Nellie Geraldine Best

Nellie Geraldine Best (May 22, 1905 – June 2, 1990) was an American artist known for her sculptures, paintings, and murals. She was active in Oregon, California, and Minneapolis, from the 1930s until the 1950s.

Biography Nellie Geraldine Best was born in Sterling, Washington, on May 22, 1905. Best graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. degree (1929) and a M.F.A. degree (1930).

Best won an honorable mention in a national competition to paint murals; the award was for her mural in the Social Security Administration building in Washington, D.C.

In 1940, Best painted Early Voyageurs at Portage as part of a Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project for the post office in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The work Early Voyageurs at Portage was removed in the 1970s from the post office and is now lost.

In the 1960s she taught art classes in Oregon. Best died on June 22, 1990, in Eugene, Oregon.