Walter Emerson Baum, ANA (1884-1956)
A son of Bucks County, Walter E. Baum was born in the town of Sellersville in 1884 and died there in 1956.
Considered by many to be “the father of art in the Lehigh Valley”, Baum was a founder of the Lehigh Art Alliance in the pre-WWII era and was director of the Allentown Museum of Art, as well as of his own Baum School of Art, and art critic for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
Walter Baum studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and exhibited at their annual shows from 1914 to 1954, and won their Sesnan Gold Medal in 1925 and other PAFA exhibition prizes in 1939 and 1951. He also had a long relationship with the Cocoran Gallery where he exhibited from 1916 to 1951.
In addition to these two long associations, Baum’s work has been exhibited at significant regional art museums around the country, including Philadelphia, Detroit, Dayton, Ft. Worth, Decatur, Kemerer, Mint and Hickory museums. His works are also found in the permanent collections of numerous colleges, libraries and universities.
For additional information, consult: Walter Emerson Baum, 1884-1956, Pennsylvania Artist and Founder of the Baum School of Art by Martha Young Hutson-Saxton, 1996.