MEIERE-HILDRETH

REMEMBERED  AS  ONE  OF  THE  MOST  NOTED

AMERICAN  MURALISTS  OF  THE  20TH  CENTURY

Hildreth Meiere was born September 3, 1892. in New York City (Manhattan).  At an early age she set her desire on becoming an artist and following high school graduation she spent a year in Florence, Italy, studying painting with an English artist.  She later wrote concerning her studies, “I fell in love, once and for all, with mural painting and great beautiful walls.”  On her return to the U.S., Meiere attended art schools in New York and California.

When World War One commenced the Secretary of the Navy learned the U.S. Naval Reserve Act of 1916 permitted for the first time the enlistment of women, so he authorized women to join the Navy and they did so in large numbers commencing on March 17, 1917.  Hildreth Meiere interrupted her studies and was one of the women who responded to the nationwide “Call to Colors.”  She reportedly joined the Navy in 1918 and served as a Yeoman Third Class(F) until released from active duty upon the conclusion of the war.  Readily available historical records reveal little concerning her Naval service but she is known to have been stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York where she reportedly served her country as an architectural draftsman.  Records reveal that during the war, in addition to her regular duties, Meiere made over 500 portable altars for military chaplains and several years after the war the U.S. War Department issued her an award for her outstanding services for the Army and Navy.

Following Meiere’s release from active service she resumed her art studies and at this point decided to pursue mural painting over portraits.  By the early 1930s she become a well known artist and commenced winning mural art competitions.  As her talent for designing mosaics and stained glass became widely known her popularity grew and she designed numerous works as she pioneered a modern approach to murals that broke away from academic tradition and blended such influences as early Byzantine mosaics, Egyptian wall painting, classical Greek vase painting, and native American beadwork into a style that came to be known as Art Deco.

During her forty-year artist career, she designed art for churches, government buildings, major business buildings, and even cruise ships among other assignments.  Her work in the Nebraska State Capital building she acknowledged as one of her crowning achievements which has been described as “allegorical, decorative and spectacular” and continues to this day having regular free guided tours.  Hildreth Meiere is widely remembered as being one of the most noted American muralists of the Twenty Century,

Hildreth Meiere died May 2, 1961, and in entombed with her parents in a mausoleum at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California.

                

                                                  Nebraska State Capital Dome

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)