Back to School in Pursuit of the Artistic Life
Lillie Woodbury Tourtellotte: 1879-1954
My fourth cousin twice removed Lillie Woodbury Tourtellotte was a woman ahead of her time. She was born in
La Crosse, Wisconsin on April 4, 1879 to parents Mills Tourtellotte and Lillie
Woodbury. The Tourtellottes were financially comfortable; her grandfather
Monroe Lynde Tourtellotte was a major landowner in the area, and her father was
a prominent attorney. Given the conservative culture of turn-of-the-century
Wisconsin, I was surprised to find Lillie had travelled to Brooklyn, New York to
attend the Pratt Institute where she became an artist. Lillie went back to
school to pursue a degree and a career in an era when women were encouraged to
marry and be homemakers.
The Pratt Institute had only been open a few years
when Lillie became a student in the 1890s. It was founded by Charles Pratt, who
made a fortune in the oil business. According to Wikipedia, “the college was
one of the first in the country open to all people, regardless of class, color,
and gender…many programs were tailored for the growing need to train industrial
workers in the changing economy with training in design and engineering.”
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| Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY |
It would have been quite radical for Lillie to attend
such a free-thinking, co-ed institution. Her choice to pursue a career after
graduating would have been even more radical. She specialized in the decoration
of ceramics, and by 1900 was working as a ceramics instructor for schools
including Alfred University, the New York State Clay and Ceramics School, and
the School of Industrial Arts in Trenton, New Jersey.
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| Art class at the Pratt Institute in 1899 |
The 1901 Alfred University report by the university president
states on page 19: "Upon my recommendation the Board of Managers appointed
Miss Lillie W Tourtellotte Instructor in Art and Graphics. She is a graduate of
Pratt Institute and well qualified for the post."
She was the principal assistant to the director of the
Alfred University Program and the New York State Clay and Ceramics School, a
Prof. Binns. She was described as a “woman of great abilities” in the areas of
graphics and decorative arts.
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| Prof. Binns teaching a ceramics class at Alfred University |
Lillie married in 1907 or 1908 to engineer George L
Bennett. She had two sons, Mills and Hugh, but continued her artwork. Census
records from 1910 onward list her profession as “artist” or “designer” in the
field of ceramics. She also described herself as a landscape painter on one
form.
The one photo of her posted on Ancestry showing her in
late life features her outdoors at an easel, smiling hugely, a palette in one
hand and the other petting a large dog. It seems fitting that the photo would
show her as an artist. I can’t believe it was typical for middle to upper-class
married women to list a profession on a census form, particularly when their
children were young.
She travelled abroad with her mother and younger son
Hugh as well. There are records of their return by ship to New York City from
France in 1926, 1927, 1928, and again in 1930. At that point in her life, she
was living in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where her husband worked as a
formulations engineer for an enamel company.
At some point, Lillie and George separated and
possibly divorced. They ended up living on opposite coasts. Lillie died in San
Diego, California on December 14, 1954 at the age of 75, following a car
accident.
Sources:
https://www.sawdustanddirt.com/2010/02/binns-alfred-and-development-of-studio.html, accessed 2020
http://www.aapvrf.cornell.edu/arlis-wny/artsandcrafts/surveypage19.htmArtist
Repository Info about Arts and Info about WNY Arts accessed 2018
http://www.mocavo.com/Alfred-University-College-of-Liberal-Arts-Catalogue-1900-01-Volume-1900-01/116553/25, accessed 2018
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