Waldo Park Midgley was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in the year 1888. Midgley was an accomplished painter that focused on oils and watercolors. He died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1986.

Midgley spent much of his life as an artist living in New York City. While in New York Midgley joined the Ashcan artist group. His paintings were heavily influenced by his mentor Robert Henri.

He painted the newly completed Empire State Building before its communication tower was erected and tenants began to occupy its offices. The painting was shipped to Salt Lake City to Midgley's friend, Taylor Woolley, whose studio in the McIntire Building was used to prepare Midgley's exhibition at the Art Barn on Finch Lane.

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

Midgley painted the newly completed Empire State Building before its communication tower was erected and tenants began to occupy its offices. The painting was shipped to Salt Lake City to Midgley's friend, Taylor Woolley, whose studio in the McIntire Building was used to prepare Midgley's exhibition at the Art Barn on Finch Lane. The Deseret News, Saturday the 19th of December 1936 reviews the exhibition:

By all means visit the Art Barn galleries this week. The strength, buoyancy and craftsmanship.. make the trip well worthwhile... As one steps into the gallery, Mr. Midgley's painting Empire State Building smites one right between the eyes... Mr. Midgley cannot only paint dramatically... [but] his art can interpret the prosaic, the lyric, the poetic sides of life just as well.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah.

Newspaper Articles

"Galleries Feature Top Contemporary Artists, Utahns, Up-And-Comers." The Deseret News, November 21, 1993.

"Images Of The Great Salt Lake." The Deseret News, February 11, 1996.

Books

Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson, ed. The Artists Bluebook: 29,000 North American Artists. Scottsdale, AZ: AskART.com, 2003.

Haseltine, James L. 100 Years of Utah Painting: Selected Works from the 1840s to the 1940s. Salt Lake City, UT: Salt Lake Arts Center, 1965.

Maciejunes, Nannette V., and Norma J.  Roberts. The American Collections, Columbus Museum of Art. Columbus, OH: The Museum, in Association with H.N. Abrams, New York, 1988.

Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge. Index of Artists, International-Biographical; Including Painters, Sculptors, Illustrators, Engravers and Etchers of the Past and the Present. New York, NY: Peregrine Smith, 1948.

Olpin, Robert S., and Waldo Midgley. Birds, Animals, People, Things. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, 1980.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.

Springville Museum of Art. Permanent Collection Catalog. Springville, UT: Springville Museum of Art, 1972.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, Donna Poulton, and Janie Rogers. 150 Years Survey Utah Art. Utah Artists. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Art. Layton, UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1992.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Painting and Sculpture. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1991.