Florence Thomas

Early Years

Miss Thomas, an exceptional artist, began honing her sculpting skills while working at her father’s ornamental plaster-casting and cast-stone firm. Following high school, she dedicated four years to an apprenticeship in architectural sculpture, while also pursuing art studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. She was honored with the prestigious Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship, which led her to further her studies in Europe for an additional two years.

It was Miss Thomas who conceived and sculpted the original models for the newel posts at Timberline Lodge, situated on Oregon’s majestic Mt. Hood. Skilled wood carvers involved in the 1930s WPA project then utilized her models to create the intricate animal figures that still captivate and intrigue us today. Notably, the grand panther carving, adorning the main doors of the lodge, proudly bears the distinctive signature of F. Thomas.

View-Master Years

Florence Thomas, a talented artist in various mediums, is best remembered by View-Master enthusiasts for her remarkable clay figure characters featured in countless fairy tale reels. In 1949, she shared her process for creating these clay figures. Initially, she sketched the figures and backgrounds on cardboard, meticulously bringing them to life afterwards. The adult human figures stood at approximately six inches tall. Once the figures had dried, they were carefully painted with oil colors and nail polish. While the style of figures remained consistent across all seven scenes, unique figures were crafted for each scene, as they assumed different postures.

For the settings and props, Florence employed an array of materials such as moss, paper, asbestos, soil, stones, and even hair. To create a lifelike lake, she ingeniously used a piece of plexiglass and added ripples using transparent household cement. When embarking on a new story, Miss Thomas estimated a production time of seven working days per scene, sometimes even less. For instance, each scene in “The Three Little Pigs” only required three and a half days. She found sculpting pigs to be easier than sculpting humans.