Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrated Comic Alphabet A

Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon (24 July 1826 – 6 February 1874) was a teacher and artist known for her talents during the 1860s in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. In 1966, her most comprehensive work, ''An Illustrated Comic Alphabet'', was published by librarians and artists who admired her work. Five years later, the

Canadian Library Association The Canadian Library Association (CLA) was a national, predominantly English-language association which represented 57,000 library workers across Canada. It also spoke for the interests of the 21 million Canadians who are members of libraries. C ...

inaugurated an annual award named for her,

Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award The Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award was presented annually by the Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques (CLA) to an outstanding illustrator of a new Canadian children's book. The book must be "suita ...

. It recognizes the year's best illustration by a Canadian illustrator of a children's book published in Canada.

Biography

Born at

Littlehampton Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort, and pleasure harbour, and the most populous civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south sout ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, England, Howard-Gibbon was the oldest daughter of Amelia Dendy and

Edward Howard-Gibbon Edward Howard Howard-Gibbon (9 August 1799 – 22 June 1849) was an English surgeon, lawyer, and officer of arms. He was born Edward Howard Gibbon in London and was the second son of the Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk, and Mary Ann Gibbon� ...

, himself the illegitimate son of

Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk (15 March 1746 – 16 December 1815), styled Earl of Surrey from 1777 to 1786, was a British nobleman, peer, and politician. He was the son of Charles Howard, 10th Duke of Norfolk and Catherine Brockho ...

. She was educated in private schools during the employment of her father at the

College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...

. From her earliest years, Howard-Gibbon enjoyed drawing freehand sketches, some of which survive today. She is believed to have studied French, German, and Art while in Paris, France, and

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, Germany. She was the first of the Howard-Gibbon siblings to emigrate to Ontario, where she began teaching in St. Thomas. She later moved to

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...

and continued to teach children there for many years. From a family letter, she then taught in an art school in New York before she moved back to England in 1873, to claim an inheritance from her uncle

Matthew Howard-Gibbon Matthew Charles Howard-Gibbon (13 November 1796 – 16 December 1873) was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He was born Matthew Charles Howard Gibbon in London, and was the oldest son of Charles Howard, 11th Duke of N ...

, and became ill. She died in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

and was buried with her father at Saint Nicholas Churchyard in

Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...

. During Howard-Gibbon's time in Ontario, she created watercolor portraits and sketches of several friends and family members. In 1859 she sketched a children's alphabet book which she later gave to a friend, Martha Poussette. Many years later Poussette's family donated the book to the Toronto Children's Library. (The original is in the

Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books is a collection of children's books with over 80,000 items. History of the collection The collection owes its genesis to one man, Edgar Osborne, the Country Librarian for Derbyshire from 19231954. ...

, catalogued as a book, "25 leaves", under 24 "ART" call numbers whose last words are letters of the alphabet, A to Z except I and U.) It was finally published in 1966 as ''An Illustrated Comic Alphabet'' by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

(catalogued as a 31-page book)"An illustrated comic alphabet"
1966 (catalogue record). Toronto Public Library. Retrieved 2015-07-27. and Henry Z. Walck in New York. It is the earliest known children's

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

by a Canadian artist.

References

Bibliography

External links

1826 births 1874 deaths 19th-century Canadian women artists 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian illustrators Canadian children's writers Canadian schoolteachers English emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario Canadian women painters People from Littlehampton {{Canada-writer-stub