Dwight Franklin

Actor Glenn Hunter and Dwight Franklin, from a 1923 magazine
Black bass, catfish, and lumpfish models prepared by Dwight Franklin

George Dwight Franklin (1888–1971) was an American artist, taxidermist, naturalist, museum curator and costume designer for early Hollywood films.

Personal life

Dwight Franklin was born on January 28, 1888, in New York City. He married Mary C. McCall Jr., a novelist and screenwriter, in January 1928. They divorced in February 1943 and he married Eliza Moultrie Franklin in 1947. They remained married until his death.[1] Some time between 1920 and 1925, Dwight Franklin joined nearly 250 bohemians in signing The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door at Frank Shay's Bookshop on Christopher Street. The door is now held at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin and Franklin's signature can be found on front panel 3.[2]

Franklin died on January 19, 1971, in Santa Monica, California.

Career

Dwight Franklin began working in 1906 as a taxidermist for the American Museum of Natural History. In 1910, he participated in a museum-sponsored expedition to Moon Lake in Mississippi, part of the habitat of the American paddlefish.[3] Franklin created many figurines and sculptures. He built historical dioramas for the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, The Newark Museum of Art and the Museum of the City of New York.[4]

In 1915, Franklin founded the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists with John Treadwell Nichols and Henry Weed Fowler.

In the early 1930s, Franklin moved from New York City to Los Angeles to begin work as a costume designer for Hollywood films.[2]

Selected publications

  • Franklin, Dwight (1910). A Method of Preparing Fish for Museum and Exhibition Purposes. [Washington, Govt. print. off. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.36232. S2CID 192961139.
  • Franklin, Dwight (1913). "Color Changes in Collared Lizards". Copeia. 1 (1): 2–3. JSTOR 1436102.
  • "Some Fish of the Middle West". Am. Mus. J. 14: 37. 1914.
  • Franklin, Dwight (1914). "Note on a Nesting Sunfish". Copeia. 11 (11): 1. doi:10.2307/1435769. JSTOR 1435467.
  • Franklin, Dwight (1914). "Notes on Leopard Lizards". Copeia. 5 (5): 1–2. doi:10.2307/1435769. JSTOR 1435769.
  • Franklin, Dwight (1914). "Comparative Numbers of Lizards and Snakes on Desert". Copeia. 12 (12): 2. JSTOR 1436702.
  • Franklin, Dwight (1915). "Notes on a Fish Caught Three Times". Copeia. 22 (22): 36. JSTOR 1437000.
  • Franklin, Dwight (1915). "Notes on Amblystoma Tinigrum at Flagstaff, Arizona". Copeia. 21 (21): 30–31. doi:10.2307/1435786. JSTOR 1435786.
  • "A Recent Development in Museum Groups". Proceedings of the American Association of Museums. 11: 110–112. 1916.

Complete filmography

Complete known filmography of Dwight Franklin[5]
Name Genre Year Role
The Black Pirate Adventure, action 1926 Consultant
Treasure Island Adventure, family 1934 Technical advisor
Anthony Adverse Adventure, drama, romance 1936 Technical consultant; 18th-century costumes
The Plainsman Western 1936 Costume designer
The Buccaneer Adventure, biography, drama 1938
Reap the Wild Wind Action, adventure, drama 1942 Wardrobe designer
The Adventures of Mark Twain Adventure, biography, drama 1944 Technical advisor
Frenchman's Creek Adventure, drama, romance 1944 Technical advisor
Sinbad, the Sailor Adventure, family, fantasy 1947 Men's costume designer
Unconquered Adventure, drama, history 1947 Production illustrator
Tycoon Adventure, drama, romance 1947 Men's wardrobe
The Exile Adventure, romance 1947
Samson and Delilah Drama, family, history 1949 Illustrator
Fair Wind to Java Action, adventure, drama 1953 Technical advisor

References

  1. ^ "Dwight (George Dwight) Franklin". askArt. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
    - "Eliza Moultrie Franklin, "California Death Index, 1940–1997". Family Search.
  2. ^ a b "Dwight Franklin". The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
  3. ^ Dean, Bashford (May 23, 1914). "The Life Habits of Fishes: Exhibits in the American Museum". Scientific American. 77 (Supplement No. 2003): 332–333. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican05231914-332supp – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Reniers, Percival (March 1, 1920). "A New Art of the Theatre". Theatre Magazine. 31 (229): 176–177. Retrieved March 1, 2024 – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
  5. ^ "Dwight Franklin (1888–1971)". IMDb.