Artist 43: Samuel Alexander Yellin

Samuel Alexander Yellin was born in 1885 in Poland.  He attended an arts and crafts school when he was young and in 1897 he became an apprentice under a local blacksmith.  In 1902 he received his masters certificate and traveled throughout Europe and worked in many different cities.  Then in 1906 he came to the United States and began studying at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art.  A year later he developed a wrought iron program there and taught this class until 1919.  In 1909 he opened his first shop and advanced to Master Craftsman in the Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston in 1915.  Yellin created masterpieces out of wrought iron, from railings to gates, his work can be seen throughout the world.  He held a strong emphasis on the craftsmanship and design of each of his pieces.  Because Yellin was trained in a blacksmith’s shop in Europe and worked there for years, he was able to bring the traditions of European metal working to the ever-changing art scene of America.  His passion for metalworking caused him to not view it as work but he felt he was creating pieces of art in and for people’s homes.