Blossom O’Dooley / Untitled1930Sheet: 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 " (21.6 x 14 cm)Graphite on paper (double-sided)Gift of Melinda R. Ahrens-Brancamp from the Virginia Ahrens Collection 2025.18.6a,b01684469348Virginia AhrensDrawingsHandwritten in pencil, recto upper right: 'January 7–1930'
Handwritten in pencil, recto upper left: 'Blossom / O'Dooley'
Handwritten in pencil, recto upper left to center left: 'Age – 17 / Height – 5'3"" / Weight – 102 / Eyes – Gray / Hair – Brown / Complexion – Lt.'
Handwritten in pencil, recto center left to lower right: 'History + Prospects, / Jimmy Grogan, / a newsie, finds / Blossom, exhausted. / He takes her to his / little room where / she uncovers her / strength. As soon / as she is able, she. / hunts for work, but / is unsuccessful. A / strong bond of friendship / grows up between her and the / 12-yr. old Jimmy, They are / Discovered, and given a better / apartment. Blossom is given job a clerk in a / store, and will attend night school. She will / also teach Jimmy. They will have a piano, and / bboth take lessons. Jimmy loves the cello, and / will also take lessons on that. He will retain / his ""newsie"" job, and also receive $6 per wk. extra.'
Handwritten in pencil, verso upper left to lower left: ' 1 lb. apples / 1 lb. potatoes / 3 pks. sweet potatoes /. 6 cans corn / 6 cans peas / 6 cans tomatoes / 4 cans asparag[-]as / 4 jars chopped beef / 4 cans salmon / 1 ham / 1 chicken / 4 cans beans / 1 head cabbage / 2 heads lettus / 2 packs carrotts / 8 cans peaches / 8 cans apricots / 8 cans pineapple / 6 cans fruit salad / 6 cans cherries / 50 lbs. sugar / 12 cans milk / 2 lbs butter / 25 lbs. flower (white) / 10 lbs. Graham flour / 4 qts. milk / 1 pt. cream / 2 doz. oranges /. 2 doz. bananas / 10 jars pickles /. 2 loaves white bread / 1 loaf rye bread / 5 lbs. salt / 2 cans B.P. / 1 can soda / 2 bottles vanilla.'
Handwritten in pencil verso upper right to center right: '2 doz. eggs / 2 cans pepper. 1 bottle celery salt / 6 cans spices (ass'd) / 2 lbs. coffee / 2 lbs. tea / 10 lbs. brown sugar / 5 lbs lima beans / 4 boxes spagetti / 2 boxes macaroni / 1 box salted wafers / 1 box butter crackers / 4 boxes nabiscos / 2 boxes oatmeal / 1 pkge. corn flakes / 1 pkge. bran flakes / 1 pkge. wheatena / 1 pkge. grapenuts / 12 pkges. Jello.'
Handwritten in pencil, verso lower right: 'Rooms — / Kitchen – Blue + Wht. / Dining + Living Rm. – / Rose / Bedroom – Blue.'http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27212http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10494Prairie du ChienPrairie du ChienUnited StatesWisconsinWorks on PaperVirginia’s Secret, Raz Gallery, Reedsburg, Wisconsin, November 3–18, 2000.
Trop d’Amour (Too Much Love), Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 10–August 5, 2023.Prairie du ChienVirginia Ahrens was not known in her lifetime as an artist, yet her private drawings reveal a rich, imaginative world shaped by fashion, fantasy, and self-invention. In 1995, her granddaughter, Melinda Rae Ahrens Brancamp, was sorting through a box of her late grandmother’s songbooks and sheet music, searching for a compelling composition to frame. Instead, she uncovered a folder of graphite drawings depicting women in various states of dress—some scantily clad in lingerie, others wrapped in velvet coats with fur collars—posed like starlets awaiting a photo-op.Dated between 1930 and 1946, these carefully rendered and strangely glamorous drawings showcase Ahrens’ private artistic practice. Many include handwritten inscriptions about the fabric, construction details, color palettes, and accessories of the women she draws. Some of the figures have risqué names—such as “Barbara Biche” and “Selma Sweetshitt”—while others, like “Blossom O’Dooley,” come with imagined backstories involving love affairs and aspirational careers. Art historian Debra Brehmer suggests that Ahrens’ drawing style, which features “line drawings of models, often from several perspectives,” was likely influenced by commercial sewing patterns from Butternick, Vogue, and Simplicity, as well as fashion advertisements found in newspapers and other printed media.The five drawings now offered as a gift to the Museum would be the first works by Ahrens to enter an institutional collection. This representative selection, which includes her earliest dated drawing, offers unique insight into Ahrens’ private imaginative world—one that explores her own sexual, social, and material fantasies—while also reflecting broader themes of fashion, femininity, and self-invention during a time when women’s creative expression was often confined to the domestic sphere.Object information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orghttp://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27212http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10494http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27212http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster10494http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27212http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster1049419301930 2025 18 6a b Virginia Ahrens was not known in her lifetime as an artist, yet her private drawings reveal a rich, imaginative world shaped by fashion, fantasy, and self-invention. In 1995, her granddaughter, Melinda Rae Ahrens Brancamp, was sorting through a box of her late grandmother’s songbooks and sheet music, searching for a compelling composition to frame. Instead, she uncovered a folder of graphite drawings depicting women in various states of dress—some scantily clad in lingerie, others wrapped in velvet coats with fur collars—posed like starlets awaiting a photo-op.Dated between 1930 and 1946, these carefully rendered and strangely glamorous drawings showcase Ahrens’ private artistic practice. Many include handwritten inscriptions about the fabric, construction details, color palettes, and accessories of the women she draws. Some of the figures have risqué names—such as “Barbara Biche” and “Selma Sweetshitt”—while others, like “Blossom O’Dooley,” come with imagined backstories involving love affairs and aspirational careers. Art historian Debra Brehmer suggests that Ahrens’ drawing style, which features “line drawings of models, often from several perspectives,” was likely influenced by commercial sewing patterns from Butternick, Vogue, and Simplicity, as well as fashion advertisements found in newspapers and other printed media.The five drawings now offered as a gift to the Museum would be the first works by Ahrens to enter an institutional collection. This representative selection, which includes her earliest dated drawing, offers unique insight into Ahrens’ private imaginative world—one that explores her own sexual, social, and material fantasies—while also reflecting broader themes of fashion, femininity, and self-invention during a time when women’s creative expression was often confined to the domestic sphere.Object information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org