Lois Harjo Ball
- BORN
-
November 24, 1906
Okmulgee, Oklahoma
- DIED
-
June 25, 1982
Okmulgee, Oklahoma
- EDUCATION
-
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City, OklahomaStephens College
Columbia, Missouri
Lois Harjo Ball was born in 1906 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, to Muscogee Creek parents. As a young woman, Lois was captivated by art. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and then Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, earning degrees in fine art. While at Oklahoma City University she was a member of the Kappi Pi art fraternity.
Lois Harjo was heavily involved in her local art community. Not only was her artwork displayed at local gatherings and galleries, but she also began a dedicated career as an art instructor, later the director, at the Okmulgee Art Center. In 1935, Lois was nationally recognized by the Society of Arts and Sciences for her paintings of Native peoples.
Lois donated the Henry M. Harjo Collection, named for her father, to the Indian Museum in the Creek Council House, now known as the Creek Council House Museum in 1935. The collection included paintings made by Lois and her late sister, Naomi Harjo Foster, who was also an artist.
Her niece, Joy Harjo, has often stated that Lois Harjo Ball had a great influence over her cultural identity and expression in her artwork and poetry. Joy founded the Naomi & Lois Harjo Scholarship to help support Muscogee Creek students studying fine and performing arts.
Note
Tribal Affiliation: Muscogee Creek
Ancestral Affiliation: No Ancestral Affiliation with Missouri – Artistic Practice in Missouri
Location of Practice: Okmulgee, OK; Oklahoma City, OK
For more information on Native peoples in the Missouri region, please visit Native American Art in Missouri: A Brief Historical Context.
Okmulgee Art Center Exhibition
Organized by Okmulgee Art Center
Organized by Okmulgee Art Center
Awards & Exhibitions 1
Okmulgee Art Center Exhibition
Organized by Okmulgee Art Center
Organized by Okmulgee Art Center
References
Artist clippings file is available at:
"Lois Harjo Ball: artist file." Spencer Art Reference Library, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.
Bibliography
Select Sources
Senior Class, Stephens College, “The Stephensonia 1928,” Stephens College (1928): 95.
Orlando Swain, “Museum Items,” Okmulgee Daily Times, May 28, 1940, 2.
“Okmulgee Exhibit Is ‘Hit’ At Festival,” Okmulgee Daily Times, May 20, 1936, 2.
“Okmulgee Couple Reveal Marriage,” Okmulgee Daily Times, August 20, 1941, 2.
“Naomi and Lois Harjo Scholarship,” Scholarship Foundation Program, Miscogee (Creek) Nation, accessed August 1, 2024, http://creeknationfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Naomi-and-Lois-Harjo-Scholarship-Description.pdf
“Lois Ball,” Find A Grave, accessed August 8, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/257036992/lois-ball.
“Harjo Indian Relics Are Put In Museum,” Okmulgee Daily Times, March 29, 1935, 4.
“Exhibit Indian Relics,” Tulsa Daily Legal News, April 3, 1935, 4.
Core Reference Sources
Jeanne Snodgrass King and Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian, with contributions from the Museum of the American Indian, American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory (New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1968), 12.
Patrick D. Lester, The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters (Tulsa: SIR Publications, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), 39.
Jill Ahlberg Yohe and Teri Greeves, Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019), 139.
Image Credits
Artwork
Lois Harjo Ball, Untitled, n.d.
Painting.
Reproduced with permission of Joy Harjo.
Portrait of Artist
Unknown, Portrait of Lois Harjo, 1928.
Photograph
Stephens College, Stephensophia (Columbia, MO: Stephens College), 95.
Contributors
Katie McClure, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Artist Record Published
Published on August 30, 2024
Learn more
References
Artist clippings file is available at:
"Lois Harjo Ball: artist file." Spencer Art Reference Library, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.
Bibliography
Select Sources
Senior Class, Stephens College, “The Stephensonia 1928,” Stephens College (1928): 95.
Orlando Swain, “Museum Items,” Okmulgee Daily Times, May 28, 1940, 2.
“Okmulgee Exhibit Is ‘Hit’ At Festival,” Okmulgee Daily Times, May 20, 1936, 2.
“Okmulgee Couple Reveal Marriage,” Okmulgee Daily Times, August 20, 1941, 2.
“Naomi and Lois Harjo Scholarship,” Scholarship Foundation Program, Miscogee (Creek) Nation, accessed August 1, 2024, http://creeknationfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Naomi-and-Lois-Harjo-Scholarship-Description.pdf
“Lois Ball,” Find A Grave, accessed August 8, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/257036992/lois-ball.
“Harjo Indian Relics Are Put In Museum,” Okmulgee Daily Times, March 29, 1935, 4.
“Exhibit Indian Relics,” Tulsa Daily Legal News, April 3, 1935, 4.
Core Reference Sources
Jeanne Snodgrass King and Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian, with contributions from the Museum of the American Indian, American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory (New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1968), 12.
Patrick D. Lester, The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters (Tulsa: SIR Publications, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), 39.
Jill Ahlberg Yohe and Teri Greeves, Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019), 139.
Contributors
Katie McClure, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Artist Record Published
Published on August 30, 2024
Updated on None
