Merwin Amateur Art Show, 1946

1946 saw the end of the second world war and the return of the soldiers, airmen and sailors who had given their all for that struggle. But each soldier had a new struggle, the struggle to find his voice in that "new" world. Thanks to the G I Bill, those young men went to colleges and universities in bigger numbers than ever before, some of them to Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University.

One of those young men was Edward A. Anderson from Elgin, Illinois. He had served for three years in the Army Air Force as a B 25 pilot and was now seeking an education in the arts at Illinois State. In 1946 he submitted an oil painting to the 19th Annual Amateur Art Show which he called "Uptown." He won the Merwin Medal for his painting and this photo of him appeared in the Pantagraph.

Perhaps this was the first accolade received by Edward A Anderson, who went on to receive his MFA from Ohio State University. He had paintings hung in the Springfield Museum of Art (MIssouri), The Butler Art Institute and Portland Museum of Art and was Director of the Danbury Academy of Art, in Connecticut.

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