Ruth Harris Bohan

Born in Petersburg, Illinois, in 1891, Ruth Harris Bohan was a printmaker and painter who studied at the Fine Arts Institute of Kansas City with the artist Randall Davey and as well as in Europe in the 1910s.

Bohan practiced in many mediums including pastels, oils, watercolor, printmaking and drawing and her subjects were as diverse as the mediums she worked in. Bohan made portrait and still lifes but was drawn to capturing her subjects in motion as seen in several of her works which depicted dancers, acrobats, and boxers in practice or performance. Her work was exhibited at the Kansas City Art Institute, the Chicago Art Institute, the Academy of Fine Arts in Pennsylvania, and was included in many group exhibitions.

She was awarded a Gold Medal for her painting titled Childhood at the Midwestern Artists' Exhibition of 1924, a Bronze Medal for her oil painting Still Life at the Midwestern Artists' Exhibition of 1925, and a Silver Medal for her oil painting The Sandpile at the Midwestern Artists' Exhibition of 1927. Her painting titled Jacqueline won first place at the Society Show of 1928. She was a member of the Kansas City Society of Artists, Society of Independent Artists, and the National Academy of Design, New York.

In addition to her career as a painter and printmaker, Bohan taught at the Barstow School for Girls and illustrated Logan Clendening's Romance of Medicine: Behind the Doctor, which was published in 1943. Bohan was a noted influence and inspiration to her niece the artist Margot Peet.

Bohan died in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1981 at the age of 90. Today, the Ruth Bohan Teaching Fellowship at the University of Kansas recognizes excellence in teaching in the medical school where her husband, Dr. Peter Bohan, taught from 1914-1945.