Collection is open for research.
Donated to the Whitman College and Northwest Archives by Mrs. Jo Anne Norling Feringer between 1976 and 1988. The accession number associated with this donation is retro-0045.
Ernest R. Norling was born in Pasco, Washington, raised in Ellensburg, Washington and graduated from Whitman College in 1915. He attended the Chicago Academy of Arts and while there was awarded a fellowship with the Tiffany Foundation in New York. Ernest became a nationally honored painter, sculptor, wood carver and author. His painting, The Timber Bucker, was selected for the White House by President and Mrs. Roosevelt in 1934, and he painted murals for the Washington State capitol in Olympia, the Washington National Bank in Ellensburg, and the University of Washington. Him and his wife, Josephine Norling, collaborated frequently. Ernest died in 1974 and she died in 1972.
The Norling Family Collection includes a series of paintings illustrating the 23rd psalm, biographical information, newspaper clippings exhibiting samples of Ernest's work. This collection, which spans from 1912 through 1974, also contains a scrapbook created during his time as a student at Whitman College, collaborative work, educational books, the original sketches used in Whitman, An Unfinished Story, by Stephen B.L. Penrose. This collection gives an insight into the artistic career of Ernest Norling and stylistic choices made during his time.