USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 7
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plans include a cottage garden for each girl, an orchard, nursery of trees and shrubs and ornamental planting with rock garden plants, wild flowers, roses and herbs, all developed upon a scientific basis.
Born a Universalist, Miss Miller joined the Episcopal Church, attends the Unitarian Church and has definite religious views which she has developed in harmony with the great cosmic rhythm. She is the eleventh in a family of twelve children, five sons and seven daughters, and is the last survivor of her immediate family-splendidly preserved, reading and writing without glasses, enjoying life and finding zest in being a constructive force in life. She has always kept abreast of modern progressive and constructive thought, all of which is indicated in her membership connections. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Geographical Society, and belongs to the Garden Club of Cleveland, Garden Club of America, Garden Club of Ohio, Council of American Garden Club and the American Forestry Association. She is dean of the Business and Profes- sional Women's Club of Cleveland, is a member of the Cleveland Writers Club and the Cornell Women's Club and is an honorary member of the National Association Garden Club.
ELIZABETH NOURSE
ELIZABETH NOURSE, internationally famous artist, was a descendant of an old Huguenot family settled in Massachusetts. Her parents were born there but moved to Cincinnati where Elizabeth was born. When 13 years old she entered the Cincinnati School of Design.
Sent abroad in 1890 to Paris Art Schools, she studied for a time under Carolus-Duran, who with such men as Henner and Dagnan-Bouveret, advised her to leave the Julian Atelier and work in her own studio. From that time on she painted alone and took her work to Henner and Bouveret for criticism. She was also a pupil of Boulanger and Lefebvre.
Elizabeth is said to be the first American woman to be made a member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts and also the first American woman from whom the French government bought a picture to hang in Luxembourg.
In 1920 she was elected member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, the highest award in the power of France to confer in this field. It placed her among the foremost artists of France and entitled her to exhibit in the annual salon without submitting pictures to a jury. Elizabeth Nourse was the only American on whom this honor was conferred. Her awards included a medal given by the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893; gold medal, Panama- Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. She was a member of the Paris American Women's Art Association and of the New York Woman's Art Club.
The mother of Elizabeth Nourse was Elizabeth Le Breton Rogers whose ancestors founded Wolfesboro, N. H. Elizabeth's father was Caleb E. Nourse,
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one of Cincinnati's first bankers. Their marriage took place in the house that is now the Taft Museum.
Elizabeth Nourse lived in Paris with her sister Louise. Her twin sister, Adelaide, wife of Ben Pitman, was a wood carver and sculptress.
Elizabeth painted women and children with rare sympathy and under- standing and gained her inspiration from the peasantry of France, which has no counterpart in America.
This famous daughter of Ohio retained active interest in her native city and her family connections there, notably her niece, Melrose Pitman, daughter of Adelaide Nourse Pitman.
But Paris became her home. There she developed her great genius, there she helped to inspire and was inspired by other world famous artists and there, in her studio apartment overlooking the Luxembourg, she died on Oct. 8, 1938.
Museums in which her works are represented include Cincinnati Art Museum, Chicago Art Institute, Detroit Art Museum, Grand Rapids Museum, Lincoln (Neb.) Museum; National Museum, Adelaide, Australia ; Luxembourg Museum, Paris ; National Gallery, (Wash.) ; Wightman Memorial Art Gallery, and Notre Dame Gallery, (Ind.).
EMMA LOUISE PARRY
EMMA LOUISE PARRY, lecturer and writer, authority on history of art, was born in Cincinnati, was graduated from Hughes High School, received her B.L. degree from the University of Cincinnati and later her M.A. "casua honoris."
Her unusual fund of knowledge on the development and history of art was not acquired by this distinguished Cincinnatian without effort and appli- cation. She has devoted seventeen summers and five winters to special study in European art centers.
Most of her time was spent in Italy but she did important research work in Greece and Egypt and later in France and Germany.
Miss Parry began her career as a teacher, first at Maryland College and later at the Thane Miller School, Cincinnati, of which she was assistant principal.
Later the demand for her lecture courses required that she concentrate all her time and energies on this activity. Her talks became an institution at the Cincinnati Woman's Club and with cultural and educational groups in various cities of Ohio.
