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Ethel Franklin Betts

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American illustrator

Ethel Franklin Betts
Betts in 1902
Born(1877-09-06)September 6, 1877
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
DiedOctober 9, 1959(1959-10-09) (aged 82)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
EducationPennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Drexel Institute
Known forIllustrations
MovementThe Golden Age of Illustration

Ethel Franklin Betts Bains (September 6, 1877 – October 9, 1959) was an American illustrator primarily of children's books during the Golden Age of American Illustration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Life

Early life and education

Betts (sitting third from left) in front of Pyle's studio in Wilmington, Delaware, 1901

Ethel Franklin Betts was born on September 6, 1877, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest daughter of doctor Thomas Betts and housekeeper Alice Whelan. Illustrator Anna Whelan Betts was her older sister.

Betts attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before enrolling in illustrator and teacher Howard Pyle's class at Drexel Institute in 1899. Betts, accompanied by her sister Anna and mutual friend Dorothy Warren, established a studio near Pyle's after he moved to Wilmington, Delaware. Her stay in Wilmington spanned two winters, the latter of which she spent as a guest in Pyle's home.

Marriage

After leaving Wilmington, Betts worked in a studio in her parents' barn until she married Edward Bains (August 2, 1874 – July 10, 1949), the executive of the hosiery manufacturing company Barger, Bains & Munn, on September 20, 1909. On July 11, 1910, she gave birth to her daughter Sarah Mellor Bains, who died at six months old from acute otitis media, a pneumonia infection of the middle ear.

Career

Decoration by Betts for "When Baby Slept" by Riley in Collier's, 1915

In the 1900s, Betts gained prominence alongside other women illustrators such as Sarah Stilwell Weber and Jessie Willcox Smith. According to Betts herself, she and her colleagues "entered the field at the time color illustration was reaching its height and came into full flower". Even with greater recognition, the works of women illustrators were still subject to both positive and negative gendered criticism.

Betts first gained work illustrating magazines, including St. Nicholas Magazine, McClure's, and Collier's. Beginning in 1904, she was commissioned to illustrate several books including, James Whitcomb Riley's The Raggedy Man, While the Heart Beats Young, and Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. She reduced her commercial work after getting married. She continued to work as a portraitist and exhibited her portfolio , occasionally submitting illustrations to House & Garden and The Saturday Evening Post. She was awarded a bronze medal for her illustration of The Story of the Six Swans at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition.

Betts was a member of both the Philadelphia Water Color Club (WCC) and the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she continued to exhibit through the 1920s. Betts received the Carol H. Beck Medal in 1922 for presenting the best portrait.

Death

Betts died from a cardiovascular hemorrhage in Philadelphia on October 9, 1959, at the age of eighty-two. Betts willed the bulk of her estate to the Germantown Hospital, Visiting Nurse Association, Overbrook School for the Blind and Volunteer Service to the Blind.

Selected works

Illustrations

  • Magazines
  • Cover art for the January 2, 1904 issue of The Saturday Evening Post Cover art for the January 2, 1904 issue of The Saturday Evening Post
  • Cover art for Volume 43, No. 3 of House & Garden, 1923 Cover art for Volume 43, No. 3 of House & Garden, 1923
  • Cover art for the February 13, 1904 issue of The Saturday Evening Post Cover art for the February 13, 1904 issue of The Saturday Evening Post

References

  1. ^ "Ethel Franklin Bains, Certificate of Death, Vital Statistics". Ancestry. Pennsylvania Department of Health. October 9, 1959. 95406. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. "Ethel Betts in the 1880 United States Federal Census", United States census, 1880; Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; roll 1181, page 248b, line 13–17, enumeration district 438. Retrieved on December 31, 2024.
  3. ^ "Ethel Franklin Betts Bains". Delaware Art Museum. Archived from the original on December 27, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  4. "Marriage Record of Edward Bains and Ethel Franklin Betts" (Record of a Marriage, Maine Vital Records). Library Bureau. July 31, 1909. p. 2799. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. "Among the Knitting Mills". American Wool and Cotton Reporter. Vol. 20, no. 19 (Cotton Manufacturers ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Frank P. Bennett & Co. May 10, 1906. p. 12. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. Who’s Who in the East: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Men and Women of the Eastern United States. Vol. 1 (1942–1943 ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Larkin, Roosevelt & Larkin, Ltd. 1943. p. 179. OCLC 1227371765.
  7. "Sarah Mellor Bains, Certificate of Death". FamilySearch. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. February 9, 1911. p. 103. 3590. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. Whitcomb Riley, James (April 3, 1915). "When Baby Slept". Collier's: The National Weekly. Vol. 55, no. 3. New York, New York: Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. p. 13. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. Smith Scanlan, Patricia (Summer 2015). ""God-gifted girls": The Rise of Women Illustrators in Late Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia". Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies (11.2). ISSN 1556-7524. Archived from the original on December 27, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  10. "Official catalogue of the Department of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition (with awards), San Francisco, California, 1915". San Francisco, California: The Wahlgreen Company. 1915. p. 117. doi:10.5479/sil.473657.39088002209468. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. Catalogue of the Annual Water Color and Miniature Exhibitions: November 9, 1924–December 14, 1924 (Report). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 1924. p. 3.{{cite report}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. American Art Annual (Report). Vol. 20. American Federation of Arts. 1924. p. 431. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  13. L. M. (January 1923). "Water Colors and Miniatures at the Pennsylvania Academy". The American Magazine of Art. Vol. 14, no. 1. New York, New York: American Federation of Arts. p. 33. JSTOR 23928046.
  14. "Medals and Prizes Awarded by PAFA". PAFA Digital Archives. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Archived from the original on December 30, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  15. "BAINS". The Philadelphia Enquirer. October 11, 1959. p. 34.
  16. "1959 Death Index" (PDF). The Pennsylvania State Archives. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. 1959. p. 70. 095406. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 31, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  17. "Bains Estate Left to Charities". The Philadelphia Enquirer. October 28, 1959. p. 49.
  18. "Childrens' Holiday Books". Boston Evening Transcript. Boston, Massachusetts: Henry W. Dutton & Son. November 29, 1905. p. 18. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. "Babes in toyland by Glen MacDonough and Anna Alice Chapin". Library of Congress. LCCN 2014646861. Archived from the original on December 31, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  20. "Holiday Spirit in Many Books". The Philadelphia Record. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. December 12, 1908. p. 11. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ "Ethel Franklin Betts Archives". The Saturday Evening Post. Archived from the original on December 31, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2024.
  22. "Contents for March, 1923". House & Garden. Vol. 43, no. 3. New York, New York: Condé Nast. March 2, 1923. p. 47. Retrieved December 31, 2024.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

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