23 Facts About Edith Emerson

Edith Emerson was an American painter, muralist, illustrator, writer, and curator.

Edith Emerson was the life partner of acclaimed muralist Violet Oakley and served as the vice-president, president, and curator of the Woodmere Art Museum in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1978.

Edith Emerson's father, Alfred Emerson, was an archaeologist and professor of classical archaeology, whose career included positions at Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Cornell University.

Edith Emerson's mother, Alice Edwards Emerson, was a pianist and music professor who taught at Wellesley College, the Ithaca Conservatory of Music and its successor, Ithaca College, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, and Hobart College.

Edith Emerson had three siblings: Gertrude, a writer and editor of Asia magazine; Willard, a banker; and Alfred Jr.

Edith Emerson traveled widely with her family to Japan, China, India, and Mexico.

Edith Emerson began her art education at a young age, studying with Olaf Branner from the Department of Architecture at Cornell University when she was only twelve years old.

Edith Emerson attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Edith Emerson was awarded the Second Toppan Prize in 1916.

In 1916, while still studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Edith Emerson was awarded the commission of designing the mural decorations for the Plays and Players Theatre, then known as The Little Theatre, at 17th and Delancey Streets in Center City, Philadelphia.

Edith Emerson chose as her subjects a Greek myth, in which King Minos' daughter Ariadne, after being deserted by Theseus, is discovered by the god of wine, Dionysus.

Edith Emerson was awarded the Fellowship Prize by the Academy in 1918 for her mural decorations.

Edith Emerson contributed articles to The American Magazine of Art.

Edith Emerson taught in the Philadelphia area at the Agnes Irwin School, The Museum School of Industrial Arts, and at Chestnut Hill College.

Edith Emerson became Oakley's devoted assistant and partner, living and working out of Oakley's famed studio, Cogslea, in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, on a number of projects, including Oakley's Harrisburg murals project.

Edith Emerson served as curator and director of Woodmere Art Gallery from 1940 to 1978.

At that time, it was unusual for a woman to hold such a position, but Edith Emerson viewed female artists as equal to their male contemporaries.

Edith Emerson has been described as a competent administrator of Woodmere Art Museum partly because of her thorough record keeping.

Edith Emerson actively researched items in the permanent collection and organized the paperwork associated with each piece of art; she solicited information from visiting artists.

Edith Emerson donated generously to Woodmere Art Museum, including donating numerous works of art.

Edith Emerson served as the foundation's president, as well as curator and general caretaker of the studio.

The studio was opened to the public as a kind of museum, and Edith Emerson organized various activities there, including concerts, exhibitions, poetry readings, and lectures on American art and illustration.

In 1979, Edith Emerson was instrumental in mounting an Oakley revival as an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.