Alms for Oblivion: the History of Women in Early American Graphic Design Author(S): Ellen Mazur Thomson Source: Design Issues, Vol

Home , Alice Barber Stephens, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Emily Sartain, Society of Illustrators

Almsfor Oblivion: TheHistory of Womenin EarlyAmerican Graphic Design EllenMazur Thomson

Timehath, my Lord,a walletat his back,Wherein he puts almsforoblivion, A great-siz'dmonster of ingratitudes... William Shakespeare, Troilusand Cressida

When Linda Nochlin's article "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" appeared in 1971, it generated enormous interest in neglected work by women artists.' Nochlin challenged traditional art historians to analyze the institutional and ideological structures that distort what women have accomplished or were unable to achieve. She warned that women must "face up to the reality of 1 LindaNochlin, "Why Have There Been their history and of their present situation, without making excuses NoGreat Women Artists?" Art News, 69, or puffing mediocrity. Disadvantage may indeed be an excuse; it is 9 (January1971), 22-39, 67-71. This not, however, an intellectual position."2 Since then, feminist histori- articlealso appeared as "WhyAre There on in NoGreat Women Artists?" Women in ans have explored the limitations placed women pursuing SexistSociety. Studies in Power and their artistic careers, as well as the representations of those women Powerless,ed. Vivian Gornick and who did succeed.3 Graphic design historians, however, have only BarbaraMoran. (New York: Basic Books, recently faced the biases in their own field and begun to identify 1971)and Art and Sexual Politics, ed. individual women and document their position in graphic design ThomasB. Hess and Elizabeth C. Baker. history. (NewYork: Colliers, 1971). 2 Nochlin,Art News, 70. Martha Scotford Lange began this process by showing that 3 Feministart historians have expanded the major texts used to teach graphic design concentrate on the Nochlin'sagenda considerably. For a work of a limited number of "great men" and that, graphic design overviewof feministart criticism and art historians, either consciously or unconsciously, have created an historyin the 1970sand 1980s, see unacknowledged canon that excludes women.4 She suggests that ThaliaGouma-Peterson and Patricia Mathews,"The Feminist Critique of Art cultural history, rather than art history, would provide a better History,"Art Bulletin LXIX, 3 (September model for historians to follow. 1987),326-357. This essay is the result of preliminary research into the 4 MarthaScotford Lange, "Is There a conditions that governed the role of women in early modern Canonof GraphicDesign History?" AlGA American graphic design. By concentrating on the period from Journalof GraphicDesign, IX, 2 (1991), approximately 1850 to 1920, the beginning of "professionalization," 3-5, 9. Langeanalyzed the contents of fivewell-known histories: James Craig this essay explores the extent and character of women's participa- andBruce Barton's Thirty Centuries of tion in this development. While it is important to recover the names GraphicDesign, Alan Fern and Mildred of individual designers, it is equally important to understand some Constantine'sWord and Image, Steven of the conditions and attitudes that determined the fortunes of Hellerand Seymour Chwast's Graphic women graphic designers by examining their treatment in both Style,Philip B. Meggs' A Historyof of the time later. GraphicDesign, and Josef Mueller- literature and Brockman'sA History of Visual During this period, graphic design emerged as a profession, Communication. one that developed in response to social changes and technologies

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 5 See HowardLeathlean, "The that generated an enormous amount of printed material for mass Archaeologyof theArt Director?" Some consumption. The concept of graphic design and the professional Examplesof ArtDirection in Mid- graphic designer evolved in the United States during the second Nineteenth-CenturyBritish Publishing," half of the 19th century.5Previously, compositors, printers, typogra- Joumalof DesignHistoryV1,4 (1993), phers, and artist-engravers designed as part of their craft. The revo- 229-45,and Ellen Mazur Thomson, "EarlyGraphic Design Periodicals in lution in press and paper technology, photography and America,"Journal of DesignHistory, V photomechanical reproduction, and transportation and business 11,2(1994), 113-126. practices encouraged specialization and professionalism. By 1900, 6 W.A. Dwigginsfirst used the term art directors, commercial-art managers, layout artists, and illustra- "graphicdesign" in 1922to describe tors, sometimes called "designer," were recognized professionals.6 professionsinvolved in the design of Those trained in printing, typography, engraving, and illustration commercialprinting, commercial illustration,type design, and advertising moved into separate art departments of advertising agencies, book design.I havefollowed these general and magazine publishers, or worked as free-lance designers. parameters."New Kind of PrintingCalls Relying on basic texts of graphic design history one would assume forNew Design," The Boston Evening that women were marginal if not absent in this transformation.7 Transcript,(August 29, 1922),Graphic In part, the omission of women from design history occurred ArtsSection, Part 1II, 6. roots in 7 See Lange,op.cit., for the omission of because historians have emphasized graphic design's rela- womendesigners from major graphic tion to printing's history. By doing so, they remove graphic design designtexts. from its cultural context, and thus tend to ignore or de-emphasize 8 Therecognized "great men" of early the impact of the advertising industry and new theories of art and in graphicdesign were trained a variety education on visual communication.8 Arguably, advances in trans- of fieldsand spent their professional portation technology that linked the continent by rail and ship, and livesin a widerange of activitiesthat nowconstitute professional design the advent of mass marketing and widespread literacy that spurred practice.They are, nonetheless, first the growth of newspapers and magazine publications are as signifi- identifiedas "printers"inthe literature. cant as the revolution in print technology that occurred at the same Forexample, William Addison Dwiggins time. Unfortunately, advertising historians have ignored the visual (1880-1956) worked in advertising for aspects of advertising, concentrating instead on the work of adver- twentyyears, and in a longand success careerwas a calligrapher,illustrator, tising agents, copy writers, and agency heads.9 Feminist art histori- prolificwriter, and master puppeteer, as ans, even when they include illustrators in their histories, are wellas a typographerand book inclined to ignore the commercial aspects of their work."0Art histor- designer. ical models, as noted above, are often based on the great men and 9 Theclassic histories, Henry Sampson's monuments model and fail to go beyond narrations of lives, assess- A Historyof Advertising from the ments of influence, and progressions of styles. EarliestTimes (London: Chatto, 1874. Reprint.Detroit: Gale Research, 1974) andFrank Presbrey's The History and York:Harry N. Abrams, 1990). WomenArtists BoM Before 1900 DevelopmentofAdvertising (Garden Thereis a briefdiscussion of adver- (Boston:G6K. Hall, 1985), and Charlotte City,NY: Doubleday, Duran, 1929. tisingart in one chapter "Art, Artists, and SteiferRubinstein, American Women Reprint.Westport: Greenwood Press, Illustrators,"but both text and pictures Artistsfrom Early Indian Times to the 1968)ignore advertising artists, featurethe work of JamesMontgomery Present(Boston:G.K. Hall, 1982). althoughPresbrey does include some Flagg,J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Oneof the problemsencountered in informationon the developmentof art Rockwell.Jessie Willcox Smith is the anyattempt track women is thatof multi- departmentsinagencies. Daniel Pope onlywoman mentioned and she is repre- plesurnames and cross-references are in TheMaking of ModemAdvertising sentedby a smallblack and white repro- notalways used. Also, many women and (NewYork: Basic Books, 1983) de- duction.A perfectexample of Lange's mensigned their work with initials scribesthe increaseduse of illustration canon. insteadof firstnames and some first inadvertising but not the illustrators 10 Nonetheless,the two most useful namesare gender neutral-a problemin themselves.More surprising, given the biographicalreferences in graphic design identifyingsignatures in published work authors'abundant use of illustration,is areconcerned with women artists. See incaseswhen it is signed.And most AdvertisinginAmerica by Charles ChrisPetteys, Dictionary of Women advertisementsand magazine illustrtions Goodrumand Helen Dalrymple (New Artists.An International Dictionary of werenot signed.

