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Katharine Pyle papers A Finding Aid to the Katherine Pyle papers, Wilmington, Delaware |
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Accessioned: Purchased
from Oak Knoll Books, 1996 |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Biography of Katharine Pyle Born in Wilmington, the youngest child of the Pyle family, Katharine Pyle was encouraged by her brother, Howard, to pursue a career in writing and illustration. While still a child, her poem "The Piping Shepherd" was published in Atlantic Monthly. Howard Pyle asked her to contribute drawings and verses to his book The Wonder Clock, published in 1888. Katharine Pyle studied art at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and in her brother's illustration class at Drexel Institute. Two of her drawings were exhibited in the first exhibition of Pyle's School of Illustration at Drexel in 1897. While living in New York for four years, she wrote a play published by Ladies' Home Journal in 1896 and the book The Counterpane Fairy, published in 1898. During her career she wrote and illustrated about thirty books and illustrated a number of books by other authors, including Anna Sewell's Black Beauty in 1923. In 1924 her serialized article "The Story of Delaware" appeared in the Wilmington newspaper, the Sunday Morning Star. Many of her stories were drawn from fairy tales, ancient myths, nursery rhymes, and stories about animals. In 1900 a series of poems about young children by Katharine Pyle, illustrated by Sarah S. Stilwell, appeared in Harper's Bazaar. In 1902 she and Bertha Corson Day, a friend at Drexel, collaborated on a book of fairy tales, Where the Wind Blows; Katharine Pyle provided the text and Bertha Day the pictures. In 1923 the editor of Child Life magazine expressed concern about two fairy tales that Katharine had submitted for publication. The editorial policy was to keep out "the horror element and the adult experience from Child Life stories as much as possible." Katharine argued that in traditional fairy tales evil always defeated itself and that in the end good always triumphed. However, the Child Life editor argued that "lurid picturization of the hideousness of evil is usually more impressed upon the child than is the great truth that good finally triumphs." However, she continued to re-tell and illustrate fairy tales and stories from Greek and Norse mythologies throughout her career. Katharine Pyle was an intense, public-spirited person who pressed for change in the field of social reforms. Her deep concern for troubled young people led to her involvement in the Juvenile Court of Wilmington. AS a champion of the underdog, she was responsive to anyone in need, often at her own expense. Her niece Ellen Pyle Lawrence has described her as "a brilliant and vital individual and a woman well ahead of her time." Though raised in a Quaker faith, she, like her brother, became an active member of the Swedenborgian Church. Pyle relatives fondly recall her curious distinction
of having one blue and one brown eye. By Elizabeth H. Hawkes Sources: Taken from Elzea, Rowland and Elizabeth H. Hawkes, eds. A Small School of Art: The Students of Howard Pyle. Wilmington: Delaware Art Museum, 1980. This collection contains 20 books, 28 original manuscripts (mostly handwritten with a couple of typescripts), 4 photographs (3 portraits, one work of art), 8 pieces of correspondence addressed to Pyle, and 4 pieces of original artwork. A large and unique collection including a large number of Katharine Pyle's handwritten stories. Many of the manuscripts relate to her book Tales From Norse Mythology (Lippincott, 1930) and are annotated and bear revisions. The photographs include two large attributed portraits, one photograph of a work of art, and one image of Pyle in her studio. The original works of art include a hand drawn illustration for Black Beauty (Dodd, Mead, 1923, plate facing p. 238), and three other similarly drawn illustrations for other unidentified books. One of these depicting mice is damaged. In all this is a large and interesting collection. Also included are twenty books either written or illustrated (sometimes both) by Katharine Pyle over the period 1898 to 1932. Two of the books are signed by the author. Series I. Correspondence
Series I. Correspondence |
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| Series II. Illustration | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Series III. Manuscripts, Books, Tales from Norse Mythology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Series IV. Manuscripts, Poetry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Series V. Manuscripts, Stories | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Series VI. Photographs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Series VII. Miscellaneous | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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© Delaware Art Museum |
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