Edward Laning

Edward Laning
Edward Laning, 1937 (Archives of American Art collection)
Born	26 April 1906 Petersburg, Illinois, United States
Died	May 1981 New York City
Nationality	American
Education	Art Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago, Art Students League
Known for	Painting
Notable work	"The Story of the Recorded Word"
Spouse(s)	Mary Fife Laning

Edward Laning was an American painter.

Laning was born in 1906 in Petersburg, Illinois.

He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (1923–24) and the University of Chicago, (1925–27). He also studied at the Art Students League with Max Weber, Boardman Robinson, John Sloan and Kenneth Hayes Miller (1927–30).

In 1931, Laning's work formed part of the first major show at the newly formed Whitney Museum of American Art. He painted murals for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression as well as a post office mural in Rockingham, North Carolina (1937). In 1935, he painted the Ellis Island murals (chosen over Japanese-American artist Hideo Noda):

It was a great relief to PWA, to the College Art Association, to Architects Harvey Wiley Corbett and Chester Holmes Aldrich and to Edward Laning last week to learn that Commissioner of Immigration & Naturalization Rudolph Reimer at Ellis Island had finally approved Artist Laning's designs for murals for the dining hall at New York's immigrant station. Cheered, Muralist Laning and his two assistants, James Rutledge and Albert Soroka, hustled to get his cartoons on tempera and gesso panels as soon as possible.

In 1937, he painted murals in the New York Public Library, including his most famous work, "The Story of the Recorded Word."