Evaline Ness Papers

Evaline Ness was born April 24, 1911 in Union City, Ohio. She attended Ball State Teacher's College, and studied art at the Chicago Art Institute, Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Students League in New York City, and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. Evaline Ness taught children's art classes, and worked as a fashion and magazine illustrator early in her career, and in the 1954 illustrated her first children's book, The Story of Ophelia, by Mary Gibbons. In 1963, she illustrated her own story, A Gift for Sula Sula. Throughout her long and prolific career, Evaline Ness illustrated many authors' books and was noted for her ability to work in a variety of media and her innovative and unique illustrations that interweaved text and pictures to create a story that captured a young child's attention and imagination. This talent is especially evident in her own written works with their girl protagonists and subtle stories that have a backdrop of "feminism" and present "real" characters learning about all of life's pleasures, problems, and pains. In 1967, Evaline Ness received the Caldecott Award for Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine, the story of Samantha a little girl whose penchant for telling lies or "moonshine" leads her into trouble and ultimately learns what is "true" and responsibility for one's words. Evaline Ness also displayed her artistic innovation in her cut-out works for children such as Victorian Paper House To Cut Out and Color, and Four Rooms From The Metropolitan Museum of Art To Cut Out and Color. These works allow children to create their own art work using patterns designed and created by Evaline Ness based on a variety of different types of houses and rooms. Evaline Ness continued to write and illustrate children's picture books through the 1970s and early 1980s, and died on August 12, 1986.