Allen Saalburg

Allen Saalburg began his art career doing freelance work in advertising and magazine illustration. Saalburg worked on murals of traditional and decorative panels for both private and commercial clients during the 1920s. He also spent the 1920s doing illustrations for the covers of Fortune, Saturday Evening Post, and Vanity Fair. His murals hang in the buildings of the Parks Department of New York City, Bloomingdale's in New York City, and in restaurants and hotels throughout eastern United States. In addition, Saalburg designed sets for the 1936 movie The Green Pastures and the Broadway production of Two Bouquets. He exhibited his work throughout the 1930s in New York, and created murals for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the 1939 World's Fair, as well as murals for the S.S. Constitution. One of his larger projects was Goods and Gears, a series of paintings and drawings of the early trades of the United States. Saalburg spent many hours in the Bucks County Historical Society and Mercer Museum sketching tools of various trades, homemaking implements and fire fighting equipment. Silk-screen prints were developed from these paintings.

Education and Training
Art Students League, New York, New York, 1918-1920
Pratt Institute, New York, New York

Teachers and Influences
Saalburg was strongly attracted to early American folk art and all forms of Americana. Louis Boucho, the painter in charge of Wanamaker's Galleries in New York, obtained a commission for Saalburg in 1926, stimulating a career in murals and decorative paintings. Saalburg lived in Paris with his artist brother, Leslie, from 1927 to 1930.

Connection to Bucks County
Allen Saalburg moved to Tinicum Township in 1947 and established "The Canal Press" in Frenchtown, NJ, producing his silk screen prints on glass and paper. The Saalburgs moved their home and studio to the old Uhlerstown Schoolhouse in 1970.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Allen Saalburg's wife, Mary Faukconer, was an artist. Other colleagues included painters Charles Coiner and Kay Renninger.

Saalburg was an active participant in the Tinicum Civic Association. He served on the committee to redesign the interior space of Stover Mill after John Stover deeded it to the Association in 1955. He created the Stover Mill sign (the original is in the mill).

Major Group Exhibitions
Bernheim Jeune, Paris, France, 1927-1930
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Kraushaar Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, 1938
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1939
Bodley Gallery, New York, New York, 1960
Rodman House, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 1982
Stover Mill, Erwinna, Pennsylvania, 1984
Retrospective at Ink River Gallery, Flemington, New Jersey, 1985

Major Collections
Goods and Gears, Bucks County Historical Society (Mercer Museum), 1967
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Shaker Community
New York Parks Department

Commissions
Designed and printed exterior of Clair Building, and part of the interior on glass for the World's Fair in New York.
Murals:
New York World's Fair, 1939
Pennsylvania Railroad, 1939
U.S.S. Constitution, 1940
Bloomingdale's, New York City
New York Parks Department
Set Design for "Green Pastures", 1936

Teaching and Professional Appointments
In charge of the WPA (Works Projects Administration) murals programs for New York City Parks Department, 1934-1936

Major Awards
Cross of Honor and Patriotic Service Cross by the United States Flag Association for best magazine cover "Flag over Mt. Vernon"