Schwalbach, Mathilda Vanderbergh (1917 - )

Mathilda Vanderbergh Schwalbach

Mathilda Vanderbergh Schwalbach, a professor of Related Art for close to three decades, earned her BS in Art Education from the University of Minnesota in 1939 and her MS in Related Art from the UW in 1947. Mentors in the department were Professor Agnes Leindorff, Professor Ruth Danielson Davis, and Professor Helen Louise Allen. She supplemented this education with two trips to Europe for additional study of her area of focus, Scandinavian design--in 1954-55 she studied textile design in Sweden, and in 1962-63 she studied design in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.

Much of her work represented a collaborative effort with her husband James A. Schwalbach, who taught art for the UW Center System's Department of Art and who directed the Let's Draw and World of Art radio programs for the School of the Air. In the summer of 1970, the Schwalbachs participated in The World of Vikings, a week-long seminar and workshop at which they lectured on modern Scandinavian design. They were also awarded the 1971-72 Lithgow-Osborne lectureship by the American-Scandinavian Foundation of New York City, which allowed them to travel around the United States giving two series of lectures on contemporary Scandinavian design. Together the Schwalbachs authored a book entitled Screen Process Printing.