Robert Bruce Inverarity

born Seattle, Washington, 1909; died La Jolla, California, 1999

BiographyExcerpt from the University of Washington Special Collections website. For the full biography and a list of archival material at UW, visit

http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv07571
[accessed 6/27/17]

Robert Bruce Inverarity earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in art and anthropology from the University of Washington in 1946, and then earned his Master's degree and Ph.D. in fine arts from Fremont University in Los Angeles. As a young man, Inverarity shared a studio with Mark Tobey and studied with him for a time. He taught art at Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, and directed the School of Creative Art in Vancouver, Canada. In 1933, Inverarity became an instructor of puppetry, a life-long interest of his, at the University of Washington Drama School. In 1936, the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration hired Inverarity as State Director. In 1939, he moved from the Federal Art Project to the Art and Crafts Project, which he also directed. During World War II, Inverarity served as Chief of Design for Camouflage for the U.S. Navy (1941-1943) and then as an Official Navy War Artist (1943-1945).

Inverarity's career as a museum director began in 1949 when he became the founding director of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His book, "Art of the Northwest Coast Indians," was published in 1950 while he was still in New Mexico. In 1954, the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York hired Inverarity as its first director. In 1965, Inverarity returned to California, where he worked as an illustrator and book designer at University of California Press. In 1969, he became director of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, where he worked until his retirement in 1976.

Person TypeIndividual

Terms