1. Maxine Ollie Seelbinder Merlino was an American illustrator, muralist, and arts educator known for her 1943 mural of Benjamin Banneker.
13 Facts About Maxine Merlino
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Maxine Merlino worked in New York from 1936 to 1943 as an illustrator, muralist, and theatrical set designer.
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Maxine Merlino worked as a scientific illustrator for the Army Air Force during the World War II.
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In 1943, Maxine Merlino beat out 10,000 applicants to win the $750 first prize, one of seven commissions to paint murals in the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington DC After the war she worked as set and costume designer for Preston Sturges.
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Maxine Merlino joined the art faculty and worked as the first technical director.
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Maxine Merlino earned her doctorate at the University of Southern California and worked at what had become Cal State University Long Beach as the Dean of the School of Fine Arts until her retirement in 1976, teaching drawing and painting, as well as set design for theater.
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Maxine Merlino was a competitive swimmer in her teens and twenties, holding the Pacific Coast backstroke championship for twelve years.
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Maxine Merlino returned to swimming post-retirement and began swimming competitively.
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Maxine Merlino has set 59 world age group records, and won 19 US Masters Swimming National championships.
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Maxine Merlino was among the first class of inductees to the International Swimmers Hall of Fame and was the Southern Pacific Masters Swimming Swimmer of the Year in 1997.
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Maxine Merlino was born in Portland, Oregon in 1912 to Ernest August Seelbinder and Ollie Shuey Seelbinder.
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Maxine Merlino married Dante Merlino, a ship builder in 1936.
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Maxine Merlino donated her papers to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in 2003.