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A LITTLE HISTORY ON THE 12TH (1945-46) DUCK STAMP ARTIST

For Owen J. Gromme, the interest in wildlife started in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where he was born on July 5, 1896.  Since early youth, he was a hunter and outdoorsman and his work reflects the great interest he has always had in birds.  Mr. Gromme started work at the Milwaukee Public Museum in 1922.  It was there that he met his wife, formerly Ann Nielsen of Briggsville, Wisconsin.  they were married in September, 1927.

During his years at the Museum, Mr. Gromme went on several expeditions including one to Alaska and another to the Hudson Bay area.  In 1928 and 1929, he went to Africa for ten months to collect material for the large dioramic groups in the Museum.  This was the Cudahy-Massey Milwaukee Expedition, a trip that marked the beginning of Mr. Gromme's serious work in painting.  While he was on the expedition, he made background sketches and color notes to be used later in buildings and displays.

Some of Mr. Gromme's paintings beautifully illustrated the book, Birds of Wisconsin, published in the fall of 1963.  The book is one of Mr. Gromme's finest accomplishments.  When it was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in Madison, Wisconsin, more that 10,000 copies were sold in the first year.  A second printing of 5,000 copies was ordered after the book received reviews of high praise from all over the country.

Mr. Gromme's work has appeared in various books published by the Milwaukee Public Museum over a period of many years.  Other published works include the frontispiece for The Wild Turkey by A. W. Schorger, published by the University of Oklahoma Press, the cover and jacket of Birds Will Come to You by C.P. Fox, Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin, published by Reilly Company; and several plates in Birds of Colorado.

In 1967, Mr. Gromme began work on a series of paintings for the Marshall & Ilsley Bank of Milwaukee.  The project took about two years and provided a complete gallery of his work for  the new building which the company was constructing.

Mr. Gromme was a member of the Art Commission of the City of Milwaukee and was Curator Emeritus of the Milwaukee Public Museum.  He was a judge for the International Decoy Contest held at the Mississippi Valley Fair in Davenport, Iowa and was an advisor on the film committee for Encyclopedia Britannica.  Organizations to which he belonged included the Audubon Society, the American Ornithologists Union, the National Wildlife Society, the Wisconsin Society for Ornithologists, the Wisconsin Academy of Arts, Science and Letters, and the Seven Arts Society of Milwaukee.

Mr. Gromme died on October 29, 1991.

-------------------------THE ART-------------------------
Shovelers was done in watercolor wash.  The print is a fine-grained gravure, hand pulled using black ink on white paper.  The prints were pencil signed and numbered in the lower left corner in the far margin of the paper.  This is generally cut off when framed, or covered by matting.  The image size of the print is 5"x7".

-------------------------THE STAMP-------------------------
Shovelers...Engraved by the Federal Bureau of Engraving from the original artwork.   Printed in black and white.  The stamp sold for one dollar.  Postal records show 1,725,505 stamps sold.  First day of sale was July 1, 1945.

Most of the information contained above is from the book Federal Duck Stamp Story, Fifty Years of Excellence, by Laurence F. Jonson; Alexander & Co.  It is used here with permission from the author. For more information on this book, please click here.