Archie Tillinghast was born on June 8, 1909, in Stonington, Connecticut. He attended primary school in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey before graduating from the East Side High School in Newark, New Jersey. From 1929 until 1931 he studied art at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. Tillinghast’s work was exhibited at the Mystic Art Gallery, Montclair Museum, Newark Art Club, Newark Museum and Opportunity Gallery, and in New York. During the WPA Federal Arts Project he completed 89 easel works which were allocated to Norwich State Hospital, Southbury Training School, Samuel Staples School, Undercliff Sanatorium, Long Lane Farm, Fort Wright, Rocky Hill Soldiers’ Home, and Fairfield State Hospital. Later he worked as a mold maker at Monsanto Co. in Stonington, Connecticut where he served as a union officer. Tillinghast also founded the Wequetequack Fire Department. He died in Norwich, Connecticut in 1988.

 Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; Who Was Who in American Art (1985), p. 624; Social Security Death Index; “Connecticut to Celebrate National Art Week,” Hartford Courant, November 17, 1940; Obituary, New London Day, September 27, 1988.