Using materials drawn from the Nevada Women's Archives, the special collections department of UNLV's James R. Dickinson Library will sponsor an exhibit on the art and life of Jeanne Russell Janish. The exhibit will open with a reception at 2 p.m. March 8 in celebration of International Women's History Day and National Women's History Month.
The exhibit of the Las Vegas illustrator is free to the public and will run through the end of May. The special collections department is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. The March 8 reception is sponsored by the University Library Society.
During her lifetime, Janish produced some 11,500 illustrations for 32 major books and many shorter works in biology, geology, and botany. She was termed an illustrator "par excellence" by one biographer, and a species of beardtongue (Penstemon janishiae) was named in her honor by the New York Botanical Garden.
Janish graduated from Vassar College in 1924 before earning her masters of science degree from Stanford University in 1926. She was the first women graduate to earn an advanced degree in geology.
Janish met her husband Carl on a trip to China in 1929. Although she journeyed to China for a short visit, she stayed for five years while designing rugs, sketching people and scenes in and around Peking (Beijing), and making numerous watercolors of local landscapes, including the Forbidden City. It is these works which form the body of the special collections exhibit.
The couple returned from China in 1934, settling in Las Vegas. They actively pursued their interests in archaeology, botany, illustrating, and painting throughout their years here. Jeanne Janish died on Feb. 4.
For more information, contact Liz Warren in the special collections department at 895-3954.
