Letta And The Detroit Society Of Women Painters

Once in a while, "somewhere in time" isn't just the title of a schmaltz classic...it's how I spent my afternoon. Last weekend, I spent the better part of an afternoon with the notebook above, the secretary's notes for the early days of the Detroit Society of Women Painters. (The "and Sculptors" part was added in 1930.)

I was following an early star of the Detroit painting scene, Letta Crapo Smith, when a wonderful librarian at the Burton Historical Collection directed me to this notebook. Letta's beginnings are traced in the previous post...writing of her next adventures awaits an appointment at the DIA's research library this week.

For today, we'll take a peek inside this gathering of talented women artists. How did it begin? What did they hope to accomplish with their new group?

Although the group was meant for painters, an exception was made for Mary Chase Perry (as she signed in the notebook)...you know, that Pewabic pottery chick :)  She founded Pewabic Pottery in the same year this group began...

The ladies were pleased with themselves after their first year...

Their second exhibition seemed to go over well, too....

 

Although the ladies seemed to feel a bit unappreciated by DMA director Armand Griffiths, for this newspaper cartoon was included in the notebook right after the clipping about the 2nd exhibition. The cartoon could be referring to any number of controversies around museum funding or collections ... apparently political machinations and disagreements regarding these matters are as old as the concept of a museum itself. Many of the women in the group were from wealthy families, and were art collectors and prominent donors to the Detroit Museum of Art.

Who were these founding members?

An excerpt from "In Detroit Courage was the Fashion; The Contribution of Women to the Development of Detroit From 1701 to 1951"....

That women should so ably have arranged the loan exhibit 
that led to the Art Museum was not surprising, for the turn of 
the century produced some very fine women painters. It was not 
expected at that time that girls whose fathers could support them 
would work for pay. Girls who needed money or strong minded 
girls bent on a career took positions or went into a profession. 
Some of the others sat at home hoping soon to be married. In-
between were many young women whose talent and ability needed 
an outlet. For some, volunteer philanthropy was the answer. For 
those talented in music and art European study beckoned. There 
were many men in Detroit at that time with money to send their 
daughters to Paris, London or Rome, and many did. The result 
was a flowering of genuine artistic ability. 

In 1903 Lillian Burk Meeser, wife of Dr. Spencer Meeser, 
minister of the Woodward Avenue Baptist Church, called to- 
gether fifteen friends to suggest an art society that would stimu- 
late and at the same time promote recognition of their work. 
This was the genesis of the Detroit Society of Women Painters, 
the oldest organized art group in Michigan. During the fifty 
years since then most of the Detroit women seriously engaged in 
painting have belonged to this group. In 1930 its name was 
changed to include sculptors also. The early members gave a 
great deal of time to painting. Many of them had their own 
studios: Mariam and Eleanor Candler, Lillie and Delia Garret- 
son, Katherine and Alexandrine McEwen, Isabelle Lothrop (Mrs. 
Charles Lothrop) and others. These they opened for small classes 
and private exhibitions. Seldom were all the members on hand for an 

exhibit, for many of them went abroad frequently.   

Their individual stories are fascinating, from the fragments gleaned from husbands' and fathers' biographies, the images left in the American Archives of Art, the Cranbrook photo archives, various other places, and the few images of their artworks that roam the internet... I'm sure once I have finished Letta's story I will have a few more to tell. 

Next in her story: Letta Crapo Smith at Home and Abroad