Douglass Crockwell — New artist in Glens Falls

A week-long exhibit opened at The Queensbury Hotel on May 2, 1933 of eight paintings and other work by Douglass Crockwell, a new artist in Glens Falls at the time who before long would become a household name locally.

“Several of the paintings have been done by Mr. Crockwell since he has been in Glens Falls,” The Post-Star reported.

Among the work exhibited was the painting that had been used for a cover of The Saturday Evening Post in January.

Local residents Howard Swan, Mrs. Allen, no first name listed, and William Nolan posed at Crockwell’s studio on East Sanford Street for the painting, one of Crockwell’s first paintings completed in Glens Falls.

“The cover was termed the measuring scene and depicted a father and son in the process of being measured by the mother, the son just outstepping his father, who was standing on tiptoe in an attempt to reach the height of the son,” The Post-Star reported on May 2, 1933.

Crockwell, an up-and-coming artist, illustrator and photographer, had moved in summer 1932 to Glens Falls, the home city of fiancee Margaret Braman, a painter he met in college.

Douglass, whose full name was Spencer Douglass Crockwell, and Margaret were married at 10 a.m. Sept. 22, 1933, at First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, The Post-Star reported the next day.

The Rev. John Lyon Caughey officiated.

By fall, Crockwell was working out of a studio at 28 Maple St., in the vicinity of where the TD Bank drive through branch is located now.

Crockwell would live at Glens Falls until his death in 1968.

He was active in the community, serving as president of Glens Falls Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Glens Falls Planning Board, a member of the Glens Falls Falls School Board, and acting director of The Hyde Collection art museum, among other community leadership roles, The Post-Star reported on Dec. 2, 1968.