Meanwhile she produced several books on professional and related topics, among them "The Two Great Art Epochs" widely used as a text and reference book, "Woman in the Reformation," "Life Among the Germans," and has translated a number of important works of foreign authors. Miss Parry is a Phi Beta Kappa and a charter member of the Cincinnati Woman's Club.
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FERN BISEL PEAT
FERN BISEL PEAT (Mrs. Frank E. Peat), Cleveland, artist and art editor, received her B.F.A. at Ohio Wesleyan University and soon thereafter began her successful career as an illustrator. She is editor of the Playmate Magazine and partner with her husband in the Peter Pan Studio of Cleveland. Among widely read children's books which he has illustrated are the "Sugar Plum Tree" and "Little Black Sambo" now used as supplementary readers by the public schools. Mrs. Peat has also done many noteworthy mural paint- ings and decorations, among them the murals at the Summit County Children's Home, at the Christian Orphanage, Cleveland, and the playroom of the Keith Theater, Cleveland.
AGNES PITMAN
AGNES PITMAN, former teacher of wood carving at the Cincinnati Art Academy, was born in Sheffield, England, the daughter by his first marriage of the late Ben Pitman. She came to Cincinnati with her father in 1850 and presently became assistant in his classes at the Art Academy.
To Agnes Pitman is credited much of the success which crowned a noted exhibit made by Cincinnati women at the Chicago World Fair of 1893. She won first place in a contest for design of the mural decorations of the "Cincinnati room" and assisted greatly in the entire project.
One of her unusual experiences marks an early first in air adventure. In 1871 she persuaded Donaldson, famous pioneer of the air, to permit her to accompany him on a balloon ascension. They went up six miles, a wonderful record for that day.
Miss Pitman's wood carvings hold place of honor in a number of beautiful Cincinnati homes, and her fine personality has won equal recognition and admiration for many years.
CAROLINE L. RANSOME
CAROLINE L. RANSOME, whose death occurred in 1909, held the dis- tinction of producing the first work of art-made by a woman-to be pur- chased by the United States government. It was a portrait of Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, painted in 1859 from a sitting and which Congress purchased to hang in a room of the old House of Representatives.
Although she was born in Newark, Miss Ransome lived in Cleveland and maintained a winter home in Washington, D. C.
In 1863 she painted a portrait of Governor Brough and later one of President Garfield, for which she received $2,500. The latter was painted for Mrs. Garfield in the uniform of major general.
At least three other portraits hanging in the treasury building in Wash- ington bear Miss Ransome's signature. They are those of Salmon P. Chase, Alexander Hamilton and Gen. John A. Dix.
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NINA SPALDING STEVENS RIVIERE
"Together they followed the gleam."
So wrote a newspaper reporter into the obituary notice of George W. Stevens, founder and first director of the world famous Toledo Museum of Art. The "they" referred, of course, to NINA SPALDING STEVENS, the wife. Into how few stories of men of great achievement has such a tribute been written? Behind many a great man has been an understanding wife, but behind him, not as in the case of the Stevens, in an equal race. For to Nina Stevens, quite as much as to her gifted husband, must go the final accolade for establishing the Toledo Museum of Art. George Stevens never let anyone get away with the notion that it was his idea and his alone, as would a lesser man. He always said, "She has as much to do with it as I and probably more." And he meant it.
George Stevens was a newspaper man when slim, blonde Nina Spalding of Port Huron, Michigan, crossed his path. He himself had come from Utica, New York, stopping off his train to the west for a three hour visit with an uncle residing in Toledo. He stayed a lifetime and carried about that little used railroad ticket ever after as a momento.
Gifted, yes he was, above most of his fellows but his life had not fallen into its stride. His newspaper work, a slim volume or two of verse-and then Nina. They met casually at a Toledo dinner table. Instantly they spoke as if alone on a desert isle. The other guests were forgotten. Then she went back to Port Huron, not knowing if she should ever see this remarkable man again. She, too, aspired to write and had just had a slight thing published in a magazine. George Stevens ran across it on a table in the Toledo club. He boarded a train for Port Huron. "So, you have come," said Nina. They were married in six months-nowadays it would have been six days at the most-for this was the much talked of but little met "love at first sight."
Hardly was the honeymoon over before George Stevens was offered the directorship of the Toledo Museum, then housed in an old residence on Madison Avenue and having as its sole exhibits one painting and a mummified cat. A few had been trying to stir up interest in the city for the museum but the paid director felt it was no use and quit. In casual conversation with George Stevens, newspaper reporter, a Toledoan who had the matter really at heart said, "Now if we had someone like you, George, to stir up interest through the newspaper, maybe it would catch on." "Why not?" replied George Stevens and the next day he had a contract in his pocket to take over what there was of the idea at $100 a month. On this he was to support a young bride brought up in luxury and trained to do nothing useful at all. Unafraid, he told her what he had done. Both had intended to make writing a life work and here they were off on a new track, which was to prove a work of twenty-four years!
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With high hope they moved into the back part of the fine old residence, housing the one painting and the mummified cat. This young bride who knew nothing about cooking, and her thirty-six year old husband, a gourmet so far as food was concerned, brought up on a French mother's culinary achievements, cooked such food as they could manage and bent themselves to the task.
Members they must have for the museum if their idea were not to vanish into thin air and they set about to get them. Ten dollars was the membership fee. George wrote about it for the papers and both of them telephoned incessantly. After they had exhausted the few names they knew, the telephone directory beginning with the A's and down through the alphabet, yielded them an occasional membership.
They managed to secure an exhibit or two and here Nina Spalding Stevens could make use of the social graces to which she was born. They made swank receptions of the opening of these small exhibitions, served food, heaven knows how, Nina radiant in the lovely gowns from her trousseau. Those who came had a good time and their interest in art grew apace. Mrs. Stevens, now Madame Stevens-Riviere, loves to tell of the time when they had invited her father and mother to come down from Port Huron for one of these art receptions. There was a crowd and they were so busy, George lecturing in his inimitable manner on the paintings and Nina hostessing all over the place, that father and mother were quite forgotten after the first introductions. When everyone had left, the bewildered pair looked about for their relatives. They were nowhere. Amazed they repaired to the furnace room to bank the fire before going out to hunt for the disappearing parents, and there in white satin and lace, her train over her arm was Mrs. Spalding, patiently stoking the furnace. "The janitor went home," she said succinctly, "and I knew your guests would be cold, so I have been putting a little coal on the furnace from time to time. Your father went down town when it got too arty for him upstairs."
Those were gruelling years some would say, but not to the Stevens. They made a game of life and thought nothing too difficult. The studio of the old house was a really charming room, boasting at one end of a huge wood burning fireplace. Here they sat late of an evening when they feared longer to call on the telephone for members, and "dreamd true." They talked of a white marble palace of art for Toledo with huge canvasses by all the great masters. George even drew up its plan-he was clever at such things-floor space to scale, the galleries all laid out. He locked it away in a secret cup- board and when the first unit of the present white marble museum was com- pleted, he took it out and marvelled to see that many of the measurements tallied exactly with his early drawings.
Then came the day when George Stevens changed from the athletic young man he had always been into a crippled, helpless invalid. Arthritis, dreaded
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disease from which there seems no escape, had him in its clutch. He spent months in first one hospital and then another. Sadly the doctors told Nina Stevens that her husband would never be well, would never walk again. "I don't believe you," was her only comment. Frantically she wrote to a dozen of the greatest surgeons of the world-in Germany, Austria, England, every- where. The replies came back. One said there was a Dr. Goldwaithe in Boston who had had some success with similar cases. Nina rushed her husband to Boston, where his poor back was broken in three places to ease the terrible pain which had become his constant companion. George Stevens never was heard even to murmur. From his bed he thought and planned and wrote for the museum of his dream. Nina carried it all on while he was away and later when he returned home, bed-ridden. Each morning after she had bathed and fed and soothed her husband, and placed everything at his hand so he could write or plan, she went out into the studio and took up the task of securing members, exhibitions, whatnot.
Then Mr. E. D. Libbey, who had become more and more interested in the idea of a museum for Toledo and was by now the devoted friend of George and Nina Stevens, said he would give $50,000 and $55,000 worth of property for a site if Toledo would raise $50,000 for a museum building. George Stevens rose to the dare and it was raised. Five Toledoans gave $5,000 each, the rest was in dribblets. School children piled dimes, nickels and pennies high in a downtown bank window-the money was in.
