Sarah Katherine Smith

Sarah Katherine Smith (1878–1956+) was an artist and educator known for her illustrations, etchings, prints, and paintings. For 25 years, she was the head of the art department at the Gulf Park College for Women (now part of the University of Southern Mississippi) in Long Beach, Mississippi. Personal life and education Sarah Katherine Smith was born in 1878 in Rio Vista, California. Her family moved to Wheaton, Illinois when she was young so that her father George H. Smith could become a professor of Latin and Greek at Wheaton College, where he taught from 1899 to 1936. Sarah spent the majority of her early life in Wheaton, graduating from local Wheaton Academy high school in 1896. She soon enrolled in Wheaton College's art program, studying under the founder of the department, Mrs. S. H. Nutting. Sarah graduated in 1900 and quickly moved to nearby Chicago to enroll in even higher education at the Art Institute of Chicago. While studying at the art institute, she also received artistic instruction from painter William Merritt Chase. In the early 1900s, artist Howard Pyle opened the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art at what are now the Howard Pyle Studios and the Frank E. Schoonover Studios in Wilmington, Delaware. The school admitted and released students on an individual, staggered schedule, so applicants never knew when they might be chosen. This led to the creation of an art colony of past and future students nearby, as many waited for their acceptance to the school, and Pyle held regular public lectures and workshops. Sarah K. Smith was never a full-time student of Howard Pyle, though she did temporarily move to Wilmington at the height of his popularity. She attended enough of his public classes to be considered a regular member of the group of non-student artists, alongside illustrators like Douglas Duer, Anton Otto Fischer, William Balfour Ker, Ernest Peixotto, Olive Rush, Remington Schuyler, Leslie Thrasher, and Edward A. Wilson. Years later in 1921, Sarah financially contributed to the creation of Howard Pyle: A Record of His Illustrations and Writings, a 242-page collection published by the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts.