Cyrus Leroy Baldridge (1889 - 1977)

The life of Cyrus Baldrige was action packed and well traveled. He fit the description of what a rugged American male could accomplish in the early 20th century. Never with any money, he became the youngest student at the Chicago School of Illustration. Baldrige went on to the University of Chicago, graduating in 1911 with a degree in English. He worked his way through by drawing signs for campus events.

After college, Baldrige worked in a Chicago settlement house, the stockyards and on the King Ranch in Texas, punching cows. He became a superb equestrian while training with the Illinois National Guard Cavalry and went on to fight Poncho Villa on the Mexican/American border. Stars and Stripes hired him as a field artist after American's entrance into WWI. This publication had such notables as Harold Ross and Alexander Wolcott on staff. His battlefield drawings launched his career as an illustrator. These sketches reflected the horror and heroism of war that made him an outspoken pacifist.

The writer Caroline Singer became his wife after the war. They traveled through three continents together. His art works of Peking were published by Watanabe in Tokyo. Their experiences from walking across Africa were made into a beautiful book White Africans and Black. that she wrote and he illustrated. In the 1930's they returned to U.S. to much acclaim. In 1935 he was given the annual award of the Prairie Printmakers of Chicago. A Smithsonian exhibit of his etchings coincided.

Baldridge continued to illustrate books and took on designing stage sets. He wrote an autobiography Time and Chance that was on the New York Times best seller list for months. The success of his book gave him the income to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico with Caroline in 1952. The southwest imagery was a recurrent theme in his work since the 20's. He spent the rest of his life painting landscapes and scenes from New Mexico.