With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Louis Hiller
Architecture/Design
1848 – 1923
- Biography/Description of Work
Designer. Born in Wurtemburg, Germany, Hiller came to the U. S. in 1858 at age 11. He studied art at the Cooper Union in NYC and at age 23 was appointed an instructor there. In 1875 he came to Meriden as a designer at the Meriden Silver Plate Co., transferring soon after to the International Silver Co., where he was one of the Meriden firm’s top designers until his death. He collaborated with local sculptor Louis Gudebrod on ‘Spirit of the West,’ which won a gold medal at the Pan-Pacific Expo in San Francisco in 1915. In 1909 Hiller took a leave of absence from the International Silver Co. to go to Wilmington, DE, where he worked for the DuPont Co., designing ornamental gun stocks that were mostly animals worked in metal, which were then applied to the stocks.
- Sources view
- Uconn database, Louis C. Hiller Obituary - The Hartford Courant - 1921-12-25
- Associated Resource(s)