Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)

Illustration for Massachussetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company sponsored the exhibition, "Norman Rockwell: Drawing the American Dream" and donated the conté* crayon black and white drawings to the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. The company had commissioned the drawings from the artist during the 1950s and early 1960s for a series of national consumer advertisements which appeared in the nation's leading magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post.

The Connecticut Valley Historical Museum's collection includes Thanksgiving and Easter which were used annually in MassMutual's advertisements for several years. The Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge recognized the advertising program, awarding MassMutual its George Washington medal in 1959 for the Thanksgiving ad.

* Note: Cont&ecute; crayon: a very hard, grease-free type of crayon, named after Nicolas-Jacques Conte (1755-1805), the French scientist who invented it. Conte, who worked as a portrait painter in his youth, was also the inventor of the modern graphite pencil.

From: Springfield Library and Museums Association
Norman Rockwell: Drawing the American Dream
www.tfaoi.com/newsmu/nmus100a.htm

Illustration for Massachussetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. [date unknown]
Norman Rockwell
Connecticut Valley Historical Museum
Doug Jarrett's Rockwell Collection
www.sundial.net/~djarrett/dj-nr.htm