Russell T. "Butch" Limbach papers

Born in Massillon, Ohio, Russell T. Limbach was a painter and printmaker. He briefly attended the Cleveland School of Art, then left to become an apprentice in the sketch room of a small lithographic plant there, learning and refining his technique under the guidance of four experienced staff artists. He realized the artistic potential of printmaking at a local exhibit where he first saw Whistler etchings. He left for Europe in 1928 and studied for nearly a year under a fourth-generation lithographer in Paris. Returning to Cleveland in the depths of the depression, he traveled to New York City, where he found work as the Art Editor of The New Masses. Limbach subsequently was asked to organize the Graphics Division of the WPA Arts Project in New York. He was the recipient of numerous awards. His works are held in the collections numerous libraries and museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles Museum of Art. He died at Sherman, Connecticut. Source: Brier Hill Gallery [Accessed 2021-02-08]

Russell T. Limbach came to Wesleyan in 1941 as an artist-in-residence. At Wesleyan he was universally known as “Butch”. He was charged with injecting hands-on experience into the theoretical study of art. Butch lived in Foss House and that was the setting of Wesleyan’s first art studio, the Art Laboratory. In its earliest years the Art Lab lacked facilities for learning printing, typography, and graphic design but by 1943 Limbach had acquired a printing press and type. In 1952 the Art Lab moved to the Davison Art Center, newly housed in the renovated carriage house of the former stables of Alsop House. In addition to the Russell T. Limbach papers, Wesleyan Special Collections & Archives holds a complete set of the printing projects undertaken by Art Lab students. Source: S. Taraba, Historical Row: Butch Limbach and the Art Laboratory, Wesleyan University Magazine, 2012, Issue 2 [Accessed 2021-02-08]