id: 148375 accession number: 1975.87 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1975.87 updated: 2025-06-12 11:11:47.496000 Bless Our Home and Eagle, 1962. Jerry N. Uelsmann (American, 1934–2022). Gelatin silver print; image: 32.5 x 25.2 cm (12 13/16 x 9 15/16 in.); paper: 50.2 x 40.7 cm (19 3/4 x 16 in.); matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. James J. Rorimer, 1975.87 title: Bless Our Home and Eagle title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1962 creation date earliest: 1962 creation date latest: 1962 current location: creditline: Gift of Mrs. James J. Rorimer copyright: --- culture: America technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1900-1950 type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Jerry N. Uelsmann (American, 1934–2022) - artist Jerry N. Uelsmann American, 1934- Symbolism, humor, and discovery characterize the work of Jerry Norman Uelsmann. A student of Minor White at the Rochester Institute of Technology (B.F.A., 1957) and Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana University Graduate School (1958-60), he shared Smith's penchant for exploring and expanding the technical possibilities of the medium. Having mastered straight black-and-white printing, Uelsmann succeeded in achieving the same technical perfection in his double exposures and combination prints, creating within a single frame seamless transitions between straight and manipulated imagery. His fabricated scenes, while perhaps too premeditated to be accurately termed "surreal," frequently refer to archetypal and apocalyptic symbols. One of Uelsmann's best known projects, Massacre of the Innocents (1971), reflects his penchant for mythic iconography. Uelsmann (born in Detroit) is also a respected photographic educator, earning a 1975 award from the University of Florida (where he has taught since 1962) as Teacher/Scholar of the Year. He helped to found Friends of Photography, is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and was visiting professor at the Nihon University of Art, Tokyo (1979). His work has been published extensively and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1967), and in retrospectives organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1970), the San Francisco Museum of Art (1977), George Eastman House, Rochester (1982), and the Samuel P. Horn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida (1994). He has been awarded fellowships from the John Simon Memorial Guggenheim Foundation (1967) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1972) as well as a City of Arles Medal, France (1973). Uelsmann lives in Gainesville. A.W. --- measurements: Image: 32.5 x 25.2 cm (12 13/16 x 9 15/16 in.); Paper: 50.2 x 40.7 cm (19 3/4 x 16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on recto: "J.N.U. 1962"; "Bless Our Home and Eagle"; in pencil on verso: " 'Bless Our Home and Eagle' / 1962 Jerry N. Uelsman*"; in pencil on label on verso: "150-"; "Mr. J. N. Uelsmann / 5701 SW 17th Drive / Gainesville, Florida 32601" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: A Cleveland Bestiary opening date: 1981-10-15T04:00:00 A Cleveland Bestiary. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 15-December 16, 1981). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Kathman, Barbara A. A Cleveland Bestiary. Cleveland, OH; Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. page number: Reproduced: p. 16; Mentioned: p. 16, p. 60 url: Hinson, Tom E. “Eight New Photographs.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 2 (February 1981): 51–62. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 61, fig. 12 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159712 Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 361 url: --- IMAGES