28 Design Issues: Volume10, Number2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 11 Thispaper does not, for example, In describing women's experiences in the printing and addressissues of classor ethnicity as it advertising industries, and in commercial illustration, I hope to was manifestin different aspects of the highlight the areas in which women participated in graphic design, profession.African-Americans, Native as well as show how their experiences reveal the profession's ties to Americansand European immigrant other aspects of American culture.-" groupswere involved in the printing industryand produced material for their In a pioneering article, Cheryl Buckley argues that women's owncommunities. Both Anthea Callen roles in all aspects of the design field have been defined by "the andRoger B. Stein have examined the sexual division of labor, assumptions about femininity, and the hier- effectof theArts and Crafts movement archy that exists in design.""2 During the second half of the nine- on upperclass women, or women whose teenth century many women worked in the printing industry, but in economicstatus gave them a greatdeal limited capacities. They were gradually forced out of the printing of leisuretime. See AntheaCallen, WomenArtists of theArts and Crafts trades because male-dominated unions argued that the work was Movement1870-1914 (New York: too physically demanding even as technology made it less so. Pantheon,1979) and "Sexual Division of Women also worked in the advertising industry but are absent from Laborin The Arts and Crafts Movement." its history because they were unable to reach higher levels of Woman'sArt Journal, V (Fall/Winter management where their names would be associated with particu- 1984-1985),1-6. AndRoger B. Stein, "Artifactas Ideology:The Aesthetic lar campaigns. Movementin ItsAmerican Cultural The women's movement, identified with the fight for voting Context,"In Pursuit of Beauty.(New York: rights, grew in power and forced the nation to confront "the woman MetropolitanMuseum, 1986), 22-51. The question." The number of schools and colleges, including schools of advertisingprofession was dominatedby fine and applied art open to women, increased dramatically."3This whiteProtestant males from rural back- was in part a result of theories expounded by John Ruskin and grounds.For a sophisticatedanalysis of advertisingas a culturalphenomena, see William Morris, and their influence in the American Aesthetic and T.J.Jackson Lears, "Some Versions of Arts and Crafts movements."4 Changing attitudes towards the Fantasy:Toward a CulturalHistory of applied arts and women's education gave women illustrators new AmericanAdvertising, 1880-1930" opportunities, but often encouraged them to work on domestic ProspectsVol. 9 (Cambridge:Cambridge subjects and in a decorative style. UniversityPress, 1984), 349-405, espe- ciallypage 356. At the same time, women were ignored in the literature. A 12 CherylBuckley, "Made in Patriarchy: good example of this can be seen in the case of Frances Flora Bond Towarda FeministAnalysis of Women Palmer (1812-1876), known as Fanny Palmer. Palmer was one of andDesign," Design Discourse: History three full-time lithographers on the staff of Currier & Ives. All but ed.Victor Margolin TheoryCriticism, forgotten since her death, modern feminist art historians have (Chicago:Chicago University Press, revived her memory.15 Born and trained in England, she emigrated 1989),262. 13 TheNational Academy of Designbegan in 1826in NewYork City. It was joined the St. LouisArt Academy, the Art Insti- 15 Basicinformation on FannyPalmer can be by:Cooper Union for the Advancement of tuteof Chicago,the Schoolof Drawing foundin HenryT. Peters' Currier &Ives: Scienceand Art, including a School of andPainting at the Museumof Artin Printmakersto the American People Designfor Women (1859), the Art Boston,the Schoolof Designin San (GardenCity, NY: Doubleday, Doran, StudentsLeague (1875), the Societyof Francisco(1873), the IndianapolisSchool 1942),26-29. Peters summarizes her life AmericanArtists (1877), the Societyof of Art,and in Philadelphia: the andidentifies the printsknown to be DecorativeArt (1877), and the PennsylvaniaAcademy of FineArt, the hers.Otherwise she is absentfrom MetropolitanMuseum of ArtSchool PhiladelphiaSchool of Design,The graphichistory until Mary Bartlett (1880).The Massachusetts State Normal Schoolof IndustrialArt. In Baltimore, the Cowdrey's"Fanny Palmer, An American Schoolin Boston was establishedin 1873 Schoolof Designof the Maryland Lithographer,"Prints: Thirteen Illustrated andthe LowellFree School of Industrial Instituteand the DecorativeArt Society. Essayson theArt of thePrint(New York: Design,allied with the BostonInstitute of 14 See Callen,Women Artists of theArts Holt,Rinehart and Winston, 1962), Technologywas openedto women.The andCrafts Movementand "Sexual 219-234and her entry in Notable RhodeIsland School of Designwas Divisionof Labor,"and Stein, "Artifact as AmericanWomen (Cambridge: Belknap foundedin 1877.Other include: the Ideology,"op cit. Press,1971), III, 10-11. Charlotte Steifer Universityof CincinnatiSchool of Design,

DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 29

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Illustration1 "RockyMountains," Frances Flora Bond Palmer(1812-1 876)

NW 4 ...... j

to New York in the 1840s. Palmer was responsible for over 200 Currier & Ives lithographs; she made the original drawings and transferredthem to the stone. She worked in a tremendousrange of subjectmatter: landscapes, cityscapes, hunting scenes, still lifes. She made prints of trains, steamships, buildings, and dramatic battles from the Civil War,subjects not defined as "feminine."Her "Rocky Mountains, EmigrantsCrossing the Plains" (1866) was one of the company's most popular prints and was found in homes throughout the country.She contributedto the technicalaspects of commercial lithography.She developed a method of printing a background tone and, with CharlesCurrier, improved lithographiccrayons. Al- though she was unusually gifted and productive,her historicalfate is, nonetheless, typical. Palmer was an employee, so her work was not recognized as that of an individual but subsumed under the Currier& Ives imprint.She supportedan alcoholichusband and her children,yet in her obituaryshe is identified only as her husband's wife, or in the less than felicitous terms of that day, "a relict of Edmund S. Palmerof Leicester,England." She is mentioned only as a part of Currier& Ives history until feminist art historiansbecame interestedin her work. To understand the positions women found in the graphic design profession, we must turn to documentarysources that provide a broaderpicture of the profession and its history.

Note 15,continued Documentation Rubinsteinincluded Palmer in American Literatureoutside the usual scope of design history often illumi- WomenArtists (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1982), nates importantaspects of the graphic design profession. The rela- 68-70 andwrote in depth about her in tionship between the struggling printers'unions and women who "TheEarly Career of FrancesFlora Bond Palmer(1812-1876)," The American Art worked in the printing trade was discussed in union journals and Joumal,XVII, 4 (Autumn 1985), 71-88. the popular press of the period. Modern histories of women work-

