12 Facts About Bertha Lum

Bertha Boynton Lum was an American artist known for helping popularize the Japanese and Chinese woodblock print outside of Asia.

Bertha Lum enrolled in the design department of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1895.

For three years in the US, Bertha Lum cut blocks and colored and printed her work herself.

In 1912 Bertha Lum was the only female artist to exhibit at the Tokyo International Exhibition.

Bertha Lum exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1920 and at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Society of Etchers, as well as the New York Public Library.

Bertha Lum's first illustrated book, Gods, Goblins, and Ghosts, based on her travels in Japan, was published in 1922.

Bertha Lum made her last known print in 1935; her print of the god Daikoku was published in The Peking Chronicle in December 1937.

Bertha Lum's works are held at the Library of Congress, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and in private collections.

Bertha Lum was a member of the Asiatic Society of Japan, California Society of Etchers, and Print Makers Society of California.

Bertha Lum lived in California from 1917 until 1922 when she moved to Peking, China.

Bertha Lum had been staying with Catherine at the time of Riva's arrest and was herself placed under house arrest.

In 1953 Bertha Lum left China and moved with Catherine to Genoa, Italy.