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  • “House on the Dock” - oils

Harry E. Pratt

Harry Edward Pratt was born in North Adams, Massachusetts on May 21, 1885, son of the late John T. and Phoebe E. Pratt.  Pratt was a resident of North Adams and Jacksonville, Vermont.  He was the retired supervisor of art in the North Adams Public Schools and an artist whose paintings had won him recognition in the northeast, Georgia, and Florida.  He was 76 years old when he died on October 31, 1961 in North Adams.

Although he spent two years in Georgia after his retirement, and later established a summer home and studio in Jacksonville, he had always considered North Adams his home city.

In the winter of 1905-06, he went to Springfield, made several illustrations for Good Housekeeping magazine which was then published there, and became associated with the F. A. Bassett Co., a concern dedicated to fine quality in book production.  In the fall of 1906 Mr. Pratt was elected by the School Committee to be supervisor of drawing in the North Adams Schools where, for the next 40 years, he conducted courses in seven grade schools and developed at Drury High School what was considered one of the outstanding art departments in the state.  He retired in 1946.

While continuing his work in the schools, Mr. Pratt pursued his own interest in the fields of oil painting, water colors and sculpturing, to which he devoted more time after his retirement. In 1951, Mr. and Mrs. Pratt went to Atlanta, Georgia and joined the Atlanta Art Assn., and exhibited with that group and did considerable painting over the next two years.  In 1953, he was invited to be a guest artist at the Research Studio in Maitland, Florida.

In 1924, Mr. Pratt had married Ethel Mae Davis of Greenfield, a 1912 graduate of the then North Adams Normal School.

He was survived by two sons.  He leaves also a sister, Mrs. John S. Mallon of Chatham, NY and four grandchildren.  The late former Mayor Archie J. Pratt of North Adams was his brother.   He was buried in the family lot in Southview Cemetery on November 2, 1961.