30 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 16 Forbibliographical information, see ers also document the conditions of women in the trades."6Trade MarthaJane Soltow and Mary K. Wery, unionism developed early in the printing industry, which saw itself AmericanWomen and the Labor as progressive and open to new ideas and technologies. However, Movement1825-1974. (Metuchen, N.J.: the ambivalence union members felt toward female workers Scarecrow,1976). Especially useful histo- explains as much about the situation women faced in the design rieson women in the printers'union include:Elizabeth F.Baker, Technology profession as it does about the precarious situation of trade union- andWomen's Work(New York: Columbia ism itself. UniversityPress, 1964); Mary Biggs, Histories of the women's movement, either by participants "NeitherPrinter's Wife Nor Widow," The or by modern feminist writers, are excellent sources because many LibraryQuarterly, L,4 (1980);Eleanor suffragettes published and edited newspapers and magazines as Flexner,Century of Struggle(Cambridge: part of their activities."7 Susan B. Anthony and Amelia Jenks BelnapPress, 159); Philip Sheldon Foner, Womenand the American Labor Bloomer were allied with women trying to find jobs in the printing MovementI(New York: Free Press, trades and their confrontations with local and national printing 1979);George A. Stevens, New York unions are well documented. TypographicalUnion No.6(Albany: J. B. During the second half of the 19th century a tremendous Lyon,1913), 421-440; Barbara Mayer number of art and design schools opened throughout the country Wertheimer,We Were There (New York: The histo- PantheonBooks, 1977). and many of them accepted women students. published 17 Forguides to women'speriodicals see ries, original charters, and early annual reports of these institutions MaureenE. Hady, Women's Periodicals describe the ideological basis for education in the applied arts and andNewspapers From the 18thCentury explain why women were encouraged to pursue careers in design. to 1981(Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982); Nancy If women's presence in the work place generated heated K.Humphreys, American Women's arguments about trade unionism and women's rights, it also Magazines(NewYork: Garland, 1989); MaryEllen Zuckerman, Sources on the attracted the attention of statisticians and economists."8 Unfortun- Historyof Women'sMagazines, ately, most statistics on the nineteenth century American work force 1792-1960(New York: Greenwood Press, defy easy interpretation. Compilers defined categories broadly and 1991).On the historyof the suffragette changed their definitions over time. The umbrella category of presssee LynneMasel-Walters, "To "printing and related professions," for example, included printers, Hustlewith the Rowdies,"Joumal of AmericanCulture, Ill, 1(Spring 1980). typographers, compositors, and bindery workers.19The category 18 Afine example is thework of CarrollD. "engravers" included those who worked on precious stones and Wright,chief of the Bureauof Statistics metals, e.g., silversmiths, as well as those who copied illustrations of Labor,whose study appeared in 1889 onto metal plates for mechanical reproduction. Within these limita- as TheWorking Girls of Boston(Boston: tions, however, statistics describe the position of women workers in Wright& Potter, 1889. Reprint. New the larger picture of economic development. York:Arno, 1969). It was undertaken"to ascertainthe moral,sanitary, physical andeconomic conditions of theworking Commons,Documentary History of girlsof Boston,"including those in the AmericanIndustrial Society (Cleveland: printingtrades. [p. 1 ] Wrightconcluded 1910-1911); United States Women's that,"the working girls are as respect- Bureau,Women at Work:A Centuryof able,as moral,and as virtuousas any Change,no. 161, (Washington: classof womenin our community; that GovernmentPrinting Office, 1933). theyare making as heroica strugglefor 19 Womenalso worked in printing estab- existenceas anyclass is a factwhich all lishmentsas typesettersor operators on the statisticsprove." [p.120] And in case handpresses, but there is insufficient anyonemissed the point,he spelledit informationto determine who designed out:"...girls cannot work hard all dayand typeor page layouts. We know that be prostitutestoo." [p.1 21] binderiesemployed women in significant See alsoEdith Abbott and Sophonisba P. numbers,see Abbottand Breckinridge. Breckinridge,"Employment of Women in Industries,"Joumal of PoliticalEconomy, 14(January1906), 14-40; John R.

Design Issues: Volume10, Number2 Summer1994 31

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Trade magazines for printers, typographers, and advertisers first appeared in the 1850s; by 1880 their numbers had increased dramatically.20They reflect the prevailing attitudes of their professions towards women and only unintentionally reveal women's participation. Unfortunately, as will be seen in the discussions that follow, these journals often preferred to ignore them. 20 Thomson,op.cit. Histories of art, particularly of American graphics illustration 21 See citationsin "illustrators" section below.It should be noted,however, that and biographies of American women artists, contain information on manyof thesemonographs are narratives women who worked as illustrators for magazines, books, and of "thelife and work." An notable excep- posters. They continue to emphasize painters, sculptors, and "fine" tionsis AnnBarton Brown's Alice Barber printmakers untainted by commercialism, although women art Stephens:A PioneerWoman Illustrator historians have written about individual women illustrators.21 By (ChaddsFord, Pa., Brandywine River Museum,1984). Barton puts Stephens concentrating on broader cultural issues rather than individual careerin context by discussing educa- artists, a few art historians have shown how particular movements, tionaland professional opportunities for such as the Aesthetic and the Arts and Crafts, have influenced women,the treatment of womenillustra- educational and professional opportunities for women.22 torsby the popularpress, and the struggle of womento be takenseriously as Printers professionals. 22 AntheaCallen in her studies of theArts A significant number of men associated with the beginning of andCrafts has demonstrated that despite graphic design began their careers in printing establishments and so its iconoclastictheories, the movement it is logical to look for women there as well.23 From the colonial reinforcedpatriarchal ideology even as it period on, women were well represented in the American printing openedopportunities for women in the industry.24 Several presses, including the first press in North arts.See CallenWomen Artists of the Artsand Crafts Movement, op. cit. and America, the Cambridge Press established in 1639, were run by "SexualDivision of Laborin The Arts and women. It is often argued that women only became printers CraftsMovement," op.cit., In Roger B. because it was their family's trade, but this was just as true for male Stein'sessay on the Aesthetic Move- printers. Girls, however, were trained in the printshop at home in ment,he examinedits intellectualand contrast to boys who often learned their craft during a period of culturalimplications showing how it apprenticeship. The issue of apprenticeship, became a critical one for dealtwith the "womenquestion," by encouragingmiddle class-women to women professionals. There is no doubt that some women printers pursuean arts education that would not attained the respect of their profession. For example,The Typographic threatenthe statusquo. See "Artifactas Advertiser (1869) carried an obituary for Lydia R. Bailey, a widow, Ideology,"op. cit. who took over her husband's printing establishment. It noted that 23 Thisdoes not modify my contention that from 1808 to 1861: exclusiveconcentration on printing historyis unfortunate. [h]er office was one of the largest in Philadelphia. She in- 24 LeonaM. Hudak, EarlyAmerican Women structed forty-two boys into the mysteries of typography; Printersand Publishers 1639-1820 and some of our present prosperous master-printers served (Metuchen,NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978), their apprenticeship under her. For a considerable period 2. she was elected City Printer by the Councils; and her im- 25 ElizabethHarris Glover established the print was well known. She had great energy and decision of CambridgePress, the first press in North America,in 1639.Her husband, Jose character.26 Glover,wishing to set upa printingbusi- Moreover, the editor saw Bailey's achievements in the wider context ness,boarded a shipfrom England with of political and economic rights: hisfamily, a press,and printing supplies. Of late days we hear much talk about women's rights. Hedied en route.See Hudak,op. cit., Something may probably come of it to women's advantage: 9-19. 26 TypographicAdvertiserXIV,3 (April how we may not forecast. There is certainly room enough 1869),1. for improvement in the condition of many women; but will 27 Ibid. the privilege of suffrage bring it about?27

32 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Illustration2 WomanPrinter cut

..\

) 1 r 1>

Women not linked by family ties to printing were interested in the print- Earningsin Boston;1831 ing trade because it was relatively open to them and offered higher wages.28Nonetheless, women eamed considerably less than men. In 687men earned $1.50/day Boston in 1831, for example, men eamed three times as much as women 395women earned $ .50/day and boys in the printing industry.29 215boys earned $ .50/day By 1880,the average weekly earnings for women in all trades was $6.03,whereas in printingand publishingearned $6.61,or over 9%more.30 In 1853,the suffragetteand dress reformer,Amelia JenksBloomer, began publication of TheLily: A Ladies'Journal Devoted to Temperanceand Literature.In 1854, she tried to hire a woman apprenticebut the printers refused to work under this condition and struckboth her paper and that of her husband. Bloomer persisted and finally found three women and three men to publish both papers;she paid them equal wages. By the end of the Civil War, the number of women in printing had increased.For example,in 1868there were 200 women typesettersin New YorkCity, constituting 15-20%of printing trade workers.31 The printing trades attractedan increasingly larger percentage of women workers as shown in Table1.32 Despite the introductionof new technologiesthat raised worker productivity, an increase in demand for printed matter allowed the total number of workers in printing to expand.33Women workers 28 EdithAbbott, "Harriet Martineau and the Employmentof Women in 1836,"Joumal continued to be concentratedin typesetting. In 1870,3.7% of compositors of PoliticalEconomy, XIV (1906), 615. were women; in 1880,4.7%;in 1890,9.9%;and in 1900, 10.3%.3 29 Wertheimer,op. cit., 92. The local printing unions that had existed during the first half of 30 Wright,op. cit., 82-83. the 19th century,eventually formed a national organization, the United 31 Foner,op. cit., 145. Typographical Union in 1852. In contrast to the union's tradition of 32 H.Dewey Anderson and Percy E. all-male Davidson,Occupational Trends in the progressivism, these organizations exhibited great ambivalence UnitedStates, (Stanford: Stanford towards unionizing women workers. Many printers hired women at UniversityPress, 1940), 300. lower wages under the guise of giving them an opportunity to leam the 33 Ibid.,301. While printing material trade and women worked as scab labor during strikes. The unions had increasedby more than 760% from 1899 two options, either fight for equal wages and unionize women, or ban to 1929,only 120% more workers were them from the industry. employed.Ibid., 309. 34 LoisRather, Women As Printers, The attitude of the printing trade joumals of the period reflect (Oakland,Ca.: Rather Press, 1970), 25. these contradictions.In 1884,the editor of the TheInland Printer wrote:

DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 33

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Table1: Numberand percentagedistribution of female gainfulworkers in printing, and allied industries,1870-1930

1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920

Printing,and Allied Industries 4,233 8,947 23,771 31,613 45,090 45,274 Percentof WomenWorkers 40.8 39.1 51.6 53.8 59.4 55.8

Engravers 29 103 303 453 538 561 Percentof WomenWorkers 0.3 0.4 0.7 0.8 0.7 0.7

The printers employed on the Evening Wisconsin, of Milwaukee, twenty-three in number, are on a strike because the manager of that sheet insisted, after several remon- strances, on paying the female compositors, members of the Cream City Typographical Union, twenty-eight cents instead of thirty-three cents per thousand ems-the union scale-as paid to the male compositors; and this, too, in the face of the admission that the women did better work than a majority of the men. The action of the union in making the cause of the girls its own is worthy of all commendation. Of course, no protec- tive organization could tolerate, for a moment, a sliding scale arrangement, all its members, irrespective of sex, age 35 TheInland Printer 1,6 (March1884), 10. or nationality, being required to observe the minimum rate 36 Therhetoric used by both sides is fasci- of wages. Any other policy would be suicidal. The standard nating.A printshopowner recommended hiringwomen typesetters and wood raised-"equal pay for equal work"-is one which will engraversbecause they were more command the sympathy of every right-minded citizen; and obedient,did not use foul language, and it is needless to add that those now engaged in this struggle costconsiderably less. Heconcluded: have our warmest wishes for their success.35 At leastlet women have a fair opportunityto do something else besides Despite these sentiments, the very same editors advocated get married.What man is therewho wouldnot resent being told that his chief barring female students from trade schools and accused any woman ambitionin lifeshould be to be a father? who wanted such training-or indeed worked in the trades-of Yetwomen are told daily that they should being selfish by taking jobs away from men with families to devotetwenty years of a lifetimein the support. Although they did not all subscribe to the idea that women preparingfor motherhood, at least ten were incapable or less hard working, editors argued that the print- yearsin bearing children, and the restof theirlives in recovering from the effects. ing trades required a greater amount of time to develop skills and Ifthey prefer to thinkthat the world is that many women workers left as soon as they married. Some of the populatedsufficiently, or thatto beara arguments appeared in the form of patriarchal sermons on the need childdoes not call for sacrifice of a life- to protect women from the dangers of the trade: their exposure to time,they are snubbed, and especially so materials dangerous to health, women's supposed frailty and inabil- whenthey show any inclination to their competewith men in trades. "Male ity to carry heavy forms, and proximity to "unsuitable" VersusFemale Labor," ArtAge, 111, printed matter.36Other argued that women lacked training, that they 25(August1885), 14. were incapable of doing anything but the most straightforward jobs

34 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions because few had served an appenticeship. Women, indeed, account- ed for only 9.7% of all apprentice typesetters.37 But the most trou- bling issue, and the primary focus of the opposition, was that women worked for lower wages and were used by employers to fight unionization. It was on this issue that the suffragette leader, Susan B. Anthony, entered the fray. Anthony encouraged women to learn typesetting by taking jobs they were offered by printers, even during strikes. It is unclear if she really lacked an understanding of the need for worker solidarity as some writers charge, or if she, unlike women unionists, considered male workers so unsympathetic that they would never voluntarily integrate their shops. In a report of her fight for admit- tance to a union convention, printed in the Workingman'sAdvocate in August 1869, Anthony said she represented: ...a class of women that had no husbands, and who were on the street penniless, homeless and without shelter. Now, I ask you what we are to do with these girls? Shall we tell them to starve in the garrets because the printers, by their own necessities, open their doors and give a slight training to a few girls for a few weeks? Shall I say to the girls, "Do not go in, but starve?" or shall I say, "Go in, and get a little skill into your hands, and fit yourselves to work side by side with men?" I want to ask the Co-operative Union of New York how many girls they have taken to learn the type-setting business? How many women have you ordered each department or establishment to take as apprentices, and to train in the art of type-setting?38

Union leader Augusta Lewis clashed with Anthony over these tactics. Lewis (c.1848-1920), a journalist and typesetter, believed that by preserving union solidarity and by foregoing the 37 Biggs,op. cit., 438. Biggs notes that the immediate advantage of work, women would eventually find an percentof womenapprentices in printing equal place in union shops. Lewis founded the Women's was highcompared to womenin other Typographic Union No.1 in October 8, 1968 and urged women skilledtrades and that there is some reasonto believethe percentageof men members not to accept nonunion work. A year later, the United whoactually underwent a six-year Typographical Union became the first national union to admit apprenticeshipwas alsorelatively small. women, and in 1870, Lewis was elected corresponding secretary of Certainlythe trade journals complained the national organization. Yet Lewis was shortly disillusioned by the of thisand supported technical education union's treatment of its women members: forboys to makeup the deficiency. [We] have never obtained a situation that we could not 38 "Proceedings,National Labor Union, August1869," Workingman Advocate have obtained had we never heard of a union. We refuse to VI,5 (September4, 1869)and reprinted in take the men's situations when they are on strike, and when AmericasWorking Women, ed. byR. there is no strike if we ask for work in union offices we are Baxandall,L.Gordan, and S. Reverdy told by union foremen 'that there are no conveniences for (NewYork: Random House, 1976), us.' We are ostracized in many offices because we are 112-113. 39 Froma reportgiven by Lewis at the members of the union; and although the principle is right, InternationalTypographers convention in disadvantages are so many that we cannot much longer 1871and cited by Stevens, op. cit., 437. hold together.39

DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 35

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Illustration3 Womantypesetter cut.

I 1# ;;4n;-#e"4 W-'-ffi> el C ,r:.s el . .h - y. ..

r ;s j1 T *ie 5s_

The continued resistanceto women in printing is evident in the attention they received in the trade joumals. In the 1880s and 90s, the InlandPrinter attacked women in the printshop, using a series of arguments to disparage their competence.40The catch, of course, was that when women did succeed they were derided as unfeminineand grotesque.In describingan itinerantprinter he met in westem Ohio, one writer claimed: She was dressed plainly but neatly in what might be called a cross between a travelingand office suit of brown color. The toughened expression on her face indicated that she was familiarwith the tricksof the profession,versed in the study of vulgarity.No tender,trusting female was she, but a hardened,suspicious, masculinewoman.4"

When the joumals were not questioning women's abilities, they ignored them. However, they were quick to take umbrage at similar treatment from women. For example, the Inland Printer (1883)reprinted an articlefrom a Britishtrade joumal reportingthat women compositorsin Boston published a joumal called Elle: This paper is veritableman-hater; not the slightest mention of man in any shape or form is to be found in its columns, neither is the genus homo allowed to hawk it!4 40 InlandPrinter, 1,1 (October1883), 1; VII The notice is doubly significant. Elledoes not appear in any of the (October1889), 108-09; VII, (June 1890), standard sources on magazine literatureand it is possible that no 819-20;IX (July 1892), 875-876; X, 5 copies have survived. We know of its existence now only because it (February1893), 195; X, 6(March 1893) irritatedthe editors of a mainstreamjoumal. 501. The introduction of new technology, particularly the Mer- 41 F.M. Cole, "Lady Compositors," Inland Printer,VII, 2 (November1889)109. genthaler Linotype, beginning in the 1880s, might have increased 42 "Womanas Compositors,"Inland Printer, opportunities for women. The typographer's union admitted that VII,8 (May1890), 820. women leamed to work with the system more quickly, but also

36 Design Issues: Volume10, Number2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions charged that they lacked endurance. In the end the union insisted

