Old Main Library

Artist: D. Vernon Manrose

Location: 3rd floor reception area, Bennett Martin Public Library

D. Vernon Manrose moved to Lincoln in 1907. He had no formal art training. Self-taught, he worked as a painter with the circus, painting circus wagons, parade banners of elephants and camels, and scenery for sideshows. He later painted backdrops for local theaters throughout the midwest, including early vaudeville shows in Lincoln. Old Main Library is one of five paintings depicting Lincoln's libraries done by Manrose under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration, and is the centerpiece of a collection of library memorabilia housed on the 3rd floor of the current main library. Manrose died in Lincoln in 1957.

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April, 1984

Artist: Judith Cherry

Location: 3rd floor reception area, Bennett Martin Public Library

Judith Cherry is a native of Valparaiso, Nebraska. Her work is primarily in the landscape tradition, focused on interpreting Nebraska's terrain. April, 1984 depicts the common perception, and frequent reality, of the Nebraska skyline; Nebraska, after all, means "flat water."

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Lancaster #11

Artist: James Eisentrager

Location: Administrative Offices, 3rd floor, Bennett Martin Public Library

James Eisentrager was born in 1929 in Alvord, Iowa. He served as a member of the art faculty of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1961 until his retirement in 1994. This painting was a gift from the artist to the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association.

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The Elements

Artist: Leo Manso

Location: 4th floor meeting rooms, Bennett Martin Public Library

Born in New York City in 1914, Leo Manso was an abstract painter and book illustrator. His paintings are predominantly semi-abstract landscapes, and they stress the effects of light upon his subjects. A large, three-panel painting nearly 6 feet high and 12 feet long, The Elements greets visitors to Bennett Martin's meeting rooms; it hangs just outside the elevator doors on the library's 4th floor.