By John Andrews
South Dakota Magazine
Frank Ashford may be one of the most consequential South Dakota artists that hardly anyone knows.
Ashford was born in Iowa in 1878 and moved with his family to Stratford, southeast of Aberdeen along the James River, in 1893. At age 18, he left to study art in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. He had a studio in Paris for seven years and spent time in Minneapolis and Seattle before resettling permanently in South Dakota in the 1920s.
He painted three South Dakota Supreme Court justices, as well as governors Andrew Lee and Charles Herreid (he later painted governors Leslie Jensen, Sigurd Anderson and Joe Foss twice, once as a politician and again as a World War II aviator). Perhaps Ashford’s biggest professional achievement came in 1927 when he painted President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge during their summer in the Black Hills.
His portraits and landscapes ended up in galleries and collections around the world, but after his death in Aberdeen in 1960, he slowly faded into obscurity. The whereabouts of many of his paintings became a mystery.
Frances “Peg” Lamont, a longtime state legislator from Aberdeen, remembered the quiet painter and in the early 1990s set out to learn more about him and to find his lost paintings. “For years, bits and pieces of Frank Ashford’s life had delighted me,” Lamont wrote. “Finally came the time to write about him, but libraries, art schools and records were scarce. The search for Ashford paintings has all the elements of untangling a mystery.”
Fortunately, there were still families in and around Stratford who shared their memories of Ashford. Those interviews, along with a smattering of publications and newspaper articles, revealed a prolific and energetic artist. “It seemed that wherever he stopped, even briefly, and found an interesting client, he established a studio and proceeded to paint with vigor and enthusiasm, turning out untold hundreds of artworks.”
Lamont successfully located several of those paintings, and today Troy McQuillen is continuing her work. He is the owner of McQuillen Creative Group, an advertising and marketing business located across the street from the building where Ashford lived his final years.
McQuillen first noticed Ashford’s work hanging in Aberdeen’s public library when he was young. As an adult, he began serving on the library board and developed an interest in local history, particularly in the painter from Stratford.
He is documenting his progress online at frankashford.com, which features photos of paintings that have been located. “My goal here is that if people or antique stores have paintings by him, then at least they would know who he is and what they have,” McQuillen says.
It’s a modest goal to honor an equally modest man, who should always be remembered in South Dakota’s art world and beyond.
John Andrews is the editor of South Dakota Magazine, a bi-monthly publication that explores the people and places of our great state. For more information, visit www.southdakotamagazine.com.
CAPTION: Frank Ashford, self-portrait
