Historic Knight Library: Art & Architecture

S. Neal Gardner designed the untitled sculpture, described as Kneeling Male Figure Wearing a Hat.  It is located at the east fireplace of the Browsing Room.

Samuel Neal Gardner was born to Thomas and Eliza Gardner on March 20, 1905, at the family homestead near St. David, Arizona. He graduated from Gila Junior College in Thatcher, Arizona, in 1930.  In 1932 Gardner moved to Eugene to attend the University of Oregon where he received the MFA (1936). His thesis, dated January 1936, was "The Oriental Moon Beam" which was about his sculptural works. While in Eugene, either as a student or WPA employee, he assisted professor Oliver Barrett with sculpture instruction. As a student, Gardner was art editor of the 1935 Oregana in which his sculpture now in the Browsing Room was illustrated. 

From 1936-1940, Gardner was an educational adviser for the Civilian Conservation Corps camp  in Grand Junction, Colorado (Old Oregon 1940, p.8). He then served in World War II, 1941-1945.  Gardner died on June 7, 1966, near Natrona, Wyoming, and was buried in Thatcher, Arizona.

FLOOR PLANS & ART GUIDE

SOURCES

Cole, Helen R. 100 years in Thatcher, 1883-1983. Thatcher, Ariz: The Town of Thatcher, 1983.
Includes the history of the Gardner family.

Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi

Gardner, S. Neal. The Oriental Moon Beam. M. A. Thesis, University of Oregon, 1936.

Oregana. 1935. University of Oregon, 1935. Scholars' Bank, http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12034

U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.