Comes Home".
  • work (i): "[A Carolan Comes Home]" (painting)

• Pogoretskyy, Vitaliiy. "Freedom of Transit and Access to Gas Pipeline Networks Under WTO Law". Cambridge University Press, 2017.

  • work (i): "Pipe Layers I" (lithograph)

• Polllack, Channing. "Has the White Race Gone Soft?". Hearst's International - Cosmopolitan, November, 1936, p. 65. (Internet Archive)

  • work (i): "Spiderboy" (etching)

• Raynor, Vivian. "Prints in Motion: Associated American Artists, 20 West 57th Street, through Sept. 3". The New York Times, August 14, 1987, C29. (The New York Times)

  • “But the prize for the most dramatic performance - in any element - goes to James E. Allen's zeppelin going down in flames ["Finis"], also of the 1930's. It's the lithographic counterpart to Eilshemius's painting of the Graf Hindenburg doing the same thing."
  • work: "Finis" (lithograph)

• Reed, Walt. "The Illustrator in America 1860-2000". New York, The Society of Illustrators, 2001.

  • work (i): Illustrations for "The Stone Growers" by Terhune, Albert Payson (Saturday Evening Post, November 5, 1921)

• Reed, Walt. "The Illustrator in America 1900-1960's". New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1966.

  • work (i): Illustrations for "The Bride of the Sacred Well" by Squier, Emma-Lindsay (Good Housekeeping, November, 1927)

• Reese, Albert. "American Prize Prints of the 20th Century". New York, American Artists Group, 1949.

  • work: "The Builders" (etching) -- "Within a few years the skyscraper has done more to change the face of the American nation than any other edifice born of the mechanical age. Based on steel and supported on a bed of coal its storied splendor towers over a score of cities from coast to coast. But without the builders swinging perilously aloft and forging with their rivets of steel she sinews of the structure together the giant skyscraper would still be a dream in the minds of architects and engineers. In the accompanying print, which has already won several prizes, the artist pays homage to the skill and daring of these intrepid men. "The Builders,” says James E. Allen, was done at a time when, being deeply interested in organization, I tried to express the dramatic force and grandeur of this triangular group, with its related movement, and in its angular environment. I tried to use natural forms with as little distortion as possible, and in doing so, to stay within the bounds of tradition."

• Rizzi, Allen E. "The Horse Whisperers from Anaconda". published by the author, 2014.

  • work: "Grizzly Madonna" (lithograph)

• Sherman, Ray W. "Merely Men". New York Herald Tribune, This Week Magazine, September 24, 1939, p. 2.

  • work (i): "Up Above the World" (etching)

• Stewart, Cora Wilson. "Moonlight Schools for the Emancipation of Adult Illiterates". New York, New York, E. P. Dutton and Company, 1922.

  • Cover art is signed only "ALLEN"
  • work (i): Illustrations for "Are You Too Old To Learn?" by Flexner, Hortense (Red Cross Magazine, September, 1919)

• Stubbs, A. H., J. H. Bender. "Prints of Today - Kill Creek". The Print Collector's Quarterly, April, 1938, p. 240.

  • Page number is within annual bound compilation
  • work (i): "Kill Creek" (lithograph)

• Stubbs, A. H., J. H. Bender. "Prints of Today - The Prayer for Rain". The Print Collector's Quarterly, February, 1939, p. 110.

  • Page number is within annual abound compilation
  • work (i): "Prayer for Rain" (lithograph)

• Tarbell, Ida M. "No More Strikes!". New York Herald Tribune Magazine, October 15, 1933, cover.

  • “Brazilian Builders” (courtesy of Grand Central Galleries) incorporated into a larger illustration, decorations by Robert Lawson / Also published in The Billings Gazette, October 15, 1933
  • work (i): "Brazilian Builders" (etching)

• Tatham, David. "North American Prints, 1913-1947: An Examination at Century's End". Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse University Press.

  • "Last Year [1999] the New York Public Library had an exhibit called Order and Disorder ... A remarkable artist named James Allen was in that show, and he made lithographs of workers really working. You could see them sweating at the hearths of open-face furnaces of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. You could see them 'riding the iron' high up in the building of skyscrapers. ... In those days, workers didn't have safety belts and hard hats. James Allen noticed all these details. In the catalog [for the 1999 exhibit], the prominent academician John Taylor Arms [was quoted as have made] a statement back then about how Allen was coming along beautifully as an artist, pointing out how beautifully he composed - how he put that dark silhouette against a light area, and how he had the half-tomes coming in just here. Mr. Arms praised Allen's compositions highly, but not a word about the fact that this guy was portraying people's lives and the way they made a living at great risk. This was a classic example of the primacy of form over content."

• Taylor, Joshua C. "America as Art". Washington, D. C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1976.

  • "For the most part the city was seen as the center of work, and the seriousness of the working masses became a dominant concern for many urban artists. The primary image was of the heroic stature of labor and the uncompromising seriousness of the working class."
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "The Day's Work: Etchings by James E. Allen". Survey Graphics, September 26, 1937, pp. 476-477.

  • “Etchings courtesy of Kennedy and Company, New York” / "James E. Allen, three of whose striking etchings are reproduced ... is well known both for his prints and his illustrations. His work has won a series of prizes in print shows of the past few years and appears in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Pennsylvania Museum of Art and the New York Public Library. Mr. Allen has made many studies of industrial scenes, particularly of men in the steel industry and in building construction. But the people of the sea and the man behind the plow also fire this artist's imagination."
  • work (i): "Drying Cod" (etching)
  • work (i): "Men's Work" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Excavators" (etching)

• "The Home Forum". Christian Science Monitor, January 3, 1933.

