Bart van der Schelling: Information wanted
Van der Schelling; photo courtesy of the Van der Schelling family. Any information on the meaning of the "15" above the visor is welcome.
Yvonne Scholten, biographer of the Dutch miliciana Fanny Schoonheyt, is interested in obtaining information on the Dutch Lincoln Brigade volunteer Bart van der Schelling. He was admired as a baritone–he recorded Songs of the Spanish Civil War, a number of them with Pete Seeger. In later life he acquired a reputation as a primitive painter. He and his wife, Edna Moore, were longtime residents of Mexico where they fled during the Red Scares. Information on the latter would also be welcome. Contact Yvonne Scholten here.
Bart was my great uncle by marriage, but I don’t know much about his past other than being a primitive painter and living in Mexico City during the McCarthy era with my great aunt Edna. I remember him being a large imposing man, and very nice to us young kids.