The following biography was researched, compiled, and written by Geoffrey K. Fleming, Executive Director, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV.  

WILLIAM BURCHFIELD BRIDGE (June 18, 1862 – May 10, 1943) - A.K.A. “W. B. Bridge”

Painter, illustrator, commercial artist, designer. Born in Pine Grove Mills, Ferguson Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, the son of Catherine Burchfield (1833 – 1907) and Henry Bridge (1828 – 1901). His father was a merchant tailor and by 1880 the family resided on Market Street in the town of Clearfield, located in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.

Bridge first studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he won the 2nd Charles Toppan Prize in 1885. He traveled (at least twice) to Europe between 1897 and 1901 to continue his studies, in particular at the Académie Julian in Paris with the famous French academic painter, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825 – 1905).

For the great majority of his life, he resided in New York State. He also spent part of his time in Florida (Palm Beach area) by the 1930s.

William B. Bridge died in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York on the 10th of May 1943 at the age of eighty years. His body was transported back to his home state of Pennsylvania, where he was buried alongside his parents and siblings in the family plot in the Hillcrest Cemetery located in Clearfield, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.

Bridge was quite popular and appears to have found work with great regularity prior to the great depression, which ruined the careers of many American artists. During his heyday he was the frontispiece illustrator for the first six volumes of The Rover Boys book series and for several of the Flag of Freedom book series that were published by Edward Stratemeyer’s Syndicate Books between 1894 and 1944. Among the known books and magazines Bridge illustrated are the following: Coitlan: A Tale of the Inca World (1893); Ainslee’s Magazine (1899, 1900); Our Josephine (1902); The Rover Boys At School (1899); The Rover Boys On The Ocean (1899); The Rover Boys In the Jungle (1899); The Rover Boys Out West (1900); The Rover Boys On the Great Lakes (1901); The Rover Boys In the Mountains (1902); The Flag of Freedom Series (early 1900s).

His illustration works and oil paintings that have surfaced over the years have all been signed “W. B. Bridge,” indicating this is probably the name he was known by and worked under. Many of his illustration works were created for children’s series, but he appears to have also done scenes based upon the environs of New York City and at least one work associated with Florida (an illustration of an African American family traveling through the Florida Everglades).

Several of his illustration works were included in the important traveling exhibition “Once Upon A Page: The Art of Children's Books,” which was displayed throughout the United States from 1997 through 2001. The exhibition traveled to the following institutions: Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, WI; Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT; Minnestrista Cultural Center and Oakhurst Gardens, Muncie, IN; Armory Arts Center, West Palm Beach, FL; Cornell Museum, Delray Beach, FL; Lighthouse Gallery, Tequesta, FL; New Visions Gallery, Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, WI; Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY; Lexington Children's Museum, Lexington, KY; Farmington Museum, Farmington, NM; Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN; The Children's Museum of Kansas, Kansas City, KS; Loveland Museum and Gallery, Loveland, CO; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY; The Parthenon, Nashville, TN; The Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA.

Though there are undoubtedly other exhibitions in which Bridge participated, those presently known include the following: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1885 (prize); Paris, France (possibly, u.d.).

Bridge’s works are held in the following public collections: Mazza Museum, The University of Findlay, Findlay, OH. A number reside in private collections throughout the United States.