Roland Arthur Schweinsburg

Roland Arthur Schweinsburg was born July 27, 1898, in Elwood  City, Pennsylvania to George, a steel mill worker, and Cora (Cosey) Bell Albin Schweinsburg. By 1910, the family was living in Youngstown, Ohio. Roland attended the Cleveland School of Art for four years and continued his studies with the Butler Institute via a correspondence course. After graduation, he remained in Cleveland and supported himself as a freelance interior designer. He also worked as an advertising and news-paper artist. He later moved to Canton, and then to Youngstown, where he taught art classes at the Butler Institute of American Art.

Roland married Violet Broska in 1916 and went into the military in 1918. The couple had two sons, George Norman Schweinsburg,1916, and Roland K. Schweiinsburg,1925. The youngest son was killed in a bicycle accident when he was eleven. Violet and Roland divorced, and Roland married Elizabeth (Becky) Jan-Vitez Sheets in 1935. (Note: Some sources state there were three children.)

Throughout his life, Schweinsburg was recognized for his talents. He created numerous murals for federal projects and his paintings are held in prestigious art galleries such as the Smithsonian and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Roland’s life was not always a happy one and he struggled with alcoholism.  It is said that his drinking caused him to lose jobs and he passed away, alone, on January 3, 1963. 

Schweinsburg’s mural of “Old Bennett Pottery Plant” hangs over the door to the Archives and Library at the Museum of   Ceramics. It was installed in 1937 when the building was a Federal Post Office. Prior to the installation, it was exhibited at the Treasury Department in Washington D. C., along with other government sponsored art projects.  On coming to East Liverpool, the fifteen-foot-long mural was displayed at a local department store, D. M. Ogilvie, before finding its permanent home above, what was then, the Postmaster’s office. 

The mural took about three and a half months to complete. It is oil on canvas and was described then as a “modernistic style, featuring contrasting colors in bright greens, reds, brown, and other basic hues.” It depicts the 1839, one kiln pottery of East Liverpool’s first commercial potter, James Bennett.

Like most post office works of art, the mural was funded by the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts. A program titled Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) was the source of funding for the Bennett mural and not the WPA as is commonly believed.  

Schweinsburg was commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce to paint a series of paintings depicting commercial potters at work.  The 18 paintings are all oil on canvas with heavy oak frames. and are displayed at the Museum of Ceramics.

The museum also owns 12 miniatures that were created as studies for the larger paintings.