  • "The Builders": from an etching by James E. Allen / By Permission of the Artist to the Christian Science Monitor
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• "The Sunday Review". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 7, 1934, cover.

  • "Courtesy Grand Central Galleries"
  • work (i): "Men's Work" (etching)

• "The Sunday Review". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 25, 1934, cover.

  • "Courtesy Kennedy & Co."
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)

• Thomas, Lowell. "Death Stalks Underground". New York Herald Tribune, November 18, 1934, p. 2.

  • work (i): "The Accident" (etching)

• "Uncovering America - Art and the Great Depression". National Gallery of Art. (National Gallery of Art)

  • An educational site that incorporates many examples of WPA/Depression era art from the National Gallery of Art.
  • work (i): "Arch of Steel" (lithograph)

• "VIAF Virtual International Authority FIle: James Edmund Allen (American printmaker, illustrator, 1894-1964)". Dublin, OH, OCLC. (VIAF)

  • VIAF ID: 28649115 (Personal)

• "Visions of a Changing America: Depression Era Prints from the Collection of Herschel and Fern Cohen". Huntongton, N. Y., Heckscher Museum of Art, 1998.

  • work (i): "Spiderboy" (etching)

• Watson, Ernest W. "James E. Allen, A Virile American Artist". American Artist, February, 1944, p. 12.

  • work (i): "Menace" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "Pipe Layers I" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "Prayer for Rain" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "Summer" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Builders" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Wreck" (lithograph)

• Watson, Mark S. "On the Trail of Old Books: A Philadelphian's Discoveries During a Life of Collecting". The Baltimore Sun, January 3, 1937. (Newspapers.com)

  • "An etching by James E. Allen from 'Fine Prints of the Year 1936'"
  • work (i): "Up Above the World" (etching)

• Wilhelm, Donald. "What's Next in Steel?". New York Herald Tribune, March 12, 1933, p. 10. (ProQuest)

  • Also published in Billings Gazatte; Billings, Montana, March 12, 1933, Sunday Supplement, pp 8-9
  • work (i): "[The Forge]" (etching)
  • work (i): "The Laborer" (etching)

• Williams, Reba, Dave Williams, Karen F. Beall, David W. Kiehl. "Graphic Excursions-American Prints in Black and White, 1900-1950: Selections from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams". Boston, Mass., David .R. Godine Inc, 1991.

  • work (i): "The Connectors" (etching)

• Wilson, Raymond L. "Index of American Print Exhibitions, 1882-1940". Metuchen, N.J., & London, Scarecrow Press, 1988.

• Wolff, Theodore F. "James E. Allen - printmaker and perfectionist". Christian Science Monitor, August 13, 1984. (Christian Science Monitor)

  • “That Allen was among the best American printmakers of his day will come as a surprise to almost everyone except a few print professionals, and even some of these will have to admit that they hadn't known of him until his inclusion in the Metropolitan Museum's ''Working America'' show last year. This ignorance is all the more unusual since he was very well known during the 1930s and '40s, with many awards and commissions to his credit. True enough, he represented the kind of traditional printmaking that became thoroughly unfashionable - thanks to the influence of S. W. Hayter and Mauricio Lasansky - around 1950. But Howard Cook, Martin Lewis, Louis Lozowick, and a few other printmakers survived, and their work was roughly of the same quality as Allen's. / Whatever the reason he faded from public view, the important thing is that his etchings and lithographs are once again in evidence - and are very good. / By and large, Allen's prints depict the channeling of human resources toward industrial goals, focusing on the various kinds of labor needed to create our modern world. The men in his pictures work hard to build bridges, construct skyscrapers, and dig tunnels, but his attitude toward them is far from romantic or sentimental. A laborer may possess dignity and deserve respect, but for Allen, backbreaking work is hardly the pinnacle of human aspiration. His subjects do what they must, but they don't glory in it. Nor are they slaves of a capitalist system, as was depicted in quite a few prints of the '30s. / Allen's graphic images are compactly designed, forcefully but ''accurately'' drawn, and shrewdly orchestrated for maximum black-and-white effect. They are monumental in conception and precise in detail, and they're as effective at 10 feet as when held in the hand.” / “He was disciplined and hardworking, first as a student in Chicago and New York, then as a professional. He learned etching from Joseph Pennell and William Auerbach-Levy, sharpened his perception of three-dimensional form by doing sculpture, and in general made certain that everything he did was thoroughly grounded in observation, knowledge, and experience. Never satisfied with halfway measures, Allen executed exhaustive charcoal studies for all his prints, and he spent close to 10 years experimenting with copper and acid before allowing his etching to be exhibited. / Such care soon began to pay off. In 1932 he won two major awards for his etching ''The Builders,'' and in 1933 he was honored for his ''Brazilian Builders.'' He continued to exhibit and to receive important prizes for his graphic work until the late 1940s, when he decided not only to give up printmaking for painting, but also to shift to a more abstract mode, under the guidance of painter and teacher Hans Hoffmann.”
  • work (i): "Arch of Steel" (lithograph)
  • work (i): "The Flats" (lithograph)

• Woll, Matthew. "Labor Weighs the New Deal". New York Herald Tribune, September 2, 1934, p. SM2. (ProQuest)

  • Also Billings Gazette, September 2, 1934 - https://www.newspapers.com/image/411144698
  • work (i): "The Laborer" (etching)