Collection is open for research.
Gift of Francis Price Cook, July 1994 (Lib. Acc. 21797).
Clayton Sumner Price was born in 1874 in Iowa. His family moved to Wyoming when he was 12. In his youth, he did farming and ranching work in Wyoming and in Alberta, Canada. He began drawing as a boy, when he kept a sketchbook in his saddlebag that he used to draw images of horses and cattle. In 1905, a local rancher loaned him money so he could study for one year at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts; this was the only formal training Price had as an artist. From 1909 to 1910, he worked as an illustrator for Pacific Monthly Magazine in Portland, Oregon. In the 1920s, Price lived in an artist colony in Monterey, California. In 1929, he moved back to Portland, where his brother, Maurice A. Price, lived.
Price began to achieve widespread recognition for his work in the 1940s. His first large exhibition was in 1942 at art museums in Portland and in Seattle, Washington. In 1945, he exhibited at the Valentine galleries in New York. His work was also included in the exhibition "14 Americans" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Contemporary critics praised Price's handling of abstract themes and his mastery of color.
Price died in 1950. After his death, the Oregon Journal newspaper and the Portland Art Museum hosted posthumous exhibitions of his works.
Sources: "Death Takes Artist Price," Oregonian, May 2, 1950; "Price Showing Fine Memorial," Oregonian, May 14, 1950; "C. S. Price (1874-1950), Ex-Cowboy Who Became Famous as a Modernist Painter," Oregonian, December 28, 1950; "Art Editor Assists Price Student Fund," Oregon Journal, June 16, 1950; "Clayton Sumner (C. S.) Price (1874-1950), by Roger Saydack, Oregon Encyclopedia,
Maurice Arthur Price was born on February 21, 1891, in Sheridan, Wyoming. He later worked as a barber in Portland, Oregon. He served in World War I, and after the war was active in veterans organizations, and helped initiate music and creative writing therapy programs in veterans hospitals. He was the brother of artist C. S. Price. In 1951, the Portland Art Association gave him a life membership. He died in 1966.
Source: Obituary in the Oregonian, September 18, 1966.
Due to fragility, the scrapbooks may require assistance to view; contact library staff.
Maurice A. Price scrapbooks on C. S. Price, Coll 1018, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
During processing in 2024, acid-free paper was placed between scrapbook pages bearing photographs for preservation purposes. One of the scrapbooks was unbound prior to 2024.
Additional materials at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library relating to C. S. Price include the vertical files Art - Price, C. S. and Biography - Price, C. S. (Clayton S.); and an oral history interview with Charles E. Heaney, SR 9327, which is available online in OHS Digital Collections at
The collection consists of three scrapbooks compiled by Maurice A. Price of Portland, Oregon, documenting the life and career of his brother, artist C. S. Price. Clippings in the scrapbooks primarily relate to exhibitions of C. S. Price's works, but also include his obituary. The majority of photographs in the scrapbooks are of paintings or wood carvings that C. S. Price produced, but there are some images of Price and his family, including ones that were taken in the early 20th century, when C. S. Price worked in ranching. The collection also contains correspondence of both C. S. Price and Maurice A. Price. Maurice A. Price's correspondence generally postdates C. S. Price's death, and includes letters relating to Maurice A. Price's work on a biography of C. S. Price, posthumous exhibitions of his art, and the location and disposition of his paintings. Other materials in the scrapbook include art museum newsletters, exhibition catalogs, and clippings from the Pacific Monthly Magazine featuring illustrations by C. S. Price. Some scrapbook pages contain captions for images that detached at an unknown date and are no longer present.
Loose photographs of Maurice A. Price that the Oregon Historical Society Research Library received with the scrapbooks were cataloged separately as Org. Lot 835.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.