43 Baker,op. cit., 44. Employersalso that only fully qualified (i.e., male printers), should be allowed to preferredto retrainedmale typesetters use them.43In typesetting, traditionally the one printing profession alreadyworking in their shops, see Harry in which women significantly competed for work, they lost ground. Kelberand Carl Schlesinger. Union By 1900, only 8% of women belonged to unions, compared with Printersand Controlled Automation (New 32% of men. Only 10% of compositors were women, while only 700, York:The Free Press, 1967), 8. or 5.8%, operated typesetting machines.- Barred from the appren- 44 Baker,op. cit., 45. 45 Theexperience of womenprinters in the tice system and trade schools and betrayed by the trade unions territoriesand states in the West was ostensibly representing them, working class women rarely followed somewhatdifferent. In a pictorialstudy men who made the transition from the printshop into the design of of frontierjournalism, numerous printed material.45 photographsfrom state archives show The private press movement, with its emphasis on the high- womenworking as editors,printers and compositors.See RobertF Karolevitz, est standards of presswork, was based on William Morris' Kelm- Newspaperinginthe OldWest(Seattle: scott Press and the English Arts and Crafts tradition. It inspired SuperiorPublishing, 1965), especially American printers and designers from Boston to San Francisco. But "Printersin Petticoats,"pp. 173-180. women are excluded almost completely from its history although Karolevitzalso includes photographs of from fragmentary records we know that their presses existed.46 In womenin printingclasses in state San Francisco, the Women's Cooperative Printing Union was found- universitiesas wellas ina specialschool forNative Americans. ed in 1868 and survived until 1880. In 1873, two sisters, trained 46 EdnaMartin Parratt, "Women Printers," designers and wood engravers, founded Crane and Curtis Com- Bulletinof theNew YorkPublic Library, pany there. Women ran the Chemith Press in Minneapolis in 1902 LVI,1(January 1952), 42-43. Often cited, and the Butterfly Press from 1907 to 1909 in Philadelphia.47 Bertha thiswas onlya briefreply to an itemon Goudy, who operated the Village Press with her husband, Frederic womenprinters. The names of other in womenprinters can be foundin Rather, Goudy, is fulsomely praised only studies of her husband's life op.cit. and work.48 47 ButterflyPress publishers were Margaret Women book designers gained opportunities and recogni- HunterScott, Alice Rogers Smith, Amy tion as the private press movement grew. In 1901, The Craftsman MargaretSmith, and George Wolfe. They devoted a whole issue to book binding and printing. Women wrote editedThe Butterfly Quarterly from 1907 the articles and it featured women's binderies along with the work to 1909.See SusanOtis Thompson, AmericanBook Design and William of presses inspired again by Morris' Kelmscott Press. Helen Morris,(New York: R. R. Bowker, 1977), Marguerite O'Kane designed books for the Elston Press, owned by 206. her husband. She also worked for commercial presses. Ellen Gates 48 Theexception is a profilein an exhibition Starr, a colleague of the social worker Jane Addams, was also a catalogpublished by Women in Design, disciple of William Morris and shared his beliefs on art and social- Chicago,Ten Years: Women in Design in T. ChicagoAnniversary Exhibition, 1988. It ism. Starr studied book design England with Cobdon- is clear,however, that the authors were Sanderson at the Doves Press and returned to Chicago to establish unableto determinethe extentof Bertha a bookbindery in the 1890s.49Helena De Kay Gilder is now remem- Goudy'scontribution to the design of bered for one book cover: a gold peacock feather on a plain blue booksissued by the press. ground that captures the essence of the Aesthetic style.`0 49 Eventuallyher political commitment led Modern historians regard the relative openness of the Arts Starrto abandondesign for political activism."If I hadthought it through,I and Crafts movement to women's participation in applied arts for wouldhave realized that I would be using their success in this field, but contemporary observers, even partic- myhands to createbooks that only the ipants, ascribed their abilities to gender-specific skills. T. J. Cobden- richcould buy." Notable American Sanderson, Starr's teacher, is quoted as saying: Women,op. cit., 352. [w]omen ought to do the best work in book-binding, for 50 Fora biographicalsketch and extensive bibliographyon DeKay, see InPursuit of they possess all the essential qualifications of success: pati- Beauty,op. cit., 418-419. ence for detail, lightness of touch, and dexterous fingers.51 51 TheCraftsman, II,1 (April1902), 33-34.

DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 37

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions j'4 rlkLfare wt. uvniheO FAOUbast thy catlingto 3 e r A ~~~~PrttlAftJTt("l palatcefloor Unklouw uT UciJlOVdnMotra Ij ncr i

tW angd . the danros wil oor niiietcinM brtacfa aottr,as tt n ,i up Pq 2 lIII( 'bthioantOne~ wings intg:ng. ;d 4 doesthoutsfttsbs thi 0 A tanCT f nd of tbic? and t thoattvnk and tear q at p6Utn"tX Wn a imrcd rrniottr tvt > let *tb musi dro btr unAae iaitb pg t d t7an tears Ltn ctA makc mtn to play ttvPart fuInfods tness at miv dowr? U Oft if musiCian. 1hat hast thou to do the c( asAstment brokenf in, * (Iith lSokingfrom te tattiw-lghts at me, t'ubitts and ow{trxbuilde in the a poo, tirn, wanderingsangeinqinf throuh My crlk ehrps against thy mandolin. u l fttr te dark, and le.aning a cyPrtt d oc proof O w tIo n t o thehrionichrism iaonis an einelicd,-onfbnt - mint. the dtw,-t a ot within wa er t e rehat weep" as tbou must sang. alon atOfcA,

and r4tatb muotdig the tcwt wtim rbtw agrf 3

IIJ ---

Illustration4 Alice C. Morse, an accomplished book cover designer, also claimed Doublepage from Sonnets fromthe that women possessed an inherent ability: Portuguese." Women seem to have a remarkable faculty for designing. Their intuitive sense of decoration, their feeling for beauty of line and harmony of color, insures them a high degree of success."52

52 AliceC. Morse, "Women Illustrators," Art andHandicrafts in the Woman'sBuilding It is no coincidence that the Arts and Crafts Societies, that of the-World'sColumbian Exposition, began in 1897, in Boston and New York, and spread to cities and Chicago1893, ed. MaudHowe Elliot towns in other parts of the country, were one of the few clubs to (Parisand New York: Goupil and include women.53 However, when the prestigious Society of Printers Company,1893), 75. was founded in 1905 in Boston, no women were members. In 1911 Thereare several examples of workby womenin Susan Otis Thompson's "The fourteen men began "The Graphic Group" in New York, dedicated Artsand Crafts Book," The Arts and to the "highest in the art of printing." They later formed the nucleus CraftsMovement in America 1876-1916 of what became, in 1914, the American Institute of Graphic Arts. ed. RobertJudson Clark. (Princeton UniversityPress, 1972), 93-116 and her Advertising Artists AmericanBook Design, op. cit. See also WendyKaplan. "The Art That Is Life"The Although women were immediately recognized as important tar- Artsand Crafts Movement in America, gets for advertisers' messages, they were rarely mentioned in the 1875-1920(Boston:Little, Brown for the early advertising journals as practitioners and are absent from ad- Museumof FineArts, 1987) for reproduc- vertising histories until the 1920s.5 Information about women in the tionsof workby women with extensive advertising industry appears fortuitously in advertising trade jour- captionsby Thompson. nals that were not sympathetic to them, but intermittently champi- 53 Fora historyof the Bostongroup, see MarySpain, The Society of Arts and oned the work of individual women. More frustrating to the re- Crafts,1897-1924, ( Boston and New searcher are journal reports on design contests in which women's York:The Society, 1924). names appear regularly as winners, suggesting that there must have

