Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

Requires signed form, since special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Ben Freedman, Artist and Professor, Papers and Artwork, A&M 5196, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical Noted

Ben Frank Freedman (1930-2014) was a professor of art at West Virginia University. He was also the last of the famous "Freedman Triplets," born on May 24, 1930, at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, Louisiana. Freedman and his two sisters were the toast of New Orleans, oftentimes making public appearances and having frequent reports featured in the Times-Picayune as they grew up.

He attended Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where he met his future wife, Florence Joelson. They were married in June of 1953.

After receiving his undergraduate degree, Freedman won a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Germany for one year and later completed his military service in the U.S. Army. He continued his graduate work in painting at the University of Arizona in Tucson before moving to Morgantown, where the couple lived for the remainder of their lives. Freedman was a professor in the Art Department at West Virginia University until his retirement in 1999.

Outside of academia, Freedman enjoyed enormous success as a painter. His works were exhibited in both the United States and Europe and many collectors sought out his pieces both here and abroad.

Throughout their lives, the couple spent their summers in Europe, mostly on the coast of Normandy. The two were also avid collectors of African art and American antiques. During their retirement, they developed a spectacular garden that was featured on the Morgantown community garden tour in 2005. Their home has been referred to as "Natchez on the Monongahela."

Freedman passed away at his home in Morgantown on December 26, 2014.

*adapted from Freedman's obituary in the Crescent City Jewish News ; https://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/artist-professor-ben-freedman-84-dies-last-of-freedman-triplets/

Scope and Contents

Files and artwork of artist and West Virginia University art professor Ben Freedman. Includes correspondence, curriculum files, class teaching notes, exhibition catalogs, artworks, and other material. He retired from WVU in 1989. This collection is minimally processed.