Watercolor
Object NameWatercolor
Artist / Maker
Etta May Budd
(American, 1863 - 1952)
Datec. 1900
OriginUSA
MediumWatercolor
Dimensions22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineTransferred from Parks Library. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Object number92.7.2
Status
On viewCultureAmerican
Label TextEtta May Budd graduated from Iowa Agricultural College (IAC) in 1882. After graduating, she went on to pursue advanced studies in art in New York, Chicago, and Boston. Once she had returned to Iowa, Budd taught art at her alma mater from 1889 to 1890. After being at IAC for a year, Budd moved on to teach art at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa where she would meet and mentor a young George Washington Carver. Budd passed away in 1952.
It was at Etta May’s urging that Carver transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (IAC) from Simpson College to study horticulture. Carver’s first love was art, but Budd feared that he would be unable to make a living as an artist. She felt it would be more practical to pursue another one of his interests, plant science. She suggested he go to IAC, where her father, Joseph Lancaster Budd, was Head of the Horticulture Department.
Of Etta Budd, Carver wrote to Louis Pammel in 1922: “From here [Indianola, Iowa] I went to Ames, Iowa to take a course in Agriculture, persuaded to do so by my art teacher, Miss Etta M. Budd, to whom I am greatly indebted for whatever measure of success that has come to me. Miss Budd helped me in whatever way she could; often going far out of her way to encourage and see that I had such things as I needed. During my six years in College, her interest in me never waned.” (Correspondence, Carver to Pammel, May 5, 1922. University Archives, Special Collections, Iowa State University Library)
