Annabell Krebs Culverwell (June 13, 1902 – April 9, 1998) was an American painter. She took the name Columba when signing her paintings and writings, probably related to the constellation
Columba
Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...
, which is the focal point of several
Egyptian pyramids
The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified "Egyptian" pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. Of ...
. Her parents were Anna Frantz (1867–1930) and Dr.
Stanley LeFevre Krebs
Stanley LeFevre Krebs (January 14, 1864 – September 26, 1935) was an American psychologist and salesmanship lecturer.
Biography
In 1889, he received a Doctor of Psychology degree from the Chicago School of Psychology. Krebs was a one time pr ...
(1864–1935). Her father was a one time president of the American University of Trade and Applied Commerce of Philadelphia and a pastor in the
Reformed Church
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...
. He wrote the book "Trick Methods of Eusapia Paladino" (1910), exposing the tricks of the medium
Eusapia Palladino
Eusapia Palladino (alternative spelling: ''Paladino''; 21 January 1854 – 16 May 1918) was an Italian Spiritualist physical medium. She claimed extraordinary powers such as the ability to levitate tables, communicate with the dead through he ...
. His second marriage was to
Marjorie Main
Mary Tomlinson (February 24, 1890 – April 10, 1975), professionally known as Marjorie Main, was an American character actress and singer of the Classical Hollywood period, best known as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the 1940s and ...
of ''
Ma and Pa Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle are comic film characters of the successful film series of the same name, produced by Universal Studios, in the late 1940s and 1950s. The hillbilly duo had their hands full with a ramshackle farm and a brood of rambunctious child ...
'' fame.
Biography
When about 11 years old, she lived In Europe for three years. It is claimed that, at age fifteen, she had her first
psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...
experience; a vision, while living in
Wayne, Pennsylvania
Wayne is an unincorporated community centered in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on the Main Line, a series of highly affluent Philadelphia suburbs located along the railroad tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad and one of the wealthiest areas ...
. After her marriage in 1921, to Frank J. Culverwell, she lived for a time in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, where she began the study of
Theosophy
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
, and then in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
and
Darjeeling
Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. She lived for a time near
Joshua Tree National Monument
Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَع ...
in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. During this time she met and worked with several of America's first UFO contactees.
Columba maintained an address in
East Orange, New Jersey
East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 69,612. The city was List of municipalities in ...
, studied at
Hood College
, motto_lang = la
, mottoeng = With Heart and Mind and Hand
, established =
, type = Private college
, religious_affiliation = United Church of Christ
, endowment = $104.5 million (2020)
, president = Andrea E. Chapd ...
and the
New York School of Fine and Applied Arts
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
. She exhibited at the Hall of Art in New York in 1932 and 1933; Salons of Art in 1934: Strauss Galleries in New York in 1950. She also exhibited in Bloomfield and
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Bayard Rustin Educational Complex, New York. She was a member of the
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
Arts Club and Newark Arts Club. She held positions as President of Skuddabud Creations from 1936 to 1940 which published a
Christian Socialist
Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...
science fiction book for kids by the same name. Owned Heated Doll Company from 1941 through 1945. She was the owner of Symbolant Company.
Some of her first drawings were of a political nature to support the Christian Socialist movement in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, as was her publication, "The Adventures of Skuddabud" and a cartoon strip by the same name in comic magazines in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
Lectures and presentations
She gave presentations on “The Mysteries of Man and the Universe” illustrated with color slides,"The Mysteries of. Human Nature," stressing' phenomena such as mental telepathy and kindred experiences. Mrs. Krebs Culverwell even dressed in Oriental costume, to give an illustrated lecture on “Symbolic Art of Life's Marvels.”
Paintings and drawings
Her paintings were named after the subjects they portrayed. "The Tree of Character, The Magnet of Art Patronage," "Our Conscious, Sub- Conscious and Super-Consciousness," "Mental Magnifying Glasses," "The Boomerang Law," "Our Various Bodies," "The Four Planes of Vibration," "Good and Evil Influences and one which Harwood Fisher commented on in his publication “The Subjective Self: A portrait Inside Logical Space. Mr. Fisher stated “Lastly, depictions of the spiral in cosmic art have the same themes of origin, creativity, and forms that move to the future. An interesting illustration is a painting by Columba Krebs called the “Universal Kingdom” (1956, reproduced in Piper and Piper 1975”.
Writings
Columba Krebs wrote an afterword to the 1970 book ''The People of the Planet Clarion'' and assisted UFO contactee-author
Truman Bethurum
Truman Bethurum (August 21, 1898 – May 21, 1969) was one of the well known 1950s UFO or alien "contactees"- individuals who claimed to have spoken with people from other inhabited planets and entered or ridden in their spacecraft.
Background
B ...
with all three of his later books; she notes that Bethurum seemed obsessed by the voluptuous alien Captain Aura Rhanes, and had hired a secretary whom (according to Bethurum) very closely resembled the humanoid Captain Rhanes.
''“The Moon is Inhabited"'' was written by Columba. It was produced in mimeographed form on a tan paper. The publication had light blue covers with Illustrations of two people on a planet with some form of habitation in what appears to be a crater. There are several types of “flying saucers” and rocket ships in the air. The back cover has a drawing with palm trees and a tube type edifice with a glass dome and a king sitting on a throne inside. Some type of ray has melted a portion of the dome and is either sending down or beaming up humans and animals. There are also illustrations inside the front and back cover. The profits from the sale of this publication were to go to the Cosmic Arts Shrine.
Notations on two of Columba's publications appear in “UFO's and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement a bibliography”.
Volume One: Unidentified Flying Objects by George M. Eberhart The Scarecrow Press Inc. Metuchen, N. J. 1986
Columba Krebs appeared in Who Was Who in American Art, 1564–1975Published in 1999 Falk, Peter Hastings (Editor) 3 Volumes. Page number 3724