Artist: John Chislett (1856 – 1938)

The son of Frederick W. Chislett, Crown Hill Cemetery’s first superintendent, John became Crown Hill’s second superintendent after his father’s death in 1899. Born in Iowa, John had moved to the grounds of the cemetery as a young child and began working for Crown Hill in 1876. But it is his work as a photographer that gets his acknowledgement in this e-newsletter.

Chislett was active in Indianapolis from the 1890s to 1918; his name is listed as an exhibitor in the Photographic Club exhibit catalogs for the Art Association of Indianapolis beginning in 1903. His name also appears in other exhibit catalogs, among them the Salon Club of America, an organization devoted to promoting regional pictorialism photography clubs. His photography, primarily focused on landscapes and seascapes, won numerous awards and was reproduced in photographic journals of the time. Today his photographs are in collections at the National Museum of American Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Indiana Historical Society and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

To learn more and see some of his work, click here.