Julia Severance

Julia Severance (1877-1972) was an artist mainly known for her contributions in transforming the College Seal for Oberlin College.

She was the daughter of James Severance. Growing up, the Severances were proud of Julia and always encouraged her to pursue her talents. She studied at the Chicago Institute of Art, the Cleveland School of Art and took courses in the College’s Department of Drawing and Painting. That same year, Eva M. Oakes arrived in Oberlin and took charge of that department. A former Oberlin student herself, Oakes had studied at the Art Students League in New York and was determined to give the serious Oberlin art student adequate preparation to enter advanced courses at any good school. The training Julia received was sufficient for her to later enter sculpture classes at the Art Students League. After further study in Italy she returned to her own studio, confident in technique.

For over 30 years she kept busy in her studio. There, she sculpted a small round-faced boy and little girl with long curls for Prof. and Mrs. Clarence Ward. She was particularly fond of children and specialized in children portraits. In her studio, she held occasional exhibitions of her works such as the series of Florida etchings that were purchased by a New York hotel and the sculpture that won first prize at the Cleveland Women’s Art Club. She held book club gatherings by the fireplace, where they read Jane Austen. She also invited students from the modeling class at the Kindergarten Training School over for tea.

In 1910, she was asked by Joseph Lyman Silsbee, the architect of Wilder Hall, to design a modern version of the College Seal that would appear over the entrance to the assembly room (now, the first floor Main Lounge). She was required to follow the College By-laws adopted in 1852 which restricted her to the circular form “with two enclosing circles displaying upon the enclosed field a representation of a field of grain with a College building, within the margin below, the motto, Learning and Labor, and in the margin above, the name of the College.”

Within these limitations Julia transformed the 1852 Seal much as the College itself had altered. The earlier seal displayed a solitary Tappan Hall set on newly cleared land being cultivated. In Julia's new version the respected Hall was surrounded by trees, while across the road (symbolizing an established community), there is evidence of a bountiful harvest. She designed the motto and college name in curved letters with sharp edges that cast strong deep shadows. The design was so well received that the trustees decided to adopt it as the Official Seal. Julia also made a reduced version that is still in use today. Other copies of the Wilder decoration were made, including one of bronze displayed in the president’s office.

Julia was also commissioned for several other works on campus, among them the Cobb and Rice memorials for the Conservatory. In 1926, she translated a group of her drawings of college buildings into etchings. These etchings were reproduced and issued as the College calendar for that year, as well as the following year. Later on, the etchings were reduced in size and printed on postcards which were sold in the local bookstores. Years later, boxes of them were discovered, brown with age, in the basements of several of the West College buildings. After being brought upstairs and placed next to modern color photographs of the campus, the Co-op generously marked them at a bargain five cents each. The last card was sold in the fall of 1975, more than a half century after Julia had made some of the original sketches.

"Julia is remembered as kind and friendly, shy and reserved, a well-organized teacher, straightforward and sensible, gifted in many ways and a good friend. She is remembered in her 70’s demonstrating her lack of stodgy aesthetics by seeing beauty in the descending rows of television antennae beneath her home on a San Diego hillside. She is remembered in her 80’s setting off in a friend’s jeep or the city bus to woodcarving lessons 20 miles away."

Julia Severance left Oberlin in 1940, leaving her beautiful studio. It still stands today, and has never been used by any other artist. Her memorial bas-reliefs and an Oberlin Inn mural were long ago taken away, replaced by newer decoration. All that remains is her original Wilder decoration of the College Seal and the variations derived from it. Neither her name nor initials appears on these. Such information is now limited to the files in the Archives office and the bound volumes of the Alumni Magazine.