The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Nathan “Nate” Dunn (1896–1983) was raised in Pittsburgh. He graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology School of Fine Art and initially settled in Uniontown, where he worked as a merchant. After marrying Beatrice Mayer in 1926, he relocated to Sharon to work for his father-in-law Joseph Mayer. Dunn later went into business for himself, starting the Boston Store in Sharon. Dunn retired and sold the business in 1957 and began pursuing an artistic career full time. He took a position teaching art at the Julia F. Girls’ Buhl School in Sharon and began exhibiting throughout the region. For the next 25 years, Dunn was an active presence as an artist, instructor, and contest judge throughout the art world of Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio. In August 1983, Dunn’s estate auctioned some 600 of his paintings.