Walter Bowman Russell (May 19, 1871 – May 19, 1963) was an impressionist American painter (of the Boston School), sculptor,

autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

and author. His lectures and writing place him firmly in the

New Thought Movement The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...

. Russell wrote extensively on science topics, but these writings "were not taken seriously by scientists."

Life and career

Born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on May 19, 1871, to Nova Scotian immigrants, Russell left school at age 9 and went to work, then put himself through the Massachusetts Normal Art School. He interrupted his fourth year to spend three months in Paris at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

. Biographer Glenn Clark identifies four instructors who prepared him for an art career:

Albert Munsell Albert Henry Munsell (January 6, 1858 – June 28, 1918) was an American painter, teacher of art, and the inventor of the Munsell color system. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, attended and served on the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Ar ...

and Ernest Major in Boston,

Howard Pyle Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy. In 1894, he began ...

in Philadelphia, and

Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexand ...

in Paris. In his youth, Russell earned money as a church organist and music teacher, and by conducting a trio in a hotel. Before he left Boston in 1894, Russell married Helen Andrews (1874–1953). They traveled to Paris for their wedding trip and a second term for him at the Académie Julian. After their wedding trip, they settled in New York City in 1894 and had two daughters, Helen and Louise. Russell's rise in New York was immediate; a reporter wrote in 1908, "Mr. Russell came here from Boston and at once became a great artistic success." Walter Russell's careers as an illustrator, correspondent in the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

, child portrait painter and builder are detailed in several questionnaires he answered and submitted to ''Who's Who in America.'' At age 29, he attracted widespread attention with his allegorical painting ''The Might of Ages'' in 1900. The painting represented the United States at the Turin international exhibition and won several awards. By 1903, Russell had published three children's books (''The Sea Children'', ''The Bending of the Twig'', and ''The Age of Innocence'') and qualified for the Authors Club, which he joined in 1902. Russell made his mark as a builder, creating $30 million worth of

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

apartments. He is credited with developing "cooperative ownership into an economically sound and workable principle." The Hotel des Artistes on West 67th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, designed by architect George Mort Pollard, has been described as his masterpiece. Russell was also involved in the initial development of

Alwyn Court The Alwyn Court, also known as The Alwyn, is an apartment building at 180 West 58th Street, at the southeast corner with Seventh Avenue, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The Alwyn Court was built between 1907 and 1909 ...

, at Seventh Avenue and 58th Street in Manhattan, but dropped out before the project's completion. In the 1930s, Russell was employed by

Thomas J. Watson Thomas John Watson Sr. (February 17, 1874 – June 19, 1956) was an American businessman who served as the chairman and CEO of IBM. He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's manageme ...

, chairman of IBM, as a motivational speaker for IBM employees. He was employed at IBM for twelve years. At age 56 he turned to sculpture and fashioned portrait busts of

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

General MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dist ...

Ossip Gabrilowitsch Ossip Salomonovich Gabrilowitsch (Осип Сoломонович Габрилович, ''Osip Solomonovich Gabrilovich''; he used the German transliteration ''Gabrilowitsch'' in the West) (14 September 1936) was a Russian-born American pianist, ...

Charles Goodyear Charles Goodyear (December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860) was an American self-taught chemist and manufacturing engineer who developed vulcanized rubber, for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent Office on June 15, 1844. ...

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

and others. He rose to top rank as a sculptor. He won the commissions for the ''Mark Twain Memorial'' (1934) and for President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's ''

Four Freedoms Monument The ''Four Freedoms Monument'' was commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt following his articulation of the "Four Freedoms" in his 1941 State of the Union Address. This was yet before the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the participation of t ...

'' (1943). Russell became a leader in the Science of Man Movement when he was elected president of the Society of Arts and Sciences in 1927. His seven-year tenure generated many articles in the ''New York Times''. The gold medals awarded by the Society were highly valued.' As World War II approached, he moved into a top-floor studio at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

, where he lived alone (his estranged wife Helen lived in Connecticut). At the time, he was supervising the casting of the ''Four Freedoms.'' This was a low time that required a rejuvenation of his health and spirit. There were reports of his "egotism and self-aggrandizement" that bothered him''.''

The Russell Cosmogony

In May 1921 Russell claimed to have experienced a transformational, revelatory event that he later described in a chapter called "The Story of My Illumining" in the 1950 edition of his Home Study Course. "During that period...I could perceive all motion," and was newly "aware of all things." Russell used the terminology of

Richard Maurice Bucke Richard Maurice Bucke (18 March 1837 – 19 February 1902), often called Maurice Bucke, was a prominent Canadian psychiatrist in the late 19th century. An adventurer during his youth, Bucke later studied medicine. Eventually, as a psychiatrist ...

in his book '' Cosmic Consciousness'' to explain "cosmic illumination." Later he wrote, "It will be remembered that no one who has ever had he experience of illuminationhas been able to explain it. I deem it my duty to the world to tell of it." Russell's supposed knowledge gained "in the Light" is the subject matter of his book ''The Divine Iliad'', published in two volumes in 1949. After five years Russell published ''The Universal One'' (1926) and ''The Russell Genero-Radiative Concept'' (1930) and defended his ideas in the pages of the ''New York Times'' in 1930–1931. He later published ''The Secret of Light'' (1947) and ''A New Concept of the Universe'' (1953). Russell copyrighted a spiral shaped

Periodic Chart The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the (chemical) elements, is a rows and columns arrangement of the chemical elements. It is widely used in chemistry, physics, and other sciences, and is generally seen as an icon of ch ...

of the Elements in 1926. The Russell Cosmogony was described in his treatise, ''A New Concept of the Universe'' where he wrote that "the cardinal error of science" was "shutting the Creator out of his Creation." Russell never referred to an anthropomorphic god, but rather wrote that "God is the invisible, motionless, sexless, undivided, and unconditioned white Magnetic Light of Mind" which centers all things. "God is provable by laboratory methods," Russell wrote, "The locatable motionless Light which man calls magnetism is the Light which God IS." He wrote that Religion and Science must come together in a New Age.

With Lao Russell at Swannanoa in Virginia 1948–1963

Russell's life was changed in 1946 by a phone call from Daisy (Cook) Stebbing, an immigrant from England, a former model and businesswoman, who was living in Boston. She had read Glenn Clark's book ''The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe''. In 1948, Walter at age 77 divorced his first wife and married Stebbing, age 44, amid some controversy. She changed her name to Lao (after Lao-Tzu, the Chinese illuminate) and they embarked on a cross-country automobile trip from Reno looking for a place to establish a workplace and a museum for his work. They discovered Swannanoa, the palatial estate of a railroad magnate, long abandoned, on a mountaintop outside of Waynesboro, Virginia, and leased the property for 50 years. There they established the museum and the Walter Russell Foundation, and in 1957 the Commonwealth of Virginia granted a charter for the University of Science and philosophy, a correspondence school with a home study course. (In 2014, the charter was grandfathered back to 1948.) The Russells collaborated on a number of books. The testing of atomic bombs in the atmosphere prompted them to publish ''Atomic Suicide?'' in 1957, in which they warned of grave consequences for the planet and humankind if radioactivity was exploited as a world fuel. Walter Russell died in 1963. Lao died in 1988.

Books

*''The Sea Children'', 1901 *''The Bending of the Twig'', 1903 *''The Age of Innocence'', 1904The Age of Innocence by Walter Russell
/ref> *''The Universal One'', 1926 *''The Russell Genero-Radiative Concept or The Cyclic Theory of Continuous Motion'', L. Middleditch Co., 1930 *''The Secret of Light'', 1st ed., 1947, 3rd ed., Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1994, *''The Message of the Divine Iliad'', vol. 1, 1948, vol. 2, 1949 *''The Book of Early Whisperings'', 1949 *''The Home Study Course'', (with Lao Russell), 1st ed., 1950–52 *''Scientific Answer to Human Relations'', (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1951 *''A New Concept of the Universe'', Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1953 *''Atomic Suicide?'', (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1957 *''The World Crisis: Its Explanation and Solution'', (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1958 *''The One-World Purpose'', (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1960

References

External links