Lonsford Collection

The Lonsford Collection is an on-going permanent series of sculptures, paintings and other major art pieces that are acquired through the Lonsford fund.  The fund was established through the generous gift of Florence H. Lonsford, a former Purdue graduate and artist who desired “to support the acquisition of art objects in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts” at Purdue University. Mrs. Lonsford particularly wanted to place art works in spaces where students could gain an understanding and appreciation of their beauty, meaning and significance.

Florence Hutchinson Lonsford

A 1936 graduate of Purdue University and native of Lebanon, IN, Florence H. Lonsford was largely a self-taught artist.  Her work as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker saw exhibitions from Indianapolis to New York and from Monaco to France. Writing about her experience coming to Purdue in the early 1930s, Lonsford remarked, “There was wonderment about our futures and what they were to hold.  We looked to Purdue for inspiration.  Most of us were poor, from small towns and farms, and had parents who thought a college education would give us what they never had.”

The Florence H. Lonsford fund was established with the gift of her estate “to support the acquisition of art objects in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts.”