Collection: Carlin Art Galleries | The Fort Worth Library Local History Archives and Genealogy Collection

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of materials dealing with the Carlin Art Galleries from its beginnings in 1959 to its closing in 1990. Her shop was one of the first private galleries in Texas dedicated to art, predating both the Kimbell and the Amon Carter Museums. Mrs. Carlin was especially interested in artists from Fort Worth and the Southwest, but these papers also contain a large amount of material related to the larger art world. She was a pioneer in the presentation of Eskimo art and was one of the first dealers outside of Canada to show their prints and sculptures.

Dates

1959-1987

Language of Materials

English

Biographical / Historical

Electra Marshall Carlin (1912-2000), the owner of the Carlin Art Galleries, was a member of a pioneer Fort Worth family. She attended the University of Oklahoma, Beaver College in Pennsylvania and George Washington University, in Washington D C, where she met her husband, H. Lee Carlin. After his death, she returned to Fort Worth and in 1959 took over a shop called Wonderful Things. She renamed the business the Carlin Galleries, purchased an old Laundromat and developed it into a proper space for displaying art.