In 1890 At Haverford College, Maxfield Parrish Doodled In His Chem Notebook
Before the Philadelphia-born Maxfield Parrish became one of the world’s most popular painters of 20th century, he was an undergraduate at Haverford College. It is there, in the Quaker and Special Collections section of the library, where one can find among other things, the “illustrated” chemistry notebook that the acclaimed artist kept while he was a student there.
Raphael Rosen, in SciArtMagazine.com wrote of, images of Maxfield Parrish’s chemistry notebook from his days at Haverford College, in Pennsylvania. Interspersed among chemical equations and descriptions of lab experiments were fanciful watercolors of elf-like creatures. Some held dripping candles beneath bubbling beakers. Others peeked out from behind glass tubing, or struck a wry pose beneath descriptions of lab procedures. Parrish had even written up his experiment results in immaculate calligraphy.
Parrish did not graduate from Haverford (he finished his education at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at Drexel), but he still chose to leave “his papers” (5 Linear Feet, 4 boxes) to Haverford.