P.E.O. Record
Franc Roads Elliott, the Artist
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Much has been written about Franc Roads Elliott—Founder, scholar, visionary, the one about whom it has been said was born 100 years too soon. She was born 158 years ago, in 1852.
We read that when Franc was 17 she graduated from Iowa Wesleyan with a bachelor of science degree. Three years later she married Simon Charles Elliott, the son of a two-time Iowa Wesleyan president. After their marriage they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Simon operated a china store.
Not much, however, has been shared about the importance of art in Franc's life. We know her mother showed some creative talent by designing and helping the Seven make the aprons worn as they marched into chapel on January 21, 1869. Franc's studies in art, however, did not come until after her marriage when she studied art in Europe, Cincinnati at Columbia, Leland Stanford, The Chicago Art Institute and the University of Chicago.
In 1884 Franc was appointed to represent Nebraska as assistant commissioner of art at the New Orleans Exposition. This was the first time a woman commissioner was appointed to any exposition.
Although her two children, Charles Addison and Stella May, took much of her time Franc managed to study art whenever and wherever she had a chance. Until 1893, she was with the Art Department at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. When her family business hit hard financial times, she took a job as art supervisor for the public schools to help finance her son's medical education. She said that one of her claims to fame during those years was creating a model school room which attracted much attention. She wanted to bring to the attention of school authorities just how ugly and unsanitary the classrooms were in those days.
As we remember our Founders 141 years after the beginning of P.E.O., and as we work to expand our vision of P.E.O. to make it even better in the years ahead, imagine Franc Roads Elliott creating the images on this page.