Chronology

 
1894 
14 February, born in Merion, Pennsylvania. Harold’s twin brother Edward died at six months. 
 
1909-1910
Traveled widely in Europe and attended school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Hanover, Germany.
 
1911
Struck by infantile paralysis (polio) in left leg.
 
1912-16
Harvard University, magna cum laude in Fine Arts, Phi Beta Kappa, editor of The Lampoon.
 
1914
Studied under Hamilton Easter Field at the Summer School of Graphic Arts in Ogonquit, Maine.
 
1916–19
YMCA volunteer attached to the British Army in India and Mesopotamia. Organized Baghdad Art Club in 1917. Appointed Official Painter for the British Army in 1918. Returned to the United States through the Far East.
 
1920
Built one-room studio in St. Huberts, New York.
 
1922
First solo exhibition at Montross Gallery, New York City.
 
1923
12 May, married Faith Borton.
 
1926-30
Lived in France (Pyrenees and Paris).
 
1930
Return to New York City, later St. Huberts.
 
1936-38
Commissioned by Treasury Relief Art Project to paint murals for the General Services Administration Building in Washington, D.C.
 
1939
Won third prize in American Painting at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco.
 
1940-47
Organized and led the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies in Essex County, N.Y., in 1940–41; the Reconstruction Service Committee in Washington, D.C., in 1942–43; and Food for Freedom in Washington, D.C., in 1943–47.
 
1948-68
Secretary of the Adirondack Trail Improvement Society, St. Huberts, New York.
 
1949-52
Painted Building the United Nations, owned by Smithsonian American Art Museum.
 
1953-57
President of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors (member 1940–72.)
 
1954
Moved winter home to Greenwich Village, New York City.
 
1954-70
Founding member, vice president, and president of the National Council on Arts and Government, the artists’ lobby for government support for the arts, which influenced and pushed for arts legislation, including the act establishing the National Endowment for the Arts.
 
1954-67
Early organizer and later president of the International Association of Plastic Arts (later the International Association of Arts [IAA]), an affiliate of UNESCO. President of the United States Committee of the IAA, 1961–67.
 
1961-65
Advisor to the New York State Council for the Arts.
 
1963
Elected Life Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science as a “distinguished artist with world-wide humanitarian achievements.”
 
1964
Received Annual Award from the American Society of Contemporary Artists. (Honorary memberships included Society of American Mural Painters, Society of American Graphic Artists, National Educational Theatre Technology, and United States Institute of Theatre Technology.)
 
1968-72
Painted the Stone Series.
 
1971
Weston’s book Freedom in the Wilds: A Saga of the Adirondacks published.
 
1972
10 April, died in New York City.