Woman_Back

November 8, 2003 through May 31, 2004

Twenty-three years before American women won the right to vote in national elections, illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Violet Oakley established a unique communal household based on professional cooperation and personal affection. The three artists met in 1897 when they were all studying with Howard Pyle, the nation’s most celebrated illustrator. It was Pyle who noted a similarity in the work of Jessie Willcox Smith and Violet Oakley and recommended that they collaborate on a professional assignment. To expedite the project, Smith moved into Oakley’s studio in downtown Philadelphia. Elizabeth Shippen Green soon joined them.