Raphael Beck

Abram Raphael Beck (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1858 – Lockport, New York, 1947) was an American painter, remembered mainly for the logo of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Born into an artistic family as the eldest of eight children, he was the son of J. Augustus Beck, an accomplished artist who designed the bas relief at the foot of the Washington Monument. After training with his father, he spent two years in Europe, studying in Munich with the landscape painter Paul Weber and then at the Académie Julian in Paris.

Back in the United States, he received his first major commission, a series of murals for the capitol in Harrisburg. He settled in Lockport and kept a studio in Buffalo for thirty years. His output was varied, including stained glass, life-size masks, etchings, oils, watercolors and large murals, among them a mural of the opening of the Erie Canal, an oil of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth and a portrait of General Lafayette.

His design, showing two women joined by the hands across Central America, was chosen from more than four hundred entries and copyrighted in 1899. It appeared on souvenirs of every kind, and the organizers ended up exploiting it commercially. Beck also painted what became President William McKinley's last portrait, having observed him during his visit to the exposition; the picture was finished after the president's assassination. Although his work is tied to that event, his legacy rests largely on the logo, which became a recognizable symbol of the fair.