Maxine Merlino

Maxine Ollie Seelbinder Merlino (July 25, 1912 – November 3, 2013) was an American illustrator, muralist, and arts educator known for her 1943 mural of Benjamin Banneker.

Career Merlino attended the Portland Art Museum School before moving to New York City after receiving a scholarship to the Art Students' League in New York City. She studied there under noted muralist Anton Refregier.

In 1941, she won a national competition to illustrate the bar murals of the SS President Garfield. After the war she worked as set and costume designer for Preston Sturges. In 1949, she was part of the original class at Long Beach State University, receiving her MA in 1952. She returned to swimming post-retirement and began swimming competitively. She has set 59 world age group records, and won 19 U.S. Masters Swimming National championships. In 1983 and 1988 she set national records for short course yards in every event with only one exception, setting records until she was 90.

Personal life and legacy Merlino was born in Portland, Oregon in 1912 to Ernest August Seelbinder and Ollie Shuey Seelbinder. She married Dante Merlino, a ship builder, in 1936. The couple settled in Long Beach, California in 1943. They had a son named Dante in 1939. They divorced in July 1970. She donated her papers to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in 2003.