The Cresson Traveling Scholarship, also known as the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, is a two-year scholarship for foreign travel and/or study awarded annually to art students at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Awarded for excellence, the prize was funded by Emlen and Priscilla Cresson in memory of their son William Emlen Cresson, an Academy alumnus who died in 1868 at the age of 23. He had been a child prodigy painter who began exhibiting at the Academy at the age of 11. The first Cresson Traveling Scholarships were awarded in 1902. Initially, they were $1,000 one-year scholarships, renewable for a second year, and sometimes beyond. Multiple awards were given in painting, along with one in sculpture and one in architecture. Awards in illustration were added later. Cresson European Scholarships of $5000 for summer travel, were also awarded annually. These were not as prestigious as the two-year scholarships, with which they are often confused.

Laura Wheeler Waring Laura Wheeler Waring (May 16, 1887 – February 3, 1948) was an American artist and educator, best known for her paintings of prominent African Americans that she made during the Harlem Renaissance. She taught art for more than 30 years at Ch ...

, the first African-American woman to win a Cresson Traveling Scholarship, was studying in Paris in 1914 when

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out. Subsequent winners were allowed to postpone their travel until the conflict was over.

Scholarship winners

*Henry R. Rittenberg (painting), 1902 *

Louis Betts Louis Betts (October 5, 1873 – August 13, 1961) was an American portrait painter. Biography Betts was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father was an artist who remarried after Louis' mother died. His family moved to Chicago where his three y ...

(painting), 1903, 1904 * Martha Walter (painting), 1903, 1904 *Emilie Zeckwer (painting), 1903, 1904 *Giuseppe Donato (sculpture), 1903, 1904 *Gilbert L. Hindermyer (architecture), 1903, 1904 *Alice V. Corson (painting), 1904, 1905 *E. H. Allerton (painting), 1903, 1904 *

Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer (January 7, 1873 – June 24, 1943) was an American illustrator, Painting, painter, and printmaker who painted and illustrated Tennessee society, including the state's women and children. As a printmaker, she pione ...

(painting), 1904, 1905 *Morris Molarsky (painting), 1904, 1905 *Charles Frederick Ramsey (painting), 1904, 1905 *F. Hutton Shill (painting), 1904, 1905 *

Albert Laessle Albert Laessle (March 28, 1877 – September 4, 1954) was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for more than twenty years and is best remembered as an animalier. He won the 1918 Widener Gold ...

(sculpture), 1904, 1905 *

Phineas Paist Phineas P. Paist (August 28, 1873 – May 2, 1937) was an American architect who was the supervising architect for the Coral Gables Corporation. Paist was an architect working for S. Gifford Slocum at age 20. In 1893 he became an associate of ...

(architecture), 1904, 1905 * Arthur B. Carles (painting), 1905, 1906, 1907 *

Daniel Garber Daniel Garber (April 11, 1880 – July 5, 1958) was an American Impressionist landscape painter and member of the art colony at New Hope, Pennsylvania. He is best known today for his large impressionist scenes of the New Hope area, in which he o ...

(painting), 1905, 1906 *Victor H. Zoll (sculpture), 1905, 1906 *William E. Groban (architecture), 1905, 1906 *Clarence K. Hinkle (painting), 1906, 1907 *John M. Bateman (sculpture), 1906, 1907 *Warden H. Fenton (architecture), 1906, 1907 * Lawrence Saint (painting), 1907 * Thomas Harlan Ellett (architecture), 1907 *C. Edgar Cope (architecture), 1907 *Nina B. Ward (painting), 1908, 1909, 1911 *

Robert Rodes McGoodwin Robert Rhodes McGoodwin (July 6, 1886 – February 25, 1967) was an American architect and educator, best known for his suburban houses in the Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy sections of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He taught at University of Pennsy ...

(architecture), 1908 * Cornelia Barns (painting), 1909, 1910 * Beatrice Fenton (sculpture), 1909, 1910 * Leopold Seyffert, 1910, 1911, 1912 *Donald Blake *Craig Johns, 1911 *Katherine Southwick, 1911, 1912 *Gertrude A. Lambert, 1912, 1913 * Elsa Jemne, 1914, 1915 *

(painting), 1914, 1915 * Edith McMurtrie *Charles Skinner Garner, 1916, 1917 * Roy Cleveland Nuse, 1917, 1918 *

Clarence Johnson Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson (February 27, 1910 – December 21, 1990) was an American aeronautical and systems engineer. He is recognized for his contributions to a series of important aircraft designs, most notably the Lockheed U-2 an ...

(painting), 1917. Travel deferred until 1920 because of his service in World War I. *Sue May Westcott Gill *Walter W. Josephs (painting), 1918 *Delphine Bradt (painting), 1918 *Raphael Sabatini (sculpture), 1918 *Otto Gatter (illustration), 1918 *Elmer G. Anderson (painting), 1919 *Sara Carles (painting), 1919 *Wayne K. Crumling (painting), 1919 *Edith W. Dallas (painting), 1919 *Elise Fullerton (painting), 1919 *Catharine Harley Grant (painting), 1919 *Helene Holdt (painting), 1919 *Julian Levi (painting), 1919 *Mabel Pugh (painting), 1919 *Tokio Ueyama (painting), 1919 *Bernard Gordon (sculpture), 1919 *Jean Knox (illustration), 1919 *Abraham Rattner (illustration), 1919 * Alfred R. Mitchell, 1920 *Morris Blackburn, * Gladys Edgerly Bates, 1921 *Arthur Meltzer, 1921 *Barse Miller (painting), 1922, 1923 *

Walker Hancock Walker Kirtland Hancock (June 28, 1901 – December 30, 1998) was an American sculptor and teacher. He created notable monumental sculptures, including the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial (1950–52) at 30th Street Station in Philadel ...

(sculpture), 1922, 1923 *Margaret Brisbine, 1923 *

Walter Inglis Anderson Walter Inglis Anderson (September 29, 1903 – November 30, 1965) was an American painter and writer. Anderson died from cancer November 30, 1965, at the age of 62. Early life and education Anderson was born in New Orleans to George Walter A ...

, 1927 * Benton Murdoch Spruance, 1928 * Joseph Plavcan, 1928 * Robert Cronbach, 1929, 1930 * Charles W. Ward, 1930 * Dacre F. Boulton, 1931, 1932 *Alvyn Boyd Cruise * Charles M. West, Jr., 1934 *Roswell Weidner, 1935 *

Jack Delano Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov; August 1, 1914 – August 12, 1997) was a Ukrainian immigrant who became an accomplished photographer for the Works Progress Administration, United Fund, and most notably, the Farm Security Administration (FSA). ...

, 1936 * Geraldine Funk (Alvarez) *Dorothy Gilman Butters, 1944The Central New Jersey Home News, Mary 26, 1946, "Wins Art Award", page 9. * Raymond Saunders, 1956 *Charles Searles * Elizabeth Osborne *Barkley L. Hendricks, 1966 *Robert Bender, 1973 *Jill A. Rupinski, 1976 * Bo Bartlett, 1980 * James P. Repenning, 1980 *Douglas Martenson, 1981 *

Vincent Desiderio Vincent Desiderio (born 1955) is an American realist painter. In 2005 he was on the teaching staff at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; he is a senior critic at the New York Academy of Art. Biography Desiderio was born in 1955, in Pe ...

, 1982 * Peter Groesbeck *Andrea Packard *Orit Hofshi, 1989

References

{{reflist Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Awards established in 1902 1902 establishments in Pennsylvania Visual arts awards