38 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions been a significant number of trained and employed women in the field. With its very first issue in 1891, ProfitableAdvertising sound- ed the derisive note that it sustained throughout. Although some- what incoherent, the ridicule and warning were impossible to ignore: The Boston Globeis encouraging women to become "writers on business," female "Powers," as it were; scientific experts, etc. 0, General Taylor, this is too much. And offering prizes for advertisements, too, written by women! Great guns! there are about 6,946 male scientific advertising experts in the United States who will soon with Othello raise the very devil about their flown occupation. The result will be more disastrous than the female typewriter craze. Of course the women will cut rates. Boys, get together, formulate a union and boycott The Globe.Or start the women off on writing advertisements for pants. Would they succeed? Well, would they? They would find virtues in pants us poor males never dreamt of.55

Women's participation on the editorial staff of any trade journal was extremely rare and, given prevailing attitudes, even when they were present, editorial policy was not enlightened.' Kate E. Griswold began at ProfitableAdvertising as manager and became editor in October 1893. In June of that year, an article appeared that she may have written. Signed "Miss Progress," it was a diatribe against uniform wage scales. The writer acknowledges that women have been limited in their professional opportunities in the past "but that day has gone." 54 Libraryterminology can also present diffi- Oh, no, we are not ranting "women's righters" in the culties.The subject heading "Women in common acceptance of the term. We have no fondness for advertising"retrieves material on women women who disgust men, as well as members of their own as subjects/objectsofadvertisements. "Womenas professionalsin advertising" sex, by their arbitrary methods of attempting to secure what is the relevantheading, but it pullsup they are pleased to sum up as their "rights."57 verylittle material at present. 55 "EditorialSquibs," Profitable Advertising Even when women's work was noticed, their achievements I, 1 (June1891), 9. were attributed to their femininity. Advertising Experience'sFebruary 56 Inaddition to KateGriswold, who eventu- allybecame publisher of Advertising 1898 issue featured advertising photographers, Beatrice Tonnesen Experience,several other women gained and her sister, Clara Tonnesen Kirkpatrick. In praising their work, prominenceinadvertising management the editors claimed: "[t]he fact that the Tonnesens are women andjournalism at theturn of thecentury. photographers has no doubt made it possible for them to secure a See "NoSex in TheAd- Success?" better class and a larger selection of models that could be secured by School:A PracticalAdvertiser 1,7 (July a male photographer."58 1901),11. 57 "Womenin the BusinessWorld," Indeed, photography may have provided an entry for some ProfitableAdvertising, 111, 1 (June 15, women into advertising although there is very little research in this 1893),37. area. Photography was a fad in the 1890s and many of the women 58 "PhotographyinAdvertising," Advertising who began at the time preferred to remain "amateurs" devoted to Experience,VI, 4 (February1898), 24. personal artistic expression. We do know of some who did become

Design Issues: Volume10, Number2 Summer1994 39

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Illustration5 Advertisingdesigns by Beatrice Tonnesen.

: i Ix 0 < . ' .. 59 ClarenceBloomfied Moore, "Women Expertsin Photography," Cosmopolitan, ...... ' 1 1o XIV,5 (March1893), 580-90. Although he was moreinterested in their aesthetics andmost of thewomen appear to consid-

erthemselves "amateurs," some were i,',,A4ikS 1 1A involvedin commercial photography. The bestknown, Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952)sold her architectural and portraitwork to magazinesand periodicals.Moore coyly notes that "Cornelia J. Needleshas been offered substantial sums'by a prominentfirm dealing in professionalsand worked in portraitureand photojournalism.5In a soap."' study from a feminist perspective, C. Jane Gover shows that from 60 C.Jane Gover, The Positive Image. Wom- 1890 to 1920 photography was a profession adopted by economi- en Photographersin Tum of theCentury cally secure women who found in it a measureof personal freedom America,(Albany, NY: SUNY, 1988), xvii. 61 S. C.de Soissons,"Ethel Reed and her and yet remainedfirmly tied to Victoriangender definitions: Art,"The Poster, (November 1898), The cameraprovided women with the means of stepping 199-202. beyond the private, domestic space. At the same time, the Onecan understand that women have no women's lifestyles and imagery sustained middle class originalityof thought,and that literature ideology as it celebratedthe domestic ideal and woman's andmusic have no feminine character, but place as nurturer.w surelywomen know how to observe,and whatthey see is quitedifferent from that Unfortunately,Gover, like most photography historians, does not whichmen see, andthe art which they put consider advertising photography, although she does mention intheir gestures, in their dresses, in the BeatriceTonnesen in other contexts. decorationof theirenvironments is suffi- Advertising posters also provided work for many illustra- cientto giveus the ideaof an instinctive tors, including a significant number of women. Ethel Reed is per- andpeculiar genius which each of them possess.[1 99-2001 haps the most famous. For a short period, she designed book Itis interestingto comparethis to another posters for the publisher Lamson, Wolffeand Company of Boston. writerof the periodwho began his essay She was the only woman to be the subjectof a profile in ThePoster onwomen illustrators by claiming that magazine.Its authorbegan this articlewith a lengthy dissertationof untilrecently women only showed "intel- women's limited abilities in general and women artists' lack of lectualachievement" in "the direction of artistryin particular.61He then praised Reed, because, she: literature,and the governing of king- doms."Samuel G. W. Benjamin. Our knows well the marvelous secret of design and colours, and AmericanArtist, (Boston: D. Lothrop, 1881. while she executes pictureswith clever hands, she sees with Reprint.New York: Garland, 1977). There her own and not masculine eyes; her work has feminine was noagreement, apparently, on the qualities,one sees in it a woman, full of sweetness and deli- exactnature and extent of femaleability. cacy,and this is the greatestpraise one can bestow upon a 62 Ibid.,202. woman.62 63 Petteys,op. cit. For biographical material andexamples of workby women poster Several other women first gained recognition as poster artists. artists,see VictorMargolin, The American FlorenceLundborg of San Franciscodesigned a series of advertise- PosterRenaissance: The GreatAge of ments for TheLark as well as book illustrationsand murals, Blanche PosterDesign, (New York: Watson-Guptill McManusdesigned posters and illustrations for books and maga- Publications,1975), and Carolyn Keay, zines and, in 1911,became art editor of AmericanMotorist. 6 Helen AmericanPosters of the TuMof the Century(NewYork: St. MartinsPress, Dryden designed posters, stage scenery, illustrated for magazine 1975). and worked as an industrialdesigner, including automobile designs 64 Ibid. for the 1937Studebaker.'

40 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Illustration6 Foliyor Saintlenes," by Ethel Reed.

DesignIssues: Volume 10 Number2 Summer1994 41

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 65 See NotableAmerican Women, op. cit., Advertisingart was rarelysigned and, thereforeit is difficult 201-202.The article about Hokinson also to identify the artist. Jessie Wilcox Smith, was an exception; her mentionsher friend, Alice Harvey name appeared prominently on all of her work. She produced Ramsey,another designer and cartoonist. advertisementsthroughout her careerfor CampbellSoup, Eastman EdwinaDumm (1893-?) was the only Kodak, and Ivory Soap. [Illustration 8: Kodak Advertisement] syndicatedfemale cartoonist of the period.She was responsiblefor "Cap Helen Elna Hokinson, who later became famous for her New Yorker Stubbsand Tippee," "Tippee," and "Alec cartoons,designed advertisementsfor departmentstores in Chicago the Great"and is includedin Martin and New York.65 Sheridan,Comics and Their Creators GraphicArts, begun in 1911,profiled leading printers,design- (NewYork: Luna Press, 1944). See also ers, and advertising artists. In 1913, ElizabethColwell was the first MauriceHorn, The World Encyclopedia of and only woman to be featured."Colwell, a Chicago designer, did Comics(New York: Chelsea House, 1976). 66 AliceRouillier, "The Work of Elizabeth publicity for MarshallFields and for Cowan Company.She design- Colwell,"The Graphic Arts, IV,4 (March ed bookplates and was known for her lettering and her work as a 1913),237-248. book designer.The editor,Henry Lewis Johnson,acknowledged:

4e * 0

. () I) \ AKK !.z1|!::}1

-~~~~~1-

Illustration7 (right) - ~~~~~~~~~~~- "TheLark," by Florence Lundborg.

Illustration8 (above, left) Kodakadvertisement by HelenElna Hopkinson.

