Biography:

Architect, silversmith; art teacher. Born– Sept. 22, 1900 in Sonyea, Livingston County, N.Y.; grew up in Auburn, Alabama. Parents– William Philip and Anna (Gorton) Spratling. Education– Alabama Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture; attended Beaux Art Institute, New York City, 1919. Taught architecture at Tulane University 1921-1929; National University of Mexico, 1927-1929;  moved to Mexico in late 1920s, settling at Taxco where he founded a silversmith industry and taught the art to local craftsmen; at request of President Eisenhower taught handicrafts to Eskimos. Active in the literary and art scene in New Orleans and in Mexico; a close friend and associate of many prominent artists and writers, including William Faulkner, with whom he traveled in Europe in the 1920’s. Promoted the art of the Mexican painter Diego Rivera;  instrumental in the first American exhibit of Diego Rivera’s work. Collected prehistoric artefacts of Mexico; donated his collection to the National University of Mexico. Designed the seal of Auburn University, still in use. Awarded an honorary L.H.D. by Auburn University, 1962. Died August 7, 1967.

Source:

Alabama Magazine, Dec. 1985; Who Was Who in America, Vol. 4.

Publication(s):

File on Spratling; an Autobiography. Boston; Little, Brown, 1967.

Frescoes of Diego Rivera.  1931.

Little Mexico. New York; J. Cape & H. Smith, 1931.

More Human than Divine…. Mexico City; Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1960.

Old Plantation Houses in Louisiana. New York; W. Helburn, 1927.

Joint_Publication(s):

[With William Faulkner]. Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles. New Orleans; Pelican Bookshop Press, 1967.

Papers;

A collection of the papers of William Philip Spratling Jr. is held by the Ralph Brown Draughon Library at Auburn University.