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Born in Lamar, Arkansas on October
4, 1905, Donald Allam Blair was raised on a farm in Oklahoma by his
parents Frank and Evelena. After his first job punching cattle, Blair
served as an apprentice pressman in a printing shop. A graduate of
the University of Oklahoma, Blair took as his first position in the
oil business digging ditches with Marland Oil Company in Ponca City,
Oklahoma. In the production department of Barnsdall Oil Company, he
worked as chief draftsman. Before resigning from Barnsdall in 1937,
Blair wrote, produced, and acted as emcee on his own radio program
over NBC affiliate, KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
| In 1937 Blair was hired as piping draftsman and
architect by Lago Oil & Transport Co., Ltd. on the island of Aruba
in the Netherlands West Indies. Later, he acted as official photographer
of the company. By 1943 he transferred to the industrial relations
department in a role of supervisor on special assignments. |
| On March 21, 1946 while working for
Standard Oil of New Jersey on Aruba, Blair married Bettina Steinke
who was at that time a commercial illustrator and portrait artist.
For the next ten years, Blair and Steinke traveled and worked together
as a freelance photographer-artist team employed by companies such
as United Fruit, Standard Oil of New Jersey, and the Hudson’s
Bay Company. They photographed and painted the lifeways and natives
of Central and South America, the Canadian arctic, and the United
States southwest. |
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The Blairs moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma
in 1948 and on May 14, 1949 opened Blair Galleries in Claremore, Oklahoma.
In 1955 the Blairs moved to Taos, New Mexico where on June 12, 1965
they opened Blair Galleries, Ltd. In 1968 Blair opened a second gallery
at The Compound on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They moved
to Santa Fe in 1970. The Compound on Canyon Road became home, studio,
and gallery for the Blairs. By 1988 the Blairs had established business
offices and a studio at 462 Acequia Madre in Santa Fe. On July 11,
1999 Bettina died. Don died on September 18, 2000 at the age of 95. |
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