42 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 67 Ibid.,237. [i]t has been an axiom among designers, althoughjust why 68 Petteys,op. cit. it is hard to say, that women cannot do good lettering.Miss 69 HelenWoodward, Through Many Colwell with many other women designers, offers direct Windows,(New York: Harper and proof to the contrary.67 Brothers,1926. Reprint. New York: Fromother sources we know that Colwell was a also a typographer Garland,1986). 70 Ibid.,147. On this subject, Woodward, and that she designed "ColwellHand Letter."68 whoinitially resisted the suffragette Helen Rosen Woodward,a pioneer in advertising,wrote an message,wrote: "About 1909 the women autobiographythat gives an overview of the practiceof advertising, beganto change.In a few yearsthe as well as the sexism and anti-Semitismencountered by workers at desirefor the vote was nearlyuniversal the turn of the century.69When Woodward began in New Yorkin withthem. That desire was focusedby the suffragepropaganda, but it grew 1903, agents were not only expected to plan campaigns, but to exactlyas grewthe self-respect of the design ads, write copy, as well as hire and directillustrators. At that womenwho worked. Their wages went time women earned $18 a week, men $25.70In 1926 she wrote: upbefore the wish for suffrage came, not [t]he differencebetween the pay of men and women for the afterward." same work has largely disappearedin the advertisingbusi- 71 Ibid.,102-103. ness but it is still hard for women to get positions where the bigger money lies.7'

BRING IN WOOD

o-frtbz1hi ihu SIfit-c- tion afta rzces are better -thanlarge 1iiigs of no distinc tion. The moral-

Four floors full of the worlds mcos{ nota ble objects of Be a zzt a a-"dUsI C- epries- f11Z Iness-the prices a amrvel of moder- ation and saniQy- See foryozrsett 0

2032O7A cXz4 n Ave- Ze FiVncA,6Bu hi-in

Illustration9 Examplesof workby Elizabeth Colwell. ~AND BE GOODS

DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 43

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This was corroborated by Taylor Adams, who began his advertising career in the 1920s: Women began flowering in the creative departments of agencies in the '20s, but you could hardly have said they were prevalent. With a single outstanding exception, they were either temporary tokenists hired for specific tasks (such as "influencing" decision makers of client or prospect) or more often anonymous foot-sloggers who rarely made it to title or stockholder.72 In fact, the work of most advertising artists, male and female, was unsigned and ephemeral. And although trade magazines encouraged higher standards of composition, drawing, and typography, little is known about the people who created professional advertisements.

Illustrators To the degree that the proponents of the Aesthetic movement and the Arts and Crafts movement broke down barriers between fine and applied art, they raised many of the crafts traditionally associated with women to a new legitimacy. They also encouraged the 72 TaylorAdams, "Early Women in establishment of schools to train women in the arts, although their Advertising-AllUphill,` How It WasIn motives here were not straightforward. Walter Smith, an English Advertising1776-1976(Chicago: Cain, 1976),30. Arts and Crafts proponent who became Massachusetts State Direc- 73 WalterSmith, The Masterpieces of the tor of Art Education, saw the arts as a way to divert women from CentennialIntemational Exhibition their struggle to gain political power: Illustrated,vol. 2 (Philadelphia:Gebbie & We have a fancy that our lack of art schools and other insti- 95-96. Inthis catalog of Barrie,1877), tutions where women can learn to employ themselves worksappearing in the 1877Centennial usefully and profitably at work which is in itself interesting InternationalExhibition, Walter Smith praisedEnglishwomen for their expertise and beautiful, is one of the causes which drives them to so inneedlework, a skill learned at new unsex themselves as to seek to engage in men's affairs. Give schoolsof applieddesign. I am indebted our American women the same art facilities as their forthis citation to RogerB. Stein, op. cit., European sisters, and they will flock to the studios and let 28-30.See alsoworks by Callen, op. cit.. the ballot-box alone.73 74 FirstAnnual Report of theCommittee on theSchool of Designfor Women (Philadelphia:The School, 1852), 2-4. A In the United States, the first applied art school for women completeearly history of the schoolcan began in Philadelphia at the behest of Sarah Peter, a wealthy phil- be foundin T.C. Knauff, An Experiment in anthropist, under the auspices of the Franklin Institute. The School Trainingfor the Useful and Beautiful. of Design for Women opened on December 3, 1850 with a class of 94 (Philadelphia:The School, 1922). The students and expanded The for its curriculumwas dividedinto three depart- rapidly.74 arguments establishments:drawing (a basiccourse for all ment, found in the Franklin Institute proceedings, reflect the ideol- students),industrial design (including ogy of the Aesthetic movement: the legitimacy of the applied arts textile,wallpaper, oil clothe, carpet, and and women's contribution to them, the development of women's furnituredesign), and wood engraving "natural" ability as related to her domestic life, and the non-threat- andlithography (illustration for the arts, ening nature of women's contribution. Peter was very explicit. She sciencesand natural history). From its firstyear in existence, students obtained wanted "to enlarge the sphere of female occupation" without patentsand sold their work to manufac- endangering male employment and or upsetting women's tradi- turersand publishers. tional sphere:

44 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 75 Proceedingsof theFranklin Institute of I selected this department of industry, not only because it theState of Pennsylvania,for the presents a wide field, as yet unoccupied by our country- Promotionsof theMechanic Arts, men, but also because these arts can be practiced at home, Relativeto theEstablishment of a School without materially interfering with the routine of domestic of Designfor Women (Philadelphia: The duty, which is the peculiar province of women.75 Institute,1850), 1. 76 Ibid.,5. The Institute's chairman expanded Peter's argument. Women are 77 Theimportance of theseinstitutions in especially adept at decoration and, therefore this would not cause graphicdesign education remains to be an economic problem: explored.The best sources I havefound their quick perceptions of form and their delicacy of hand on earlydesign education for women are very especially fit them; while even should they, in these ArthurD. Efland, A Historyof Art and similar branches of labor, finally supplant men entirely, Education:Intellectual and Social Currentsin Teachingthe VisualArts (New no evil could occur, especially in a country like ours, where York:Teachers College Press, 1990), and such broad fields for male labor lie entirely unoccupied. 76 ThomasWoody, A Historyof Women's Educationin theUnited States 2v. (New A large number of art schools for women, or open to York:The Science Press, 1919)II, 75-80. women, were founded in the United States beginning in the 1870s.77 78 InNew York City alone the following clubswere in operation: The Century, Although women were allowed greater opportunities in art educa- Lotus,Grolier, the Societyof Illustrators, tion, they were blocked from membership in artist clubs. Perhaps the SalmagundiClub (1871), the Tile Club because illustrators did much of their work in isolation, they formed (1877),and the NewYork Etching Club. a large number of these groups and their importance cannot be Manyclubs and societies published their overestimated.78 Many began as informal sessions for sharing work charters,constitutions, and membership and evolved into social occasions for editors, printers, publishers, lists.The only discussion I have found on the importanceof illustrator'sclub occurs and other potential employers to meet with artists. In short, they inJames Best's American Popular provided opportunities for professional advancement. Although not Illustration(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood specifically barred, women were not members. The Society of Press,1984), chapter 5, "TheSocial and Illustrators, founded in 1901, had 96 members by 1911, all male, and ArtisticContext of Illustration." four associate members, the most successful women illustrators of 79 Ibid.,120 80 AnnBarton Brown, Alice Barber the time: Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, May Wilson Stephens,op. cit., 24-25. Stephens Preston, and Jessie Wilcox Smith.79One of the few clubs for profes- (1858-1932)studied at the Pennsylvania sional women artists was founded in 1897 in Philadelphia. Led by Academyof the FineArts and the Alice Barber Stephens, an illustrator and teacher at the School of PhiladelphiaSchool of Designfor Women Design, and by Emily Sartain, an artist and director of the School, andbegan as a wood-engraverfor the Plastic Club provided the same kind of community and public- Scribner's.For a contemporaryview, see JuliusMoritzen, "Alice Barber ity that male illustrators had found so useful.80 Stephens,"The Twentieth Century Home, In the 1880s and 1890s, the need for illustrations, for maga- II,5 (December1904), 45-46. zine covers and stories, outdoor advertisements, and popular fiction EmilySartain (1841-1927), also swelled as the number of periodicals, newspapers, and advertising beganas anengraver. See Ellen posters grew. Technological developments such as steel-line engrav- Goodman,"Emily Sartain: Her Career," ArtsMagazine (May 1987), 61-65; Phyllis ings, the half-tone printing process, and four-color printing, Peet,"Emily Sartain, America's First combined with the growth of literacy to create a huge market for the WomanMezzotint Engraver," Imprint mass circulation magazine and advertising.81 (Autumn1984), 19-26; Phyllis Peet, "The Historians celebrated these decades as the Golden Age of ArtEducation of EmilySartain," Women's Illustration. Three notable chroniclers of the time, Hopkinson Smith, ArtJournal(Spring/Summer1990), 9-15. Frank Weitenkampf, and Henry Pitz, included women illustrators 81 Conwayis the subjectof ThatRed Head Gal:Fashions and Design of Gordon in their discussions, but always grouped them together and then Conway1916-1936, (Washington, D.C.: selected two or three for praise. AmericanInstitute of Architecture Foundation,1980).

DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 45

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 82 HopkinsonSmith, American Illustrators, Hopkinson Smith was an illustrator and his American (NewYork: Scribners, 1892). Rosina Illustrators was a dramatized account of the activities in New York Emmett(Sherwood), once so popular,is illustrator clubs he frequented. In it he reviewed and praised Amer- nowforgotten. Examples of herwork are ican male illustrators and showed their work in beautiful reproduc- reproducedinMorse, op. cit. Mary A. tions. Since women were not members of the clubs, Smith HallockFoote (1847-1938) was singled outfor praise by almost every illustration mentioned them only in a review of the annual Water Color Society historianbut has received little serious exhibition. While he made fun of most women artists ("their devo- attention.Foote, like Stephens, began tion to mild-eyed daisy and the familiar golden-rod standing erect hercareer in engraving and transferred to in a ginger jar of Chinese blue...."), he allowed exceptions: Rosina illustration;she studiedwith William J. Emmett, Mary Hallock Foote, and Alice Barber Stephens.82 Linton,the famous wood-engraver, at Although they are praised, their work is not discussed or shown. CooperUnion Institute of Designfor Women. In American Graphic Art (1912), Weitenkampf also placed Althoughshe spentmost of heradult life women illustrators in a separate category. Indeed, he remarked that in remoteareas of theAmerican West the disruption of his chronological organization was "brought about raisinga family(her husband was a by the convenient classification by sex."' And he, too, commended miningengineer), Foote wrote and illus- the work of Foote and Stephens. Weitenkampf believed that the trated16 novelsand contributed illustra- illustrations of Howard tionsregularly to popularmagazines on Pyle's women design students "exemplify Westernsubjects. She is not,however, various possibilities resulting from the application of the female includedamong the FiftyWestem temperament to illustration."I Illustrators,a widely respected biblio- Many women illustrators did specialize in domestic subjects, graphicreference by Jeff Dykes and some, though not all, worked in a decidedly decorative style. (Flagstaff,Ariz.: Northland, 1975). See Howard Pyle was not only a famous illustrator, but an equally NotableAmerican Women, op. cit., 643-645and her autobiography, A important as a teacher at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and at VictorianGentlewoman in the Far West. his own school for professional illustrators at Chadds Ford, Pennsy- (SanMarino, Ca.: The Huntington Library, lvania. A third of his students at Chadds Ford were women.85 Pyle 1972),an astonishing document of hard- himself used a dramatic, realistic approach to illustrating, as did shipand disappointments told as a many of his male students. Henry Pitz, in The Brandywine Tradition cheerfuladventure. that women were drawn to 83 FrankWeitenkampf, American Graphic (1968), concluded naturally another Art,(NewYork: Holt, 1912. Reprint. style and subject matter: JohnsonReprint, 1970), 189-90. The women artists, with a few exceptions, give the impres- 84 Ibid.Even modern references treat male sion that they formed a consistent school some-what differ- andfemale illustrators differently. Walt ent from the men....Their almost unfailing sense of the andRoger Reed's The Illustrator in decorative, a shared technique and their natural inclination America,1880-1980 (New York: Madison SquarePress, 1984) is organizedin a toward feminine, homely, reposeful subjects are there in seriesof briefbiographical sketches almost every picture.86 arrangedby decade. Women are included,but their marital status and To what degree Pyle was responsible for the separate style children,if any,are always mentioned. and technique of his female students is uncertain. Oakley, Shippen, Themen's entries, on the other hand, containonly professional information. and Smith were all advanced pupils before they studied with Pyle, 85. Rubinstein,American Women Artists, op. and they worked in proximity and supported each other profes- cit.,159. Feminist art historians have sionally throughout their lives. One can also imagine that art direc- writtenon the women artists of thisarea. tors encouraged a particular subject matter; illustrators then, as now, See:Christine Jones Huber. The were classed as specialists in a particular genre. PennsylvaniaAcademy and Its Women, Women illustrators from 1890 to 1910 were successful by any 1850-1920(Philadelphia: The Academy, 1974);Helen Goodman, "Women standards. Their work was published widely, they were known by Illustratorsof the GoldenAge of name to the public in an age when popular illustrators were celebri- AmericanIllustration," Woman'sArt ties, and they supported themselves and their families. But in a 1912

46 Design Issues: Volume10, Number2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Illustration10 "Lookingfor Camp," by Mary Hallock Foote.

J4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~D

newspaper article, "Qualities That make for Success in Women Illustrator,"the author is clear what qualities gained women illus- tratorsadherents: The field of illustrationhas been steadily widening for women since those days in the early 70s when Addie Ledyard'spictures of ideally pretty childrenwith sweeping eyelashes won our young hearts and Mary Hallock Foote, whose quality of exquisite tendemess, ratherthan the strengthof her drawing, broughther ardentadmirers, was illustratingher own and other people's stories."'

Conclusion Women graphic designers were allowed to work at jobs that took advantage of their culturally defined sex-specific skills. Since they had smaller hands, they were thought to be able typesetters. Their supposed affinity with the decorative and domesticity made them illustratorsof women and children.They were encouragedto participate in those careersin which they did not threatenmale economic advantage. When they ventured beyond those limits they were belittled, vilified, or "disappeared"from history. Note85, continued It is clear that women participatedin significant though not Journal,(Spring/Summer 1987), 13-22; overwhelming numbers in all aspects of graphic design. Art and CharlotteHerzog, "A Rose by Any Other design schools were open to women or established specifically to Name:Violet Oakley, Jessie Wilcox train women. The prevailing ideologies during these periods, the Smith,and Elizabeth, Shippen Green," Woman'sArtJoumal(Fall1993/Winter Aesthetic Movement and the Arts and Crafts Movement, elevated 1994),11-16. the status of applied arts, including the decorative and domestic 86 HenryPitz, The Brandywine Tradition arts, and allowed women to participate more fully. Nonetheless, (Boston:Houghton Mifflin, 1969), 178. women were still seen as having specific abilities associated with 87 F.R. Marshall, "Qualities That Make for their gender.The exceptionsproved the rule;historians who praised Successin Women Illustrators," Public Ledger,Philadelphia, (December 15, a chosen few were justified in ignoring the majority. 1912),1.

DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 47

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Since the graphic design process is a collective effort, and since women rarely headed advertising agencies, publishing hous- es, or magazines, their contributions are hard to document. The record of women's participation in early graphic design is meager unless the researcher goes beyond standard design histories to statistical studies, suffragette histories, documents and institutional histories of art and design schools and artists' clubs, and to the trade journals. A definitive history of women in graphic design, including the biographies and work of poorly known women, would right the balance. It would also provide a realistic view of the cultural, political, social and economic conditions in which graphic design began.

Theauthor is gratefulto VictorMargolin for his criticismsand advice on an earlierdraft of thispaper.

48 DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Alms for Oblivion: The History of Women in Early American Graphic Design Author(s): Ellen Mazur Thomson Source: Design Issues, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Summer, 1994), pp. 27-48 Published by: MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511627 Accessed: 27-02-2016 18:12 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Design Issues.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions