DECAMP-L Archives

Archiver > DECAMP > 1999-11 > 0941845926


From: Cyndi Sweet <>
Subject: [DECAMP] Ralph Earll DeCamp
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 17:52:06 -0600


Dear List,

I recently received an article on Ralph Earll DeCamp which may be of
interest to someone on the list. It was printed in "Montana, The
Magazine of Western History", Vol. 29, #3, July 1979, p. 50-55. Ralph
E. DeCamp was an artist who worked with oil, canvas and photography.
There was a brief biography as follows: "Ralph Earll DeCamp was born in
Attica, New York, in 1858, moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his
family in the late 1860's and then on to Moorhead, Minnesota, in 1871.
He pursued art as a youth and after working for several years in
Minnesota he studied at the Pennsylvania School of Art in 1881-1882. In
1885 he visited Yellowstone Park to paint, traveled through Helena on
his way home, and fell in love with the Prickly Pear Valley. He moved
to Helena, worked for the U.S. Interior Department as a draftsman, and
continued his painting, often with Charles Russell who joined with
DeCamp in forming the Helena Sketch Club in those years. In 1892 DeCamp
married Margaret Hilger, daughter of pioneer Montanan Nicholas Hilger.
The couple had one son, Renan. It was on the Hilger Ranch that DeCamp
found many subjects for both his brush and camera. In 1912 he was
commissioned by the State of Montana to paint six scenic panels to be
displayed in the state law library in the Capital. DeCamp painted four
more panels for the Capitol in the 1920's. He spent the last years of
his life living with his son in Chicago where he died in 1936."

I found this especially interesting as one line of my DeCamp family went
to the Prickly Pear Valley as early as 1870 and was still living there
turn of the century. There doesn't seem to be a connection to my DeCamps
though. I hope this is useful to someone!

Cyndi

This thread: