Illustrating Her World: Ellen B. T. Pyle

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Illustrating Her World: Ellen B. T. Pyle

August 1, 2009 - January 3, 2010

The Delaware Art Museum presents Illustrating Her World: Ellen B. T. Pyle, featuring approximately 50 works in the first overview of Ellen Pyle's career, on view August 1, 2009 - January 3, 2010. A student and sister-in-law of master illustrator Howard Pyle, Ellen Pyle drew acclaim from around the country for her covers for The Saturday Evening Post and other publications. (right: Ellen B. T. Pyle, not dated. Family Collection.)

Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle (1876-1936) was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and studied art at the Drexel Institute, where she was a student of illustrator Howard Pyle. She was one of the few women students invited to study illustration at Pyle's Chadds Ford summer school. In 1904, she married Howard Pyle's brother Walter. When he died in 1919, Ellen Pyle decided to return to illustration to support her four children. She worked up sample illustrations and planned to go to New York City seeking commissions. But before she was able to make the trip, her sister-in-law, the artist Katharine Pyle, took three of Ellen's samples to The Saturday Evening Post offices in Philadelphia. Greatly impressed, the editor bought two of the three.

A prolific illustrator during the 1920s, Ellen Pyle created covers for Parents' Magazine, Pictorial Review, and Everybody's Magazine. But she was most famous for her 40 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Along with Norman Rockwell and J. C. Leyendecker, Ellen Pyle was one of the select regular cover artists for The Saturday Evening Post from 1922 until her death in 1936. She was one of relatively few women illustrators of the time who did covers for general interest -- rather than women's -- magazines. Pyle's models for the most part were her children and people in her community of Wilmington, Delaware, and the surrounding region.

Illustrating Her World: Ellen B. T. Pyle was organized by Lisa Smith and the Delaware Art Museum.

Catalog

The exhibition Illustrating Her World: Ellen B. T. Pyle has a companion book by the same title. The authors are Joyce K. Schiller, previously Curator of American Art at the Delaware Art Museum and now Inaugural Curator of the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies at the Norman Rockwell Museum, and Lisa Smith, great-granddaughter of Ellen Pyle. Published by the Delaware Art Museum and available for purchase at the Museum Store. Illustrating Her World features an illustrated biography of the artist as well as a checklist of the works in the exhibition.

(above: Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936), Flower Children, 1934, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, May 5, 1934. Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936). Oil on board, 16 1/2 x 13 inches. Lent by Robert T. Horvath. © 1934 SEPS Curtis Publishing Co. All rights reserved.)

(above: Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936), Girls Sipping Sodas, 1935, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, September 21, 1935. Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936). Oil on board, 28 x 22 inches. Private collection. © 1935 SEPS Curtis Publishing Co. All rights reserved.)

(above: Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936), Ice Cream Cone, 1922, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, August 12, 1922. Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936). Oil on board, 17 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches. Lent by Mr. & Mrs. David C. Wyeth. © 1922 SEPS Curtis Publishing Co. All rights reserved.)

(above: Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936), Waiting for the Bus, 1930, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, December 13, 1930. Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936). Oil on board, 27 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Louisa du Pont Copeland Memorial Fund, 1938. © 1930 SEPS Curtis Publishing Co. All rights reserved.)

Wall text from the exhibition

Illustrating Her World: Ellen B. T. Pyle

Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle (1876-1936) was raised in metropolitan Philadelphia. In 1895, she began studying art at Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry. Two years later, she enrolled in Drexel's illustration course taught by Howard Pyle, one of the nation's best-known illustrators.

Before Ellen Pyle's marriage to Howard Pyle's brother Walter in 1904, she produced illustrations for a variety of books and magazines. After 1905, she devoted herself to their home life and children. When her husband died in 1919, Ellen resumed her career to support herself and her four young children. In 1922, she sold her first cover to The Saturday Evening Post.

Ellen Pyle was one of just a few women cover artists at the Post. Her covers -- like those of her fellow cover artists -- were geared to the white, middle-class readership identified by editor George Lorimer as "the average American." Through the Roaring Twenties and into the Great Depression, her subjects ranged from romantic to domestic, from elegant to casual. When she died in 1936, her 40 covers for the Post had established her as a leading cover artist with a distinctive style beloved by a generation of Post readers.

Resuming Her Career

After her husband's death in 1919, Ellen Pyle worked diligently to revive her career as an illustrator. Initially, she frequently used her daughters as models, experimenting with cover girl-type images consistent with the elegant subjects often featured on the covers of The Saturday Evening Post.

At the same time, her painting moved away from the carefully constructed narrative style taught by Howard Pyle for story illustration to the freer cameo and vignette styles characteristic of magazine covers.

Producing an Illustration

Cover artists for The Saturday Evening Post would regularly take a group of small-scale proposed illustrations to editor George Lorimer for his review. If a small version won Lorimer's approval, the artist would then incorporate Lorimer's recommended changes into the larger-sized version. The magazine's art department would then make any final changes called for by Lorimer and finish the illustration by adding the masthead and other graphics that comprised the printed magazine cover.

Object labels from the exhibition

ONE LABEL

[AT RIGHT]

Toddler in Rocker, 1932, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, November 12, 1932

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-62

[ABOVE]

Toddler in Rocker, 1932, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, November 12, 1932

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Alice L. Abrash

DAM L-2009-10

Untitled, c. 1900

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-83

Untitled (Child with Kitten), c. 1930

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Caroline A. Jones

DAM L-2009-22

Crabbing, 1931, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, August 1, 1931

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-30

Untitled, c. 1921

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private collection

DAM L-2009-28

Ellen Pyle (Lawrence) was the model for this painting.

Children and Hornets' Nest, 1935, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, March 16, 1935

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAML-2009-52

ONE LABEL

[AT LEFT]

Pugs in Lap, 1929, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, November 9, 1929

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. N. Convers Wyeth III

DAM L-2009-65

Here, Caroline Pyle (Wyeth) and the family's Pekingese pets (not pugs as the title suggests) continue a long-standing Post cover tradition: the elegant lady with her dogs. The fluid brush strokes-less crisp than those on Pyle's other covers and similar to her Elsie Dinsmore work-lend a sensual quality to the subject.

[

ABOVE]

Pugs in Lap, 1929, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, November 9, 1929

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-58

Waiting for the Bus, 1930, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, December 13, 1930

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Delaware Art Museum, Louisa du Pont Copeland Memorial Fund, 1938

DAM 1938-132

Pyle used her former neighbor, Mrs. Kate McCarthy, as a grandmotherly model in four Post covers, including this one. The model for the boy was Gerald Brinton, who lived in Wilmington and appeared on a number of Post covers, including Pyle's August 1928 Circus Parade.

Balloonman, 1931, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, May 9, 1931

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Alice L. Abrash

DAM L-2009-8

Balloonman is consistent with the Post's use of cheerful imagery despite the country's struggles during the Depression. In the upper right, Pyle painted out two balloons that would have obscured the last letters of Post. By the 1930s, it was quite common for Post cover designs to obscure some letters (rarely seen in the 1920s), but the first and last letters usually remained visible, probably to preserve a degree of symmetry.

The Immigrants, 1899, from "Janice Meredith: A Story of the American Revolution," by Paul Leicester Ford, in Collier's Weekly, January 28, 1899; reprinted in the book of the same title (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1899)

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on canvas

Collection of Brandywine River Museum, Museum Volunteers' Purchase Fund, 1983

DAM L-2009-13

Howard Pyle arranged for some of his best students to work with him on the illustrations for Paul Leicester Ford's historical story "Janice Meredith: A Story of the American Revolution." The arrangement of a group to reveal portrait-like faces is typical of Howard Pyle's illustration style.

It Took Much Urging to Get Phil to Yield, but Finally He Gave a Half-hearted Consent, 1899, from "Janice Meredith: A Story of the American Revolution," by Paul Leicester Ford, in Collier's Weekly, March 4, 1899; reprinted in the book of the same title (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1899)

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Collection of Brandywine River Museum, Museum Purchase, 1972

DAM L-2009-14

Ellen Pyle learned from Howard Pyle how to use lighting effects to create a scene with convincing depth as well as a suggestion of drama.

She Struggled through the Waxing Drifts to the Stable Door, 1899, "Janice Meredith: A Story of the American Revolution," by Paul Leicester Ford, in Collier's Weekly, April 1, 1899

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Collection of Brandywine River Museum, Museum Purchase, 1972

DAM L-2009-15

The title character's intense expression and hurried gait create a mood of suspense, reflecting Howard Pyle's teaching that emotion is as important as plot in an illustration.

Girl with Pumpkin, 1923, cover for Everybody's Magazine, November 1923

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on illustration board

Collection of Brandywine River Museum, Gift of Caroline Pyle Wyeth (artist's daughter), 1972

DAM L-2009-17

When compared to the published cover, this painting highlights the alterations often made by art editors during the transition to publication. For the cover, the image of model Caroline Pyle (Wyeth) was reversed, the background color transformed to orange-red, and the signature moved. Caroline's hair was also lightened, probably to contrast better with the witches on the costume.

Sexton's House, Chadds Ford, PA, c. 1898

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on canvas mounted to board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-53

During one of Howard Pyle's summer sessions in Chadds Ford, Ellen Pyle painted this view of the Sexton's House at the Brandywine Baptist Church adjacent to the Brandywine Battlefield from the Revolutionary War. This is her only known landscape. Later in her career as an illustrator, Ellen expressed regret that she no longer had the time for landscapes and portraits.

Thanksgiving Turkey, c. 1923

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on illustration board

Collection of Brandywine River Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. H. Willis Lawrence (artist's daughter), 1972

DAM L-2009-17

The daughter of Pyle's cook was the model for this proposed Post holiday cover. Editor George Lorimer rejected the work, claiming that Post readers would not accept a black person depicted as the equal of a white person. Pyle painted a nearly identical illustration with a white model which she sold as the November 1928 cover for Children: A Magazine for Parents.

Untitled, 1926, cover for The Pearl Thief, by Berta Ruck (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1926)

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-54

In the 1920s, Ellen Pyle designed a series of dust jackets for Berta Ruck's jazz-age novels. For this mystery story, the woman with her ice-skates is similar to Pyle's Post covers depicting women ready for sports.

Untitled, 1935

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-19

The subject of this unpublished study was the artist's first grandchild, Margaret Pyle (Hassert).

Flower Children, 1934, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, May 5, 1934

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Robert T. Horvath

DAM L-2009-20

In 1934, the Delmarva Star Magazine reported:

Mrs. Pyle is just as likely to come upon a model or a subject along the streets as anywhere else. Last May, in a cover that showed two small children selling flowers along a country road, she merely depicted a scene which she had come upon on her way to town. She stopped her car, bundled kiddies, stand, sign and all inside, got their parents' permission and went to work.

Pyle used three models for this scene of two girls: five-year-old Beatrice Short (Gamble) and her 10-year-old sister Edith Short (Cycyk), and Mary Cleaver Brannan. Mary's hairstyle and dress, as well as aspects of her features, contributed to the finished work.

Christmas Stocking, 1926, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1926

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Caroline A. Jones

DAM L-2009-21

The most coveted Post covers were those for the Christmas and New Year's weeks, usually done by either J. C. Leyendecker or Norman Rockwell. This is the study for the 1926 Christmas cover, when the honor went to Pyle.

Woman in Wheelbarrow, 1931, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, June 20, 1931

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Lindsey C. Lawrence

DAM L-2009-26

Pyle's daughter Caroline in her overalls with working tools nearby is another example of a self-confident girl as subject, similar to Girl Hockey Player and Target Practice. The painting also demonstrates Pyle's artistic originality: this was only the second cover in the Post's history to show a woman gardener. The earlier one was the February 23, 1907, image of a fashionably dressed lady in a bonnet about to snip a rose in her garden.

Untitled, 1905, cover for Elsie Dinsmore series, by Martha Finley (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1905)

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-27

For several years, this painting appeared on the cover of the Elsie Dinsmore series, stories about a young woman's trials and religious faith. The softened contours of Elsie's face, reflecting the sentimentality of the novels, are quite different from the sharper images Pyle would create later to represent the "real" Americans on the covers of The Saturday Evening Post.

This was the last work Pyle sold before she suspended her illustration career to devote herself to family life for the next 17 years.

Date at Hockey Game, 1932, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, March 12, 1932

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board mounted on panel

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-50

The models for this cover were Frederick H. Smith and Katie Pyle (Smith), who were dating at the time. Later in the year, the couple became engaged, and they married in 1934.

Circus Parade, 1928, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, August 25, 1928

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-29

Pyle designed this cover with the children's faces as the focus. A closer looks reveals the giraffe and elephant in the lower corners and the words "Circus Parade," telling the viewer the reason for the children's enthralled expressions. This shorthand device -- also seen in Punch and Judy -- seems to have been an Ellen Pyle invention.

Untitled, c. 1930

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-31

A 1934 article about Ellen Pyle published in the Delmarva Star Magazine described the study paintings that decorated the walls of her studio: "Around the walls of her picturesque studio a dozen baby faces stare down at you, their chubby little cheeks aflame with a ruddy glow." While Ellen loved painting the spontaneity of young children, she complained that they wouldn't "sit still very long!"

Untitled, c. 1921

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-48

The artist's middle daughter Katharine (Katie) was the model for Pyle's early attempt at painting her family as the focus of her career as an illustrator when she returned to the profession in the early 1920s. The paper hat may reflect the many playful theatrical activities that Pyle created with her family.

Flat Tire, Flat Evening, 1934, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, November 24, 1934

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-49

While the marriages of her daughters brought others into the family circle who could serve as models, Pyle did not necessarily pair them with their spouses. In this vignette of a romantic ride interrupted-five miles from "Mac's Garage"-Katie's husband Frederick H. Smith was paired with his sister-in-law Ellen Pyle Lawrence.

Girls Sipping Sodas, 1935, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, September 21, 1935

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-18

Ellen Pyle used her daughters in over half of her Post covers. While she often put the girls in wigs or costumes or changed their features a bit, this is the most realistic rendering of her three daughters.

From left to right: Katie Pyle Smith, Caroline Pyle (Wyeth), and Ellen Pyle Lawrence.

Girl Hockey Player, 1927, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, January 22, 1927

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-51

In a 1928 interview with the Post, Pyle said, "The girl I am most interested in painting is the unaffected natural American type, the girl that likes to coast and skate in winter, who often goes without her hat, and who gets a thrill out of tramping over country roads in the fall and bringing home scarlet leaves for the living room." Here, and typically, Pyle's athletic girl is alone, with a pose of casual self-confidence.

Baby Chicks, 1932, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, May 7, 1932

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Caroline A. Jones

DAM L-2009-23

This painting represents one of the few instances where Ellen Pyle's study photographs still exist. In 1933, Baby Chicks was exhibited in the annual exhibition of the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, which eventually became the Delaware Art Museum. Because the Society collected Howard Pyle's work, its annual exhibition regularly integrated fine art and illustration.

Untitled, 1927, cover for Her Pirate Partner, by Berta Ruck (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1927)

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. N. Convers Wyeth III

DAM L-2009-64

Pyle's daughter Caroline modeled for this dust jacket. Pyle told her family that she disliked the flapper image, whose boyish figure, pared-down dress, and happily reckless personality dominated so much popular culture in the 1920s. When Ruck's heroine called for such an image, however, Pyle accommodated the fashionable taste.

Untitled, 1928, cover for The Youngest Venus, by Berta Ruck (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company 1928)

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by David and Sarah Wyeth

DAM L-2009-67

For this Berta Ruck dust jacket, Ellen Pyle transformed her 14-year-old daughter Caroline into a sultry flapper. The shell in the background refers to Venus, ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty. According to the myth of Venus' birth, she arose on a shell from the foam of the sea.

Target Practice, 1927, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, October 8, 1927

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-55

Pyle painted the second Post cover showing a woman archer. The earlier one of May 13, 1922, by a male artist, shows a man teaching archery to a woman by standing behind her in what is clearly a seductive embrace, the point driven home by a red heart drawn next to them. Here one of Pyle's daughters, Katie, is the self-reliant girl frequently celebrated by the artist.

Untitled (Punch and Judy), c. 1930

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-56

This painting uses the same device evident in Pyle's 1928 Post cover Circus Parade. While the two girls look into the distance, the small Punch and Judy vignette indicates the object of their fascination.

Trick-Or-Treat, 1930, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, October 25, 1930

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board mounted on panel

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-57

The cat silhouettes at the bottom of this Halloween cover are borrowed from a popular boot scraper produced at the time. The inscription "Copyrighted 1926 by Household Patent Co., Norristown, PA" is stamped on the bottom. The company threatened Pyle with copyright infringement for using the design but never sued her.

Couple in Rain, 1930, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, October 4, 1930

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Collection of John and Deirdre Wyeth

DAM L-2009-68

Caroline Pyle (Wyeth) and one of her beaus, Frank Detwhiller, were the models for this Post cover.

Reading Her Mail, 1936, study for the cover for The Saturday Evening Post, February 22, 1936

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board mounted on panel

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-59

Here Pyle's daughter Ellen (in a blonde wig) was the model for a stylish young woman who has caught the eye of an admirer. The artist's son-in-law Frederick H. Smith was the model for the young man.

Untitled (Lady and Her Cat), 1936, unpublished cover for The Saturday Evening Post

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-60

Marked "Copyright 1936, Saturday Evening Post," this work did not appear on the magazine's cover. Two years after the artist's death, it was inscribed "Killed 12/5/1938" on the reverse, probably at the Post's Philadelphia office.

Study of A Young Girl for "The Knife Grinder," 1899

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on canvas

Lent by Abigail Abrash Walton

DAM L-2009-11

Study for "The Knife Grinder," 1899

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Private collection

DAM L-2009-63

This painting and its related study at left were done for a larger painting called The Knife Grinder. The multiple outlines of the grinding wheel were part of the young artist's attempt to work out her composition. These two studies, and the titles of others listed in the 1899 exhibition catalogue of Howard Pyle's summer school, make clear the final composition of The Knife Grinder. The finished work, now lost, depicted a knife grinder surrounded by an audience of children and women.

Untitled, c. 1921

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Gouache on paper

Lent by Lindsey C. Lawrence

DAM L-2009-24

In her small-scale "cover girls," Pyle may have been experimenting with various types while trying to re-enter the world of commercial illustration.

Untitled, c. 1921

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Gouache on paper

Lent by Lindsey C. Lawrence

DAM L-2009-25

Untitled, c. 1925

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Jean Wyeth Bell

DAM L-2009-12

Untitled, c. 1930

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Alice L. Abrash

DAM L-2009-9

Ice Cream Cone, 1922, cover for The Saturday Evening Post, August 12, 1922

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by David and Sarah Wyeth

DAM L-2009-66

When Pyle's sister-in-law Katharine Pyle showed this cover proposal to Post editor George Lorimer, the scene included only Caroline eating her ice cream cone. Lorimer accepted the design on the condition that "Mrs. Pyle can add something to give a little more point to it." To that end, Ellen added her sister's dog Scout. Comparison to the published cover shows that Lorimer was satisfied with the dog but not the drool.

Christmas Stocking, 1926, study for cover for The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1926

Ellen B. T. Pyle (1876-1936)

Oil on board

Lent by Caroline A. Jones

DAM L-2009-115

Case materials from the exhibition

Student Scrapbook, not dated

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-32

Ellen Thompson kept this scrapbook of the illustrations she had published while a student at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry.

The Eccentric (Drexel's yearbook), 1897 (Philadelphia: Avil Printing Company, 1897)

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-33

Ellen B. T. Pyle is in the middle row, at right, in this group photograph of Drexel's women art students in 1897.

The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1926

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-115

Century Magazine, December 1903, featuring "Children of the People," by Jacob Riis

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-40a

"Brenda had never looked so well," from Brenda's Bargain: A Story for Girls, by Helen Leah Reed (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1903)

Cover design by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-36

Elsie's Widowhood, by Martha Finley (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1908)

Dust jacket by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-34

Everybody's Magazine, November 1923

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-42

The Saturday Evening Post, August 12, 1922

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-35

Children-A Magazine for Parents, November 1928

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-41

Her Pirate Partner, by Berta Ruck (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1927)

Dust jacket by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-39

The Pearl Thief, by Berta Ruck (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1926)

Dust jacket by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-37

The Youngest Venus, by Berta Ruck (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1928)

Dust jacket by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-38

Katherine (Katie) Pyle Smith and Frederick (Fred) Smith, 1935

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-45

Ellen Pyle Lawrence, c. 1935

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-70

Caroline Pyle Wyeth, c. 1936

Collection of John and Deirdre Wyeth

DAM L-2009-69

Walter Pyle Jr., not dated

Reproduction of original photograph

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-73

The Saturday Evening Post, June 11, 1927

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-71

This is the only one of Pyle's Post covers to feature her son, Walter Pyle, Jr. He posed with his youngest sister, Caroline.

Study photographs for "Baby Chicks," c. 1930

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-46.1 and L-2009-46.2

Letter from Norman Rockwell to Ellen B. T. Pyle, August 1927

Lent by Alice L. Abrash

DAM L-2009-74

Literary Digest, April 21, 1923

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-43

The Saturday Evening Post, March 28, 1936

Illustration by Ellen B. T. Pyle

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-72

This was Ellen Pyle's last published cover for The Saturday Evening Post. She died on August 1, 1936.

Rocking Chair, c. 1880

Walnut with cane seat and back

Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Pyle Smith

DAM L-2009-61

Bootscraper in cat shape, not dated

Household Patent Co., Norristown, PA (manufacturer)

Private Collection

DAM L-2009-47

Label: hallway

The work of Howard Pyle was the founding collection of the Delaware Art Museum. Many of his works are on view in Galleries 4, 5, and 6 on the first floor.

Label: for photo

Students in Howard Pyle's summer school, c. 1898

Family Collection

From bottom to top: Bertha Corson Day, Ellen Thompson, Sarah S. Stilwell, Anna Whelan Betts, and an unidentified woman.

Label: for letter

One of many letters received by Ellen B. T. Pyle from her admirers.

Label: for film

Wedding of Ellen B. T. Pyle's daughter Katie and Frederick H. Smith, 1934

Film by Nathaniel C. Wyeth

Family Collection

Ellen B. T. Pyle appears in the final seconds of this film, shaking hands with guests.

Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy:

Illustrators

For biographical information on artists referenced in this article please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists

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