When the first unit was completed and dedicated, George Stevens rode to the dedication ceremonies in a wheel chair. The entire country was interested in this that had been done in Toledo. Newspapers far and wide carried accounts of the opening of the new museum-Toledo was on the map!
The rest is history. Finally George Stevens could walk again, haltingly and bent, but he was on his feet. The Stevens' idea, never before heard of in any art museum in the world, of admitting children free to the museum at any time, alone or with adults, succeeded from the first. Hitherto one was almost obliged to check one's child along with cane and umbrella when entering any museum. Classes were started, the public schools delighted to cooperate and the biggest movement in art circles the world has known was on its way. They came from the august Metropolitan in New York, from London, Paris and wherenot to see what it was all about, caught the Stevens' dream and returned to start similar work at home.
"How I ever managed to give lectures, at which I never was any good and George so wonderful, to see to everything at home and in the museum, take care of George and all in the clothes of the period, I cannot now under- stand," declares Madame Stevens-Riviere in the life of her husband which she has written, called "Book of George." (Book of Job holds no more thrilling tales). "We wore dresses sweeping the floor with high boned collars, huge pompadours filled with what were called 'rats' and high heeled shoes. In
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such habilliments did I hang paintings, dust and straighten them and ran hither and thither in our enlarged quarters day on day. Of course, help had to come and did come speedily, but many a time, like my mother in the furnace room, I threw my train over my arm just before the guests were to arrive for one of our exhibitions, and wielded a dust rag. Worse than that, our little maid, whom I had spoiled by dressing her up theatrically in black with lace apron and streamered cap, stood by and let me wash with soap and water the museum rest rooms before the arrival of our guests. She was not hired for that, she said."
Some way the Stevens managed an annual trip to Europe in the summers for many years. They acquired a camp in northern Michigan which seemed good for Mr. Stevens' ailment-he could stand in water and fish when he could not walk on pavement-and friends were wonderful. Once in this northern camp Mr. Stevens had iritis and had to lie with bandaged eyes for a month, in which time Nina Stevens read aloud to him the whole of Arnold Bennett's novels of the Five Towns. "I cannot recall," said Mr. Stevens, years afterwards, "ever enjoying myself so much as the time I had iritis up north and Nina read Arnold Bennett to me."
Just when plans for the two wings to the Museum were nearing com- pletion, George Stevens died. He never saw, save in his dream, the quarter mile of white marble which is Toldo Museum today. Mrs. Stevens stayed on as assistant director until her remarriage to a young Frenchman, Georges Henri Riviere of the Trocadero museum in Paris, from whom she is now separated but with whom she still maintains a staunch friendship. Each year she returns to Toledo for a visit and is feted and wined and dined until she is forced to sail for her home in Paris in self defense.
Every institution is the lengthened shadow of one man, they say. Toledo Museum of Art, world famous, is the lengthened shadow of two men, George Stevens of the idea and Edward Drummond Libbey of the generous purse. who bequeathed at his death more than twenty millions to the institution -- and of one small woman, Nina Spalding Stevens Riviere.
HAZEL P. RODMAN
HAZEL P. RODMAN (Mrs. C. J. Rodman), an artist whose paintings have won recognition without as well as within her community, was born in this city and awarded her B.A. degree by Mt. Union College. She did post graduate work at Syracuse and at Western Reserve Universities and took so active and effective an interest in the work of her alma mater that she was made a trustee of Mt. Union College and vice president of its alumnal association. Her civic services have centered largely in public welfare and extensive travel has helped to make her an authority on art in education.
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ALENE ROGERT
ALENE ROGERT (Mrs. Carl Rogert), Cincinnati artist, was graduated from the Liberal Arts College of the University of Cincinnati. She spent five years at the Art Academy of Cincinnati where she studied drawing and painting under Herman Wessel, John Weis, Carl Zimmerman, Frank Myers and Arthur Helwig. She left the Art Academy with a "Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Work."
Mrs. Rogert has had several one-man shows and has exhibited in jury shows as follows: Cincinnati Woman's Art Club annual exhibitions; Columbus State Fair exhibitions; Annual American Exhibitions at the Cincinnati Art Museum; Chicago Exhibitions of American Paintings; Pennsylvania Acad- emy's Annual Exhibitions; Philadelphia Art Alliance Traveling Exhibitions ; Annual Exhibitions of American Paintings at Butler Art Institute; Annual Woman's Exhibitions at the Wichita Art Museum in Wichita, Kansas; Fiftieth Year Commemorative Exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum; Annual Ex- hibitions of the Cincinnati Artists' Professional Associations; and the annual exhibitions of work by Cincinnati artists in the Cincinnati Art Museum.
She has received prizes from the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati; the Dixie Selden Memorial Prize for the best landscape; and the Elizabeth Heil Alke Memorial prize for the best portrait in oil.
She belongs to The College Club; Woman's Art Club; Crafter's Asso- ciation; and the Cincinnati Association of Professional Artists and is the corresponding secretary of the last named organization.
MARTHA K. SCHAUER
MARTHA K. SCHAUER, artist, teacher of children's classes at the Dayton Art Institute and teacher of art, Stivers High School, was born in Troy, Ohio.
Miss Schauer is a trustee of the Dayton Art Institute, a member of the Studio Guild, and an exhibitor at national art exhibitions.
DIXIE SELDEN
The late DIXIE SELDEN of Cincinnati, nationally known artist and portrait painter was born at Covington, Ky., the daughter of John and Martha Selden, whose ancestry traced back on both sides to William the Conqueror.
She began her art education at the Cincinnati Art Academy under the famous Duveneck and later studied with William M. Chase and Henry Snell. Her natural gift for both landscape painting and portraiture were developed by her world famous teachers until Miss Selden's work challenged attention throughout the country. Presently her canvases were solicited by virtually all important national exhibitions and found place of honor in numerous museums and private collections.
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Among these were a portrait of Frank Duveneck and one of Mrs. Mary Emery now in the Cincinnati Art Museum, one of Annie Laws now at Uni- versity of Cincinnati; a portrait of William Cooper Procter, at the Procter and Gamble Bldg., Ivorydale; a portrait of the young son of Mr. and Mrs. William T. Semple now in their private collection and a portrait of Edward Ernst at the University Club and many others.
Not only was the influence of this notable Cincinnatian felt in all the art groups and organizations with which she was connected but her fine personality and talent for real friendship were the honor and affection of practically all her now professional associates as well.
She was president of the Cincinnati Woman's Art Club; vice president of the Cincinnati MacDowell Society; member of the National Society of Women Painters and also of the Sculptors of the League of Southern Painters ; of the Cincinnati Crafters; of the National Art Club, New York; and of the Society of Western Artists.
ANNETTA JOHNSON ST. GAUDENS
Fifty years ago, a slight, dark haired girl of 18, received a diploma from the Columbus Art School and went home to mold animals from the soft clay that abounded on the family's farm north of Worthington. That girl was Annetta Johnson. As long as she could remember she had worked in this clay, dreaming of the day when she would be a great sculptor and would win the acclaim of the forld. She had attended the Art School at the insistance of an artist neighbor who saw, in the child's crude modeling, evidence of great talent. But, in those days, the school's curriculum did not include modeling or sculpturing and although Annetta worked hard at drawing and painting and design and won the praise of her instructors, she still clung to the love of her childhood and still hoped that some day she would be a great sculptor.
One day, as she was helping her mother with the dishes in the farm kitchen, a letter came which offered her the opportunity of making her dreams come true. The letter was from a great master - Augustus St. Gaudens-who was teaching in the Art League of New York. It contained an offer to make her a student assistant in his studio.
She was so excited that she was inarticulate. Rushing to her writing desk she composed dozens of notes of acceptance before she had one that suited her. Then, because the family did not have much ready cash on hand, Annetta's mother borrowed $200.00 for her and sent her off to New York with her blessing.
Pleased with her work and recognizing her talent, Augustus St. Gaudens kept her as a student assistant for four years. At the end of that time, her position became a permanent one through her marriage to the master's
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brother, Louis St. Gaudens, a sculptor in his own right, who was helping Augustus with his commissions. Then followed years of intensive work for the three of them on monuments, statues and friezes, which were done on commissions, both public and private.
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