Arthur Covey

Who was Arthur Covey?

Arthur Sinclair Covey was an American muralist known for creating paintings of industrial workers doing their jobs.

Covey was born in Leroy, Illinois on June 13, 1877. He died in Tarpon Springs, Florida on February 5, 1960.

Covey was married to Mary Dorothea Sale from 1908 until her death in 1917. In 1921, Covey married the artist and children's book writer, Lois Lenski. Covey and Lenski remained married until his death in 1960.

Covey attended Southwestern College and studied for three years at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he graduated in 1899. He later taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

At the age of 16, Covey participated in the Cherokee Strip Land Run in Oklahoma on September 16, 1893. During his subsequent career as an artist, one of his frequently-reproduced drawings depicted this Cherokee Strip Run.

His works include a 1927 series of images of workers at industries in Toledo, Ohio which were first exhibited in display windows of a Toledo department store, Lasalle & Koch and seven murals showing foundry workers for the Kohler Company in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

The papers and much of the artwork of Arthur Covey, dating from 1882 to 1960, are stored in a collection at the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution.